Glendale won't renew arena agreement with Arizona Coyotes

The city of Glendale, Arizona, home of the Arizona Coyotes, has decided to not renew the operating agreement for Gila River Arena after the 2021-22 season. This essentially is the city kicking the Coyotes out of the rink, with a statement from Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps making it quite clear that the partnership is ending:

"We are thankful to the NHL and the Arizona Coyotes for being part of the Glendale community for the past 18 years. The decision to not renew the operating agreement with the Coyotes was not made overnight or in a vacuum. We carefully weighed input from key stakeholders, our expert economist, our arena management firm and our City Council."

In a follow-up report, Katie Strang of The Athletic has Phelps on record explaining that they have “reached that point of no return” and examines the large debts that the Coyotes owed as of July 29. The city had agreed to forgo an amount owed from last year due to the pandemic affecting the team’s financial situation as long as they agreed to “keep current with all future financial obligations,” which has apparently not occurred.

It is not at all clear what the next step is for the Coyotes. Finding another arena in the area will be difficult, and there have been obvious pushes in the past by places like Quebec City and Houston. The NHL’s long-standing position has been to try to keep the Coyotes in Arizona, but this is just another setback in that goal. For now, the Coyotes will play out the 2021-22 season in Gila River Arena and Glendale, but their future beyond that is extremely murky.