Salt Lake City will be the new home to the Arizona Coyotes after the NHL Executive Committee approved the move on April 15.
The franchise needs to move. That much is clear. But does it have to be to Utah of all places?
Ryan Smith, the franchise’s new owner, already owns the Utah Jazz of the NBA and has been very open about wanting a hockey team in the Delta Center. Is it the place for an NHL team? I’m not sure, but it is probably the most ready city to have one, that wants one. But it’s obvious and has been for a long time, that Arizona is not working.
The Coyotes ownership group is still working hard on keeping the franchise in the state. According to Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press, they are actively trying to win an auction for a plot of land in Phoenix. If won, they plan on building a 17,000-seat arena, a massive improvement from the 5,000-seat arena (Mullett Arena in Tempe) they are playing in for the second season in a row.
Anthony Meruelo, the Coyotes owner, is only selling the hockey department and players to Smith in a complicated transaction. Meruelo will receive $1.2 billion for the sale, while $200 million will be paid to the NHL as a brokerage fee. Meruelo will also retain the Coyotes’ name, logo and trademarks and keep ownership of the Tucson Roadrunners, the team’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate. Meurelo, who is still planning on building the aforementioned 17,000-seat arena, will have to pay back his share of the sale to bring back the Arizona Coyotes as an expansion team, whenever that may be.
The NHL has also been working on a new schedule for the 2024-25 season, with games in Salt Lake City. And apparently, according to an opinion piece in the Salt Lake Tribune, an NHL franchise would be popular in the state. It does detail the history of minor league hockey in Utah, which in fairness, is quite a bit. According to the piece, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, who played in three different leagues (the Western Hockey League, Central Professional League, and the International Hockey League) from 1969 to 1994, sometimes outdrew the Jazz during the 70s and 80s.
Another team, the Utah Grizzlies, was relocated from Denver and played in the IHL for a season (1994-95) before moving to the AHL, a step below the NHL until 2005. The franchise was suspended and bought by a new ownership group and moved to Cleveland to become the Lake Erie Monsters (renamed Cleveland Monsters in 2016).
A franchise with the same name replaced the Utah Grizzlies shortly after the original franchise left for Cleveland. The new franchise operates in the ECHL but out of West Valley City, roughly a 17-minute drive from Salt Lake City. The Grizzlies have won only one division title (2021-22), but despite that, it has been one of the more popular franchises in the league. According to hockeydb.com’s attendance graph for this year’s ECHL season, only eight teams had a higher average attendance, with the Grizzlies averaging 6,003. The ECHL has 28 franchises this season.
However, this attendance or something similar would still put a franchise in Salt Lake City dead last in average attendance per game in the NHL. However, it would be more than the current Arizona Coyotes playing at Mullett Arena. The author of the Salt Lake Tribune’s opinion piece mentions Ryan Smith can change this with his vast resources, but I’m not so sure. According to a poll by Utah Policy in 2015, hockey was less popular than basketball, soccer, and baseball. Granted the study was almost 10 years ago, and they have had at least two new professional teams (in rugby and field lacrosse) join the Utah sports scene since that report. NCCA teams also outrank most of the professional teams established in Utah; for instance, the University of Utah’s and Brigham Young University’s football teams were number one and number three in a fan poll by the Deseret News, also in 2015.
At this point, Gary Bettman is trading the so-called Arizona Experiment for a new one in Salt Lake City. As it failed in Arizona, I am sure it will fail in Utah. Is there a better city than Salt Lake City for immediate relocation? Probably not. I’d prefer a relocation in Canada, whether it be somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area, Quebec, or elsewhere. Or even in another state where hockey is more popular, even if it is one of the smaller markets such as Portland, Kansas City or even Baltimore. However, no one is stepping up to the plate except in Utah.