The Arizona Coyotes appear to be running the risk of losing access to their arena even sooner than expected, sources confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.
The news was first reported by The Athletic, which says that the City of Glendale will lock the Coyotes out of Gila River Arena if the club does not pay its delinquent tax bills and unpaid arena charges by Dec. 20.
Sources told ESPN that earlier this month, the Arizona Department of Revenue filed a tax lien notice against IceArizona Hockey LLC, which owns the Coyotes, for unpaid state and city taxes in excess of $1.3 million.
The City of Glendale is owed approximately $250,000 in unpaid city taxes, per a letter from city manager Kevin Phelps to Arizona CEO and team president Xavier Gutierrez sent on Wednesday. The rest of that balance is owed directly to the state, according to sources.
A notice was sent to ASM, the Gila Arena Management company, and Gutierrez about the cancellation of the team’s business license. Arizona has a 10-day appeal process available for why their business license should not be revoked, but the city is giving them an extra two days, the sources said.
The Coyotes have until 5 p.m. local time on Dec. 20 to settle their outstanding totals or the City of Glendale will deny Arizona’s personnel and vendors access to the venue.
This is the latest chapter in the Coyotes’ arena saga. In August, Arizona was told the City of Glendale was opting out of its lease agreement with the team at the end of this NHL season. Negotiations between the sides had been ongoing on a potential extension but nothing was finalized and either side had the option to exit the deal.