Arizona Coyotes Owner Dissolves Remnants of Franchise; Where Will Utah’s New NHL Team Stream?
The Utah Hockey Club could decide to offer its games on an in-market streaming platform, as the Utah Jazz have done.
The sad saga of the Arizona Coyotes has come to an end. According to Sportico, the NHL club will formally be dissolved in the coming weeks by its owner Alex Meruelo, after efforts to rebuild the team were scuttled by its inability to secure a parcel of land on which to build a new stadium. The team formerly known as the Coyotes have already relocated to Utah, and I’ll give you my best guess on how you’ll be able to watch the team’s games without a cable subscription below.
Key Details:
- A new Arizona Coyotes expansion team was a possibility if the team could build a new arena to house it within the next years.
- The Utah Hockey Club has announced a deal to broadcast games on the Scripps-owned KUPX-TV.
- A streaming option akin to the Utah Jazz’s DTC service Jazz+ seems likely for the Utah Hockey Club.
The Arizona Coyotes as they were in 2023 were never returning to Phoenix, after Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith bought the hockey operation and player rights owned by the franchise following the 2023-24 NHL season. But Meruelo still had the option to try and create a new Arizona Coyotes team from the ground up, provided he could build a new stadium for the team to play in within the next five years.
However, the parcel of land north of Phoenix targeted by the Coyotes ownership group is no longer available. It was slated to be auctioned off this week, but the Arizona State Land Commission canceled the proceedings, and Phoenix city officials were not likely to make the process of building a new arena easy anyway. The city of Phoenix owns the Footprint Center, which houses the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, and did not want to compete with a new arena for the right to host non-sports events like concerts.
Will Utah Hockey Club Games Be Available to Stream Without Cable?
There’s no definitive answer on whether or not the Utah Hockey Club (UHC) will have a streaming option in its first season or not. The team will begin play this October, and will broadcast live games for free on KUPX-TV Utah 16, an over-the-air (OTA) channel owned by Scripps. This means that any viewers in the KUPX-TV broadcast footprint — which extends throughout the state — will be able to watch UHC games for free with an antenna. Fubo and DIRECTV STREAM also offer the channel as part of a subscription.
There have not been any in-market streaming options for the UHC as of yet, but that seems likely to change. Jazz owner Ryan Smith has experience in creating such options, partnering with the video technology firm Kiswe to create an in-market streaming platform for his NBA team in summer 2023, which later came to be known as Jazz+.
Jazz+ was first announced in August 2023, but was ready to roll out to customers just one month later, so even though time is dwindling between now and the start of the 2024-25 NHL season, fans don’t have to worry that there aren’t enough days on the calendar to build a new streaming service for the Utah Hockey Club. Utah-area audiences shouldn’t rule out the possibility that the UHC will be housed on Jazz+ initially, which would make plenty of sense as it would allow fans to stream both local teams on one platform.
Fans can choose between monthly and annual plans of Jazz+, and the service also offers single-game options. Viewership data from Jazz+ will likely play a big part in whether or not Smith decides to allow audiences to purchase single games for the UHC as well.
If you live outside Utah, you will be able to watch the team on ESPN+, which provides more than 1,000 out-of-market NHL games.
We’ll keep an eye on the streaming rights for the UHC as the NHL season creeps closer, so keep checking back with The Streamable as the new team’s broadcasting arrangements are finalized.
Jazz+
Jazz+ is a live streaming service carrying Utah Jazz basketball games throughout the state of Utah and within 150 miles of Salt Lake City. It includes live and on-demand NBA games and exclusive content.