Phoenix: Bad For Hockey?

As a retirement community, Phoenix, Arizona seems ideal. It's warm, there are lots of days of sunshine, and there always seems to be something to do while not being too far from other major centers like Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Phoenix, however, has had its share of problems when it comes to being a hockey destination as the WHA's Phoenix Roadrunners lasted from 1974-77, the IHL's Phoenix Roadrunners skated from 1989-97, and the Arizona Coyotes played in Phoenix from 1996-2003. As you can see, no one had a run that lasted longer than eight seasons inside Phoenix's city limits, and now it seems like the USHL will join the list of short-live Phoenix hockey franchises that tried and, ultimately, failed in the Arizona desert.

I'll tip my cap to Craig Morgan who is still covering hockey in and around Arizona as he filed an outstanding story on his Substack about the new USHL team set to play in Phoenix beginning in 2027-28. As you may recall, the Coyotes left Arizona for greener pastures in Salt Lake City, Utah after they couldn't get an arena deal done inside Phoenix, and now it seems that this expansion USHL venture is running into the same problems that the Coyotes found in Phoenix.

"I'm talking to various people to find a permanent location that does not exist," USHL Phoenix franchise owner Ben Robert said to Morgan yesterday. "To me, to have a metropolitan area that is the (10th) largest in the country and only have one mid-sized arena is kind of mind-boggling. So I'm talking to various people to see if there would be an opportunity to build one."

If you're thinking that this story sounds familiar, welcome to Phoenix. The Coyotes exhausted almost every possibility when it came to finding land for a new arena complex before being sold, and now we have another franchise owner looking to build an arena for a significantly less-profitable team in the USHL. Yes, the arena would be smaller, but the land needed for building said arena still hasn't materialized. It's almost like Phoenix isn't a hockey market!

"It's going to take a lot of heavy lifting," Robert added. "But we're looking for a permanent solution, while all the while looking for a temporary solution to play in while it is being built."

Read that stement from Robert again where "while looking for a temporary solution to play in" should jump off the screen. The USHL Phoenix franchise is set to begin operations next season, and they still don't have an arena secured for home games? What kind of farce is this? How is the USHL, as a league, ok with this information?

Making matters worse, "Robert said he needs to have an arena solution by mid-October, with the goal of building a venue in the 4,000-seat range," meaning that he's looking at a two-month window to get the USHL Phoenix team's affairs in order. As per Morgan, "[s]ources at Mullett Arena confirmed that Robert has not contacted them and there is significant doubt that the team would be viable and be able to afford using Mullett for a year or two" while Ice Den Scottsdale "doesn't have the ice availability or capacity needed to host the USHL team" and "the new Fire 'n' Ice facility in north Phoenix" has seating for just 800 people in its largest rink.

Based on this information, it seems USHL Phoenix is dead-on-arrival.

Everyone seems to believe that Ben Robert can solve this problem after he oversaw the building of Ralston Arena in Omaha as the owner of the USHL's Omaha Lancers and the Videotron Centre in Quebec City as part of the NHL expansion team there. What people don't remember are the details of those arena builds, sepcifically the one in Omaha where the USHL has a franchise and operates successfully.

Ralston, Nebraska had an "abandoned downtown golf course" in its suburb, and it was looking for some sort of development there. It didn't take long for Ralston to put the question to voters in a special election, and, in 2011, they voted to allow the arena to be built. $32 million and 15 months later, Ralston Arena opened for the first time.

In short, land was available, the city was motivated to develop it, and the price tag was just low enough for Ralston to spend the money. The problem, though, is that there are sorts of extra costs and amenities that hockey teams need, and it seems the City of Ralston didn't budget for any of that. Or ice resurfacers. Or a scoreboard. Those things are kind of important in hockey arenas.

Based on today's economic forecasts, Ben Robert is talking about a $50 million investment into junior hockey in Phoenix - a place where the NHL couldn't thrive. He wants to build a 4000-seat arena for a team who may not draw many fans in a city where the Coyotes couldn't make hockey work successfully. Make that make sense.

I have no issue with Ben Robert's ambition for this USHL expansion nor will I fault him if he's willing to gamble $50 million into an arena project that may not have a hockey team in a few years. Those decisions are entirely on him, and he'll have to live with those decisions even if it means his bank account heads towards insolvency. But not having an arena to play in while this arena dream is being formulated is complete insanity, and it points to an inconvenient truth about the Phoenix hockey market: Phoenix is not a hockey city.

Just because there's a TV market there doesn't make Phoenix a hockey market. Based on the lack of arenas and the current state of having no arena to play in, this USHL Phoenix team seems like it will be relocated before it ever plays a second of hockey in the USHL.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!