Arizona Coyotes gave Glendale a raw deal. And Tempe wants to repeat it?

In my five years in public office, Tempe residents haven’t clamored for an entertainment district.

They’ve clamored for housing, elder care, child care and employment. They’ve clamored for fully funded schools and solutions to the ongoing effects of the pandemic.

The Arizona Coyotes’ proposed entertainment district in Tempe addresses only one of those demands – employment – and very partially at that. The City Council should scrap the whole project.

In promotional materials, the hockey team speaks of their $1.7 billion “Manica” district at Rio Salado Parkway and Priest Drive in alluring terms that portray a luxurious “unique destination” that would create jobs and generate net new taxes.

They tout taxes but want years of free rides

But look a bit closer at their commercial scheme and it turns out not to be that desirable at all for Tempe’s current residents. It would essentially entail giving a proven bad economic actor – the current Coyotes owner – generous tax giveaways and thereby depriving our city of additional funds for the much-needed services mentioned above.

The embattled NHL team is promising to turn a city-owned, 46-acre site into a “regional landmark” that would include a multipurpose arena (the team’s future home), a music venue, “upscale” retail and office space, more than 1,600 residential units, and “boutique” and “convention” hotels.

Ongoing dispute: Phoenix wants to stop Coyotes' development in Tempe

The Coyotes make sure to repeatedly tout the estimated 6,900 permanent jobs and the $215 million in net new taxes (over 30 years) the project would bring to Tempe.

What they don’t share so openly is that they’re also requesting either a 30-year and an 8-year government property lease excise tax (GPLET), to the tune of more than $649 million in tax abatements, or a 65-year and an 8-year GPLET that would total over $1.1 billion in tax abatements.

Is this the behavior Tempe wants to reward?

And then there’s the Coyotes’ dishonorable fiscal track record under current owner Alex Meruelo, who took over the franchise in July 2019.

Early on, his tenure was mired in “a turbulent transition in business operations, contentious financial disputes between the team and its contractors and vendors, a rash of termination and resignations of key employees and upheaval within the front office,” as an in-depth exposé by The Athletic put it in early 2021.

Just six months later, after months of stalled negotiations with the Coyotes over a joint lease agreement for Gila River Arena, the city of Glendale had reached a point of no return, opting to kick the team out by this June, a decision all City Council members backed last summer, according to the sports publication.

As reported by The Athletic last August, negotiations between the city and the Coyotes broke down after months of stalled negotiations and “multiple notices about outstanding and delinquent balances” owed by the hockey team as part of their lease agreement.

The publication also revealed that the Gila River Arena notified the Coyotes that the team owed $1,462,792 to the arena as of July 17, 2021, and of that amount, $300,000 were “over four months delinquent.”

Is this really the kind of corporate behavior the city of Tempe wants to be rewarding for the next 30 to 65 years?

I don’t think so. And as the many residents who’ve spoken out against the project at several City Council meetings show, I’m far from being alone.

Like Glendale, our community deserves better.

Rep. Athena Salman, a Democrat, represents Tempe in Legislative District 26. Reach her at asalman@azleg.gov.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Coyotes' entertainment district is a raw deal for Tempe