Vive Le Nordique et Le Quebec Libre.

Not entirely sure how the Whalers scenario even remotely relates to this. Bettman and the league let Karmanos buy the team knowing full well he wanted to move them, and the league was behind the move 10000% from the beginning.

Bettman has lost any integrity he may have been hanging on to. The Nordiques and Jets couldn't make it in Canada because of an economic downturn. Now, the same thing happens in the US, but this time he's trying to convince the world that it can work.
@ The Bog: Good call on the Whalers thing. I think I'd respect Bettman more if he'd just be honest with his intentions.

Selective memory is always good for making historical arguments.

Hartford fans were surely tricked. They packed their arena for a team that hadn't made the playoffs in six seasons. But Hartford is a hockey town. Phoenix doesn't care enough to be tricked like Hartford was. Probably a good thing when they see their team deserting them soon.

@3 and @4 - Well said

Move them to Portland, please.

Hockey belongs in Canada and not in the sunshine states or the desert.Bettman has screwed up the NHL long enough and the fact that the idiot can't answer any of Ron Mcleans questions is beyond belief.Where was all this money when the Peg and the Que needed help thats right it wasn't there cause they are north of the border and bettman the moron that he is didn't offer to help like what is going on in Phoenix.Instead of taking Jim's offer on the yotes saying that it was not in the league's intrests is a load of crap.I would be willing to bet that he moves the Yotes to KC...anyone remember how well hockey worked there???Until Bettman is gone the NHL and the owners will suffer.

"defiance is one heck of a motivation"
Can you feed off defiance for 82 games?

Fail on the guy in the Crosby jersey applauding a Phoenix goal..... wtf?

Quite simply if enough fans showed up to Yotes games the team would be financially viable. How much of Phoenix's money woes were due to Jerry Moyes saddling the team with debt from other things (which clever rich guys are good at doing) and from the team itself. Don't know but certainly the team wasn't turning a profit. So far the team is doing well and still getting lousy attendance, sure some fans may think that showing up won't make a difference, but more $$$ losses and poor attendance guarantees the team will move elsehwere. Good fan support and some kind of profit = Yotes staying in Phoenix.

@11 hey at least he bought a ticket and at least he purchased some NHL licensed products! The Yotes will take paying fans regardless.

#6: "when they see their team deserting them soon"... deserting: nice ;D

investing your own money into the NHL is a bad idea. Just ask Moyes. Just ask Wayne Gretzky. They will lose all their money that they invested, and the NHL will ensure that they get nothing back. How's that for a business partner. What intelligent wealthy person would ever get involved with the NHL knowing this?
Invest in the NHL AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Hartford is not a hockey town, unfortunately. It's more of a basketball town, but the crowd would shoot eachother down to yotes attendance by start time. Hartford is a poor example because it's a small city right in the middle of Boston and New York. It's like planting a garden in the cracks between cement.

I think it's time Bettman starts to face the idea that expansion wasn't the best thing for the league. The last CBA was a step in the right direction, but it came at an enormous cost (losing a full season) and it still falls well short of league-wide parity. Now, the NHL is facing increasingly strong competition for it's players as NHL franchises find themselves losing quality players to a league that can afford to pay them a higher salary (KHL).
I say the NHL needs to contract by about four teams and work on putting together a consolidated minor league system in North America.

Hey post #1.. Habs Fan... You are one ugly feeling person... How dare you bash our banner.. Grow up!!! Canada isn't the only country allowed to have hockey.. Quit being so selfish.. The U.S. is allowed ot have Hockey.. there is no law that says we can't so might as well quit complaining about it.. Your a Habs fan so that explains A LOT! Anywho.. It's a great day to be a Coyote fan! This nightmare is almost over! You guys on the upper end of the pond have no idea what exactly is going on... We're very close to having a new owner.. My prediction is by the new year we will have the new owner in place and our boys will continue to have a good run f the season! GO PHOENIX COYOTES!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Bettman's next goal: get a franchise in Mexico. (and call them the Mexico City Aztecs)

As a Detroiter who moved to Phoenix (and subsequently became a Coyotes Season Ticket Holder), I'd like to chime in on what my opinion of the situation is. The long story made short: Everyone involved screwed up and only well-executed and proactive planning will save this team's viability in Phoenix. The short story made long: In terms of the southern expansion, it happened way too fast way too soon. 30 teams in 2010 isn't so bad but 30 teams in 2000 was an atrocious idea, especially considering how shallow the talent pool is compared to now. Well, everyone likes to point out how places like Miami, Phoenix, and Atlanta can't be hockey markets (people who say Tampa Bay can't forget who Bill Davison was and what he meant to the Tampa Bay Lightning) and that they may never be supreme to Montreal or even Toronto. Hey, there are a lot of hockey fans in Montreal. Their team is also 101 years old and isn't nicknamed "Les Glorieux" because they lost all the time. Compare that to the current 8 years of playoff-less futility held by the Coyotes and over a decade long for the Florida Panthers (which by the way, looks like it's going to be another year at least) and you've come to realize that they've had more playoff-less berths than they've had winning seasons during their short existences. As far as the Coyotes go, Only recently have the Phoenix Coyotes started to resemble that group of Winnipeg Jets era players who came to Phoenix (guys like Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk, Teppo Numminen, and Nikolai Khabibulin) and not a place for cronyism to get in the way of good hockey. I saw how Mike Illitch ran a team and he ran that team like clockwork; that's why the Red Wings have consistently been one of the best teams in the league. The Red Wings drafted players that they developed and turned into superstars while signing and trading additional talent to fortify their roster. There was nothing ever like that here in Phoenix. Instead, there was some marketing featuring a sock puppet that was borderline prejudiced to francophones and a revolving door of players and draft picks that went on to become career minor-leaguers, career Euro-leaguers, or components for other clubs in the league. In short: The team's been bad. So why aren't people coming to the games? Three Reasons: The first part as to why people aren't coming to the games is largely due to the sense of pessimism that exists amongst Arizonians. This place is pretty libertarian conservative and are skeptical of everything. The people here don't see an owner in place and because they see the NHL only willing to commit for a season, they're not willing to invest because they don't want to give the league the satisfaction of a cash grab. These are the people who the team previously relied on to fill in the seats in the lower bowl and now must either endure the possibility of making an investment in something that isn't going to exist in a year or now get to watch their seats get pimped out for $25 over poor management; ultimately losing value in what you've invested in. The second reason for the attendance woes? The Coyotes organization adamantly adheres to a 7PM start time when the overwhelming majority of the population lives on the opposite side of town. Glendale isn't too far for people on the east-side of Phoenix (which, by the way, have six ice rinks between East Phoenix and the surrounding suburbs) if the start times are 7:30; like it is in Detroit and many other hockey markets. The team refuses and as such, a group of nearly 2 million people have their pipeline to see hockey severely impaired and that's sad considering the ice palace that the Glendale Arena really is (I don't wanna call it Jobing.Com Arena, thank you.) The third reason is the overwhelming lack of marketing. The general sports public is only starting to hear about a decent hockey club thanks to the local news expanding their coverage as the team wins (the media just doesn't support losers out here; even the D-Backs got less coverage this season because they were subpar) and as much as $25 tickets for all you can eat sells well among hockey fans, they can't sell themselves if there arent a good amount of ads letting people know about it. The Coyotes used to advertise on busses, billboards, and even had TV spots. Now none of that exists aside from a few print ads and advertising on the local news web page. In the end, this team needs all sports fans and any bandwagon sports fans to jump on board for a winning team because true hockey fans were never properly developed here to begin with. This isn't a place that's ever had that hockey tradition that many successful hockey markets have had. No Bobby Orr leaping through the air as the Bruins won the title. No Production Line taking to the ice with the fearless Terry Sawchuk backstopping them, with another fearless hero named Steve Yzerman to rekindle the magic 40 years later. No "Battles of Alberta" that saw the two best teams of their era share a province. Heck, they didn't even get to see Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower form one of the best goaltending tandems of all time like they did in Toronto. It's hard to have hockey fans if you can't give them a sense of imagination about what the team can do; that's the truth. I will say this though: if Shane Doan ever got to lift the cup like Vinnie LeCavalier and Rod Brind'Amour did, I have a strong feeling a lot of Phoenix's problems would change real fast. Them's my two cents; thanks for reading.

I thought the person above said "long story short"??? Just move the team to Hartford, they deserve a new team and the support is there for one.

@16 - More like planting a crack in the cement in between two Gardens. ZING!

@22- I'll admit it, I laughed. ^_^
@20- Good story, I think you're 100% correct. Hoping the Yotes (and Prucha!) kick butt this year, and Arizona keeps their hockey team.

@18...Hey whore bore...Gary Bettman is the topic here...Get some windex for your eyes. And bash this!!