Duhatschek: Time for Gary Bettman to let go of his obsession with the Coyotes and Arizona
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By Eric Duhatschek
7h ago
In 1996, Gary Bettman was about three years into his reign as NHL commissioner when the Winnipeg Jets were sold to an investment group headed by Richard Burke and relocated to Phoenix.
I don’t recall Bettman putting up much of a fight to keep the team in Winnipeg at the time. Too cold. Too small a market. Too antiquated an arena. And the Canadian dollar was trading at or below 70 cents compared to its U.S. dollar counterpart. It meant operating a team there — or anywhere else in small-market Canada — in the pre-salary capped NHL was a risky proposition financially.
Honestly, what else could poor Gary, and the NHL’s board of governors, do but approve the transfer of the team? Bettman was, after all, hired originally to help the league grow as a business. And Phoenix looked like a Holy Grail. The fifth largest city, by population, in the United States. An important place to fill in the NHL’s U.S. television footprint.
And for a while, it looked promising.
People forget: The early years at America West Arena, the downtown Phoenix facility they shared with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, was full and the atmosphere was boisterous. Sadly, the building was completely unsuited for hockey. Because it had been built to house a basketball team, the seats at one entire end of the arena were obstructed view.
Not ideal. Still, it looked for a time as if it was going to work.
Until it didn’t.
The Coyotes became a soap opera. The move to the Glendale suburb a disaster on so many fronts. A succession of owners and would-be owners each getting their own six-episode story arc. Remember Steve Ellman (and his minority partner, a guy named Gretzky)? Jerry Moyes? George Gosbee? Andrew Barroway? Alex Meruelo? Those are just some of the people who eventually gained a full, or partial, ownership stake in the team.
There were also failed attempts by Jerry Reinsdorf, Matt Hulsizer, Greg Jamison, Darin Pastor and the Ice Edge Group, all of whom kicked the tires on the Coyotes and for one reason or other, didn’t or couldn’t complete the purchase.
The most publicized of the failed attempts to buy the Coyotes came from BlackBerry executive Jim Balsillie, who wanted to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario. That sale attempt was eventually blocked by a court, acting on behalf of the NHL.
Eventually, the league ended up running the team for four years after Moyes declared bankruptcy, which effectively left Bettman in charge as the de facto CEO.
In effect, the Coyotes became Bettman’s White Whale, his albatross, the thing he couldn’t let go.
In so many other aspects of his job, and his corporate life, Bettman is so practical and pragmatic. So, que sera sera.
The Coyotes became personal. They became an obsession. The more people advised him to let it go — and to let them go someplace else — the more adamant Bettman was that they should stay. The Coyotes played this past season in the 4,500-seat Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University.
It was supposed to be a three-to-four-year temporary measure until the team could build a new arena in Tempe. Note here: Under no circumstances would Bettman have ever approved a similar, temporary accommodation for any other team.
He did it for the Coyotes because he has so much personal capital invested in keeping them in Arizona. But on Tuesday, voters in the Phoenix suburb voted down three propositions to build a $2.1 billion entertainment district that would have included a new arena for the Coyotes.
Bettman showed up in person for all those Tempe city council meetings, where the arena project was discussed, stumping on the team’s behalf. He promised that the Coyotes would be in Arizona forever if the building was approved. He never did that for Winnipeg. Or Atlanta.
Officially, once they got the bad news Tuesday night, both the league and the team responded with similar statements. Bettman was “terribly disappointed” by the results of the referendum, the Coyotes merely “very disappointed.” Both statements promised that the team’s owners and the commissioner will meet to evaluate what comes next for the franchise over the coming weeks.
There is, realistically, only one logical path.
Sell the team and relocate it somewhere else. Houston would be the easy choice. It’s another major U.S. city without an NHL team. A natural rival to the Dallas Stars. A team that could fit nicely into the league’s current conference configuration. Salt Lake City, Kansas City and Portland would all meet the latter criteria as well. Atlanta has failed twice already as an NHL franchise, but support is apparently growing there for a third try.
And of course, there’s great visceral appeal to returning to Quebec City, which also lost its team around the same time the original Jets moved to Phoenix. Practically speaking, going into an actual hockey market such as Quebec is low on the league’s priority list and probably qualifies as a mere pipe dream for fans (and a few jaded hockey writers, who remember what it was like when Quebec City was the NHL’s answer to the Green Bay Packers).
At this point, after a crushing defeat at the ballot box, you might imagine that even Bettman is finally prepared to admit defeat and to let it go. But knowing Bettman and his playbook, he can’t or won’t let that happen, at least not right away. It feels as if it’s over.
If sustaining the franchise in Arizona wasn’t such a fixation for Bettman, you’d think it would be safe to predict that it is over.
Logically, practically, and financially, this infatuation with Arizona has run its course. But what is it they say?
The best way to predict future behavior is to pay attention to the past. After 27 years of Bettman beating the drums on behalf of this franchise, there’s a part of me that thinks he isn’t prepared to wave the white flag just yet. On the contrary. Knowing the way Bettman thinks and operates, no one should be surprised if he doesn’t try — one last time — to pull another rabbit out of his hat and keep the team in Arizona.
Let’s see if I’m right.
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