PHOENIX — The Arizona Coyotes' hunt for a new arena may be getting closer to a solution.
PHNX Sports is reporting a site in north Phoenix has garnered significant interest from the team.
The land is reportedly State Trust Land just north of Loop 101, east of Desert Ridge Marketplace, and west of Scottsdale Road. Acquiring State Trust Land is not as easy as making an offer and purchasing the land. The State must put the land up for public auction and sell it to the highest bidder.
ABC15 is the Coyotes’ official broadcast partner and the team told ABC15 they are not ready to comment on any potential deal quite yet.
The Coyotes arena has been a saga since the team moved from Winnipeg in 1996.
After playing the team’s first seasons in what is now known as the Footprint Center, the team moved to Glendale in 2003. Glendale chose not to renew the Coyotes' lease at Desert Diamond Arena in 2021.
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The team then settled on playing at Arizona State University’s Mullett Arena while working on a permanent site in Tempe. That permanent solution, which would have been named the Tempe Entertainment District, was rejected by voters in May.
Potentially complicating the north Phoenix site is signage ABC15’s crews found which indicated some of the land is a “perpetual conservation easement.” That distinction could limit the use of the land to protect the land’s conservation efforts.
