Threatening to leave the state? Really, Coyotes?

The Arizona Coyotes, desperate for another swipe into the public’s pocket, have issued an ultimatum. Give us a new arena, or we’ll skate. Who didn’t see that one coming? In a letter to legislators this week, National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman said the Coyotes can’t turn a profit in the team’s present digs.

“The Coyotes cannot and will not remain in Glendale,” he wrote.

That’s a shame, given that Glendale taxpayers still owe $145 million in principal on the 13-year-old arena. Glendale taxpayers, once they’ve paid off their debt, will have invested half a billion dollars in trying to keep the NHL in the state, according to city officials.

And this is the thanks they get, Mr. Bettman?

The Coyotes want $225 million in public money to help pay for a new arena complex, either in downtown Phoenix or the East Valley, where sunshine and considerable profits will rain down upon them.

I wonder: Is the team’s inability to turn a profit because this Valley won’t support hockey? Or is it because this Valley won’t support bad hockey?

The Coyotes went racing off to the west side, abandoning their east side fan base, because Glendale was offering the team the world.

Glendale made a mistake and is paying for it.

The Coyotes made a mistake and are paying for it.

What I can’t figure out is this: What mistake did the rest of us make that we should be muscled into turning over $225 million in future tax revenues ... or else?

This isn’t the 1990s, when sports moguls can make noise about leaving and cities snap to it, giving teams whatever they want. (Something, perhaps, for the Arizona Diamondbacks to remember.)

A recent statewide poll indicated that 68 percent of Arizona voters oppose the Coyotes’ plan to create a special taxing district to build another arena. The numbers get worse when voters are told about the debt that Glendale still owes on the existing arena.

And you wonder why there isn’t support in the Legislature for a $225 million giveaway?

Is there something I’m missing here? What, Mr. Bettman, does hockey bring to the community to rate a(nother) $225 million public investment?

And please don’t pull out that old chestnut about how this is future tax revenue that otherwise wouldn’t exist — not unless you’re prepared to explain how prime land in one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas will be left to the tumbleweeds and (real) coyotes.

I’m glad that we have professional hockey in the Valley. I’d hate to see the team go. I’d like to become a fan, if only the team gave me a reason to.

But the time is past when cities cower at the threats made by millionaires who own sports teams. If we have to lose a hockey team, I’m guessing that somehow we’ll survive.

My advice to the Coyotes’ owners? Find a way to work with Glendale, then field a team worthy of our support.

Otherwise, you might want to stock up on long johns. I hear it gets cold up there in Canada.