Utah Makes Its Move

Nabbing the Arizona Coyotes in a sort of "shadow expansion"

Way back in June, we talked about the new popular kid at America’s pro sports lunch table. She just moved here. Her name’s Vegas, and while she’s a little rough around the edges, she really owns who she is.

I’ve gotta say though — there’s a runner-up emerging these days, and they’re pretty close by. His name’s Salt Lake, and while he lacks Vegas’ woo-girl reputation, he’s also becoming a pretty gracious host to sports fans.

Utah is already, I would say notoriously, home to about the most incongruous mascot/city combo in sports. That’d be the Utah Jazz, who originated in the far more jazzy city of New Orleans.

They’ve been embraced there, never falling out of the top half of the league in attendance in all the years for which I could find data (going back to 2001 — and they were top 10 every year from 2001 to 2013, too).

With the NHL officially approving a move as of yesterday, though, there’s a chance at a fresh start, so I’d like them to get the name right this time. And while I don’t condone Axios letting ChatGPT give it a whirl and calling it an article¹, I don’t hate the Salt Lake Snowcats.

Is this anything?

I’ve also heard Yeti bandied about, which I’d be into. Very strong mascot suit potential there.

Beyond that obviously pressing priority, though, it may be worth revisiting how this came about, because the path has been winding.

For the past few years, the Coyotes have been sharing their home rink with a college team. Arizona State agreed to host them in Tempe while they negotiated a move elsewhere. Where, you might ask? Mullett Arena of course. This is hockey.

Besides the name, no one’s been all that happy with the arrangement. It came about when the city of Glendale effectively evicted the Coyotes from their old arena by opting out of their lease agreement with the team. They cited a slew of missed payments — financial duress will continue to be a theme — and sent them on their way.

But Glendale was never thought to be an ideal location itself. The Coyotes only moved there in 2003 out of frustration with the Suns’ arena in Phoenix and its less-than-ideal facilities for hockey. The relocation stirs up some bad blood in the fan base while also serving to drive down attendance.

Oh, and by the way, the team changes hands three times between their initial move to Arizona in 1994 and the 2005 purchase by Jerry Moyes, a part-owner of the MLB’s Diamondbacks at the time. Billionaires are playing hot potato with this transient franchise.

By 2009, it is so piping hot that a slew of media reports accuse the NHL of propping up the Coyotes as they bleed money. Moyes puts the team into bankruptcy, aiming to sell and move the team to Ontario (which is technically Canadian, as this franchise was once the Winnipeg Jets prior to ‘94).

The NHL does not like that idea one bit, and there’s this big protracted legal fight that results in the league taking over the team like a ward of the state. In all, it takes until 2013 to find a new owner.

Then the team changes hands twice more, culminating with the last owner, Alex Meruelo. The deal was struck in 2019, but Meruelo just got full control last year. And what a year that was!

In 2023, a proposal Meruelo put before the voters of Tempe to build a new $2.1-billion arena for the team was rejected by double digits. Both Meruelo and the NHL hoped that the prospect of revitalizing a former landfill and currently vacant lot would be enough to overcome the growing animus of voters asked to subsidize billionaires’ sporting venues. Big L for Meruelo, and a medium-to-big L for Chel.

Without that in the works, there was no good answer as to where the Coyotes would play after their deal with ASU — which was only ever supposed to be a stopgap — ended.

So, if you’re still with me, you can probably see why everyone thought, after allllll that, a move might be warranted.

Diversifying The Portfolio

Now, back to Salt Lake. The Utah Jazz are not bystanders in this. It’s the team’s owner, Ryan Smith (not that one, college friends), who’s been pushing the NHL to set up shop there. He already owns the Jazz(‘s?) arena, the Delta Center, which has proven capable with exhibition NHL games. Now it’ll play host to whoever the Coyotes decide to become next.

See, the point here is not really the financial struggle it’s been for the Coyotes in Arizona. And Meruelo’s been promised an expansion team if he can get a stadium deal in place in the next five years, so the door isn’t closed on them for good, all the “Hockey? In Arizona?” jokes aside. Auston Matthews damn near scored 70 goals this year, and guess where he’s from? Scottsdale, baby! Let the state have a team.

You don’t even need to make those jokes about Utah, though. We’re talking about a place where hockey makes pretty perfect sense. It’s a fast-growing city and a winter-sports town that will likely host the Winter Olympics for a second time in 2034, an event that Smith and the NHL might be counting on to deliver a permanent arena of the Snowcats’ own. (What? Just trying it out. You like it too.)

And while they’re at it, Salt Lake’s at or near the front of the line for an eventual MLB expansion team too. A group devoted solely to that end, called Big League Utah, has put in quite the lobbying effort with the league. The political will is there, alongside the money, and that’s usually what it takes to get things done around here (y’know, in the US of A).

I think Salt Lake will succeed as a hockey town, and I think they would also succeed as a baseball town. We’ll see just how strong a market they are soon, but I bet they show up. They’ll need to to have any shot at the top item on their wishlist, per the poll below:

Likely? Not particularly. But hey. Do you believe in momentum? Utah just might.

Also, This

• I actually watched the Masters this year, which I haven’t done in a while. Watching cool, calm, collected Scottie Scheffler win another green jacket was nice and all, but the coolest part of the weekend by far was this amateur getting to play his last round paired with Tiger, who gutted out a trying tournament but at least got to hang and bestow some wisdom.
  

• NBA Play-In Roundup:

  • The Zombie Heat might just be dead this year. With Jimmy Buckets out, I’m prepared to call this one a wrap. Tough break for the defending champs of the East. Good for the Sixers though, showing some mettle as the Nic Batum career reclamation project continues apace. That’s nice and all, but Philly will only go as far as the big fella takes ‘em.
    

  • The Hawks were never really alive, but I think we can put to rest any notions that they’d outperform their limitations in a playoff scenario. I’m proud of Coby White, but when he’s hanging 42 on you (on 15/21 shooting, I might add), that might be a you problem.
    

  • The Lakers barely survived the Pelicans, and while I really do like and appreciate LeBron and his enduring greatness, I took note when he fully airballed a turnaround jumper at the end of that game. This should no longer come as a surprise, given he’s 39, but I don’t know that he can dominate on the biggest stage anymore. AD, on the other hand, looks pretty great. And yet! I will not be the least bit shocked if the Nuggets sweep them again.
    

  • As for the potential death of the Warriors dynasty, well, that just made me sad. Klay Thompson will be the biggest talking point after that loss, and sadly also deserves to be. Zero points in 32 minutes is tough. I’m not sure how this team will look to retool, but between him and the Draymond spiral, they’ve got a lot to figure out.
    

• How about the Jontay Porter crackdown, huh? Guess we all called it after all. Lifetime ban, because everything reported was true, and so was a little bit more just for good measure. So much for the MPJ defense.
  

• Finally, a hearty RIP to legendary Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog. He was before my time, but he was such a massive figure where I grew up that he became a part of my life anyways.

  Joe Posnanski
  eulogized him beautifully here, but my short version is this:

  • In baseball, or anything really, it’s a rare man indeed whose name becomes more than his name. Whiteyball persists. He coined the playing style out of necessity, noting that the Cardinals didn’t have a power hitter and would have to cut against the conventional wisdom of the time and find other ways to win. Defense, stolen bases, and line drives were his teachings. He did win in ‘82, and came close again in ‘85 and ‘87. True to form, each series went to 7. He’ll be greatly missed.

1. You know, not to harp on the death of journalism thing, but did they not even notice that ChatGPT suggested, as the very first name, an existing NHL franchise in a neighboring state? I fear for the future.