Gary Bettman's the target of fresh Glendale corrosive declaration.

Gary's back at it again.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 7 years ago
Gary Bettman's the target of fresh Glendale corrosive declaration.
Keystone press agency

The Arizona Coyotes are kind of a soap opera for the NHL. It's like every year brings a fresh drama episode in Glendale, most of the time caused by Gary Bettman's management. 

This time, as you may know, Bettman's threatened to move the Coyotes out of Arizona if the legislature doesn't vote positively on a new 225M$ arena project in downtown Phoenix. After years of successive plans to keep the Coyotes in Glendale, it seems the money wasn't an issue after all. Basically, Bettman discovered the real estate mantra, ''Location, location, location''. 

However, Glendale is fighting back hard. In an interview given to The Arizona Republic, Glendale's city manager Kevin Phelps doesn't hold back. 

''We have continually invested heavily to keep NHL in the state of Arizona. We have held up our end of the bargain. They have not held up their end of the bargain. They cannot put a product on the ice for a community that has a lot of options," Phelps said. "They don't believe there is any correlation to the fact that they have not put a team that has been competitive for many, many years."

He has a point though. After millions upon millions spent to force hockey in the middle of the desert, results are still modest. The arena attracts the 28th lowest amount of fans, with a tragic 13,069 average. However, little has been said about the team's performance in the past, but it's a valid argument to pursue. Who likes to root for a losing team? 

Since their first season in 1996-1997, the Coyotes played in the playoffs only 9 times in 19 seasons and will most probably miss this year's playoffs too. They lost the conference quarter finals 8 times and their best result was a conference finals in 2011-2012. Since then, they haven't played in the spring dance at all. 

We will keep you posted about the Glendale's saga, but it will probably turn ugly real fast.