Report: Arizona Coyotes sale, relocation to Houston could be on the horizon
The Arizona Coyotes are in need of a new home.
The City of Glendale is planning to opt out of the joint lease agreement for the Gala River Arena, meaning the Coyotes will need to find a new place to play for the 2022-23 season.
The team’s proposal to build a new 16,000 seat facility and entertainment district in Tempe is currently facing resistance because the development would be too close to the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
On Thursday morning, Eric Macramalla, a legal analyst for Forbes, reported that the Coyotes are for sale and that the plan is for the buyer to eventually move the team to Houston. His colleague and Forbes reporter Mike Ozanian cited an anonymous banking source for the information.
As per my Forbes colleague @MikeOzanian, the Arizona Coyotes are "for sale again with idea of buyer eventually moving team to a new arena in Houston."
— Eric Macramalla (@EricMacramalla) December 2, 2021The Coyotes have since issued a statement saying: “This is false. Totally false. We’re not selling. We’re not moving. The Coyotes are 100 percent committed to playing in Arizona.”
Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States in terms of population, has never had an NHL franchise. The Houston Aeros played in the WHA from 1972 to 1978 and a new version of the Aeros played in the IHL and AHL from 1994 to 2013.
Tilman Fertitta, the billionaire owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, has expressed interest in the past about bringing an NHL team to Houston. Back in 2019, he said on a local radio show that “there’s not a month that goes by that we don’t have some type of talks about the NHL.”
The Toyota Center, which houses the Rockets, can be modified for hockey games and would have a 17,800 seat capacity. The AHL Aeros played at the Toyota Center from 2003 to 2013.
The Coyotes are currently owned by billionaire Alex Meruelo, who gained controlling interest in the team in 2019. According to Sportico’s most recent valuations of North American professional sports franchises, the Coyotes rank dead last in the NHL.