Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordan!
Externally, not ideal
Internally to Arizona Hockey, this is a massively positive move for the team to gain a major backer in ASU who hold a ton of weight in the City of Tempe - they practically are Tempe itself. This was the smartest move and a blessing in disguise that Glendale didn't want them anymore.
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Call me naive if you want, but playing in an arena that is smaller than most junior and many college buildings is an embarrassment for the team and league. If this was even a possibility, why wasn't it explored earlier when the building might have been planned to be at least be north of 10k seats and a true shared partnership could be formed? Glendale has most recently been on the rocks for at least 2-3 years now (if not longer) so time shouldn't have been a factor here.
This is desperation at its finest and one of Bettman's continually worst maneuvers to continue to defend this sad market when it could be in many other cities and quite possibly at least getting itself out of the negative as a constant drain on league revenues.
As a player it would have already been a tough sell, but now, there's no way in hell I'm touching that franchise with a ten foot poll.