Maricopa County Board to form committee dedicated to bringing back NHL

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors held its first meeting of 2024 on Monday, and newly elected chairman Thomas Galvin laid out his strategy for returning NHL hockey to the Valley.

The Arizona Coyotes’ hockey operations and players relocated to Salt Lake City after the 2023-24 season and are in the midst of their first campaigns as the Utah Hockey Club.

Galvin called losing a professional sports team a low point.

“I think of Wayne Gretzky’s quote, ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,'” Galvin said. “So, I’m forming an advisory committee of visionary leaders dedicated to bringing NHL hockey back to the Valley. I’ve had several meetings with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and he looks forward to working with us to identify an owner and best location for a world-class building.”

The Coyotes played in the Valley for 27 seasons, but multiple missteps when it came to finding a permanent arena resulted in their unceremonious exit.

The team’s previous relationship with Glendale deteriorated, and after 18 seasons the city and Gila River Arena (now Diamond Desert Arena) terminated the Coyotes’ lease.

The team played the past two seasons at Mullett Arena at Arizona State, during which time a public vote by Tempe voters to approve a new arena and entertainment district near Sky Harbor International Airport failed.

Without a clear path to finding a more permanent home for the Coyotes than the 5,000-seat Mullett Arena, the NHL looked elsewhere and found a suitor in Utah.

Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith bought the team for $1.2 billion last April.

The Coyotes were deactivated, and Bettman said the team could be reactivated if former owner Alex Meruelo Sr. could construct a new arena “appropriate” for an NHL team within five years.

Meruelo stepped away after a land auction he expected to win for a new arena last summer was canceled, as the Arizona State Land Department said a new arena would require a Special Use Permit. The brand rights of the franchise were relinquished back to the NHL.

In a press conference after the sale, Bettman said, “This is a place where we think hockey works” and “We’re still standing by this market and believe a team belongs here and we need a new arena.”

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman comments on Diamondbacks

Speaking of Valley sports teams and stadium issues, the Diamondbacks came up in Galvin’s comments with the club’s lease on Chase Field set to expire in rapidly-approaching 2027.

Maricopa County owns Chase Field, although the D-backs are responsible for the operation, management and maintenance of the ballpark. The Diamondbacks and Maricopa County have expressed their frustrations with the lease negotiations publicly, with D-backs president and CEO Derrick Hall calling a counterproposal “ridiculous” on Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta in September.

Discussions with the county enter a new phase with a different board of directors taking over.

“I can assure you the Board will work very hard with the Diamondbacks on addressing the future of Chase Field,” Galvin said. “I see my role in this as looking out for the tax payers’ best interest, and that’s my line in the sand.

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