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Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia has his sights set on bringing hockey back to Arizona, Sportico reported Wednesday. Arizona is now without an NHL team after the Coyotes relocated to Salt Lake City following the 2023-24 campaign. The franchise will have a new name come the 2025-26 season, but when it plays games this year, it will be known as the Utah Hockey Club. "I'm definitely going to be part of the community, and if I can help bring hockey back, I'll look at that," Ishbia told Sportico. "It's definitely something I'm interested in. It's a four-sport town. I'm disappointed we don't have a hockey team, but I understand what happened, and we're going to try to fix that one day."
Will people be unable to watch games? No. The NBA insists that, like Major League Baseball did with San Diego and Arizona, it will make sure games remain on the air for fans to watch. Teams across the league are already beginning to plan for the possibility that they might need an alternative to their RSN deal, depending on how things play out with Bally's, in particular. One example of a potential alternative is Scripps Sports, which has signed deals in recent months with several teams, including the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is expected to announce Tuesday that he supports pursuing a deal to build a new downtown sports and entertainment arena that would be shared by the Phoenix Suns and the Arizona Coyotes. According to sources who have reviewed the mayor's planned remarks, Stanton will outline his vision for building a new taxpayer-funded arena during his fifth State of the City speech. The mayor is scheduled to speak before a crowd of hundreds of business and political leaders at the Sheraton Grand Phoenix hotel in downtown about noon.
The Glendale, Ariz., City Council Monday signed a 15-year, $225 million lease agreement with the prospective new owners of the NHL Phoenix Coyotes, keeping the team in that suburb of Phoenix. It was considered a bit of an upset that the agreement was reached and the prevailing wisdom was that the franchise was going to be moved, with Seattle said to be the leading candidate for the relocation. But, according to a highly placed Portland Trail Blazer source, the Blazers were closely monitoring the situation, had been in discussions with the NHL and were ready to make an offer for the franchise in order to move it to Portland's Rose Garden, if the lease in Glendale didn't work out. The interest by the Blazers was considered serious, by the team and the NHL, with much time spent on financial analysis and projections. It is believed the team could consolidate several of its operations to serve both basketball and hockey while adding another full-time tenant for the arena.
Blacks going as whites. Whites going as blacks. We’ll say this much, the sports world isn’t afraid to mix things up. Then again, it is Halloween, so we’d expect to see some creepy images. Raffi Torres of the Phoenix Coyotes and Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat have ignited a bit of a firestorm with their respective decisions on costumes this year. Torres dressed as Jay-Z and Wade as Justin Timberlake. Here is a USA Today story on Torres. Here’s some of the debate surrounding Wade.
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Time for an executive exchange at the ticket booth for the Charlotte Bobcats. The NBA franchise has hired Flavil Hampsten as vice president of ticket sales, replacing Todd Fleming, who left this month. Fleming came to the Bobcats just over a year ago from the Dallas Cowboys. This month, he accepted a job with Legends Hospitality Management, the sports-concessions and facility-management company jointly owned by the Cowboys and New York Yankees. Hampsten joins the Bobcats after a year at the NBA’s headquarters as director of team marketing and business operations. That division works with individual franchises on various business issues. Before joining the NBA, Hampsten spent four years as the top ticket-sales executive for the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes.
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