Arizona Coyotes post renderings of potential new arena

Renderings of a potential Arizona Coyotes arena were posted Tuesday in a photo gallery on the team app, shedding some light on a potential permanent home in northeast Phoenix.

The pictures displayed briefly on the team’s website, according to 12News, but were pulled down. A gallery labeled “ari new arena renderings” still showed on the app on Wednesday morning.

They Coyotes have the green light to bid on a tract of land in north Phoenix in their yearslong bid to build a new arena. It is not announced when that auction will take place.

The Arizona State Land Department Board of Appeals unanimously approved the $68.5 million appraisal of the 95 acres last Thursday. The decision sets the stage for the Arizona State Land Department to sell the land at auction with a starting price of $68.5 million. The next step is to set an auction date, which must be publicly advertised for 10 weeks, but it must be publicly listed for at least 10 weeks before it takes place.

The tract of land is on the northwest corner of Loop 101 and Scottsdale Road near Desert Ridge Marketplace, according to the meeting agenda that lists the Coyotes’ Miracle Development LLC.

Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo looked at various potential arena sites around the Valley before zeroing in on the tract of land near Desert Ridge in northeast Phoenix.

At the NHL GM meetings on Wednesday, commissioner Gary Bettman did not speak much in detail on the Coyotes’ upcoming auction, only telling reporters that it was “getting late” while refusing to name a deadline for Arizona to finalize plans to build a new arena.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly says he does not believe a June land auction date for #Yotes arena would allow the league enough time to pivot for relocation ahead of next season.

He declined to clarify if that means the league needs to make a call on Arizona before that date.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 20, 2024

Bettman told reporters he believed Meruelo planned to win the auction and that the league remains supportive of keeping the team in Arizona.

Bettman said in February, as the Coyotes were lining up their purchase of land, that he believed Meruelo’s confidence would shore up the team’s future plans.

“I don’t make it a practice of contradicting owners unless I have hard facts of the contrary and I’m both hopeful that and reasonably … reasonably confident that he’s going to do what he says,” Bettman said in February.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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