PHOENIX — National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman has had more than his share of concerns overseeing the ups and downs of the Arizona Coyotes franchise since the team relocated from Winnipeg back in 1996.
Coyotes officials have said the team is now eyeing several East Valley locations as a permanent home since plans to build a huge arena in Tempe were shot down by voters earlier this year.
Now Bettman has weighed in again on the latest twists and turns of the Coyotes’ saga.
Q: What’s the latest there [in Arizona] on the arena front?
A: "They are in the process of exploring a number of parcels of land that can host an arena and entertainment retail district project, and my belief is in the next few months, they will finalize something, and they're looking for situations that don't require a referendum. There are a number of locations that would be great.
Their view was Tempe was a win-win for everybody — 26,000 people voted, which is all that it was, and Tempe still has a landfill downtown that was going to be remediated with private funds. My guess is there's nothing that's going to happen in Tempe that's going to deal with that for the foreseeable future, but we move on. It was going to be a great opportunity, but there are other locales that are certainly as attractive, if not more so, and suitable."
Q: Is there a particular site that seems to be the most likely destination at this point?
A: "There may be but I'm not going to tell you what it is. There’s a negotiation obviously that needs to go on."
Q: When do you think a shovel could realistically be in the ground?
A: "The answer is certainly sooner rather than later. You've got to tell me when they're going to get the land resolved, which I think will be in the next few months. They've already been working on plans for a building, so my hope is the end of the season, next summer. Building in Arizona is probably a little bit easier than building in a colder climate."
To read the full Q&A with Gary Bettman, follow this link.
