Coyotes to Houston?

To call the Coyotes' arena drama over the past few years a "saga" would be an understatement.  That saga may soon have a new chapter after the City of Tempe, where the Coyotes' planned new arena will be built, holds a referendum about the funding.  If it fails, it could result in the Coyotes moving again, likely to Houston, possibly as early as next season.

This news, frankly, isn't much of a surprise.  The Coyotes declared bankruptcy in 2009, and things haven't really gotten better since then.  They got kicked out of their arena at the end of last season and had to settle for using Arizona State's 4,600-seat Mullett Arena as a temporary home.  Not only is it by far the smallest venue in the NHL, it's most decidedly not up to NHL standards.  But the Coyotes were really left with no other choice for the time being.

Houston, meanwhile, is the fourth-largest media market in the U.S.  It's actually kind of crazy to think that Houston has never had an NHL team.  They had the Aeros in the WHA, but they weren't included in the WHA-NHL merger.  There was also an AHL version of the Aeros that drew very well for 20 years (in the arena they shared with the Rockets) before relocating to Iowa.  The Houston hockey scene has remained strong ever since, even though it's now been a decade since the Aeros left.

The idea of a Houston NHL team isn't exactly a new one, either.  Houston's been brought up as an expansion candidate multiple times, and is often the city targeted when a team is thinking about moving.  The difference this time, though, is that it looks like the NHL coming to Houston may actually happen.

And Houston sure makes a lot of sense.  First and foremost, it's a huge market, with the massive potential audience (both in-arena and TV) and sponsorship possibilities.  Not only that, there's already an established fan base.  So going to Houston wouldn't be too much of a gamble.  Especially since they wouldn't need to take on the additional risk of building an arena.  The Rockets and Aeros successfully shared for years, so there's no reason to think it wouldn't work with an NHL team.  Houston would simply become the latest city to have both its NBA and NHL franchises play in the same arena.

Obviously, the Coyotes moving to Houston would mean the end of NHL hockey in Arizona.  Which, sadly, has felt inevitable for a while.  Even if they get the arena situation figured out, it'll still take a lot for the Coyotes to remain viable in that market.  In 2018-19, their last full season playing in an actual NHL arena, they ranked last in attendance, only averaging around 11,000 fans a game (which I'm sure included a lot of visiting fans who liked the idea of a trip to Phoenix in January).  And the financial struggles have been a constant, even since the bankruptcy.

Many of these problems, unfortunately, have existed ever since the Coyotes moved to Arizona.  They really only left Winnipeg because of the financial troubles that plagued all of the Canadian franchises in the mid-90s.  It's the same reason the Avalanche left Quebec for Denver.  Despite strong fan support, they couldn't find an owner willing to keep the Jets in Winnipeg, so instead they went to Phoenix at a time when the NHL was still trying to build its presence in the Sun Belt.

Phoenix seemed like a reasonable place to try, too.  It was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and the Suns had just built a new arena (which would quickly prove to be unsuitable for hockey).  So, it was a market worth exploring.  Especially if the team turned out to be good, that would increase the interest.  Plus, the potential rivalries with the Kings and Ducks were there.

Unfortunately, the team has never really been very good in the almost 30 years it's been playing in the desert.  I'm not just talking about the constant ownership changes and financial struggles, either.  It's the on-ice product.  Outside of two stretches (they made the playoffs in five of their first six seasons in Phoenix, then three years in a row from 2009-10 to 2011-12), they haven't been particularly competitive.  And the biggest names to be associated with the Coyotes after that initial run in the late 90s were a past-his-prime Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky's foray into coaching.  So, that's not exactly good, either.

It's not like this is the first time there's been talk of moving the Coyotes, either.  They nearly moved to Seattle a decade ago until they found a local ownership group and were able to secure an arena lease.  That 15-year lease was voided by the City of Glendale barely two years into the deal.  The Coyotes ended up playing there until last season anyway, after which they were politely asked to find somewhere else for their games.

In hindsight, the Phoenix thing didn't really work out.  The Coyotes have been plagued by financial trouble, constant ownership changes and lack of fan support.  Winnipeg, meanwhile, got NHL hockey back a few years later, and the current Jets are thriving.  Which is ironic, since the reasons the original Jets moved to Arizona were primarily financial.

Of course, the hockey in Phoenix experiment hasn't been a complete failure.  Auston Matthews is from Arizona.  He's turned into one of the best players in the NHL.  I'm not saying he doesn't still get into hockey without the Coyotes.  But there's also no way that the first-rate youth hockey facilities where he learned to play exist if there's not an NHL team in the area and the interest in the sport that comes with having one.

While this isn't a done deal and the Coyotes may end up staying in Arizona, it seems like that would simply be delaying the inevitable.  A lot would have to change to make Phoenix a viable NHL market.  And there have been so many challenges even when the Coyotes were good, that I'm not sure there's a way to turn it around.  Which means that the Phoenix experiment will likely end the same way the Atlanta experiment did (the Thrashers, ironically, became the new Winnipeg Jets!).  With the team relocating.

So, whether it's to Houston or somewhere else, and whether it's next season or a few years down the road, the Arizona Coyotes' days in Arizona certainly appear to be numbered.  Frankly, it's a surprise they've lasted this long.  Because a change of scenery is perhaps the only thing that will make the franchise profitable.  Give the NHL credit for trying.  But the Phoenix thing just didn't work.  It's time to cut their losses.