The City of Glendale is threatening to lock the Arizona Coyotes out of Gila River Arena due to delinquent tax bills and unpaid arena charges, The Athletic has learned.

On Dec. 3, the Arizona Department of Revenue filed a tax lien notice in Maricopa County against IceArizona Hockey LLC, the company that owns the Coyotes, for more than $1.3 million in unpaid state and city taxes. The City of Glendale, which has been locked in a lengthy dispute with the Coyotes over delinquent bills, has already notified ASM, the Gila River Arena management company, and Coyotes team president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez of the cancellation of the Coyotes’ business license.

The City of Glendale is owed approximately $250,000 in unpaid city taxes, according to a letter from City Manager Kevin Phelps to Gutierrez, and the remaining amount is owed to the state. The state tax lien notice, obtained via a public records request, asserts that the Coyotes owe taxes dating back to June 2020.

The Coyotes, according to the notice sent to ASM and to the team, will have until 5 p.m. MST on Dec. 20 to pay the outstanding arena invoices from the 2020-21 season, as well as the outstanding tax bill. If they do not settle up the remaining debt by that time, the City of Glendale has instructed ASM to deny team employees access to the arena and the offices within the arena used as administrative space. Arena vendors would also be locked out.

Arizona's first home game following the Dec. 20 deadline is Dec. 23 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Coyotes, which have the right to an informal hearing on the matter should they file a written request within 10 days, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Phelps, the City of Glendale manager, said he called NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Wednesday to inform him about the situation. A league spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Back in August, the City of Glendale informed the team it would opt out of its joint lease agreement for Gila River Arena, essentially forcing the Coyotes to vacate the arena by June 30 of next year, making the 2021-22 season the club’s final one at the facility.

That termination notice followed several months of negotiations between the city and the team on the terms of a lease extension and potential renovations to the arena. Public records revealed that the impasse followed multiple notices of outstanding and delinquent balances owed by the Coyotes as part of the lease agreement.

While some observers felt the city’s stance was a leverage play to bring the Coyotes back to the negotiating table, the city has stood firm on cutting ties with the team.

“We’ve reached that point of no return,” Phelps told The Athletic in August. “There’s no wavering.”

In February, The Athletic published a lengthy story about the Coyotes that detailed an organization rife with internal problems, including a “toxic” workplace environment and a litany of financial issues, among other concerns. Delinquent bills and unpaid debts were a recurring theme, with several vendors complaining they had either not been paid or pressured to accept a significantly reduced portion of what was owed to them for services and/or goods.

yeah this has been known for a while now i remember posting about this at the start of the season
bettman dug a super deep hole with the yotes trying to hit a market that doesnt give a fuck about hockey and only made it worse by letting shit ownership get the team

imagine how much better it woulda been if basilie got the team and relocated them to seattle or quebec like 5 years ago


for all the good bettman has done the yotes are a black mark on his career
like i get why hes doing it but you gotta know when to give up there is too much competition from other sports that have deeper roots

This post was edited by dragoneth on Dec 8 2021 06:47pm

1.3m for this pr disaster. just 1.3, yikes.

I feel bad for Yotes fans. Always wanted to see them do well.

Only if they had any

They have a few hundred. Unfortunately, that's not gonna sustain an NHL team.

God Quebec would've been nice....

As for the Yotes it sucks to be in that situation especially as a player because the bill doesn't fall on them and it definitely has a negative impact on their morale/motivation.

I love the old school Yotes jerseys and I'm glad I see em reppin' them. I remember the Tkachuk days and I have an action figure of him in a sealed box from 96

I do feel bad for yotes players and their fan base. I know their fan base is small, and itd never be a hockey hotbed like an original 6 team, but when you have a shitty product on the ice for most of your entire franchise, with shitty cheap ownership and you play at an arena that's a pain in the ass to get to, you have zero chance to ever get a fan base.


The blues weren't much different 20 years ago. Then Purina sold and we eventually got local ownership that gives a shit about the city and team.

If things were switched, I cant help but think st. Louis wouldn't "care about hockey" either.

This post was edited by 696969696969696969696969696969 on Dec 8 2021 10:16pm

yeah look at ottawa even as a canadian team with a shit owner they get held back
now imagine that in an area competing vs other top tier sports in a very unlikely spot for a team to be

if they were able to be consistently good they might have brought in a bigger fanbase but even when they were winning and making the playoffs it didnt seem to make much difference
but if they got to the conf finals or finals a couple times that woulda been huge you get all the band wagon fans and some will stick around and maybe it stars to catch on


yeah the old jerseys were pretty cool lol

This post was edited by dragoneth on Dec 8 2021 10:23pm

I don't know Arizonian logistics but apparently you have to drive 2 hours in traffic to get to the game?

Who wants to do that after they get off of work? Especially for a franchise that is seemingly always in turmoil and never wins?

Can't really blame the fans for not showing up.