What the Phoenix Suns’ G-League Announcement Means for Tucson & NHL Utah?

What the Phoenix Suns’ G-League Announcement Means for Tucson & NHL Utah?

with a new minor league sports team in town in the Phoenix area that Sparks resp Sparks the question of the Utah’s AHL affiliate for Tucson road runners and where are they going to be playing for the next season and Beyond we’ll talk about that on today’s episode of lock on NHL in Utah you are locked on NHL in Utah your daily podcast on all things hockey in Utah part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome to the show everybody this is locked on NHL in Utah your daily podcast on all things hockey and in Utah I’m your host Robin Leon and today’s episode brought to you by Game Time download the game time at create and account use the code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply we got a good show on today’s episode because this is this is going to be a little bit of a focus on of course still we’re still talking Utah hockey but we’re gonna bring the focus a little bit back to here in Arizona again Arizona is where I still live um and talk about what’s going on with the affiliation there and what what’s going on with the road runners because there was an announcement that happened earlier this week if you are a sports fan in general you might have been following it um uh and uh who knows Utah fans you might be interested who um if you are fans of other teams or whatever it might be uh the Phoenix Suns essentially uh now have a g-league uh Team uh you know the g-league being the minor league of the uh of the of the NBA they’re called the valley Suns and they’re set to be playing at mol Arena why is this important why is this important that a NBA teams g-league team is playing at M Arena next year well let me catch you guys up if you maybe haven’t been following you don’t know the whole situation what’s going on mullet arena is a multi-purpose Sports venue that is currently on Arizona State University’s main campus uh and up until this last season it did house the Arizona Coyotes it also housed Arizona State’s hockey team as well as other of Arizona State’s programes like gymnastics or anything like that not basketball basketball play at Desert Financial Arena um just across the street and just right next right next door still on campus but the but there’s there were already a huge number of tenants going going on um in that you’re taking away now a situation in where another major team not really major team but another another professional team is about to take tency in there the availability for time to play in that arena is going to be dwindled down to basically nothing um because again not only does it hold that I mean even the community rank holds a lot of you know adult leagues and everything else there’s a lot there’s a lot that goes on at mold Arena um and you adding a whole another thing a whole another screw to it a whole another element it really brings that question of what’s going to happen will the uh will the Utah hockey teams at top affiliate the road runners be playing there next season as well well now seems very a little bit it does seem a little bit less likely now and maybe if you are a Tucson hockey fan listening into this you might be rejoicing a little bit you might be saying yes there you know there’s still hope that the road runners are going to be staying in Tucson um as as someone who covered the Tucson road runners for six years before moving up to the valley and getting my experience uh up here and uh being you know the voice of locked on coyotes and now your are voice of locked on NHL on yoube you know I’ve it’s it’s a very interesting feeling of how how I’m feeling about the potential we all we all knew that that’s what Alex the Alex Mell want wanted once still wanted whatever it might be it’s we that was no no secret I think a lot of we’ve had a lot of uh leaks a lot of reports that gone out and said here’s the situation here’s what we know and if everything pointed that in that direction yeah it seemed that the road runners are headed headed to Phoenix the road runners are headed to M Arena this is what’s happening and then less and then more and more news comes out and and they’re like okay here take a look at this uh ASU has to approve a new lease because the previous lease um was geared towards the NHL team known as the coyotes and then the um not only that Tucson still had their release you have all these other uh hurdles that had to go in place it made it seem a lot less unlikely the more and the more things unraveled the more things we found out now what’s interesting is is this whole g-league thing wasn’t you know out of the blue we kind of all you know if you are like again if you are an Arizona sports fan still listening to this show if you’ve been following following this you know the scenar the the you know all the news been happening it’s kind of like was like a quot well-known secret everyone kind of knew it was happening it was not announced though but it was rumored that they playing at M Arena but there but there were other possibilities other places they’d go um especially with the rumors uh from last last you know as recently as last month and even more recently than that probably of you know the road runners possibly being there too you add the g-league team the valley Suns of of playing in World Arena that takes away the possibility a little bit more so not completely because there still is a possibility that they can be there because here’s the situation uh hockey fans Utah hockey fans Phoenix hockey fans Tucson hockey fans whoever you guys are here is the situation Alex Mel still Pro very likely wants this to happen you know he still owns the road runners and he will will try to do whatever he can to get what he wants especially since he lost out on keeping the coyotes in the valley so what happens next well he might try to see if you can come up with a partial thing where let’s say there’s two three four weekends at the most or whatever it might be that the road runners play in the valley just so hockey professional hockey week to return up here whatever it might be uh that kind of takes away from the aspect of you know full season plans or whatever might be for Tucson fans and it’s gonna get confusing and it’s gonna get chaotic but there’s a lot of possibilities going on there and I’m not a fan of this chaos I’ve told you guys multiple times if you are an every dayer of this show from the last couple years you guys know I love chaos normally um but that’s usually if we’re on the winning end of chaos right um I mean being on the losing end of chaos has been stressful um as shown over the last month you know it’s been it it was it was a stressful transition of being of go of going from you know the coyotes to Utah to whatever but we’re here when we’re still going and we’re still struggling along we’re still not struggling we’re still chugging along and you know moving moving forward and getting you guys all the content you want to know about your Utah hockey team and that’s what we’re here for right so let’s discuss coming up and we’re gonna discuss talking about this Utah top affiliate where is Tucson the road runners where are they goingon to play next year kind of try to see if we can get a little more in depth on that and what’s going to happen just maybe for the future of the Utah top affiliate should let’s say the coyotes return within the their five-year window but they said that they could possibly return we’ll talk about that right after this and today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time g game time is an authorized ticket Marketplace of the NBA which makes getting playoff tickets even faster and easier prices on Game Time app usually go down closer it gets a tip off with kill last minute deals all in pricing use from your seats and their lowest price guarantee game time takes the guess work out of buying NBA tickets from last minute ticket Flash Deals Zone deals easy to find and buy all kinds of tickets for events in your area use 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picture in my head of where they’re playing partially in mullet at mullet Arena and Tempe and partially in in Tucson uh but mostly in Tucson in the next year it’s going to be hard to keep your fans um it do it I don’t see it working I really don’t and again this is a a whole different situation than we’ve ever seen before it’s something like this is unprecedented especially where again Alex morelo um he did sell the coyotes but he owns the road runnner still he wants to do whatever he can to make sure he is uh getting the most out of his business businesses um how is it going to work who knows how long they will last here in the valley if if this chaos continues if they’re not getting the support um again it’s a very small group but there were some Valley fans who have reached out to me and have said hey I don’t think I can’t I I at least it feels like a little too soon to be C to be supporting the uh the the road runners if they were here in the valley because we know that they’re essentially going to be the you know at least for now the top of filling it for Utah so all these players like your Josh Jones and what and and what not are going you are depending on again what the if Josh Jon goes back down for the road runners next season is is g to be going up to Utah soon or whatever it might be they just might not still might be a bitter taste in their mouth they might not be ready for that the support might not be there so how long does that do the road runners last as the top affiliate now here’s the thing there is that five-year window The Five-Year windows we discussed of the Arizona kot is potentially returning to the Astro Hockey League um if this happens if everything in Arizona all the stars align and you know Arizona gets a team back hooray good for you guys I’m happy you know hockey belongs in the desert yada yada yada um the road runners if they’re still around and if they’re most likely still playing in Tucson wherever they’re playing will return to being that affiliate very likely so so what happens with Utah who becomes their affiliate because they won’t have one unless they decide to share with Tucson at least for a short period of time or share with Arizona that’s a possibility we’ve seen a scenario in which teams share the uh where yeah where they where they share affiliations um if I’m not mistaken the first year the Vegas golden knights the first couple years the Vegas golden knights were around uh they shared the the Colorado wolves why I say the Colorado Chicago Wolves um I want to say it was with St Louis or it was with another team it was with a whole another team they shared the affiliation with and we’re continuing to see just you know that that was a trend but it’s a very short shortterm thing because you obviously you don’t want to mingle that mingle a little bit too much about that so what happens well the AHL will probably very likely get an expansion franchise because the it doesn’t surprise me that’s that’s what that’s what we’re going to see that’s the only Trend we’re going to see Arizona gets their team back they will be an expansion a true expansion franchise um again with the uh difference being that they still take their history from the coyotes 1.0 era uh what happens what happens with that yeah the road runners if you know again if it’s the Mela group if it is the Mela group that gets them back road runners will just instantly go back to the affiliation because that’s just how it works so Utah will be without one and they’ll get an expansion uh an expansion AHL franchise what are the possibilities for that there are a lot of possibilities really um you can say hey let’s go ahead and uh look in state you’ve there’s already been president of a minor league uh hockey team in Utah um in that salt greater Salt Lake area of the Utah Grizzlies you can just take a look at what they’ve done and the support that they gathered and say hey let’s see if we can get another AHL affiliate that’s a possibility guys that’s a possibility for Utah fans maybe you can get your AHL affiliate to be a little bit closer to you guys um because I think that’s kind of the trend of what’s happening right that’s kind of the trend of what we’re seeing is you’re going to get an expansion Fran is is getting an expansion franchise for an AHL affiliate much closer to your uh NHL team and why is that well here’s the here’s the deal they’re doing it for travel costs because the the the cost you know they want to keep the cost of bringing your players up or down sending them down between your leagues as little as possible especially when we’re seeing a lot more of that happening and it’s been trending in that way for the last almost 10 years you take a look at that era that brought it was like a two threee era uh that got multiple teams out to the West Coast where um where warshire um Worchester warer I don’t even know how to pronounce it if you’re from the East Coast I apologize um as well as uh Manchester and a few other and Springfield uh all moved from that area from freaking Massachusetts um all the way to the West Coast become you know the San Jose Barracuda the Ontario rain and the tuon road runners so we’re seeing that happening the trend is still happening uh of teams getting closer those were relocated teams in the AHL now we’re looking at an expansion team what are the possibilities we’ll talk about that right after this and today’s episode is brought to you by indeed there is no in team but there is one indeed and that’s the hiring platform you need to build yours when you’re hiring you need indeed indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract interview and hire all in one place in spend spending hours on multiple job sites searching for your candidates with the right skills indeed a powerful hiring platform that can help you do it all we streamline hiring the powerful tools that find you match candidates with instant match over 80% of employers get quality candidates whose resume on indeed matches their job description the moment they sponsor a job according to us indeed data start hiring now with a $75 sponsor job credit to upgrade if indeed uh your job post at indeed.com lockon offer good for a limited time clim $75 credit now at indeed.com lockdown indeed.com lockdown terms of apply need to hire you need indeed all right so what do I think is going to happen what do I think is going to happen with the situation now for Utah and again this is a this is a hypothetical because we’re taking a look at potentially the chaos that’s happening in Tucson who knows how long it’s going to last and we’re and and and and with the hypothetical also that the coyotes were return to Arizona at some point in the next again we’re talking five years so we’re saying let’s take a look it’s five it’s six years from now the year is 2030 it sounds so weird saying that but let’s say the year is 2030 the Utah blank we don’t again that we don’t know the team name yet so I just say that the Utah blank needs an AHL team because the because the coyotes just took the road runners back what’s the situation well what we haven’t what we’ve seen before and it’s not unprecedented here’s option one is you promote your ECHL team I mean the the Utah Grizzlies I believe are the ECHL affiliate of the of the uh Colorado Avalanche let’s take a look I believe I’m correct um I’m just double-checking and you’re if you’re from Utah you’re probably like oh come on Robin you don’t know this um but I just want to make sure yes they are the they are the affiliate the ECHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche and the of course the AHL failing of that of that organization being the carado of eagles they’re still over there um Here’s my thought don’t mess with that I feel like you can’t have like cool it might be cool to have an NHL team and in and an AHL team in the same city maybe even in the same building it can work it’s been shown to work uh you know kind like for a very short period of time um sometimes depending on the city depending on the market in San Jose it worked you know the Barracuda played under the same roof as the Sharks for a while and it was a great cost saving metric for them and not only that is it was really easy as hey you made the C they made you know this player just had to walk across the hall or just drive shortly across the city and the Arizona Tucson case h for as long as it happened was all it was was a drive up the I 10 which was like an hour and a half two two hours the most wasn’t bad wasn’t bad it was a quick drive I same thing you look at Ontario you know just a quick drive into Los Angeles you look at San Diego not too far away from from uh from Anaheim excuse me I was blanking there for a sec so there’s there’s precedent there as well as the precedent for the you know ECHL teams being promoted but and again I could be wrong so if if you say I’m wrong with how the city supports and I’m not saying they’re not going to support it but if you think I’m wrong let me know um but I just don’t know if that is there you know if you’re able to do that in that moment cool the Grizzlies are there keep the affiliation maybe they can even keep the affiliation with Colorado I don’t know how that work especially if you’re having a uh a team that’s got their own uh it’s their own NHL team now and you have a ECHL affiliate of a rival organization uh just down the road don’t know how long that will work but maybe we’ll again we’re looking at six years down the road these are all this is this is all hypothetical at this point if you are in every day or you know what my what one of my other options are here and it goes along the lines of the then the precedent of what we’ve seen before of a promoting an ECHL franchise and the other closest ECHL franchise is the Idaho steel heads they live they are currently in Boise so it makes you it’s not too far um again because you’re looking like Bo being in Southern Idaho not that far away it’d be you know few few hours drive I um maybe even just a short hop flight right a short hot flight they’re the Stars affiliate um but who’s to say that they can’t just buy the affiliation and um because hey the number one Utah is closer and number two is like hey we need an AHL AFF so we’ll promote the Idaho steel heads that’s something that’s that certainly can be possible and honestly if I am you know Ryan Smith and I am the organ if I am the management currently running this Utah franchise that might be my go-to that might be my goto because you’re expanding your fan base that can essentially make Boise fans make Idaho fans also Utah hockey fans because you you already have your Market in um in Salt Lake City you already have and as well as just all the state of Utah we already know they most of these most of these guys are now gonna be fans of this new of of Utah Hockey Club so what why not expand right you’re looking at staying close but you also want to kind of tap into a a market that you probably wouldn’t have done you know proba of not looked at otherwise take the Idaho steel heads make it work I feel like it I feel like in my you know in my gut I feel like that’s the most likely scenario and like I said it’s still hypothetical there’s still a lot of things that need to go down um for all these changes to happen or you can be one of those conspiracy theorists or you know I wouldn’t say conspiracy theorists or just one of these you know people who love to come up with even crazier hypotheticals of again if we were talking about the Mela organization with the road runners if they complet if they completely fail outright the Coes don’t return um comes Mak makes an agree makes agreement with the Smith organization get him a little bit a little bit closer and then move them into Reno when that new uh when the new Arena at his casinos gets gets built uh that tiny this the small Arena That was supposed to be built for University of Nevada basketball but can also from what we were understanding can is known to be house a minor league hockey franchise so there that again we’re talking crazies here we’re talking we’re we’re talking crazy theories hypotheticals lots of possibilities we’re looking down the the um the many Avenues of where this can go I can’t look six five four five six seven years down the road guys I’m not you know I I can’t do it I can’t look at I can’t look that far deep um I can’t even predict the future in general but uh I can but the best I can do is at least provide with you my thoughts and I just did there and I provide you with my thoughts and I let you I just let you guys know that here are some possibilities and just wanted to break a thought you know thinking exercise with you guys because I want to know is where would you ideally have your AHL franchise because you want them close right we already know that you want them close for for Utah Tucson might be a little bit too far and again we’ve seen in a situation where it’s there’s still some distance Edmonton and Bakersfield is an example but it’s still not you know wouldn’t be precedented for them to say hey we want our we want our affiliate to be closer few years down the road that’s probably going to happen so where do you want them do you want the Grizzlies to come up from the ECHL and say hey we’re going to be in the same city make it easy do you want to go in in Boise Idaho or do you want to go completely somewhere else there are so many other cities so many other possibilities I want to hear from you where would you guys want your AHL franchise let me know in the comments on YouTube if you are watching on YouTube otherwise you can uh uh just leave a comment or reply on our on our Twitter xpage uh that’s _ coyotes if you like what you heard today guys though but don’t don’t leave a review uh subscribe if you’ve yet to already hit the notification Bell if you are on YouTube to find out when new episodes drop don’t forget to interact with us in social media we are on Facebook facebook.com lockon NHL in Utah as well as uh on X once again lore NHL in Utah I might have I might have said the coyotes one I do have to make a uh what do you call it um maybe a a a coyotes jar guys put maybe put my uh put a quarter in the A friend gave this to me idea put a quarter in a jar every time I say coyotes on this show as referring to the to the NHL and Utah show or say hey talk oh the Coyote’s blank or whatever it might be maybe you should do that let me know if you want if you want me to do that as well um but interact with us on social media ask me any question I’m Robin leano I’ll answer right back or on a future episode of delock on NHL in Utah podcast thanks again everyone for listening to today’s episode hope you guys are staying safe hope you guys staying healthy and we’ll see you guys next time

With the Phoenix Suns new G-League team set to play in ASU’s Mullett Arena, the question has been re-sparked regarding the future of NHL Utah’s top minor league affiliate, Tucson Roadrunners.

Last Month reports began circulating that Tucson Roadrunners owner, Alex Meruelo, had intended to relocate the minor league hockey team to Tempe. But with the availability among tenancy quickly shrinking, is that even possible anymore? Locked on NHL in Utah host Robyn Leano discusses the possibilities for the future of the franchise. Will they be in Tucson, Tempe, or elsewhere next year and beyond?

PLUS: A hypothetical conversation on what happens to Utah’s AHL affiliation should the Coyotes be granted “re-activation” into the National Hockey League.

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