How Coyotes Relocation Went From a Rumor to a Reality

Here is a timeline on what changed for the Coyotes over the past couple years that ultimately led to the team's relocation to Salt Lake City.

The Arizona Coyotes’ relocation to Salt Lake City is a complicated subject that didn’t just develop overnight.

Through the years, the Coyotes have had some arena drama as the team moved from Phoenix to Glendale and then from Glendale to Tempe, but the thought of relocation always seemed to just be a rumor.

Despite constant noise on the possibility of the Coyotes leaving Arizona, both NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo both continued to send positive messages on the team’s future in the Valley.

When did everything change though?

At the end of the 2021-2022 season, the Coyotes moved out of Gila River Arena in Glendale. The reasoning of their departure from Glendale is still debated today.

Glendale city manager Kevin Phelps sent a letter to the Coyotes in December of 2021 informing the Coyotes they owe $1.3 million, including $250,000 to the city.

The city announced prior to this letter being sent that it will not renew its agreement with the franchise beyond the 2021-22 season.

Based on this information it seems that it was the Coyotes were at fault, but Meruelo has painted a completely different story of how things really unfolded.

“I didn’t think Glendale would kick me out, but they did,” Meruelo said via Arizona Sports. “They wanted a 20-year deal, and I said no.”

The Coyotes officially moved to Mullett Arena in Tempe during the 2022-23 season. The lease signed allowed the team to play there for three seasons including two one-year options that would go through the 2026-27 season.

It was proposed as just a temporary solution until the Coyotes could construct a permanent arena since Mullett only holds a capacity of about 5,000 people and is more of a college facility.

The plan was for the Coyotes to build a sports and entertainment district in Tempe that would be passed through a public referendum.

However, when it came to the special election vote in May of 2023 that would determine the Coyotes’ fate in Tempe, their proposed plan was denied, which served as a major turning point in the team’s hopes to remain in Arizona long term.

“My biggest disappointment is that the referendum failed in Tempe,” Bettman said. “I’ve never seen a more public, private win-win that that one. Not the least of which, the landfill is still there and will be there for a long time and there was an opportunity for it to be funded privately to clean it up. That disappointed me. Of all the things we have had to deal with over the last 27 years, I found that the most disappointing.”

While relocation wasn’t brought up publicly after the failed Tempe vote, it was a major setback for the Coyotes organization and really the beginning of the end for them.

Throughout this past season, there were multiple rumored locations thrown out there for the Coyotes to remain in the Valley. Even with all these potential possibilities, nothing really seemed to develop.

Late in January, Ryan Smith announced his desire for an NHL expansion team in Salt Lake City. Coyotes coach André Tourigny admits that these Salt Lake City developments played a major factor in the team’s 14-game losing streak that shut out any hopes of making the playoffs.

On April 4, the Coyotes announced their commitment to winning a land auction in northeast Phoenix that is set to take place on June 27.

Even with this commitment, Bettman confirmed during Friday’s press conference that he came to Meruelo for the first time on March 6 to talk about the potential of selling the franchise and relocating to Salt Lake City.

It was the daunting reality of multiple years at Mullett Arena and uncertainty about the future that was the final straw for Bettman and the NHL.

“We find ourselves here today under difficult circumstances because when the Coyotes moved into Mullett and played two seasons there, the belief was that it was going to be temporary, three years…” Bettman said.

“As things have now played out with the auction on June 27, it became clear to me that not only had the timeline stretched, we were still dealing with uncertainty because there is still an auction to be had and there is a theme park district that still has to be set up, so we were facing under a best case scenario anywhere under a three or five years more in Mullett. With the potential of five years at Mullett, It’s not fair to the players on the Coyotes, it’s not fair to players on the other team…”

A deal was worked out where the Coyotes’ franchise transfers the totality of its existing hockey assets to Salt Lake City including its full reserve list, roster of players and draft picks and its hockey operations department, but Meruelo still technically owns the team and he can reactivate it if able to fully construct a new, state-of-the-art facility appropriate for an NHL team within five years.

The possibility of the Coyotes relocation was a long time coming and it just finally reached a boiling point.