Coyotes arena announcement by end of NHL season?
What drives Arizona Coyotes co-owner Anthony LeBlanc “bonkers,” in his words? The talk that the team is eventually going to relocate.
It’s grown much, much quieter as the months have passed since Glendale’s decision to terminate their 15-year arena lease with the team. That’s because Coyotes ownership has been steadfast in saying they have no intention of leaving the state, and there’s been increased chatter about taking the team to a new home in another part of Arizona.
LeBlanc was on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM’s Doug and Wolf, and revealed that arena discussions have “grown more serious in the last couple of weeks,” leading him to hope that a new path for the franchise could be laid out by the end of the season.
From LeBlanc, via ArizonaSports.com:
“I’m very positive that we will have something out in the community if not in the next month or two but certainly by the end of the regular season,” LeBlanc said. “We need to partner with a community or institution that wants to be a partner and that’s the first and foremost thing. The good news is that all of the discussions we have had have been pretty open as have other organizations — be it the city of Phoenix or Tempe or Arizona State. Everybody has been pretty open that we have had discussions with and they have all been positive.”
The team and the city have a two-year lease deal they signed in June 2015 after Glendale terminated the previous leave, in which they paid the Coyotes an annual $15 million management fee. A few months later, talk was rampant that the Coyotes were seeking to leave for another arena, perhaps even one they’d share with the Phoenix Suns.
Which means they’d be getting the hell out of Glendale, which would be the best thing to happen to the Coyotes since the arrival of Dave Tippett.
Although we would dearly miss those charming city council meetings, that made “Parks and Rec” look like Lincoln’s cabinet.
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
