Arizona Coyotes May Seem at Peace with Glendale, but Marriage Could Be Over Soon

Ah, the Arizona Coyotes. Prosperity is always just around the corner for these guys, isn't it? There's always an exciting new, dedicated owner coming in, promising a sun-kissed future as far as the eye can see. There's always a new arena name—first, Glendale Arena, then Jobing.com Arena and now Gila River Arena.

Prosperity once again promised late last week when the Coyotes and the city of Glendale agreed to a revised lease. Basically, the Coyotes took a big haircut on the arena-management fee they will receive from the city, from $15 million a year to $6.5 million, on a lease that was reduced from 15 years to two.

The Coyotes have always talked a good game, but when it comes to running their business, the problems have been almost nonstop from Day 1. When the Glendale Arena opened in 2003, a wide range of restaurants, shops and other night-life attractions were supposed to encircle it right away, as part of a complex then-owner Steve Ellman called "Westgate." 

Well, Westgate opened about two years late and caused steep financial losses to Ellman. So, he sold the team to trucking magnate Jerry Moyes. By 2009, under Moyes' leadership, the Coyotes declared bankruptcy and had operations taken over by the NHL. By 2011, lenders foreclosed on Ellman's Westgate project. A new outfit calling itself New Westgate LLC took over, promising brighter days for the businesses around the arena.

Well, then came more ownership drama (remember Jerry Reinsdorf was always going to be the savior), then came the drama of early summer when the city council of Glendale looked for a loophole to break the lease.

As it stands, the Coyotes appear to have two more years guaranteed to play at Gila River Arena. After that? It'll be rumors, drama and uncertainty. Just like it always has been there. And the fact is: Glendale stared down the Coyotes and the NHL, and both blinked. Despite Commissioner Gary Bettman telling the Hockey News' Adam Proteau, "What Glendale did is outrageous, irrational and cannot be condoned," the fact is Glendale got itself a much sweeter lease deal. Don't expect to see the Commish doling out any special favors to Glendale ever again.

One of the more overlooked reasons for financial distress experienced by Glendale and its partnership with ownership group IceArizona was recently disclosed documents by the Arizona Republic detailing concert business that fell far short of expectations.

Under the previous lease that was just amended, IceArizona projected it could hold at least 23 concerts or other events annually with at least 15,000 sold tickets. But as the Republic's Peter Corbett discovered, IceArizona could provide only 14 concerts/other events in 2014, and attendance never exceeded 14,000 for any of them. What IceArizona promised, it delivered at 59 percent below projections.

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Turns out that most major music artists and other acts prefer playing at USAir Arena in downtown Phoenix, and why not? It's easier for city residents and those from Scottsdale to make their way to USAir than to a suburban arena about a 20-minute drive away from downtown Phoenix.

According to the Republic, IceArizona isn't doing any better in luring top concert draws to Gila River this year. Through the first six months of 2015, Gila River Arena wasn't even on the list of Pollstar's top 100 arenas for concert revenue, with just 50,430 ticket sales generated so far. USAir Arena is ranked 10th, with 204,503 tickets sold.

Meanwhile, the Coyotes' attendance at Gila River Arena actually declined last season, despite proclamations that everything would now be on the upswing with committed new owners in place and a long-term lease signed, sealed and delivered.

The Coyotes averaged 13,345 last season, a drop from the 13,775 of a year before. Sure, the team wasn't very good, but wasn't it supposed to be all about instability of ownership as being the big reason fans didn't show up? At least, that's what we heard a lot. But as longtime Arizona Republic columnist Dan Bickley put it:

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The Coyotes are a different story. Their migration to Glendale has been a disaster. The team has been in flux since 2009, and their current home might end up as both a white elephant and a warning label to all communities looking to break ground in the near future.

On paper, they seem to be wonderful tenants. They have full support of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. They have an excellent general manager (Don Maloney) and a head coach with a great local reputation (Dave Tippett). They have a short history of success in downtown Phoenix, playing in a flawed arena with terrible sightlines for hockey. Most of their problems can be traced to a bad real estate gamble when they moved to Glendale in 2003, betting on the West Valley two decades before its time.

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The speculation now is that the Coyotes will either join in with the Phoenix Suns as part of a new joint-tenancy agreement in a new downtown arena with Suns owner Robert Sarver, or they'll finally relocate to another city (did anyone say "Seattle"?). The long-term future of the Coyotes in Glendale still seems shaky at best. They've given themselves two years of breathing room with this new lease, but after that?

Rumors, uncertainty, accusations, potential broken hearts. It appears all set to happen again, as certain as the setting sun.