Arizona Coyotes To Leave Glendale After This Upcoming Season

The Arizona Coyotes will not be playing in Glendale after this upcoming season. The city will opt out of its joint lease agreement with the Coyotes for Gila River Arena. This does not automatically mean that they are leaving the state of Arizona entirely, but they will need to work quickly to find a new building for the 2022-23 season.

NEWS: The City of Glendale has informed the Arizona Coyotes that it will opt out of its joint lease agreement for Gila River Arena:

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— Katie Strang (@KatieJStrang) August 19, 2021

The Coyotes are entering their 18th season in Glendale, but it is now coming to an end. They had an interesting dynamic, as they had agreements on a year-to-year basis over the last couple years. With this, it honestly is not very surprising that it has gotten to this point.

The arena also stated that they are aiming to hold bigger and more popular events. The Coyotes were not bringing as many fans as they would have liked, so this also is understandable.

With an increased focus on larger, more impactful events and uses of the city-owned arena, the city of Glendale has chosen to not renew the operating agreement for the Arizona Coyotes beyond the coming 2021-22 season.

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— City of Glendale, AZ (@GlendaleAZ) August 19, 2021

It will be interesting to see what happens from here. The Coyotes are aiming to have a new arena in Tempe, which would allow them to stay in Arizona. If they end up failing with this goal, perhaps they could even end up back in Phoenix. The primary goal right now seems to be to stay in the state.

However, if nothing works out with Arizona, the team could very well find themselves in Houston. This has been an ongoing rumor for quite some time. The city has an NHL rink available with the Toyota Center and would fit as a perfect replacement in the Central Division.

Although every hockey fan would love to see the NHL bring back the Quebec Nordiques, this will not happen through an Arizona relocation. It would give the Eastern Conference 17 teams and leave the Western Conference with just 15.

We will just have to wait and see if the Coyotes are back in Arizona for the 2022-23 season.