The Arizona Coyotes new arena deal gets more embarrassing by the day.
In case you missed it, the Coyotes will be playing their home hockey games for the foreseeable future at Arizona State University after their previous arena deal with the city of Glendale fell through. Yes, a professional NHL team will be playing 41 games a year in a college hockey arena for at least multiple seasons.
On Tuesday, a report from The Athletic‘s Katie Strang and Sean Shapiro outlined a “good behavior” clause for the Coyotes and owner Alex Meruelo. In said clause, if the Coyotes become part of a public scandal or do anything untoward that reflects poorly on the ASU brand, the school will be able to back out of the deal.
Coyotes’ agreement with ASU includes ‘good behavior’ clause for team, owner Alex Meruelo.
Reporting from @seanshapiro and me: https://t.co/c3svJHstry
— Katie Strang (@KatieJStrang) May 17, 2022
In The Athletic’s report, the clause states that anything that violates “widely held principles of public morality, failing to conduct its business affairs with a high degree of integrity and honesty and/or failing to act as a good corporate citizen” would be cause for the agreement’s termination.
That’s… rough.
The Coyotes have a history of having a less than favorable reputation across the league, from skimping on rent payments to the city of Glendale to knowingly drafting a player who admitted to racially abusing a teammate. Arizona eventually walked that pick back and forfeited it after the backlash from the hockey world at large.
Also of note in this report is that the Coyotes won’t even be able to use their logo at center ice in Arizona State’s arena!
In-ice advertising will be a revenue source for Arizona State, and the Coyotes aren’t allowed to modify the look of the ice surface – including the Arizona State logo at center ice — on broadcasts to protect ASU’s permanent advertisers in the building. It is noted that this doesn’t and shouldn’t impact opposing broadcasts filming at ASU.
While the Coyotes can control the — temporary — branding of the scoreboard and arena boards, the team will have to get approval for any alcohol or beer advertisements and are limited in which sponsors they can partner with.
Look, I get that the Coyotes came into this deal with no leverage whatsoever, but this arena deal becomes more and more embarrassing to the team and the NHL every time it’s in the news. What a shambolic organization.
