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The Phoenix Coyotes ordeal (more on that in a minute!) coming to a close – or what at least seems to resemble some sort of resolution if you unfocus and squint a bit – seemed, for a fantastic moment, to put an end to the idea of an NHL team playing in Seattle in the near future.
Motivated theoretical buyers or not, the chances of this actually happening always seemed at least a little slim given how the league had hung on Making hockey work in a place where hockey is patently and utterly impractical. The sale of the Coyotes to this shadowy cabal of out-of-town businessmen seemed to drop a large rock in front of the cavern above which was written “The Seattle Metropolitans or whatever.”
But lo and behold, just two months later, the stone was removed and reports surfaced of Gary Bettman looking away in supplication to the league owners begging them to consider allowing the Pacific Northwest to bring forth an expansion teamwith all the costs that this would entail.
Easy to dismiss, at first glance. After all, how many local sports figures who claimed to be hip have spread fake news that deals had been signed and sealed with the blood of another Shane Doan elbow victim, delivered by Greg Jamison and a host of others, only to watch them evaporate under the hot desert sun? (Jude LaCava, we’re looking at you here.)
But then the details became more precise.:The team would come with a $275 million expansion fee, about $95 million more than the agreed-upon sale price with the Coyotes. Again, that’s reasonable. Expansion costs more than buying a team in its final financial days, and the league is always looking to enrich the current owners, as is its ongoing goal despite all the hockey it plays to distract fans from that fact.
A whole new team? While that would bring the league’s total to 31 teams, it would at least get you a little closer to the 32 needed – and likely targeted – to balance the conferences from their current absurd format of 16 in the East and 14 in the West.
To return to social events, such an effort of expansion would require ‘Solid’ ownership group and new arena. We knew all this already, but one wonders what the league would consider “solid” in 2013, given the kinds of people it has allowed to get involved in this kind of business in the recent past: actual criminals and, more recently, guys with little more backing than a prospect, a history in NHL boardrooms and an ugly suit. The group that wanted to partner with the Coyotes is at least one of the current interested expansion candidates.
Of course, the arena issue is theoretically settled, as was explored endlessly during the Coyotes’ latest ownership shakeup (which I promise to get to), because there are those who want to build a new arena in the Emerald City that would ideally house an NBA and NHL team. You’ll recall that the Oilers were also recently linked to such a deal because Darryl Katz was whiny about Edmonton’s desire to fund an arena.
But here’s the catch to the Seattle expansion rumor: The team would enter the league at the start of the 2014-15 season. You know, 15 months from now.
I’m pretty sure you can’t build an arena in record time. So the team would rather play in KeyArena, with only about 15,200 seats, for what? Two seasons? Three? Or even more?
Sure, no one will have to worry about a hypothetical new Seattle team beyond “Wow, isn’t it cool to have an NHL team?” for at least five years, since expansion teams generally suck for the first few years of their existence, and sometimes longer.
While the revenues of 15,200 seats are better than the zero revenues Seattle currently generates, isn’t that exactly why the NHL is dragging its feet on moving into what would likely be much more fertile ground for adding another team – in terms of expansion interest and costs – in Quebec City? The Colisée Pepsi seats almost exactly the same number of people as KeyArena, and the city is already building a purely spec-built arena. Of course, one has to assume that an NHL team will be hosting that building in the relatively near future, but they will soon be more than a year ahead of Seattle, which hasn’t even signed a memorandum of understanding for construction yet, meaning it could be months or more before construction begins.
But here’s the weird part, which I’m sure shouldn’t surprise you, is the Coyotes’ current ownership group.
The Board of Governors was supposed to approve the deal this week. As of this writing, that has not happened yet. Why? Well, according to Mike Sunnucks of the Phoenix Business Journal (who has been right about this sort of thing in the past despite the detractors), citing two sources, “(S)ome financing for the sale has not been finalized or has been removed from the deal.” Which would be a problem since the deal must be finalized by August 5. That is, as of this writing, August 2.
Fox Sports Arizona’s Craig Morgan, meanwhile, says deal on track. Bill Daly says the case is “moving forward.” Glendale spokeswoman Julie Frisoni says the case is “moving forward.” But it appears the time has come to pull the jacket collar in Glendale.
Assuming all goes smoothly with the Coyotes, which is a hell of an assumption to make given history, Seattle is apparently where the NHL will turn its Eye of Sauron next, constantly searching for the unique market to bring everything it’s ever wanted in an expansion franchise, and in the Northwest, tie them in. Hell, that could be the case even if the Glendale Deal version Who knows? But based on what’s happening right now, there would be as many questions about this market as anywhere else, maybe more.
But hey, I guess you can always count on this league to pursue something other than its most viable option available, because what’s the fun in backing the favorite, right?
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