Hockey revenue, which came largely from ticket sales, totalled $58.3-million, about $7-million less than the club expected.

What? How can that be? An ice hockey team in the middle of the desert failed to attract as many fans as they thought they would? Why, that’s just shocking. Personally, I attribute it all to global warming. Without that, there’s no doubt the Coyotes would have been a real money-maker. Anyone can see that. 

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 07/23/09 at 10:24 PM ET

this is unbelievable. a professional league like nba,mlb and nfl would let this happen. they would of relocate the team or kick the team out of the their leagues.

do people understand now why the cap will drop big time before 2010-11 season

Posted by FlyersFan on 07/23/09 at 10:25 PM ET

Bettman:  tra la la ... i cant hear you ... tra la la…!

Posted by Jeebus on 07/23/09 at 11:21 PM ET

do people understand now why the cap will drop big time before 2010-11 season

Posted by FlyersFan

The mismanagement of the franchise isn’t a direct indicator for anything salary cap related, except the rapidly increasing cap floor which magnified their losses, because the problems are not of a recent date as the article explains. In short, their negative influence on the total HRR of the league are not new and not that substantial.

Posted by Moq from Denmark on 07/24/09 at 03:50 AM ET

Most of that money comes from the lease and the new building. As about 17 million of it is amortization, which isn’t real money.

But the team has been run poorly for some time now. If somebody went in and cleaned house. Made the lease for favourable and actually made the playoffs consistently, then they can improve big time.

Nashville should be a great example about how a small market team can compete for the playoffs every year, despite not having great attendance and a hockey culture. They made a small profit last season.

Posted by Colton from Calgary on 07/24/09 at 08:44 AM ET

I think it’s a little more complex than “no one watches hockey on the desert”

Unfortunately, there is not enough sports dollars to go around here. We have four professional teams, the fiesta bowl, the fbr open, nascar races, and a wealth of other events to spend our dollars on. Add to the fact that there are so many “non-native” residents, that bring their sporting alliances with them, it makes it tough to support a team that doesn’t win.Look at what the cardinals did in a single season. Only the die hards were cardinal fans, everyone else cheered for the oposing team. Now, the bandwagon fans are supporting a team that can win, and suddenly everyone is a fan. 

I believe that they are running a good team. They have drafted well, and have a lot of young talent. In a season or two they could have a Chicago/Quebec/Pittsburgh like turn around.

The new arena was a bad move. It’s way out in the west valley, with traffic and the distance, it’s a tough sell. Our economy went down the drain with the housing busy. Seeing as that was our number one job industry, there are a lot of people who don’t have those entertainment dollars anymore. 

It will be a sad day if they leave. I’m thankful Jerry moyes stuck it out as long as he could.

Posted by Aaron from Phoenix on 07/24/09 at 10:25 AM ET