If all goes according to plan and Greg Jamison winds up finalizing a deal to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, it’ll probably mark the end of the Phoenix Coyotes. In name, anyways.
One of the quirks of the draft arena management deal (the City of Glendale, where the Coyotes play, will be paying the Jamison group $320 million over 20 years to run the rink), requires the new team owner to change the franchise’s name, so long as said move is “commercially reasonable”:
I’ve never been a fan of team names that involve a state or province rather than a city, but I can see why the City of Glendale, which has been bleeding taxpayers for years to keep NHL hockey on life support in the desert, wouldn’t want another city’s name in the title. And considering the negativity surrounding this franchise for so long, it probably isn’t a bad idea to shake things up a bit.
Thankfully, the deal will also likely mean the end of the worst rink name in professional sports, “Jobing.com Arena.”
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I usually hate when a state name is given over a city, but there are a few exceptions to that rule: Arizona, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Texas.