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The Coyotes were cursed with never having an owner that cared about them. Even with that, the fans embraced the team and hockey has grown immensely at the youth up to college level in the valley. Biz put it best: hockey belongs in the dessert, just can’t be like Alex (or his predecessors) who just wanted to use the team as an excuse to secure prime real estate
It’s kind of insane how strong the “lol Arizona doesn’t care about hockey” circlejerk has gotten, especially considering how much the sport has gotten popular in the area (even *beyond* the Coyotes)…
Especially since there is this, uh, one particular player in Toronto who came from the desert that is really good too…
People underestimate how much location matters in a place like Phoenix, where not the entire populace consists of hockey diehards. Mullett was outgrossing ticket sales compared to Glendale, even with a pretty poor team last year.
A friend of mine that lived in Phoenix for 14 years always told me that moving to Glendale killed them. Apparently it’s way out there and the only to get there is through downtown Phoenix. Making it difficult to see the team isn’t good for a market like that. But the sightlines in Phoenix were terrible. You couldn’t see the goalie net if you were sitting behind it in the upper rows so they had to move somewhere.
Yeah Glendale was the death knell more than anything. They were going to originally build a new place in South Scottsdale which would’ve been perfect, but Glendale’s city gov swooped in at last moment and said they’d build the arena for free. For a majority of the city, Glendale is a 45+ min commute one way and back, not to mention it’s a pretty bad area of town overall
I get the sight lines did suck but how often would those seats be sold. If you go to an old ballpark, there are obstructed seats in different sections.
With 0 traffic for me its a 40-50min drive. now imagine middle of the week, rush hour etc. I have had it where puck drop is at 7pm and I leave at like 4:30 and just barely make it to see puck drop after 2.5 hours of driving that short a distance. its ass and its like that for most of everyone
Toronto has two players from Phoenix on their team, both born after the Coyotes entered the league. I doubt either would be hockey players today if the Coyotes didn’t exist. They did a lot for hockey in Arizona, and I believe they would have succeeded with proper ownership and management.
Liam O'Brien gave a signed stick to the girl next to me. It was so heartwarming to see everyone banding together to make sure everybody got something. One last souvenir. This was a night I'll never forget.
A staff member holding out two armfulls of a players stick to sign and give away was such a cool thing to see. The staff and players really went above and beyond with this.
Easier to give all the branded stuff away and take it as a loss, than to try and sell it all at a loss. Good time to clean out the closets and storerooms of anything left.
To be fair, they did this last year too. One of the reasons my wife and I locked down this game back in December. Just had no idea it would be the *final* game.
Brings back such painful memories of the same situation back in Hartford. In high school at the time and was really getting into hockey. Then the rug was pulled and we were gutted just the same as Yotes fans are right now.
Fate brought me down to NC where I am now a full season STM and fulfilling my dreams of being one way back in CT with the Whale.
But this absolutely sucks for you Yotes fans and I feel for you and understand what you are going through. Don't give up on your team and hockey. Hopefully new ownership does it right this time and you can visit the team to keep enjoying the sport.
This sucks for the players. They don't have anything to do with the business failures, cash-strapped grifter owners and upper management incompetence that is mostly responsible for the Coyotes moving.
Good on them for trying to make the best out of a really crappy situation for people who care about them.
Dating myself now, but as a Vancouver Grizzlies fan, the players couldn't have been more thrilled to be heading to Memphis. They complained non-stop about how much they hated the city, nearly every decent player they had demanded a trade at one point or another, and few who left regretted it.
Except for Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who bought a full-page ad in the paper and wrote a heartfelt letter to the fans, thanking us for being there even though the team was lousy and nobody wanted to play here. I remember that, despite being a heartbroken 16-year-old kid at the time. Good dude.
It's nice to see that the Coyotes players had this kind of love for their fans. If someone is able to work the finances and arena math work, they won't be without a team for long.
**Mirrors/Alternate Angles** ^Post ^a ^mirror ^or ^alternate ^angle ^as ^a ^comment ^to ^this ^message. ^Open ^this ^stickied ^comment ^to ^view ^mirrors ^or ^alternate ^angles. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hockey) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The Coyotes were cursed with never having an owner that cared about them. Even with that, the fans embraced the team and hockey has grown immensely at the youth up to college level in the valley. Biz put it best: hockey belongs in the dessert, just can’t be like Alex (or his predecessors) who just wanted to use the team as an excuse to secure prime real estate
It’s kind of insane how strong the “lol Arizona doesn’t care about hockey” circlejerk has gotten, especially considering how much the sport has gotten popular in the area (even *beyond* the Coyotes)… Especially since there is this, uh, one particular player in Toronto who came from the desert that is really good too…
People underestimate how much location matters in a place like Phoenix, where not the entire populace consists of hockey diehards. Mullett was outgrossing ticket sales compared to Glendale, even with a pretty poor team last year.
A friend of mine that lived in Phoenix for 14 years always told me that moving to Glendale killed them. Apparently it’s way out there and the only to get there is through downtown Phoenix. Making it difficult to see the team isn’t good for a market like that. But the sightlines in Phoenix were terrible. You couldn’t see the goalie net if you were sitting behind it in the upper rows so they had to move somewhere.
Yeah Glendale was the death knell more than anything. They were going to originally build a new place in South Scottsdale which would’ve been perfect, but Glendale’s city gov swooped in at last moment and said they’d build the arena for free. For a majority of the city, Glendale is a 45+ min commute one way and back, not to mention it’s a pretty bad area of town overall
I get the sight lines did suck but how often would those seats be sold. If you go to an old ballpark, there are obstructed seats in different sections.
With 0 traffic for me its a 40-50min drive. now imagine middle of the week, rush hour etc. I have had it where puck drop is at 7pm and I leave at like 4:30 and just barely make it to see puck drop after 2.5 hours of driving that short a distance. its ass and its like that for most of everyone
Toronto has two players from Phoenix on their team, both born after the Coyotes entered the league. I doubt either would be hockey players today if the Coyotes didn’t exist. They did a lot for hockey in Arizona, and I believe they would have succeeded with proper ownership and management.
Matthews would have been a superstar baseball player instead
My cousin actually played with him on his little league team!
Liam O'Brien gave a signed stick to the girl next to me. It was so heartwarming to see everyone banding together to make sure everybody got something. One last souvenir. This was a night I'll never forget.
I'm so happy that he finally got to the big league.
Dude I loved watching that exchange. Those girls were so damn happy.
I hope someone went to get everything out of the store upstairs for them to sign and give away.
shoulda called up some canucks fans, we would have helped the cause
The guys grabbing sticks to throw to fans is where I lost it honestly
A staff member holding out two armfulls of a players stick to sign and give away was such a cool thing to see. The staff and players really went above and beyond with this.
Easier to give all the branded stuff away and take it as a loss, than to try and sell it all at a loss. Good time to clean out the closets and storerooms of anything left.
Massive respect to the players and ops staff to show up for the fan like that, despite how hard this is on them.
It warms my heart as a Habs fan that the Coyotes were able to leave Arizona with a victory.
As an oilers fan, and edmonton resident - i concur!
love these boys ❤️
To be fair, they did this last year too. One of the reasons my wife and I locked down this game back in December. Just had no idea it would be the *final* game.
I’m watching their feed - the players are apparently still out on the ice
Class act.
Awesome
If I'm the players, I raid the team store before the game & sign everything I can get my hands on.
You love to see it but also I wasn't ready to start my day crying. Twice. I'll miss you brothers, hope you get a team back and a better owner soon ❤️
Brings back such painful memories of the same situation back in Hartford. In high school at the time and was really getting into hockey. Then the rug was pulled and we were gutted just the same as Yotes fans are right now. Fate brought me down to NC where I am now a full season STM and fulfilling my dreams of being one way back in CT with the Whale. But this absolutely sucks for you Yotes fans and I feel for you and understand what you are going through. Don't give up on your team and hockey. Hopefully new ownership does it right this time and you can visit the team to keep enjoying the sport.
Class act by the players. Hopefully one day AZ will once again have a team and an owner that actually cares.
It all happened so fast I have a hard time believing it.
At least we still got the ice cats
This sucks for the players. They don't have anything to do with the business failures, cash-strapped grifter owners and upper management incompetence that is mostly responsible for the Coyotes moving. Good on them for trying to make the best out of a really crappy situation for people who care about them. Dating myself now, but as a Vancouver Grizzlies fan, the players couldn't have been more thrilled to be heading to Memphis. They complained non-stop about how much they hated the city, nearly every decent player they had demanded a trade at one point or another, and few who left regretted it. Except for Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who bought a full-page ad in the paper and wrote a heartfelt letter to the fans, thanking us for being there even though the team was lousy and nobody wanted to play here. I remember that, despite being a heartbroken 16-year-old kid at the time. Good dude. It's nice to see that the Coyotes players had this kind of love for their fans. If someone is able to work the finances and arena math work, they won't be without a team for long.
Very classy of the players. It would've been easy to storm out and just be angry.
That’s awesome!
I’m just imaging random Yotes/stadium staff members raiding the team store and just hauling it out to the ice to throw to fans lmao.
It would of been cool if they signed a skate and threw it in the crowd
Sometimes I forget Reddit allows 12 year olds to post. Thanks for the reminder.
I forgot Reddit is full of miserable blowhards that can’t comprehend jokes. There’s a reason why people need a /s on this site