Ranking The 7 Cities Where the Coyotes Could Move to Next Season

The NHL's Southwestern experiment is officially on thin ice.

The Arizona Coyotes' future is in doubt after voters in Tempe voted against a privately funded $2.1 billion project that would have included a 16,000-seat arena and a practice rink as part of a sports and entertainment district.

The Coyotes played in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale from 2003 to 2022 before that city ended its lease agreement. The termination forced the team to play its 2022-23 home games at Arizona State University's Mullett Arena in Tempe.

"The National Hockey League is terribly disappointed by the results of the public referendum regarding the Coyotes' arena project in Tempe," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. "We are going to review with the Coyotes what the options might be going forward."

Relocation to another city may be among those options if a local ownership group is not found and a suitable home agreed upon. That prospect was more than enough to get the B/R hockey staff together to discuss and rank the alternatives for the Coyotes for 2023-24.

We ranked the likelihood of each city on the criteria of arena availability, ownership viability and the latest reports.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

We'll concede up front that this seems unlikely.

In fact, unless something dramatic happens quickly, it appears that the only option for keeping the team in Arizona would be if the NBA's newest team governor—mortgage lender CEO Mat Ishbia—augments his recent purchase of the Phoenix Suns with a deal to acquire the Coyotes as well.

In theory, he could parlay the dual ownership into a new arena for both the Suns and Coyotes in Phoenix rather than attempting to again remodel the Footprint Center, which also hosts the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League.

Early incarnations of the Coyotes played in a not-ideal-for-hockey America West Arena in the late 1990s and early 2000s before landing full-time at the aforementioned digs in Glendale.

TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger suggested it was the ideal scenario.

"What is likely best for all, is the Coyotes and Suns partner on new building," Dreger tweeted Wednesday. "The cost of renovating a building that has just been renovated may be too expensive."

There's a lot to like about Quebec City.

The Nordiques were one of the four World Hockey Association teams to make it to the NHL in 1979 and among the most successful. They reached the playoffs nine times in 16 seasons, including trips to the conference finals in 1981-82 and 1984-85.

In fact, six NHL Hall of Famers spent time with the Nordiques before they relocated to Denver following the 1994-95 season and became the Colorado Avalanche.

A smallish market and an almost exclusively French-speaking fanbase were among the issues faced back then. But the city is now home to the largest arena in Canada that isn't a full-time home to an NHL team, and the population has spiked to more than 550,000.

And the uniforms. Oh, the uniforms.

However, the NHL might nix the idea because Bettman reportedly wants to keep the Coyotes' would-be successor in the Western Conference rather than offsetting the existing 16/16 split between it and the Eastern Conference, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

We aren't quite sure what the mantra would be for a third time in Atlanta.

Georgia's capital city was awarded the NHL's Flames for the 1972-73 season amid a territory and personnel war with the WHA. The team lasted eight seasons before a sale to an ownership group in Calgary to begin the 1980-81 season.

Expansion yielded another chance in the form of the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999 and another 11 years of relative irrelevance before another northern sale, this time to a bidder than relocated the struggling franchise to the former WHA hub of Winnipeg.

Atlanta remains the only city to lose two NHL teams, but it's also the largest U.S. television market without an NHL team and the largest market not to have a team in all four major North American men's sports leagues. Giving Atlanta a third crack at an NHL team wouldn't be entirely without precedent, as Washington, D.C., had two Major League Baseball flameouts before the Montreal Expos arrived there in 2005.

Atlanta doesn't have a permanent NHL-level arena at the moment, though plans were announced last month for a $2 billion mixed-use campus and arena in Forsyth County with the goal of attracting another NHL franchise. Still, a move to Atlanta would also create an East/West imbalance.

It's Triple Crown season. So why not include a dark horse like Sacramento?

The hockey hopes of California's capital city got a boost when Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman included it in his list of possible new homes for the Coyotes during an episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast.

No significant professional hockey teams have ever called the city home, though the since-disbanded California Golden Seals played about 90 minutes away in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the still-active San Jose Sharks are another few miles to the south.

The Seals ended their stay in Oakland in 1976 and moved to Cleveland, where they lasted two seasons before folding.

Sacramento does host the NBA's Kings in the Golden 1 Center, which opened in 2016 to replace the since-shuttered ARCO Arena. It's possible the relocated Coyotes could play there, though the Sharks might object to having another team in their general proximity.

If you're a fan of old-school NHL expansion cities, why not Kansas City?

The Scouts arrived alongside the Washington Capitals to begin the 1974-75 season but lasted just two years before heading to Denver to become to the Colorado Rockies.

Six seasons in Colorado preceded another move that yielded the New Jersey Devils.

Circumstances in favor of a new team have emerged with the loyal support provided to the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals. An NHL-ready venue is available, too, in T-Mobile Center, and a team there would both expand the league's Midwestern footprint and generate an instant rivalry with the St. Louis Blues.

But it doesn't help matters that the most likely local suitors for an NHL team, the Hunt family that owns the NFL's Chiefs, aren't exactly on board with the idea.

In fact, Lamar Hunt Jr. has evolved from considering the idea a "reach" and the price tag "ridiculously big" to the point where he no longer entertains the possibility.

"I don't," he told the Kansas City Star. "It doesn't seem realistic."

Tilling new territorial ground could mean a move to Salt Lake City.

That's if Utah Jazz governor Ryan Smith follows through on a publicly stated wish to bring an NHL team in to go alongside his NBA franchise.

Friedman reported in March that Smith had dinner with the NHL's Bettman following an NBA Board of Governors meeting in New York City. Smith is among the founders of Qualtrics, an experience management company created in 2002, and Friedman also reported that he'd been interested in the Pittsburgh Penguins before they were ultimately sold in 2021.

"I was told to keep his name on my radar, because he's interested in the NHL," Friedman said, "and the NHL is very interested in him."

The Smith Entertainment Group is the parent company of the Jazz and holds stakes in Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake, the NWSL's Utah Royals and Vivint Arena. The arena hosted the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights in a preseason game in 2021.

The venue holds approximately 20,000 fans for basketball.

If things break right, Arizona's loss may wind up as Houston's gain.

Houston Rockets governor Tilman Fertitta has long been on record with interest in bringing the NHL to the city after its previously successful relationships with the WHA's Houston Aeros in the 1970s and other minor league entities through 2013.

The Aeros were among the WHA's most successful franchises from 1972 through 1978, winning four division titles and two Avco Cups before the team ceased operations after it wasn't one of the four WHA teams absorbed into the NHL.

Hall of Famer Gordie Howe scored 121 goals with the Aeros across 285 WHA games from 1973 to 1977.

Bettman said Fertitta would be involved with any possible Houston franchise because of his governship of the Rockets, who'd share residence at the Toyota Center venue.

The arena can seat 18,104 for basketball and 17,800 for hockey.

"There's not a month that goes by that we don't have some type of talks about the NHL," Fertitta told the Houston Matters radio show in 2019. "And it's definitely something that, one day, I look forward to bringing to Houston, Texas."