Quote:
Originally Posted by TheScorpion
Mesa is, for all intents and purposes, part of Phoenix. It's far more entrenched in the nucleus of the area than Glendale.
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Allegedly it's more entrenched in the nucleus of the area than Glendale, but honestly that's always been a cop out IMO.
They have 10000 people watching on TV...how many fans can there really be in the area in general whether it's Glendale, Tempe, Mesa, etc.
In the end the Coyotes franchise failure has had nothing to do with where the rink was located. The team has been plagued with poor leadership and poor ownership since about the year 2000 and the franchise is poison at this point. I don't see Meruelo being any better with how he's handled both the Glendale and Tempe situations, and now has the team playing in a 4600 seat arena still. Even if they surprise this season with Cooley and others being exciting players, it's going to be tough to grow the fanbase with a 4600 seat arena and no local TV deal.
And my opinion on this remains unchanged - the market would be fine with a competent ownership group given the opportunity to try to re-brand, and re-build the team's image from scratch.
Move the team, work with Ishiba to build a new shared arena with the Suns, and in 5 years or so expand to Arizona/Phoenix again via expansion. That's the only way this is going to have success in Arizona. (Maybe you don't even have to do that...just move them temporarily to Quebec for 2-3 years while an arena is built and maybe it will be a fresh start when they come back)