Gary Bettman swarmed by media as he arrives in Arizona to help bail out the Coyotes

UPDATE: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has arrived in Tempe for tonight's town council meeting and was immediately swarmed by the media upon exiting his vehicle.

Standby for results from the council meeting.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an updated version of a developing story. For the earlier report, please read below.

The Arizona Coyotes, the laughing stock of the NHL and the butt of so, so, sooooo many jokes this season are once again calling on NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to bail them out.

The team who play in a minor league building with a 5,000 capacity and who force both the home and visiting teams to get dressed in a beer league locker room, have managed to embarrass themselves even further.

The team has reportedly called on Bettman to join them at a Tempe Town Council meeting tonight in an effort to sway civic support for a massive $1.7 million arena complex in the city.

From Coyotes insider Chiersten Susel:

If the motion passes, Tempe residents will have a chance to vote on the team's future in May, 2023.

Honestly... I know my mother taught me not to wish ill on anyone but... I REALLY hope this fails. Enough with this team in the desert already. The Coyotes have been an abject failure for over 25 years now. Enough is enough. It's time to stop the bleeding.

This team just continues to flabbergast me with news out of their organization, to the point where I'm beginning to wonder if this might actually just be a bad dream? Did Bettman and the NHL forget that the Coyotes were literally KICKED OUT of their arena for not paying rent? This is a pro sports franchise that was told to kick rocks and then they went to a nearby University and groveled their way into playing alongside them in their tiny building. If I didn't know any better it would read like the script of a Will Ferrell movie ala the basketball comedy "Semi-Pro". Which, now that I think about it, is the perfect summation of the Coyotes... Semi-Pro.

Again, I don't wish ill on anyone but I hope for the future health of the NHL as a whole that the Coyotes end up being relocated to a different market like Houston, Kansas City or Quebec City. Hell, even a minor league city like Saskatoon, Hartford, Grand Rapids or Louisville would be a better place than Arizona at this rate.