Will this team ever get a break? The Arizona Coyotes have just had all their work on their new arena in the city of Tempe, Arizona, halted as the city of Phoenix, Arizona, has filed a lawsuit against the team.
Perhaps its fate, but the Coyotes franchise has really been dealt a horrible hand all throughout its existence.
From originally being the Winnipeg Jets, who were the most successful team in the old WHA, all the way back in the 1970’s-96 to then getting moved to Arizona as the NHL screwed over the Jets entry into the league in 1979, and finally getting shipped all around Arizona due to the team being perennially one of the worst in the NHL and suffering critical financial issues, the history of the Coyotes franchise has been bleak at best.
Truly, I don’t think there’s been a team that has had more setbacks, blunders, missteps, and failures in all of professional hockey history as the Coyotes/Jets were once one of the best teams in North America, yet now face the brink of either relocation (best case scenario) or insolvency (obviously, worst case scenario) if this lawsuit is successful.
Though, thankfully for all Coyotes fans, I don’t believe it will.
Essentially, the city of Phoenix, which used to house the Coyotes back in the day (1996-2005), filed a lawsuit against the city of Tempe to block the privately funded, $2.1B entertainment complex Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo and his financing groups are building for Tempe and the Coyotes franchise.
The issue in question doesn’t actually come down to the construction of the new 16,000-seat arena, NHL-quality training facilities, the hotels, the strip mall, shopping centers, etc., but rather the new apartments and residential living arrangements.
The city of Pheonix is so benevolently and humbly arguing that the new apartments and residential living arrangements are too close to the airport (Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport) and the incoming planes provide a far too noisy atmosphere to live in, thus breaking an established 1994 agreement between these two cities preventing such living arrangements. How kind, right?
Obviously, I think this argument is BS as the previously established agreement between these two rival cities not only stated that all residential building in the noise zone will be exempt if fixed with noise-cancelling measures (which all of these new apartments are), but there has already been 400+ residential building built in said noise zone since the agreement.
If this noise problem was such a massive issue that keeps the town officials of Phoenix awake at night, then why did they approve residential buildings in the distant suburbs of the city to be built? Oh, that’s right, it’s because these residents were likely to visit Phoenix and spend their hard-earned cash in entertainment, shopping, sporting, educational, etc. avenues.
Yet, when Tempe, which holds a sizable population of app. 184k, starts building massive entertainment, shopping, and sporting centers that threatens the commerce of Phoenix, then this noise issues becomes a massive issue. See where I’m going with this?
Now, I hope the appropriate judges agree with my line of reasoning on this one, but this lawsuit has the potential to completely destroy the Arizona Coyotes franchise as we know it. If Alex Meruelo, his financial backers, and the city of Tempe can’t get this stadium and entertainment center built, the Coyotes will be forced to pack up shop and move as they’ve literally run out of options in the state of Phoenix.
I hope that doesn’t happen for the sake of all Coyotes fans, but it’s a real possibility.
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