Worlds Greatest FAIL

You've got to hand it Gary Bettman. Nobody can turn gold into lead any faster than he can.

Given a gift opportunity to do the NHL a solid by making sure the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes ended up in, say, Winnipeg, Hartford, Toronto 2, Wisconsin, Portland, etc. he decided to find a group of buyers who would contractually bind themselves to staying in Arizona until the end of their building lease. No early outs.

Contraction would have been a better option than this. If Wayne Gretzky couldn't find a way to make the team stable with his name power and a few good seasons mixed in, how can anybody else?

People like Bettman who constantly keep trying to move hockey in the sun belt just don't understand demographics. In large states like Florida or California, you can find enough fans to fill the stadium just because of transplants and sheer statistical probability. Arizona doesn't have quite that many people in it. What kind of people does Arizona have? Only two kinds, Mexicans (not into puck) and unmotivated, clothing averse people.

Seriously, Arizona is the place where good looking people who don't want to act (California) or be prostitutes/club owners (Nevada) go to marinate in the sun. The top majors at the University of Arizona and Arizona State are Stokiology (the science of getting stoked), Sunbathing, Trophy Wifing and Sociology. They are glorified community colleges at best.

The only time hockey could work in the Sun Devil state is during the dead of summer when it's a 105 degrees everyday, then you could at least advertise the stadium air conditioning. The fall/winter is when the temperatures are the most manageable and everybody is golfing, on a boat or just hammer brews on the porch. Why spend a hundred dollars to go sit in a cold stadium when for twenty bucks you can grab a case of Coors and go play beach volleyball with the coeds? Doesn't make any sense.

So sorry Canada and northern American cities, your promise of a rabid fan base and sold out stadiums wasn't enough to deter Bettmans expansionist march into the southland. Maybe when the 2020 NHL All Star game is being held in Costa Rica you can at least get a decent vacation out of it. Not much else for you to look forward to.