The City of Glendale, Arizona, west of Phoenix, has announced an upcoming termination of the lease binding the Arizona Coyotes to the city-owned Gila River Arena after the 2021-2022 season. The announced continues the “will they leave?” drama surrounding the franchise for several years, particularly after the move from the Suns NBA arena in downtown Phoenix to the then-named Glendale Arena in December 2003.
A statement from Glendale confirms that the team and the city have been operating on a year-to-year lease agreement for several years with an annual deadline of New Year’s Eve to choose whether or not to continue the arrangement.
Katie Strang of The Athletic is reporting that negotiations recently stalled between the team and the city over issues with a lease extension and potential renovations to the arena, located next door to State Farm Stadium, home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Strang highlighted public records that show the Coyotes owing the arena itself $1,462,792 as of July 17th, with the team now needing to completely vacate the arena by June 30, 2022.
Arizona has struggled to attract fans to its western metro area home, most likely due to subpar records on the ice, but also perhaps due to various reports indicating that population trends seem to favor a more eastern based arena than western based in Phoenix. The Coyotes had been working on a potential dual-use hockey arena with Arizona State University, based out of Tempe, in recent years, but that project recently fell through.
The announcement of more arena difficulties for the Coyotes have renewed discussions about a potential move of the Coyotes from Phoenix to another location. With Seattle out of the mix with the expansion Kraken starting play this fall, Quebec City could be in line for at least the possibility of reacquiring an NHL franchise. Home to the former NHL Quebec Nordiques, who moved to Denver in 1995, Quebec City does have an NHL-ready arena in the Videotron Centre, which opened in 2015. The then-named “Phoenix” Coyotes were born in 1996, when the Winnipeg Jets moved to the desert southwest.
