Arizona Coyotes sign letter of intent for land near Mesa (Phoenix: home, purchase)

[Bondurant]

Originally Posted by Pink Jazz

It seems like many Scottsdale residents have a bias against the arena being in Mesa, preferring it to be in their own town or on tribal land near Talking Stick Resort, despite this Mesa location being much more central for most of the fanbase than Scottsdale alone. Chandler and Gilbert also make a significant portion of the Coyotes fanbase.

That is residents of any town when the location is not near them. Like when the forerunner of Phoenix Rising played at ASU before moving to Peoria. East Valley people complained and stopped going. Then when they moved to Scottsdale the West Valley people complained and stopped going and the East Valley people went again.

There is always going to be complainers. Scottsdale fans only have themselves to blame for blocking the build at Los Arcos.

[cjseliga]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

From your ESPN link, it reads: "In addition to the northwest Mesa site, the Coyotes are "looking at multiple sites so we can expect other letters of intent," a source told ESPN."

Why would they sign multiple letters of intent? Are they trying to get towns into some sort of bidding war? even after it reads: The Coyotes remain committed to building the first privately funded sports facility in Arizona history and ensuring the Valley as the club's permanent home," the team said in a statement Wednesday.

It does seem like a contradiction, right!

If you have the hundreds of million or billion dollars to build a new arena, you have the money.

And both the Fiesta Mall location and building it near Sloan Park would be in Mesa, so just pick one.

I'm assuming the Yotes owner will be loaning all/most of the money to build the arena, the big question is, which bank or financial institution will be willing to loan all that money to him?

[KurtAZ]

Originally Posted by cjseliga

It does seem like a contradiction, right!

If you have the hundreds of million or billion dollars to build a new arena, you have the money.

And both the Fiesta Mall location and building it near Sloan Park would be in Mesa, so just pick one.

I'm assuming the Yotes owner will be loaning all/most of the money to build the arena, the big question is, which bank or financial institution will be willing to loan all that money to him?

Well if they pick the Scarizona location, they couldn't have picked a worse location for Internet/Network connectivity to the outside world. It is just over the border of the Reservation so their only option is Saddleback, the Reservation network provider and they don't have infrastructure on that plot. No one else can build into it. Their pricing is astronomical as well.

This day and age, that is a necessity and they will be paying out the nose for that build out.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

From your ESPN link, it reads: "In addition to the northwest Mesa site, the Coyotes are "looking at multiple sites so we can expect other letters of intent," a source told ESPN."

Why would they sign multiple letters of intent? Are they trying to get towns into some sort of bidding war? even after it reads: The Coyotes remain committed to building the first privately funded sports facility in Arizona history and ensuring the Valley as the club's permanent home," the team said in a statement Wednesday.

That doesn't mean they won't be shopping for all kinds of concessions on infrastructure build out, permit fees, parking, sales tax kickback, security etc. There is no "privately funded" with pro sports teams.

[Pink Jazz]

Originally Posted by Bondurant

That is residents of any town when the location is not near them. Like when the forerunner of Phoenix Rising played at ASU before moving to Peoria. East Valley people complained and stopped going. Then when they moved to Scottsdale the West Valley people complained and stopped going and the East Valley people went again.

There is always going to be complainers. Scottsdale fans only have themselves to blame for blocking the build at Los Arcos.

Problem is that they equate it to Glendale, even though it is closer to 90% of the fanbase, Scottsdale included. While the fanbase in Mesa itself is probably limited, a sizeable fanbase exists in both Chandler and Gilbert. The NW Mesa location is both central to the fanbase in Scottsdale and in Chandler/Gilbert.

[YAZ]

Stop with the fan base already.

Detroit Red Wings play downtown.

Less than 1% of attendees live in Detroit.

Wonder how many folks from Joliet drive to Chicago for hockey....

Sellout crowds in Glendale for football 8 Sundays per year.

Engelbert Humperdink will sell out in Payson, AZ.

[Pink Jazz]

Originally Posted by YAZ

Stop with the fan base already.

Detroit Red Wings play downtown.

Less than 1% of attendees live in Detroit.

Wonder how many folks from Joliet drive to Chicago for hockey....

Sellout crowds in Glendale for football 8 Sundays per year.

Engelbert Humperdink will sell out in Payson, AZ.

It is a well known fact that 90% of the Coyotes fanbase lives in the East Valley, which is why the Coyotes are looking for sites in there. None of the sites being considered are in the West Valley. As for what specific cities, Scottsdale, Chandler, and Gilbert make up significant portions of the fanbase, so a central location to accommodate all three of these cities is ideal. I know many in Scottsdale would like a location up by Talking Stick, but such a location is not ideal for the fanbase in Chandler and especially Gilbert.

[Bondurant]

Originally Posted by YAZ

Stop with the fan base already.

Detroit Red Wings play downtown.

Less than 1% of attendees live in Detroit.

Wonder how many folks from Joliet drive to Chicago for hockey....

Sellout crowds in Glendale for football 8 Sundays per year.

Engelbert Humperdink will sell out in Payson, AZ.

Wings play downtown but downtown Detroit is closer for most of the surrounding areas than the far East Valley is to Glendale. Not to mention Wings are the team. They are the primary focus of hockey fans in metro Detroit and the entire state of Michigan whereas the Coyotes are second fiddle in a transplant market.

West Valley absolutely kept me from going to more games. I could not get there in time for puck drop after work. I was not about to pay for parking, overpriced mediocre arena food for a partial game. I was not and will never be willing to make the same sacrifices I would if I were living in metro Detroit. I know I am not alone in this regard. It's a reality for all of the sports franchises here.

Speaking of Chicago...when I lived in the Chicago burbs the United Center was a ghost town. When the Wings or Blues played there you never would have known you were in Chicago. Even storied Original Six teams run into hard times (not to mention the Wings that don't sell out games anymore). The wagon train from Joliet was non-existent.

NFL is the hottest ticket and cannot be compared. Not to mention Cards games are routinely hotbeds of away fans.

Coyotes will draw better in East Valley. Most of the fans are there. Playing at ASU they are generating more ticket revenue than they did in Glendale. If they can secure a location in East Valley and put a good product on the ice people are going to turn out. It was no surprise when I started seeing more butts in the seats after Meruelo bought the team and they signed players fans actually heard of before.

[Slater]

The Coyotes haven't made much of a profit (if any) since they've been in Arizona. Will this new stadium change that?

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Slater

The Coyotes haven't made much of a profit (if any) since they've been in Arizona. Will this new stadium change that?

Probably, it sounds like you're just thinking about butts in seats and ticket sales This is way more than that, it's the full entertainment district including apartments, retail, some office (I believe) concerts, advertising dollars, concessions etc.. Combine that with putting a decent product on the ice and they can absolutely make money.

In reality the Coyotes have done little to build a fanbase here, ownership has continually changed and they've very rarely even made the playoffs (in the NHL where it seems like half the league makes the playoffs), the few times they did however the fans showed up in a pretty big way.

If you win (at least once in a while) they will come. You can't be a perennial cellar dweller and expect to build a large fan-base in a finicky market. PHX is a Suns city first, but every one of our teams gets great attendance and support if they put a quality team together. There's a lot of things to do in Phoenix and around the state, people are not going to invest the time and money to watch an a**kicking every game.