The American Hockey League’s Board of Governors is expected to vote May 30 on whether to allow the Tucson Roadrunners to play games in Tempe next season, AHL President and CEO Scott Howson said Wednesday. Twenty-four yes votes are required of the 32 governors in order for the measure to pass and permit the Roadrunners to play a hybrid schedule between Tucson Arena and Arizona State University’s Mullett Arena.

Multiple sources familiar with the plan confirmed that the Roadrunners have requested to play 14 games in Tempe and 22 in Tucson.

In order to stage games in different home cities, Howson said that the AHL would require those games be played in pairs at the same site. For example, if the Roadrunners played a weekend set against Coachella Valley, both games would either have to be played in Tempe or both be played in Tucson. That requirement is for the benefit of both teams involved.

“We have been clear with Alex Meruelo Jr., who is the point person on these plans, that if for example the Roadrunners play in Tempe, the team would be responsible for paying for their hotels and getting them to games,” Howson said. “There will be no shuttling them back and forth to Tucson in between games.”

Howson said the Roadrunners have already been in contact with Oak View Group, the arena manager at Mullett, and the two sides have the basis of an agreement in place. Despite the announcement on Wednesday that the Suns’ G League team will play its home games at Mullett, Howson said his understanding is that there are still plenty of available dates for the Roadrunners — a stance confirmed by sources at ASU and with Oak View Group.

The AHL is primarily a weekend league featuring back-to-back games or two games in three days against the same opponent. Weekdays are generally spent on development time and practices.  A casual examination of the Sun Devils men’s hockey schedule showed 20 weekends available between October and mid-April, and before the G League schedule is released. 

The Suns G League team will have 24 home games. Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein said that the team, known as the Valley Suns, would like to play as many weekend games as possible to cater to families, but a source familiar with the Roadrunners’ plan said the ‘Runners schedule would be a mix of weekend and some weekday games, affording all of the teams the ability to sync their schedules.

The Roadrunners just completed year eight of a 10-year lease at Tucson Arena (part of the Tucson Convention Center). As part of the contract signed by the Coyotes in the original deal, the ownership group must provide the city 180 days notice before moving the team. The contract also permits the Roadrunners to play up to five home games in another market. Any more would be a breach of contract and would have to be renegotiated. The ownership group could also forfeit a little more than $3 million if it chooses to break the lease in full, per the agreement, but a hybrid schedule could alter that buyout amount.

Edmund Marquez, vice chair of the Rio Nuevo District which owns Tucson Arena, said his group is aware of the Roadrunners’ plan.

“It’s definitely not the original contract, but we’ve really enjoyed having the Roadrunners at our Tucson Convention Center so we are open to the possibilities of them being here for a partial or whole season — we’re just open minded to it,” Marquez said. “What we don’t want to see is them simply leave because that hurts us economically when it comes to our convention center, and there’s a peripheral economic impact of them just simply being in Tucson.

“As the owners of the facility, we put $11 million into that arena to bring it up to AHL standards and there were more upgrades beyond that. We’re fluid and agile in regard to the possibilities, but again, we just don’t want to see them leave completely.”

The City of Tucson is also involved in the current contract, but as of Wednesday evening, city manager Michael Ortega had not seen any elements of the new plan, per Andy Squire, the public information officer for the City of Tucson.

Howson confirmed earlier reports that the AHL has set a May 31 deadline for having this issue resolved — thus the May 30 vote. He also said that an agreement with Tucson must be in place before that vote or the BOG will not vote on it and the Meruelos hopes of playing games in Tempe for the 2024-25 season will be shelved for the season.

“We need to make our schedule and there are numerous challenges for the schedule makers in terms of travel,” Howson said.

The Meruelos had hoped to move the team entirely from Tucson to Tempe to maintain connectivity with the Valley fan base and help maintain support for local youth programs while the Meruelos pursued a piece of land via auction, the construction of a new arena and entertainment district, and the right to bring an expansion franchise back to Arizona. But Tucson opposition to such a move, coupled with the availability of dates at Mullett made that impossible.

The hybrid plan still has numerous internal and external critics who believe a season split between two home sites puts a significant hardship on the coaches, players and staff, while impacting the AHL’s primary mission: development. Those concerns have been expressed to the AHL, multiple sources said.

If the AHL Board of Governors rejects the hybrid plan, there is still the possibility that the Roadrunners could play up to five games in Tempe.

Given the short timeframe between the Coyotes’ relocation to Salt Lake City and the start of the 2024-25 NHL season, it was too difficult for the new Utah franchise to ponder amending its AHL affiliation with so much else to do. Tucson will remain Utah’s AHL affiliate for the upcoming season, but it is unclear what will happen to the affiliation after that.

Howson said there have been no discussions about what happens to the Roadrunners after next season, but “my expectation is the affiliation agreement will go beyond 2024-25.” Other sources questioned whether Utah owner Ryan Smith would maintain that affiliation. Twenty of the NHL’s 32 teams own their own AHL franchises. 

Top photo courtesy of Tucson Roadrunners

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