Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies

Farewell Phoenix Coyotes?

Chris Cullum, Columnist

Wednesday, the Detroit Red Wings knocked the Phoenix Coyotes out of the NHL playoffs for the second straight season. The Red Wings capped off their series sweep with a 6-3 victory in Arizona, despite the absence of Henrik Zetterberg for all four games. Regardless of the marked improvement the Coyotes have shown the last two seasons, this may have been final game played by the Phoenix Coyotes franchise. Word around the blogosphere is that the Coyotes will be moving to Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada meaning the NHL will once again have the Winnipeg Jets.

Unless you are one of the few Phoenix Coyotes fans, this shouldn't really come as a shock. Even though the last two seasons have been successful for the franchise, they still have come in last and second to last in attendance, barely filling 70 percent of their arena. Compare that to the Edmonton Oilers, arguably the worst team in hockey. According to attendance numbers on ESPN.com, the Oilers averaged 100 percent capacity this season.

Now, I know what you're thinking: of course a Canadian hockey team will have better attendance than a hockey team from Arizona, that's just common sense. Or maybe you were thinking that because the Coyotes were a transplanted franchise, they're similar to an expansion franchise in terms of starting from scratch with a new fan base. Both of those are valid points when looking at the Coyotes' abysmal attendance numbers and they're both correct. Looking at the same attendance numbers as before, here are the bottom seven in terms of stadium capacity: Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Atlanta Thrashers, Phoenix Coyotes and the New York Islanders. The Avs, Stars and Coyotes are all transplanted franchises; the Panthers, Blue Jackets and Thrashers are all somewhat recent expansion franchises and the Islanders are just bad. The fact that these teams are in the cellar of NHL attendance numbers is no coincidence.

Excluding the Islanders, the other six teams are deficient in at least one of the following: performance, location or roster. By that I mean all of those six teams are either bad, located in a place not conducive to hockey fans or they lack a superstar that can sell tickets. Again, not a coincidence.

It's pretty clear that the Coyotes aren't a bad team, as evidenced by their back-to-back playoff appearances. That leaves their location and their roster as the causes of their attendance woes. The location problem is obvious: a hockey team located in a desert city, even one with a large media market like Phoenix, is a terrible idea.

The other problem, the roster, is just as detrimental yet not as widely discussed. The team's best players, Keith Yandle, Ilya Bryzgalov and Shane Doan, aren't going to sell tickets. They also aren't going to lure a big-time, Alex Ovechkin-type free agent to the team, leaving the draft as their only hope in acquiring such a player. And the only way to draft a player like that is by having a terrible season and winning the draft lottery. Having a bad season like that would probably have a hugely negative impact on the team's attendance, which already isn't good and … see where I'm going with this?

Look, I understand the business side of the decision to put a hockey team in Arizona. Phoenix is a top-15 media market in the United States and, objectively, you can't turn down an opportunity to add that market to your business. But using common sense, how in the heck could you ever expect that to work? The aforementioned attendance numbers are available for everyone to see and use, including NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. And if the Winnipeg rumors end up being true, that means he's finally looking at them, as well as all the other reasons, why the Coyotes need to leave Phoenix.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Coyotes, because we all know the city of Phoenix won't hold it open for you.


Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter