A group trying to bring a professional NHL franchise back to Arizona is backed by some of the biggest names in Arizona hockey, but several big questions remain unanswered about who will provide the money needed to create a new team and where they would play.
Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin has spoken publicly about his desire to bring a professional team back to Arizona after the team left for Utah last year after years of fluctuating ownership, lease disputes and up-and-down attendance.
He said he has already spoken with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to see if the league is even interested in coming back to Arizona.
“And before I could even finish my opening remarks, he said, ‘Absolutely,’” Galvin said.
Galvin announced that Andrea Doan, wife of longtime Arizona Coyotes player Shane Doan, will chair an advisory panel he created to accomplish that goal.
“I had an image and a vision in mind that we needed political leadership, we needed business leadership, and we needed hockey experts to come together,” said Galvin, who clarified he is working on the project in his personal capacity and the county is not involved.
Doan, whose son Josh Doan also played for the Coyotes, said she believes Arizona is a hockey state.
“The hockey community in this state is committed to bringing the NHL back to the desert, and I look forward to helping to make that a reality,” Doan said.
She said the NHL retains ownership of the Coyotes name and Galvin indicated the group would support a new team playing under that moniker.
Former U.S. women’s national hockey player Lyndsey Fry, a Chandler native who played in the 2014 Winter Olympics, will also work on the effort.
Fry will spearhead community relations while Doan and Galvin work in the background to find potential ownership groups and locations for a new arena, Galvin said.
“My hockey journey started really because I was a beneficiary of the Coyotes coming down from Winnipeg originally,” Fry said. “And because of that, more rinks started being built, one of which is now Ice Den Chandler, and that’s where I started playing when I was 6 years old.”
It’s still unclear exactly where they’d like to see a new franchise play.
Sports reporter Craig Morgan told KJZZ’s The Show the group is likely to target somewhere in downtown Phoenix or the East Valley.
But Galvin said they are still keeping their options open.
“We’re open and willing and able to listen to any part of the Valley, but I think we have seen that certain parts of the Valley, it hasn’t worked, so certain areas are going to be more viable than others,” Galvin said.
That was likely a veiled reference to the West Valley.
The Coyotes played at what is now the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale from 2003 to 2022 as the team struggled to sustain consistent attendance numbers. And, in 2016, a team official said “the East Valley is home to a majority of our fans” when the NHL first announced plans to move the Coyotes to Tempe.
But those plans never came to fruition after Tempe voters, in 2023, shot down a plan to build a stadium and entertainment district, which would have been privately funded by then Coyotes’ owner Alex Meruelo but also benefited from significant tax breaks.
Meruelo sold the team to a Utah ownership group the following year.
Still, he retained the rights to bring a new Coyotes franchise back to the Valley in the future and briefly pursued plans to build a similar stadium entertainment district in north Phoenix on a tract of state-owned land. But that development was scuttled after state officials canceled the land sale and Phoenix officials expressed opposition to giving Meruelo tax incentives, according to the Arizona Republic.
Galvin said he does not plan to ask prospective ownership groups whether they’ll seek similar tax concessions as Meruelo.
“There’s no message regarding any tax issues for an ownership group — that’s on them,” he said. “For us, this is about building community support, building a coalition to bring a team here. All of those questions you’re asking are hypotheticals, and they’re going to be down the line.”
Galvin cautioned that hockey fans in the Valley shouldn’t expect to see a new team here anytime soon.
“We’re not going to be announcing next month that we have an owner, we have a location, we have a team. It is literally going to be a years-long process,” he said.
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