OT: Arizona Coyotes officially moving to Utah
https://kslsports.com/514977/arizona-coyotes-players-informed-relocation-utah/
Been a rocky road for the Coyotes for nearly 30 years, and it's finally coming to an end after sharing a 5,000 seat arena with Arizona State this year. They made one good decision in that time though, their cachina coyote logo and uniform is low-key one of the best in sports, and hopefully they keep it.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:03 PM ^
*Insert Coyotes Kachina logo here since I can't figure out how to work the image inserting on here anymore 🙄
April 12th, 2024 at 10:10 PM ^
Apparently I don’t either, everytime I select it, it just says html and won’t show up when I post
April 12th, 2024 at 10:24 PM ^
I tried several different ways and just gave up. I guess we all need to enroll in the latest HUEL training. Used to be able to just copy/paste most any image.
I live in the PHX area and it's a sad day for me. WTF, Utah?
EDIT: I was able to post a gif using the embed code, with the kachina jersey
April 12th, 2024 at 10:32 PM ^
Pretty sure both types of image hosting aren't working since the update. I made a reply about it in the Moderator Action thread earlier today.
April 13th, 2024 at 10:25 PM ^
The Coyotes ownership pretty much screwed this up. Sports Ownership 101 usually goes something like this:
- Sports team has a bad stadium situation. Either stadium is really outdated, in a bad location or something else.
- Sports owner comes up with plan to renovate existing stadium or build new stadium.
- Local politicians initially complain that new / renovated stadium is too expensive.
- Sports owner immediately finds a different city that has or is willing to build a beautiful new stadium and publicizes this significantly.
- Sports owner threatens local politicians that if they do not approve stadium project in existing city, the team will move to new city with new stadium.
- Sports fans who have emotional connection to the team pressure politicians to passing stadium project.
- Sports owner keeps everyone in suspense for several months before making dramatic announcement that the team is staying in the current city and sports owner gets a tax-payer funded new stadium.
The Coyotes ownership never got past step 3 and kept doing 2 and 3 over and over again. So the NHL had to step in and fix this messy situation.
the two utes?
April 13th, 2024 at 12:22 PM ^
Coyotes —> Coyutes has some seriously good dad joke implications.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:04 PM ^
Should be Houston.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:11 PM ^
Need someone in Houston to want to buy them and Ryan Smith has been doing everything he can to buy the Coyotes and bring them to SLC. They have a ton of good prospects and draft capital and he's not going to be afraid to spend to make them a contender, right away.
It's a great spot for a team and their local rivalry with Colorado is going to be a good one from Day 1.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:20 PM ^
Not shitting on SLC… but would prefer Houston for a number of reasons:
1. I live here and want to see a Wings game locally.
2. 4th largest city in the country.
3. Home to the 2nd most Fortune 500 companies next to NYC.
4. Energy makes up the majority of those Fortune 500 companies which means lots of transplants from western Canada.
5. Houston Aeros AHL team were very successful attendance wise until the previous Rockets owner who owned the Toyota Center pretty much forced their relocation.
6. Have an NHL ready arena (aforementioned Toyota center) and an NBA owner (Fertitta) who wants an NHL team.
7. Already established pro hockey history with WHA Aeros and the all Howe line of Gordie, Marty and Mark.
8. Established rivalry in all sports with Dallas which is only 4 hours north.
9. Did I mention I live in Houston?
April 12th, 2024 at 10:28 PM ^
1 & 9 are obviously the most important reasons!
In all seriousness, Houston would make a great NHL city. I think they'll get one when the league eventually expands to 34 and then 36.
SLC does have a rich hockey history. From the Golden Eagles of the WHL and then the CHL to the Grizzlies of the IHL to the AHL and now ECHL... continuously from 1969 through this season.
Hockey is a sport that the most populous cities don't mean success, Phoenix is the fifth most populous city in the US and that is soon to be a former NHL city.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:42 PM ^
I think SLC will be a great NHL city… I was skeptical about Vegas and was obviously very wrong.
But yes, you’re right about 1 and 9. I’ve been dreaming of an NHL team here since I relocated 17 years ago this month. My 20 yo played high level AA hockey here his entire youth and I have fond memories of watching him skate at intermission of Aeros games 10+ years ago. It’s ludicrous we don’t even have an AHL team anymore. I have a feeling by the time it happens I’ll have moved back north.
April 13th, 2024 at 12:14 PM ^
There is a key difference between SLC and Vegas. In Vegas, the Knights are the only winter sports team playing (and were the first major team in the city, period). In SLC, the Coyotes will have to share things with the Jazz, in a pretty small market. I have some doubts.
Though at least it's a city that what knows what snow is.
Stop making sense!
4th largest city in the country.
And if other Sun Belt cities are any indication, what that means is:
-96% of the population won't give a shit about hockey.
-2% of the population will care, but only because they're transplants and will cheer for their own teams over the Houston Scaryanimals.
-2% will actually care about the Scaryanimals, which won't be enough to keep the franchise healthy.
April 13th, 2024 at 12:00 AM ^
Houston is coming --- I think Bettman wants Fertitta to cough up ~ $1B for an expansion franchise, as opposed to getting the Coyotes for relatively cheap (~ $600-700MM).
Eventually, I think Bettman's dream scenario is 36 teams:
- 2 out west: Houston, and ............
- I truly think Bettman is going to make a run at Phoenix again (hoping this arena situation finally gets solved in the next few years).
- 2 east: Atlanta (third time is a charm!), and .....
- either Quebec City, or if the Leafs somehow allow this, a team in Kitchener or Hamilton.
April 13th, 2024 at 12:07 AM ^
Arizona isn’t being bought on the cheap. Rumor has it 1B is the purchase price for the franchise and 300M for the relocation fee to be spread amongst the other 31 owners.
April 13th, 2024 at 12:43 AM ^
Interesting --- thanks for that. That price is nuts! Vegas bought in for $500MM, Seattle $650MM! No wonder Bettman is doing this now, so quickly, he found his man: that's 2x Seattle!
(on a side note, I just love (sarcasm) the relocation fee - yeesh, it's like the NHL acting like a ticket re-seller and charging 30% in fees)
I'd guess that allows the Count to set the FLOOR for an expansion franchise at $1.5B.
Ottawa sold for 950M so that was the new floor. Selling for anything less than that devalues the franchise’s going forward.
In a side note, the 1B Meruleo is getting for the Coyotes is what he would pay back to the league IF he reactivates the franchise with the 5 year window he’s getting to do so. That obviously means that he’d have to have a building built, etc which I don’t see happening. The 1B he’s getting is “go away” money. He’s a bad, bad owner and league really wants nothing to do with him anymore.
I think the difference in pricing there is the fact that Vegas and Seattle were start-up expansions and that was the cost to enter the league, whereas this is the sale of an established team and a relocation fee. Vegas and Seattle wouldn’t sell for $500-$650 million, that was simply the cost to become an NHL team.
Should be Milwaukee.
April 13th, 2024 at 12:11 PM ^
It should be Quebec City. The NHL needs to stop obsessing over raw population data and focus on where the hockey fans actually are.
The Nordiques had a great fanbase. They moved because they couldn't build a new arena at the time and the NHL had no salary cap. Both of those have been taken care of now.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:08 PM ^
Utah is such a boring relocation choice. Meh.
April 13th, 2024 at 11:09 AM ^
Son lives in SLC. The Avs affiliated Grizzlies minor league team is popular. Tons of hockey fans in SLC.
Lots of worse options. Like anyplace that doesn’t have snow
April 12th, 2024 at 10:14 PM ^
They are already talking about building a new arena in SLC for the 2034 Olympics. Makes total sense. Much more sense than having an NHL team in a desert.
April 13th, 2024 at 10:41 AM ^
“Much more sense than having an NHL team in a desert.”
Hate to break it to you that Salt Lake City too is located in a desert.
April 13th, 2024 at 11:37 AM ^
Stop be contrarian just to be so. He clearly meant a hot desert vs a cold desert. Between AZ and SLC, there's a clear distinction that one is tailored towards winter sports.
April 13th, 2024 at 12:13 PM ^
I wasn’t. I was simply pointing out a factual inconsistency. I guarantee you the person I was responding to had no idea that SLC is in a desert. Because… pretty much no one does.
April 13th, 2024 at 12:49 PM ^
technically, even the true frozen tundra of northern alaska/artic and antarctic are all deserts.
Yes indeed!
April 13th, 2024 at 10:07 PM ^
i might be one of the few people here that have been to some of those places. not antarctica, but the others. i've actually waded in the arctic ocean, albeit very briefly.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:16 PM ^
Who the f are the Arizona coyotes
Image’s don’t work anymore either, as noted above
April 12th, 2024 at 10:23 PM ^
There's been a little confusion in Arizona about the direction they should go.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:37 PM ^
how are you able to do this magic after the update, this posting of images and gifs? please share with dullards like me.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:44 PM ^
Dropping embed code using the "Source" function still works. Still images are a great mystery to me as well.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:45 PM ^
even this comment: Dropping embed code using the "Source" function
might as well be written in mandarin chinese. no comprendo. estoy stupido.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:50 PM ^
Here are detailed instructions...
单击“源”按钮。
从 Giphy 复制嵌入代码
再次单击“源”按钮
Oops... I meant...
Click on "Source" Button
Copy "Embed" code from a site like GIPHY and paste
Click on "Source Button again.
April 12th, 2024 at 11:05 PM ^
Do I need to run this through Deep Thought? Couldn't get it to work on my handheld Guide.
April 12th, 2024 at 11:15 PM ^
I could only get it to work from giphy.com. Other sites like tenor or getyarn don't seem to work. 🤷♂️
April 12th, 2024 at 11:34 PM ^
Instructions unclear.
War declared upon Portugal instead.
The country or The Man?
April 13th, 2024 at 10:25 AM ^
Yes.
April 12th, 2024 at 10:36 PM ^
Hockey in Utah makes more sense than a basketball team called Jazz in Utah and they've had the Jazz for what 40+ years now? I think it'll work.
I don't see anyone complaining about the Lakers keeping their name after they moved to LA. Teams don't need to rebrand if they move cities. Gonna rename the Coyotes the "Golden Tablets"?
I believe you’re referring to the “golden plates” that Joseph Smith translated into what is now the Book of Mormon :)
April 13th, 2024 at 12:16 PM ^
and you can only watch the game if you have magic goggles on, and you are in your special underwear.