There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes’ transfer to Salt Lake City, Utah, according to a former general manager of the league.
To put it mildly, Brian Burke is not a fan of the NHL moving the Coyotes franchise. He expressed concerns about Salt Lake City’s market, hockey history, and owner in a recent interview with Canada’s Sportsnet 590 The Fan. Burke was the former general manager of the Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, and Anaheim Ducks in addition to serving as the league’s director of hockey operations.
“It should come with an air sickness bag, this whole saga,” Burke stated. “It’s just absurd that a city of six million people would fold and relocate to a place with 1.5 million people, or whatever population Salt Lake City has. Therefore, we will be trading a market of six million people for a market of only 1.5 million, where the only professional hockey leagues are the IHL and a few AHL teams.
“All right, is it clear to anyone else as well? To me, it doesn’t. Make this guy sell the team, find another team in the appropriate area, and carry on with his play.”
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Atlanta and Houston are also bigger markets than Salt Lake City, but the NHL looks to be moving forward with the Utah relocation, maybe in part because of its relationship with Ryan Smith, the owner of the Utah Jazz and the person who has appeared to drive relocating the Coyotes to Utah.
Burke finds it incomprehensible.
In the interview, he added, “I don’t get it.” “All that accomplishes is passing the meeting’s exam by acting morally, allowing you to declare him to be morally upright. If the team doesn’t make money, will he start writing large checks and is he still a good man? Because I’ve seen this movie before, in which people purchase a team in an attempt to become the big guy in town and become popular. I’ve watched the film. I lived that movie with you.”
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The Coyotes moved because they are in need of a new hockey arena. Currently, they are playing at Mullett Arena on the Arizona State University campus, which can accommodate 4,600 spectators for NHL games. This move was spurred by the team’s continuous hunt for a suitable facility.
Neither does Utah have a long-term arena solution in place for the coyotes. At the very least, it’s a better arrangement than what the Coyotes have right now in Arizona, where they are anticipated to share the Delta Center with the NBA’s Jazz upon a possible move.
Burke stated that the NHL would not be allowed to turn down Smith or any other prospective owner looking to purchase an NHL team.
“It’s a billion dollars a team times four,” he stated. “How are they able to refuse this? We’ll move from 32 to 36 after these guys dislocate their shoulders to vote for this. Alright, that’s even more—two billion. They are going to dislocate both shoulders now.
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