Coyotes president, CEO Cohen offers latest update on potential sale, arena

Arizona Coyotes president & CEO Ahron Cohen joined 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s Newsmakers Week to update fans on the latest surrounding a potential sale of the team.

“There’s been so much stuff out there, rumors and unsubstantiated stories — the reality is our owner Andy Barroway is the sole owner, the 100 percent owner and he doesn’t want to be the sole owner any longer,” Cohen told 98.7 FM’s Doug & Wolf Wednesday. “Now, what form that takes, whether it’s a full sale, whether it’s a partnership, whether it’s an LP stake — I think that’s all to be determined.”

Cohen did not have anything else to note on the news, clarifying there is no set date on the transition occurring.

“And there’s no timetable or timeline or anything like that,” he said. “I think the one thing that’s absolute is anything that we’re looking to do — it’s predicated on us bringing in somebody that’s going to help us be successful here in Arizona for the long term.”

Barroway bought out the rest of the group of owners in June of 2017, with the Coyotes being owned at that time by IceArizona. Barroway has been the majority owner of the Coyotes since 2014.

Cohen noted the focus still hasn’t changed on keeping the Coyotes in the Valley.

“Absolutely, that’s all we’re focused on,” he said. “We love this community, this is a great place, great hockey market and we’re looking at different things for us to be successful here.”

As far as a new home in the form of a new arena, there is significant progress left to be done.

“I don’t think it’s very productive to talk about those things until you really know what the answer is,” Cohen said when asked of a potential new arena.

“Look, we’re trying to figure out a long-term sustainable solution here in Arizona. One element of that is what the arena situation looks like but there’s a lot of other elements. We could put this arena in the perfect location in town (but) if you don’t have some of these other things working for your franchise you’re not going to be successful.

“Those are our three core goals with our team. Is building a competitive hockey team, is building fandom throughout this community and it’s positively impacting this community so that’s really what we’re talking about these days and that’s where our focus is.”

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