Utah checks of the box for things the league wants. It has a billionaire owner, it has an NHL size arena, it has a plan to build its own NHL arena, it was prepared to pay an expansion fee to the NHL to buy the team. It isn't all bad for the Coyotes owner and Arizona. The city has the right to retain team name and history if they can get approval for an arena to be built within next four years. They will have an opportunity to win a franchise again if they meet the needs of the league and their own team's success in the future.
Salt Lake City is odds on favourite for hosting the Olympics again. Aside from Utah Jazz, there are no major league team competitors. If you head directly north, Salt Lake is immediately above Phoenix which puts in Central Division territory so not putting any issues by seeing major shifts in other divisions. In recent years, Salt Lake has seen real growth and should have enough people ready to become hockey fans. The Colorado Avalanche East Coast Hockey League farm club Utah Grizzlies is based in Salk Lake City. The Tucson Roadrunners AHL franchise of the Arizona Coyotes is not part of the sales to Salt Lake City. This means that Salt Lake will not own their AHL franchise. Rumour is that Tucson moves to Mullet Arena, present home of the Arizona Coyotes. This leaves Tucson without a team.
Arizona fans who truly loved hockey have to be hurting. However, unlike Winnipeg, it won't be taken as a sign of city failure, decline and for someone to turn off the lights when they leave the province. The 1990s were hard times in Winnipeg. And no one was harder on the city than ourselves. It took an act of faith to buy an AHL franchise and move it to Winnipeg as the Chipmans did. It took working with partners to get a downtown arena built and a lot of private and public money. Make no mistake. That was a complicated and controversial deal at the time.
The building of the arena has produced a slow burn redevelopment of 20 years surrounding the area. The Chipmans have poured money back into the facility and into office, residential units and the plaza and work still continues. And now with Portage Place, it shows an even stronger commitment not only to the Jets but the downtown itself.
The Arizona Coyotes were always a tenant. They weren't actively an owner. This is mostly the problem the Jets had although Winnipeg Enterprises was part owner in the end but the Jets themselves never made concession money from being in Winnipeg Arena. Still, even if they had, the lack of a salary cap was devastating for the league and the Jets could not match was big markets could pay for players.
Coyotes at least got an arena for themselves in Glendale but the development around it was never theirs. The ownership never seemed stable enough. The team make-up was always just short of what was needed. The league gave them a huge amount of time to get it right but four or five more years in Mullet Arena just wasn't going to do.
Phoenix is still the 11th largest metro in the U.S. It will continue to grow and like Atlanta will probably get yet another chance at an NHL owner. One thing is clear though that the NHL was not going to move the team to the eastern market. Many hoped Quebec City might get the team. They have the billionaire owner and the arena and hockey-mad crown but a separatist would be principal owner. That doesn't sit well. Nor does the east want to have to shift a team to the Central to make way for a Cincinnati, Kansas City or another Toronto team.
In the west Houston, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco could all be possibles. But you need a dedicated arena, owner and willingness to build a market. Winnipeg's eventual success was to make sure they were always in the picture, linked to the NHL with a long time AHL franchise, an arena and a dedicated ownership group ready to jump in at last minute if needed. And it was needed when Atlanta was up for grabs.
Salt Lake City kept making it's desire known and the NHL now keeps a list of boxes that need to be ticked off for success in a new market. The sudden move of a team to a new place is just not on the table. It isn't a good look and it ends a possible expansion to a city that would pay real money to the league and owners. The move to Salt Lake City pays a bit of money but it is a rescue mission and was only approved to give Phoenix once last time to get it right with a time limit of five years to get that arena. However, Salt Lake City ticked all the boxes and that is why they jumped to head of the list.
Expect an expansion within the next few years. It will probably be Gary Bettman's last expansion as he probably will retire before the Olympics as he will be 81 in 2034. But all the pieces for the NHL to benefit from that hosting will be parts that he puts together between now and then including TV agreements for NHL and new markets. It is a legitimate question to ask how many teams the NHL can possibly have and still be relevant and have quality in the play. Perhaps 40 teams are possible. Grow too big and it is possible hockey could see a split to an elite league with relegation to lower leagues if play falls below a certain level as we see in the English League of Football. The Premier League split in 1992 into 20 elite level teams. However, fall below standard and a team is relegated down and another team is relegated up. The NHL does not work that way. And teams don't move to another city.
I expect Salt Lake City will be a good franchise but we likely haven't seen the end of the Coyotes. However, if they don't get their own arena, it will never work. Winnipeg Jets were never going to return until they had their own arena. It was a major box to tick off as it should be for any city looking to get an NHL team.
No comments:
Post a Comment