Xavier Gutierrez, who ran the Arizona Coyotes until their $1.2 billion sale and relocation to Utah last April, told Sporticast this week that Phoenix remains a plausible expansion candidate once the league sorts its current 32-team footprint. The comment matters because Gutierrez was in the room for every failed arena negotiation, every Tempe referendum loss, and the final Mullett Arena indignity that forced commissioner Gary Bettman's hand. If he thinks the market can work, someone is preparing a bid.
The Coyotes' collapse was structural, not demand-driven. Season-ticket deposits for the Utah Hockey Club—the relocated franchise—hit 10,000 within 48 hours of the April announcement. Arizona's problem was never fans; it was a 5,000-seat college rink and two decades of broken real-estate promises. Gutierrez knows this better than anyone. He also knows the NHL left expansion fees on the table. Seattle paid $650 million in 2021. Vegas paid $500 million in 2017. Arizona, if reborn as a clean-sheet franchise with an arena plan that survives voter scrutiny, could command $750 million to $1 billion in a market the league has already validated.
The league office has been careful not to rule anything out. Bettman, speaking at the NHL Board of Governors meeting in December, said Arizona "could be a location for a team in the future" if the arena situation resolves. That phrasing is deliberate. The NHL does not want to expand to 34 teams immediately—it dilutes the playoff product and splits the $6.6 billion national media rights pool thinner. But it does want optionality in the Sun Belt, where population growth and corporate relocations are remaking the sponsorship landscape. Phoenix is the fifth-largest metro in the U.S., and the Coyotes' collapse left IMG, Gila River Casinos, and a dozen other local sponsors without inventory.
Gutierrez now chairs ImpactX Sports Group, a consultancy focused on Latino fan engagement and executive placement. His Sporticast appearance was nominally about diversity initiatives, but the Arizona question hung over the conversation. He did not name prospective ownership groups, but two are already circling. One involves former Coyotes minority owner Andrew Barroway, who retains relationships with Scottsdale real-estate developers. The other is a Phoenix-based private equity group that has been quietly meeting with ASM Global, the arena operator that runs Footprint Center, home of the Suns. Neither bid can move forward without a shovel-ready venue, but both groups know the NHL's next expansion window opens after the 2026 CBA extension is finalized.
The wrinkle is timing. The NHL has no immediate need for expansion revenue. The Utah sale delivered $1.2 billion to the league's departing owners, and the Arizona Coyotes' intellectual property—logos, trademarks, history—was retained by the league in case of future reactivation. That means a new Arizona franchise would not be starting from scratch; it would be buying back a brand the NHL already owns. The expansion fee structure in that scenario is unclear, but comparable NBA precedent—the Charlotte Hornets reclaiming the original Hornets history after the New Orleans rebrand—suggests the league could charge a premium for nostalgia.
What to watch: The Tempe city council's next land-use hearing in Q2 2025, where a revised entertainment district proposal could resurface. Also, the NHL's 2026 Board of Governors meeting in June, when Bettman traditionally floats trial balloons on expansion geography. Finally, Barroway's public comments—he has been silent since the relocation but still owns a Scottsdale home and has not sold his minority stake in the IHL's Tucson Roadrunners.
Gutierrez's willingness to discuss Arizona's viability is the signal. Executives do not rehabilitate failed markets on podcasts unless someone is writing checks.
The takeaway
Ex-Coyotes CEO says Arizona remains NHL-viable if arena clears zoning; two ownership groups circling, league holds brand rights.
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