Phoenix Area Stadium and Arena News

[PHX31]

/\Wow, that is GREAT news. But it makes me wonder if the NHL and Coyotes will ever come back now. Before it seemed like a 5 year guarantee to get a new team back. Now, it sounds like it's just starting from scratch (which could be a better thing with new unknown ownership).

I can't imagine Ishbia would be interested. He paid out the ass for the Suns, they are way over the Salary cap into the insane luxury tax 2nd apron or something, and is he even a hockey guy? He played college bball, so getting into the NBA makes some sense from a personal interest standpoint.

[muertecaza]

If hockey leaving made MLS expansion more likely, especially if they built the rumored stadium at the Mesa Riverview gravel pit, I'd count that as a win. But I'm not sure how much hockey leaving would factor into MLS expansion decisions if at all.

[MiEncanto]

I'm interested to see how the law changes on the theme park district impact MLS and Coyotes. The law has been around forever but it has never been utilized. I'm told it was originally created for a theme park in Williams that never happened. Then a few years ago I remember the Dbacks got it amended to make it work for what they wanted.

This year, it was changed again, ostensibly for MLS? A lawmaker from Snowflake sponsored so that doesn't make sense. Basically, instead of needing both the County Board and City Council to approve, you just need one. But only a City with 500k or more people can do it alone, which is Mesa, Tucson and Phx. At least that's my read.

The Dbacks have been saying now for a couple years they have no intention to use it, probably because you have to use your own money to pay the debt service on the bonds, which isn't much fun. It was funny that the Coyotes took so much heat for it being a sweetheart deal when the Dbacks have said several times that its such a bad deal for them they don't even want to use it.

The biggest challenge I see is no one wants their stadium/arena paying property taxes cuz that's a huge cost and literally no stadium in the country does that as far as I know. There's almost always some kind of municipal ownership thing.

So the only option for a team is a city builds and owns it (unlikely), the county does it like Chase (very unlikely), the state decides it wants to do another Cardinals deal with the Stadium district (very unlikely), tribal land, which is complicated because you won't get a full-up district with housing, or the theme park district.

The danger of doing it in Mesa is it could be referred to the ballot and I'm not sure how their voters will react.

[ASU Diablo]

Originally Posted by PHX31

/\Wow, that is GREAT news. But it makes me wonder if the NHL and Coyotes will ever come back now. Before it seemed like a 5 year guarantee to get a new team back. Now, it sounds like it's just starting from scratch (which could be a better thing with new unknown ownership).

I can't imagine Ishbia would be interested. He paid out the ass for the Suns, they are way over the Salary cap into the insane luxury tax 2nd apron or something, and is he even a hockey guy? He played college bball, so getting into the NBA makes some sense from a personal interest standpoint.

Kind of a stretch to call it a "guarantee", especially with Meruelo at the helm to try and get an arena built. All the signs/red flags were there that after the sale to Utah, he was never serious about bringing hockey back and he was taking his $1B and headed for the door. No one in the NHL or local government wanted to partner with him.

With him gone, better to have the band-aid ripped now than rather wait the full 5 years and reach the same outcome.

Regarding Ishbia, it's clear he wants to win and is a savy businessman. There is no indication he is slowing down in regards to spending w/ the Suns. I just think there is no appetite currently to support another arena in The Valley and this could be the best case for bringing hockey back to the desert.

If not Ishbia, then hopefully another ownership group revisits the Tempe landfill site and takes the time to do it right and educate the public. Meruelo, his son, and Xavier were complete morons in this regard.

[ASU Diablo]

This probably was his plan from the beginning.

He now gets to use the $1B from the sale to build his ~11K arena in Reno, NV and is taking the Roadrunners with him once built. The bright side of all this is that the 'Yotes rights are returned back to the NHL. Part of me wants future ownership to start from scratch (new name/logo) since it appears to be cursed, but at the same time, I love the 'Yotes name and the Kachina sweaters are amazing.

https://x.com/puckreportnhl/status/1...-9xto6gli9jVMg

Originally Posted by MiEncanto

I'm interested to see how the law changes on the theme park district impact MLS and Coyotes. The law has been around forever but it has never been utilized. I'm told it was originally created for a theme park in Williams that never happened. Then a few years ago I remember the Dbacks got it amended to make it work for what they wanted.

This year, it was changed again, ostensibly for MLS? A lawmaker from Snowflake sponsored so that doesn't make sense. Basically, instead of needing both the County Board and City Council to approve, you just need one. But only a City with 500k or more people can do it alone, which is Mesa, Tucson and Phx. At least that's my read.

Good point. The timing of the announcement (right after the sale being cancelled) was suspicious to say the least. This has to be a positive for future ownership group.

[ASU Diablo]

Progress (albeit slow) continues to happen. DBacks and the City/County just need to lock up the long-term lease already. After this whole Coyote/arena debacle, I'm sure many sports fans around The Valley are wiped out.

https://arizonasports.com/story/3549...e-field-lease/

On a related note, anyone have any updates on where the City stands w/ the proposed entertainment project? Last I recall, they approved spending $100Ks on a Consultant. Do we know when that report is supposed to be publicized?