The 2021-22 season will be the last for the Arizona Coyotes in Glendale.
On Thursday, the city of Glendale told the Coyotes that they are pulling out of their joint lease agreement with the franchise, meaning Gila River Arena — the team’s home since 2003 — will no longer be usable to the team after June 30, 2022. The team’s administrative space, which also resides in Gila River Arena, will have to be vacated as well come next June as the team scrambles to find a new home.
The writing has been on the wall for the Coyotes and the city of Glendale for some time, considering in 2016 the Glendale City Council opted out of a long-term agreement with the club, instead renewing the lease on a year-to-year basis. Still, the news is nonetheless a painful blow to the Coyotes franchise and their fans, as this feels like yet another step back for a team that has never really gotten off the ground.
The Coyotes woes as a franchise stretch back to its days as the original Winnipeg Jets, which moved to Arizona in 1996 after financial troubles couldn’t keep the team in Canada. The financial issues would continue to plague the Coyotes over the years, as in 2009 then-owner Jerry Moyes turned the franchise over to the league after declaring bankruptcy.
Though the Coyotes eventually stopped the bleeding and maintained their status as a NHL franchise, Arizona has never ceased being a handful of steps behind other teams in the league. From ownership issues to former general manager John Chayka’s abrupt resignation and then suspension from the league due to pursuing opportunities with other clubs while still under contract with the Coyotes to their arena situation, nothing has gone right for this franchise from an off-ice perspective.
The @ArizonaCoyotes statement on Glendale kicking them out of arena after this season. pic.twitter.com/q1n2dBZrXS
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) August 19, 2021
And those issues have bleed into the team’s on-ice performance as well. As of 2021, the Coyotes are the oldest franchise to never play in a Stanley Cup Final. Arizona has made the playoffs just once in the last nine seasons, and have seen nine playoff runs total since moving to the desert in 1996. In the past, the Coyotes have garnered a reputation of taking on other team’s bad or unplayable contracts in an effort to get to the salary cap floor, not to build a competitive hockey team.
Their roster for the 2021-22 season, while a step in the right direction, is focused more on rebuilding for the future rather than winning now, a painful process as any fanbase in sports knows.
I know it’s a bit of a meme to dunk on Coyotes fans’ misfortune or speculate which city could be in the running for a relocation franchise should things not work out in Arizona’s favor, but this entire situation is so unfortunate. Hockey clearly works in the desert, if the Vegas Golden Knights are any indication since their inception in 2017. The state of Arizona too is no stranger to building and cultivating new hockey markets, considering the success of the Arizona State Sun Devils after their recent move to NCAA Division I hockey.
There is obviously still time for the Coyotes to find a solution, whether that be moving to Phoenix, Tucson, or Tempe, where the franchise has been looking to build a new arena for some time. Other options are to relocate to Footprint Center, where the Phoenix Suns play in a building not suited for hockey, or try their hand at wild cards such as Chase Field or Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
This next year for the Coyotes is a make-or-break one. If the Coyotes can’t find a solution that sticks, they’ll continue to toil in the basement of the NHL on and off the ice with a passionate but small fanbase that can’t make inroads. And, if the worst does come to pass, relocation out of Arizona to Houston, Quebec, or elsewhere is likely in the cards for the Coyotes.
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