2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs

I read (as you no doubt read) that the Coyotes thought they were going to win the vote w/more than 55% of the vote when the nays won out w/more than 55% of the vote. Even Nate Silver couldn't excuse that as a polling error. That's just a gobsmackingly lazy/entitled assumption.

 

True, but that facility is already pushing twenty years old.
Maybe there have been some renovations, I don't know, but sports palaces seem to "age" rapidly. If upgrades are needed, who would pay for them? I'm curious how that would go over on the coattails of John Sherman wanting to move the baseball team downtown or to Overland Park, Kansas.

 

Different areas obviously but UBS is doing pretty well in New York. They're aligned with Oak View Group, which was founded by Irving Azoff and is thus connected as all shit. It's already hosted least one and maybe two stops on the never-ending tour by The Eagles (not Boston College #CrossThread) as well as shows on Springsteen's current price gouge, err, tour. The extra space in a suburb also allows for a much bigger loading/unloading area as well as much bigger dressing rooms. One of the perks of UBS--apparently stated at most half in jest--is that every band member gets his or her own room, which is a big deal for most bands that simply hate each other. It's early but I can see UBS becoming the no. 2 concert arena in the area, especially b/c Barclays is just complete fucking shit at every level.

tl;dr for Arizona: Can this TBA site get backed by the right people and offer those UBS amenities?

 

I'm guessing it's Houston because that's what Bettman and his bosses prefer. But wouldn't rule out Salt Lake City or Kansas City. What the heck, Patrick Mahomes has already tweeted about K.C. and the 'Yotes. Hell, none of us know a damn thing right now.

 

The conventional wisdom has always been that the team needs to be downtown or in the east valley to succeed. When they were downtown they did well... with the giant caveat that they only had 12,000 seats with a direct view of the game. They needed a new arena and ended up in Glendale because it was either that or move to Portland.

Glendale is way the hell out in the west valley, far away from the core of their fan base. Getting there in rush hour traffic sucks. That can work for the Cardinals with 8 games on Sunday afternoons, but for 41 home dates in the evening it was a giant problem.

The question now is whether they can be a success in the right place after 20+ years of being viewed as a clown organization in the wrong place. I think they probably can but it's not a given.

Totally legit question. I don't know. This would give the valley three full-size arenas competing for concerts and events. I suspect the Coyotes are more concerned about the ability to develop around the arena than they are about filling the arena on a regular basis.

It really is. I thought it would pass butnarrowly. If I were the Coyotes I would have worked a hell of a lot harder to sell this to voters.

Interesting voter breakdown: the closer you lived to the project the more likely you were to vote against it. People nearby voted no overwhelmingly. People on the other end of the city voted yes.

 

Intriguing take, PC, and got me thinking about Kansas City arena history.

Decades ago, there was a strong movement to locate what became Kemper Arena in Johnson County, Kansas (specifically Overland Park). A half-cent food beverage tax was presented to county voters and was overwhelmingly defeated.
The arena would have been the centerpiece of a real estate development. Instead, most of us know the building was constructed in K.C.'s river bottoms.
I've long wondered if the NBA and NHL would have had a better go of it had the arena ended up in what was then, and still is today, one of the most affluent counties in the Midwest.

 

I don't care much if it's in KC proper. Family lives in OP anyway.

 

The owner of the Jazz, Ryan Smith, has said he is committed to bringing the NHL to Salt Lake. He has met with Bettman. According to Smith, things are “in motion.”
I actually know little about the man, but one interview stands out. It was with Poppy Harlow on the eve of NBA All-Star Weekend. His enthusiasm for the community was impressive.

 

We are into the fuck sleep portion of Hurricanes-Panthers.

 

Hurricanes' PA announcer: "I'm so, so sorry. At the end of the third overtime ..."

 

H. Wade Minter is a treasure.

I think I've said here that I was on press row the last time a game at the ESA went this long. Tonight, on break from my overnight gig watching.

But no one else here watching? Eh ...

 

As great as it seems , the game gets bad. But god damn they must be exhausted.