Broke AZ A Joke: Coyotes May Get Locked Out Of Venue For Overdue Bills

If those tall guys ringing bells outside of Arizona retail stores look familiar, don't be surprised. It's probably just some Arizona Coyotes of the NHL seeking donations -- but not for the Salvation Army. They're likely trying to scrounge up a couple bucks for their franchise in order to avoid eviction from their home Ice.

See, like so many others this holiday season, the Coyotes are broke -- behind on bills and facing a pre-Christmas eviction from their home, Gila River Arena.

According to reports from The Athletic's Katie Strang and Rick Westhead from The Sports Network, the Arizona Department of Revenue has filed a tax lien notice against the company that owns the Coyotes for more $1.3 million in unpaid state and city taxes, and arena charges. Failure to pay the delinquent bills will force the city of Glendale to lock the team out of Gila River Arena.

The Coyotes have until 5 pm on December 20th to make good on their outstanding balances.

And like a wife with a quick trigger finger browsing Amazon, the Coyotes have no idea how this came to be.

"We have already launched an investigation to determine how this could have happened and the initial indications are that it appears to be the result of an unfortunate human error," a team statement said late Wednesday.

"Regardless, we deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused. We will make sure by tomorrow morning, the Arizona Coyotes are current on all of our bills and owe no state or local taxes whatsoever. And we will take immediate steps to ensure nothing like this can ever possibly happen again.''

Arizona isn't scheduled to play again until tomorrow night when they host the Panthers. That gives the Coyotes at least another day and a half to ring those bells and keep the lights on.

 

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