The NHL Had to Get the Coyotes Out of Arizona, but Will They Find a Successful Long-Term Home in Utah
usatsi_18404832
On the most recent episode of The Silky Mitten State, my co-host Connor Earegood and I discussed the mess that is the NHL’s relocation of the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City.
We saw two sides to the departure from Arizona. First, there is the immediate context that necessitated an exodus: Alex Meruelo’s shamelessly bad ownership left the Coyotes essentially homeless with no realistic path forward to an arena of NHL standards. Then, there is the more macro sense of disappointment that the league couldn’t find a way to make hockey work in Arizona. There were clear successes—none more evident than the way a Coyotes game attracted Auston Matthews, a Mexican-American kid with no family history associated with the sport, to pursue hockey all the way to being a Hart Trophy winner.
The other part of the equation is of course Salt Lake City and Ryan Smith—owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz and as of mid-April for the price of $1.2 billion the NHL’s unnamed Utah team. It seems an awful lot like the biggest reason Smith now owns that latter franchise is that he was prepared to put the team in a legitimate NHL arena on short notice.
The season ticket deposits coming out of Salt Lake City suggest that the market is ready to embrace a hockey team, but it must also be said that the city is awfully small to house an NBA team AND an NHL one.
There are 13 markets in the U.S. with NBA and NHL teams. Some of these (i.e. South Florida, the San Francisco Bay area, the Twin Cities in Minnesota) are not single cities, but nonetheless, Salt Lake is considerably smaller than all 13.
200,000 people live in Salt Lake City, with the metro area boasting a population of 1.25 million. That is less than half the population of the smallest of those 13 metro areas (Denver at 2.9 million, which swells to 5.0 million if you include something called the “Front Range Urban Corridor”). With that in mind, it’s fair to at least wonder just how well suited the city is to house an NHL franchise in the long-term. Of course there is short-term excitement over the team’s arrival, but what will that support look like after two or three years, especially considering the Coyotes’ path to contention is not exactly a short one.
For a sample of that conversation, check out the video above. For the full episode, check out Apple Podcasts or Spotify:
Also from THN Detroit
Could Steven Stamkos Sign with the Detroit Red Wings?
Could the Red Wings Have Met a Different Playoff Fate than the Swept Washington Capitals?
Red Wings’ Puck-moving Defensemen Build Versatile Blue Line Necessary for Playoff Success
How Should Detroit Reinforce its Top Six for 2024-25?
Success of NFL Draft Suggests NHL All-Star Game Should Come to Detroit Soon
Canucks Playoff Win Shows why Goalie Depth is so Important
Can the Red Wings Get Better without Patrick Kane?