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The Arizona Coyotes’ failure to earn voter approval for a new arena has purportedly placed Houston on the list of cities that could become the next host to the long-suffering National Hockey League (NHL) franchise.
ESPN reported that voters in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, strongly disapproved of a proposed $2.1 billion entertainment district on Tuesday that would’ve been anchored by new digs for the Coyotes.
"The NHL is terribly disappointed by the results of the public referenda regarding the Coyotes' arena project in Tempe,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in the report. “We are going to review with the Coyotes what the options might be going forward."
The fourth-largest city in the U.S. and one of the nation’s top 10 biggest media markets, Houston is reportedly touted as an ideal relocation spot for the Coyotes, who themselves used to play in Winnipeg, Canada, as the original Jets from 1972 to 1996, because of the hockey-friendly Toyota Center and a potential divisional and intrastate rivalry with the Dallas Stars, Houston NPR affiliate Houston Public Media (HPM) reported.
Mary Benton, a former television journalist who serves as Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s spokesperson, told HPM Turner would get behind an effort to bring the NHL to the football-crazed Bayou City.
“The mayor's very supportive of professional sports in our city, because Houston is a sports town,” Benton said in the report. “He thinks they add a lot to our city in terms of pride and enthusiasm. And a lot of these organizations give back to our city."
Per ESPN, the Coyotes have had a checkered history in the American Southwest.
Aside from a consistently lackluster on-ice performance nearly every season of its existence, the team has seen owners come and go, as well as declared bankruptcy to where the NHL acted as its owner one time.
The Arizona city of Glendale even banished the franchise from its arena for failure to pay taxes and other charges.