Arizona Coyotes faces eviction from Gila River Arena on Dec. 20 for unpaid taxes and fees; club cites ‘human error’

The Arizona Coyotes seem to be in danger of losing access to their arena even sooner than expected.

The City of Glendale has informed the team that it plans to lock the Coyotes from the Gila River Arena if the club fails to pay its outstanding tax bills and unpaid arena fees by December 20.

Sources told ESPN that earlier this month, the Arizona Department of Revenue filed a tax lien notice against IceA Arizona Hockey LLC, which owns the Coyotes, because the unpaid state and city taxes were in excess. 1.3 million dollars.

The city of Glendale owes about $250,000 in unpaid taxes, according to a letter from city manager Kevin Phelps to Arizona CEO and team president Xavier Gutierrez sent Wednesday. The remainder of the balance owed directly to the state. The contents of the letter were first reported by The Athletic and confirmed by ESPN.

Coyotes said in a statement on Wednesday night: “We have opened an investigation to determine how this could have happened and early indications suggest it appears to be the result of an accident. unfortunate human error.

“Despite that, we deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused. We will make sure by tomorrow morning the Arizona Coyotes are on all of our bills and owe no state tax. state or locality. And we will take immediate steps to make sure nothing like this can happen again.”

A notice has been sent to ASM Global, Gila Arena Management and Gutierrez about the cancellation of the team’s business license. Arizona has a 10-day appeal process to explain why its business license should not be revoked, but the city will give the team two more days, the sources said.

The Coyotes have until 5 p.m. local time on December 20 to settle their outstanding totals or the city of Glendale will deny Arizona employees and suppliers access to the site.

This is the latest chapter in the story of the Coyotes arena. In August, Arizona was told the city of Glendale was opt out of the rental agreement with the group at the end of this NHL season. Negotiations between the parties have been underway for a potential extension, but nothing has been finalized and either party has the option to exit the agreement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.