Coyotes President, CEO & co-Owner Anthony LeBlanc "effectively extinguished any plans to keep the team in Glendale" after recently sending a "scathing letter" to City Manager Kevin Phelps, according to Scott Lewis of SPORTSNET.ca. LeBlanc cited a June '15 city council vote that "voided its lease with the team as the reason the franchise will look to park itself elsewhere in the not-so distant future." He wrote in the letter, “The Arizona Coyotes have every intention of leaving Glendale as soon as practicable. By unilaterally breaking a 15-year signed management agreement with the team -- a contract the Coyotes would have honoured for the length of its term -- the Council effectively evicted us from our home.” A new lease agreement was reached last July (SPORTSNET.ca, 5/12). LeBlanc's letter comes as the ARIZONA REPUBLIC's Paul Giblin in a front-page piece reports Glendale and Phoenix city officials are "engaged in a behind-the-scenes tussle" about the team's future. Phelps and Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers "sent letters to their Phoenix counterparts in late April, criticizing efforts to move the Coyotes to a potential new arena in downtown Phoenix." Weiers wrote, "It is unfortunate that no one from the mayor's office took the time to reach out to myself or other members of the Glendale City Council to learn firsthand about the efforts underway to retain the Coyotes here in Glendale." Weiers rebuked Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton "for what he said was a lack of regional leadership." Stanton responded that he "supported the idea of the Coyotes staying in Glendale -- until the team's owners said they wanted out" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 5/13).
REASON TO BELIEVE: In Phoenix, Dan Bickley writes Gila River Arena "is gorgeous, just 13 years old, and positioned in the middle of a vibrant entertainment district." It is also "far removed from the majority of the team's fan base." The commute is "cumbersome and unappealing, especially on weeknights." Coyotes officials believe they will "add up to 4,000 stadium spectators overnight if and when they move back to the East Valley." Since moving to Glendale under "cash-poor ownership, the Coyotes have generally fielded bargain-basement teams that rely on grit, defense and goaltending." The Coyotes "rarely, if ever, have players that rank among the NHL scoring leaders." To make their tickets sell, local teams "must be successful and entertaining." There are "simply too many options in Arizona and too little per capita income for blind allegiance and reckless spending inside the fan base." The Coyotes have "another serious problem: They rarely expose casual fans to the brand of hockey that most find people irresistible: playoff hockey" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 5/13).
