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The Phoenix Coyotes will stay in town, but as part of the new lease agreement with the City of Glendale the team will have to change its name (AP File Photo).
Hockey looks to be staying in the Valley after the Glendale City Council approved a 20-year arena lease agreement with the Phoenix Coyotes Monday night.

But in order to stay in Glendale, the organization apparently had to agree to one small stipulation.

As part of the new lease, CBSSports.com's NHL writer Brian Stubits reported the team will apparently need to agree to a name change before being sold to potential buyer Greg Jamison.

Here's what the lease says, as it was dug up by Sports Documents.

The Team Owner shall use commercially reasonable efforts to have the name of the Team changed to the "Arizona Coyotes" as soon as is commercially feasible.

While not everything in the lease can be described as such, this actually seems pretty reasonable. The City of Glendale built the arena and is going to pay a lot of money every year to keep the team in its city, after all. It makes sense they wouldn't be too appreciative of the franchise continuing to bear the name of another city when Glendale is taking such a big risk and paying so much out of its stretched budget to keep the team.

The change likely won't have any effect on the team's jerseys, color schemes and logo. The franchise has always focused on the Coyotes mascot and not the city name.

This would be the second such change for a Valley team. In March of 1994, owner Bill Bidwill had the Cardinals change their name from Phoenix to Arizona.

If the change is approved, the Suns and Mercury would be the only teams in town with Phoenix in front of their names.

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    ex-distancerunner wrote...
    That's OK i guess BUT
    Why isn't the entire metropilan area of Phoenix involved in keeping this team here? I am a season ticket holder from Mesa..I am willing to pay more in taxes to keep them here..I am also willing to pay for the Phoenix Philharmonic to stay in Phoenix and I will NEVER attend a concert. Phoenix should NEVER lose a professional organization, all of us in the metropilan area of Phoenix should have skin in the game...This Phoenix being a collection of small towns who can do nothing big is RIDICULOUS.
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    nodoubtiichronicles wrote...
    Arizona Coyotes
    Further proof that the Yotes are here to stay....AAAArrrrWWWWHHHHHOOOOOO!!!!!!!
  • Abuse
    David D. wrote...
    Arizona Coyotes............
    Is a great name change! The CITY of Glendale built and OWNS the Arena. Unless the surrounding communities contributed to it's construction costs, none of them have a "say" in the matter. All of Minnesota's sports franchises are named after the State of Minnesota (Vikings, Twins, Wild, etc) as are the Titans of Tennessee, and the Rnagers of Texas. By changing the name to represent the STATE, especially in smaller markets, displays the loyalty the teams draw their fan base from.
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    AZChris wrote...
    Im ok with it
    At least it's not the Pelicans! We already knew this was part of the deal last year. Not a big deal. Them staying is a bigger deal. However, it doesn't exactly roll off the tounge. When they came to town in 96' I wish they would have used the old USFL names....Wranglers, Outlaws, etc. The Rockies were an NHL team before they were the MLB team in Denver. It could've be done. Minnesota should have used the Lakers again.
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