Mullett Arena has become an unexpected artistic success for the Arizona Coyotes. But the new college hockey building on Arizona State’s campus in Tempe, Ariz., where the Coyotes are averaging 4,600 fans a night, has also been an expected economic brush fire for the National Hockey League club despite much higher ticket prices.
The seats are close to the ice. The games are entertaining, featuring fun giveaways such as a miniature wooden hockey stick with a fake mullet hair piece attached. The Coyotes play a much better brand of hockey on the super-quick ice surface than they do on the road.
“It’s turned out much better than we had hoped in terms of the energy, the environment and the electricity,” club president Xavier Gutierrez said in an interview this week. “Fans have really taken to this experience. The sightlines are incredible.”
But even though seats are priced high—on average, $160 a ticket—the team is still losing vast amounts of money, in excess of $10 million this season. This is the first of at least three seasons that will be played in Mullett Arena as the team tries to fund a nearby $2.1 billion arena and entertainment complex dubbed the TED.
Team’s financial losses “are in line with what they had been in the past for the team,” Gutierrez said as the Coyotes lost, 4-1, to the Pittsburgh Penguins Sunday night. He did not define an exact figure.
In the multimillion-dollar range?
“Yes,” he responded. “And I tip my hat to [owner] Alex Meruelo for sustaining that.”
More than $10 million?
“Yes, it’s substantial,” Gutierrez said. “We’re meeting our ticketing projections. We knew we’d be making more than our previous location [Glendale’s Gila River Arena]. We’re limited on premium seating. The challenge has been some of the ancillary rights, the merchandising. We’re learning how to pivot as far as finding that additional revenue.”
Mullett Arena was built for Arizona State University’s hockey team. The Coyotes don’t have a team store, nor are there opportunities to sell advertising. In Glendale, the club had a team store, but they were just renters with no other perks and a $45 average ticket price. When they declined to sign a 20-year lease extension, they were told last season to play elsewhere.
And the arena named after Donald Mullett—who funded the Arizona State men’s hockey program so his son would have a place to play college hockey—was the only option.
The Coyotes have hemorrhaged money since they moved to the Valley in 1996. Right now, the goal is building that entertainment and arena project; the Tempe City Council unanimously approved it this past Nov. 30, setting up a vote via mail-in ballot of up to 90,000 Tempe registered voters that will conclude May 16.
Gutierrez said the campaign for the arena is about to start, and the organization will leave “no stone unturned” trying to bring out a positive vote. If the referendum loses, the Coyotes are back to square one.
But that campaign also will be costly, as is the building of the team on the ice through developing young players and amassing and signing draft picks.
Meruelo bought the team as a distressed asset for about $300 million in 2019. Sportico currently values the team at $465 million, the lowest in the NHL.
Since he took over the team, Meruelo has weathered the pandemic with its shortened 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons—the latter was played with very limited attendance in Gila River Arena. He spent upwards of $30 million this past offseason, relocating the team’s business offices from Glendale to Scottsdale, improving the club’s separate practice facility and building a clubhouse annex attached to the Mullet, which he will donate to the university when and if the team moves on to the TED.
Despite the disadvantages the Coyotes have been handed for the foreseeable future, the goal is to put on a good show at home and make the Mullett a tough place to play.
The buzz in the arena was palpable when in December the Coyotes won six of eight home games against such top-flight teams as the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs and the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.
The Coyotes are 7-6-2 at the Mullett and 6-17-3 on the road after Thursday night’s 5-3 home loss to Ottawa, their seventh in a row.
“The atmosphere is great. The fans are into it,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said recently. “When you have success, you feed off of it and get more excited and believe in ourselves. The fact is we’re winning games against tough opponents.”
But they’re still in position to win the draft lottery this year and obtain the overall No. 1 pick. They currently have the fourth worst record in the league, putting them in a prime position to grab Canadian junior center Connor Bedard, who’s at the top of this season’s class.
The Coyotes, who have been amassing draft choices by the bushel, have 12 picks in the upcoming draft and 13 more in 2024. Expect them to be active again at the March 3 trade deadline, swapping players on their NHL roster for more picks, Gutierrez said.
To that end, their entire staff of amateur scouts has been in town this week and are meeting to discuss draft prospects.
“The development of the young players is absolutely the focus,” he said. “We have a young core. Clearly, we have a strategic plan. We want to bring in draft assets. We want to build a foundation of a sustainable winner. So, I’m sure there will be some activity at the trade deadline.”
Meruelo, a low-profile owner who doesn’t appear much in public or give interviews, made a cameo appearance in front of the Tempe City Council before the critical November vote and then hung around long after the decision talking to people in the chamber gallery.
Even more recently, Meruelo was spotted in the locker room after a big 5-4 victory Dec. 11 over the Philadelphia Flyers, chatting it up with the players, a huge smile on his face. He is certainly committed to the project financially.
“I keep saying this over and over again,” Gutierrez said. “If I was to tell you there’s an owner who’s sustaining operating losses, that is investing in this temporary solution, that has committed to a multi-billion permanent solution, you’d not only think that owner is committed to that community but committed to this team.”
It’s either that or he may be a bit crazy.
“No, I think it’s commitment. Commitment and passion,” Gutierrez said. “This is what he and his family want to do. He’s passionate about building a winner.”
(This story has corrected the spelling of Mullett Arena in the headline.)