Even back in the earlier part of this decade when they were a consistent playoff team, they were still last or in the bottom 3 for attendance. They made it to the WCF in 2012 yet attendance barely improved the next season.
& for people to feel like the NHL owes Arizona another event is laughable. Did they forget the league was the sole reason they haven't been relocated / why they haven't folded? Did they forget about those years where the league either owned the team or prevented people from buying + moving it?
Arizona is the only place where Bettman won’t get booed for a personal appearance) so it’s actually hilarious for someone outside the Arizona market to suggest that fans here don’t understand or appreciate what the league actually did.
The league was protecting its ability to control what markets they wanted to be in. That was the sole reason for keeping the Coyotes in Arizona at that time.
As for why they haven’t moved or folded since? Simple... there were people in line willing to take a chance in making it work.
Alex Meruelo is the first person in the franchise’s history (including its time in Winnipeg) with the financial means to make it work. Team missed the playoffs last year for the seventh straight year yet attendance grew nearly a 1000 per game. This year they’ve had three sellouts already on weekends and are over 15,000 in average. Another 1000 over year so far. Doing it in the portion of the season where attendance is historically at its worst.
Will he be able to turn it all around? That remains to be seen. So far it’s going in the right direction.
But enough with all these talking points that were repeatedly hacked to death for the last ten years in the mega thread.
The discussion here is about outdoor games and who could possibly host one. Arizona was mentioned as a possibility. So unless you’ve got any thing new to add besides trying to make it into a new mega thread discussion full of old stale talking points then we’re done here.