[News] Coyotes relocating to Salt Lake City

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Well, as we all learned in Arizona, talk is cheap. We'll see how they do in the early goings but 6,000 season tickets in two hours isn't overwhelming compared to other recent ticket drives. Smith has been saying all the right things but he'll run into a lot of the same challenges the Coyotes did if he can't get that basketball arena sorted out pretty quickly.

Trust me, Ryan Smith is not like the carousel of Arizona clowns.

[Reggie Dunlop]

The ECHL Grizzlies are done for the season, so if there were to be a name change with the NHL team assuming the moniker, it'd be an ideal time.

Still, I think Boston would object.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Well, as we all learned in Arizona, talk is cheap. We'll see how they do in the early goings but 6,000 season tickets in two hours isn't overwhelming compared to other recent ticket drives. Smith has been saying all the right things but he'll run into a lot of the same challenges the Coyotes did if he can't get that basketball arena sorted out pretty quickly.

I think that's a bit wrong.

Vegas had 5000 within 2 days, Seattle supposedly had 10000 in 15 minutes so 6000 within 2 hours seems pretty good and a reasonable amount.

In the end Smith is a better owner than any owner in Arizona history, being willing to pay $1.2B to buy this franchise proves that, and that itself is already a huge advantage.

[TheScorpion]

6,000 is decent when you adjust for the size of the market. It's not overwhelming by any measure, though. It's solidly acceptable. Which, given the trainwreck that was the Meruelo Yotes, is an upgrade. On its own? I just dunno. The Vegas point is a good one but that's always been more of a touristy hockey market. Is SLC really going to function as a similar destination?

The league washed its hands of arguably its worst owner since the lockout. That's unequivocally positive. But I still have a hard time seeing this exploding like the most recent two expansion teams did. Maybe it will, who knows.

[dammage79]

Well Scorp, they'll have less than 28 years to build a hockey town. Something ARZ couldn't do , for an endless amount of reasons/excuses. None of which have included a too small fanbase.

[AustinL_NHL]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Not saying you're wrong, but how do you know this? I know there have been others in the past at least (Dan Snyder I think). I kind of assumed Trevor Lewis might be as he is from SLC and his family came from Southern Alberta. Could just be a coincidence though.

I kind of feel bad seeing a lot of the Mormon related jokes on here. I don't know the faith and have no opinion on it. Every Mormon I ever met when I lived in Southern Alberta was really nice to me though, so I generally have a positive view on them.

Only NHL player listed on their mormon athlete website, as well as the only NHL player active listed from their Wiki page.

Originally Posted by butterfly

- Loudest arena in the NBA with dedicated fans and a beautiful location
- Loaded with draft picks and no bad contracts
- Lol. It's Salt Lake City, the place is awesome. It's not the 1950s anymore. Right up there with Seattle, for me, after southern California. Go to Provo-Orem if you want a "Mormon dominated area".
- Ownership is so invested in the team and wants it to become a success. People see that and appreciate it.

Yes, Mormons love Basketball (like I said), hence why it's thrived.

SLC is awesome, and incredibly beautiful, but don't kid yourself thinking it's a normal state that every average day person goes to and feels at home in lol it is still very heavily-mormon-dominated and a judgemental state in most places.

I'm not judging. That just be Utah in many/most places.

I grew up with Mormons, and had/have many Mormon friends. Alberta is Mormon-central for Canada's LDS population. Could not pay them to watch hockey, but you roll up to a basketball court and you'd be choosing whether you're playing on Joseph Smith team 1 or Joseph Smith team 2. They just all seem to love Basketball/Football/Baseball but have little-to-nothing to do with hockey.

I'm not hating on them. They are an incredibly fascinating group.

I just don't see hockey thriving there, though I'm sure I'm wrong.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Well Scorp, they'll have less than 28 years to build a hockey town. Something ARZ couldn't do , for an endless amount of reasons/excuses. None of which have included a too small fanbase.

This is true. No doubt about it. Have to wonder what embracing a fresh start — read: not hastily taking on a relocated franchise with no arena plan in place — would do for the AZ market, though. That's the inherent risk of relocation, and it's a risk here, too.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by AustinL_NHL

Only NHL player listed on their mormon athlete website, as well as the only NHL player active listed from their Wiki page.



Yes, Mormons love Basketball (like I said), hence why it's thrived.

SLC is awesome, and incredibly beautiful, but don't kid yourself thinking it's a normal state that every average day person goes to and feels at home in lol it is still very heavily-mormon-dominated and a judgemental state in most places.

I'm not judging. That just be Utah in many/most places.

I grew up with Mormons, and had/have many Mormon friends. Alberta is Mormon-central for Canada's LDS population. Could not pay them to watch hockey, but you roll up to a basketball court and you'd be choosing whether you're playing on Joseph Smith team 1 or Joseph Smith team 2. They just all seem to love Basketball/Football/Baseball but have little-to-nothing to do with hockey.

I'm not hating on them. They are an incredibly fascinating group.

I just don't see hockey thriving there, though I'm sure I'm wrong.

Hmm, I don't know. I feel absolutely comfortable there. I guess a lot of stuff you said about Utah could be said about Alberta. Salt Lake City and Calgary are pretty similar sized, beautiful places. LDS people are not the majority in Salt Lake and Summit counties. They're becoming more diverse every year.

I think people there will grow to like hockey and vociferously support their team, especially against Las Vegas and Denver (natural rivals).

[Reggie Dunlop]

The state certainly has its work cut out for it. The various varsity programs are fairly low level (Brigham Young even dropped theirs). Same with juniors.

Minor pro has done reasonably well, though.

[chemgear]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1780788336140894431

[getbak]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Ah I think I missed the heavily renovated part that was below the break.

Yeah a situation similar to Seattle where they heavily renovate to be able to keep the preferred location might be the case too.

But I honestly kind of consider that the same as a new rink once your investing hundreds of millions to renovate.

They didn't lobby the state to get approval for over a billion dollars in funding to turn around and not use it. A new arena will be built downtown, near the Delta Center. I assume it will go on the large parking lot NE of the arena: https://maps.app.goo.gl/K9pLLkYMv4dC9Ait7

It's still in the early stages of planning though, so the team will still need to play at the Delta Center in the meantime. I'm guessing at least 4 more seasons.

With SLC likely hosting the Olympics again in 2034, renovating the Delta Center for better sightlines with ice in place still makes sense since it will likely be the figure skating/short track venue again.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

6,000 is decent when you adjust for the size of the market. It's not overwhelming by any measure, though. It's solidly acceptable. Which, given the trainwreck that was the Meruelo Yotes, is an upgrade. On its own? I just dunno. The Vegas point is a good one but that's always been more of a touristy hockey market. Is SLC really going to function as a similar destination?

The league washed its hands of arguably its worst owner since the lockout. That's unequivocally positive. But I still have a hard time seeing this exploding like the most recent two expansion teams did. Maybe it will, who knows.

It doesn't need to be Vegas or Seattle though, which are still much bigger metro populations.

Can it be Columbus, or Carolina like is the question...and I think it can.

[FlamesAddiction]

Over 28 years, the Coyotes had 7 different owners. Were they all really horrible (honest question)? You would think that at least a couple of them would have been OK at least. If they were all horrible, it makes me wonder what it is about that market in particular that attracted such horrible business people.

The municipalities never really seemed to want to work with them. Was that all because they didn't want to work with all those different owners, or was it because the general voting public never demanded it?

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Over 28 years, the Coyotes had 7 different owners. Were they all really horrible (honest question)? You would think that at least a couple of them would have been OK at least. If they were all horrible, it makes me wonder what it is about that market in particular that attracted such horrible business people.

The municipalities never really seemed to want to work with them. Was that all because they didn't want to work with all those different owners, or was it because the general voting public never demanded it?

I think the "asset" that was the Coyotes franchise became so distressed over the years that the only reputable people who would've been willing to buy it were located out of state. The NHL kept fighting tooth and nail to keep it there and that meant dealing with the shadiest guys in the state. What's seen as an opportunity now for Ryan Smith would've just been a headache for, say, Mat Ishbia.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

This is true. No doubt about it. Have to wonder what embracing a fresh start — read: not hastily taking on a relocated franchise with no arena plan in place — would do for the AZ market, though. That's the inherent risk of relocation, and it's a risk here, too.

The difference today is, Utah has stable ownership, have a stable arena with an Olympic bid to build/renovate their current barn to facilitate an NHL franchise.

The ARZ experiment started on the wrong foot from the get go and should have died 12 years ago.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by dammage79

The difference today is, Utah has stable ownership, have a stable arena with an Olympic bid to build/renovate their current barn to facilitate an NHL franchise.

The ARZ experiment started on the wrong foot from the get go and should have died 12 years ago.

I don't think there's any question that the situation in SLC is vastly superior to what if would've been had they continued to trudge along under Meruelo's countless handwaving and empty promises. The sooner the NHL can entirely wash its hands of that guy, the better.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by sleepingmoose

They got $200m from him now, and they’ll get the rest from Meruelo when he comes back (in theory). It works out the same if they expand.

If you believe Meruelo is giving back that $1 billion I have a bridge to sell you. Sure they can possibly recoup if they expand back into Phoenix but that is an uncertainty. The $1 billion is real.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Over 28 years, the Coyotes had 7 different owners. Were they all really horrible (honest question)? You would think that at least a couple of them would have been OK at least. If they were all horrible, it makes me wonder what it is about that market in particular that attracted such horrible business people.

The municipalities never really seemed to want to work with them. Was that all because they didn't want to work with all those different owners, or was it because the general voting public never demanded it?

The answer is the last 5 have been bad and the NHL did a bad job finding a group to take it over.

Burke and Gluckstern: they were alright but Arizona was always their second choice, they wanted Minnesota.

Ellman and Gretzky: Maybe their best ownership group, at least he got them an NHL arena built in Glendale even if it didn't work in the end.

Moyes: Terrible. Immediately gutted the team, put them in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and then tried to sell to Jim Basille without the NHL BoG approval that started that whole legal mess.

The NHL: After the Moyes mess the NHL took over and really they should have just relocated then.

ICEArizona: Lasted only a year, didn't really do much .

Barroway: Actually wasn't the worst in hindsight but also couldn't get a new rink built and in the end didn't have the money to own a team. An actual P.O.S too in regards to his domestic violence charge.

Meruelo: Seemed okay to start but an absolute mess

[troutman]

21% of SLC is Hispanic or Latino.

Less than 50% are Mormon.

The population of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area is projected to double by 2040.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_L...y#Demographics

Severe drought and water diversions have shrunk the Great Salt Lake by two-thirds and reduced it to its lowest recorded levels, resulting in hundreds of square miles of dry lake bed and exposing millions of people living in the fast-growing metropolitan region to dust storms laced with arsenic and other toxic chemicals.

The metabolic activities of bacteria in the lake result in a phenomenon known as "lake stink", a scent reminiscent of foul poultry eggs, two to three times per year for a few hours.

Salt Lake Stinkers

[Paulie Walnuts]

11k deposits for season tickets. lol and the crying 6k was nothing.

Arizona is a joke.