The Arizona Coyotes ended their nearly three-decade stay in the Valley earlier this spring, when the NHL announced the team had been sold and would move to Salt Lake City.
It was an, at times, tumultuous tenure. The Coyotes played in downtown Phoenix after moving from Winnipeg in 1996. Then, in 2003, the team played its first game in Glendale.
That continued until 2021, when the city decided not to renew its lease with the Coyotes to play at Gila River Arena. That led to the seasons at Arizona State University's Mullett Arena, the failed attempt to build an arena and entertainment district in Tempe, and eventually, the team’s move to Utah.
To get some perspective on the Coyotes’ time in Glendale, The Show reached out to Elaine Scruggs, the city’s former mayor, who was in office when the team moved west from Phoenix. The Show spoke with her earlier and asked what went through her mind when she first heard the Coyotes were being sold and moved to Salt Lake City.
Conversation highlights
What went through your mind when you first heard the Coyotes were being sold and moved to Salt Lake City?
ELAINE SCRUGGS: Truthfully, Mark, I felt very happy for them. I think that they're gonna have their first chance finally to be successful as a hockey team and not just an adjunct to a developer's plans to make a lot of money.
This was a team that you were very interested in having in Glendale as part of an economic development program. Did you not feel like they ever really had a chance to succeed while they were either in Glendale or the other places they played in the Valley?
SCRUGGS: Well, first of all, I'd like to change the order of what you said that, I was very interested in having them. I and the city of Glendale, my council members, city manager and so forth, were interested in economic development. Steve Ellman, who owned the team, was interested in economic development. The Coyotes team was an ancillary part of that. What the important role that the Coyotes team played in economic development would be to be an anchor for the total development that would draw people to the area. Not a goal of itself. Owning, bringing the Coyotes team to Glendale was never anything we ever even considered in our minds. We had an opportunity to pursue important economic development.
Why do you think it didn't ultimately work out in Glendale? We know what happened toward the end, with the disputes over payments and whether or not the city wanted the team to consider being the main tenant or a tenant at the arena. But during your tenure as mayor, what didn't happen that needed to happen?
SCRUGGS: Mark, I don't believe that the Valley population has a real interest in ice hockey. Maybe never will. All the knocks that they didn't draw people to the games because it was so far away are a bunch of baloney. They didn't draw people when they were downtown Phoenix. If you think about it, in the 20-some-odd years that the Coyotes team was in the Valley — and I don't know how many exactly — they never grew their base beyond 4,000 to 5,000 people. What does that really say? I say it has nothing to do with the location. It has to do with the product.
So when you take into account what has happened over the last couple of decades at Westgate — with the Coyotes moving there and then leaving — what has the economic impact on Glendale been of having that development there?
SCRUGGS: I can't give you the numbers because I'm not in office, and I don't have access to those types of things now. But that place that was seen to be such a stupid idea by so many, the impact has been more than we could have ever expected. I mean, this 1.6 million square feet he originally put into the agreement soon increased to 6.5 million square feet. That's how big the interest was. Now, look at what's going on there and you have to talk about the Cardinal's stadium coming in literally across the street. That place — I, I don't know if you can see another place like it.
I went to, I think five different Super Bowls. Excuse me, I went to five different Super Bowls in training when the NFL wanted us to understand what our duties and responsibilities and obligations were before they played the first one in Glendale, which was 2006. So I got to see firsthand where these stadiums were and what was around them. At that time, there was nothing anywhere like what you have in Glendale. The synergy and the energy there is absolutely tremendous.
While everybody told us we'd never replace the 40 nights that Coyotes played, in reality, those 40 nights cost us the opportunity to book double that many. When the Coyotes were gonna have a game, they needed the day ahead to put down the ice, to practice and so forth and then the day after to clear out. So in reality, for one game night, we lost three days that the arena could be programmed — minimum. Now, the entertainment and the concerts, they book way in advance. We could not open the calendar. We had to assume the Coyotes were gonna go to the playoffs. So we had to block the calendar all the way through playoff time.
Now we're going back to what we were talking about in the beginning. The attendance was very low. Was it making any money? No. Now, last year they had, because I checked this out, they had 50 booked events in the arena. Those things are people that come to, those, they're there. They're spending a lot of money. So, is it a loss? No. Was it a draw in the beginning? Yes, it was Glendale had to build a name for itself as a place to go, the place to be. And, did it do that? Yeah, it did.
KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.
