We're done with fat cats. That's why Tempe voters shot down the Arizona Coyotes arena

Tempe had a great plan to fill an old garbage dump on the Salt River with a spanking new NHL arena and sparkling new luxury apartments and entertainment district.

The Tempe City Council and mayor supported the project.

They had found the bejeweled square peg that could fit the square hole — a project of such scale that it could manage, with city help, the half-billion in upfront costs it would take to develop that old landfill.

Hugh Hallman and Neil Giuliano, former mayors who once despised each other, were even giving a Master’s class online in which they dismantled all the opposing arguments with both precision and eloquence.

Voters shot down the Coyotes' 'best' deal

The city had dazzling renderings and specs. A beautiful location on the riverbed.

A great regional destination point right off the freeway and closer to the Arizona hockey fanbase that had long ago stopped driving to Glendale’s arena.

Tempe Mayor Corey Woods called it “the best sports deal in Arizona history.”

Then Tempe voters cast their ballots and shot it all down.

The outcome wasn’t close.

What made the good citizens of Tempe so assertively defeat a project that their more-informed leaders knew to be a godsend?

No one cares about the NHL's threat

Perhaps they wanted to test NHL’s Commissioner Gary Bettman’s tolerance for pain.

The long-suffering Bettman, an unusual quality for a guy so prickly, has patiently waited through arena disasters in Scottsdale, Glendale and now Tempe for Arizona to get its act together and create a stable home for NHL hockey.

After Tuesday’s vote, he issued a terse response:

“The National Hockey League is terribly disappointed by the results of the public referendum regarding the Coyotes' arena project in Tempe. We are going to review with the Coyotes what the options might be going forward.”

That sounds like a threat.

That might work in Calgary or Ottawa, but not in metro Phoenix. The NHL is so much the stepchild in our four-sport town that nobody even knows who Gary Bettman is.

Arizona is not trembling this morning.

The Phoenix front in Bettman’s NHL Southern Strategy has so far been a bust.

The opposition argued about Tempe's future

I say that with some sadness, as someone who grew up playing hockey on duck ponds and in youth leagues.

I want hockey to work in the desert. I understand what a privilege it is to have an NHL franchise in our community.

But alas, we know Bettman wasn’t top of mind when Tempe voters shot down the NHL arena.

Perhaps they were drawn to opposition arguments that Tempe needs to protect its future tax base: That city officials can’t keep giving away to developers tomorrow’s revenues that are vital to shelter the homeless and provide health care.

Tempe’s a college town. Fairly progressive. No doubt many voters were drawn to those do-good fantasies.

Risk vs. reward: Coyotes deal favors team and is safer for Tempe

Hallman pointed to unions, mostly in California, that demanded that the Coyotes build their project with all union labor. When the Coyotes, to their credit, refused, the unions powered the “no” campaign.

Hallman is well informed, so I’ve no doubt there’s truth there.

But that alone does not explain why Tempe voted down the Coyotes arena.

This moment in sports rejection has history

In 2016, the Arizona Diamondbacks surprised this desert metropolis when out of nowhere they blew up their relationship with the Maricopa County Sports Authority and county supervisors.

They sicced on them the most badass law firm in town.

They produced headlines locally and nationally that they might soon bolt Phoenix and the Valley, trying to wrangle out of county officials millions of dollars in stadium improvements or perhaps even a new venue.

At that time, we at the newspaper began to detect a changed attitude in Valley readers. Emails, letters to the editor and op-eds were telling us that metro residents were fed up with fat cats.

There was no discernable political pattern to it. Both left and right, young and old, seemed united in their contempt.

We’re done buying palaces for sports moguls only to have them turn around and spit on us.

Chase Field was not even 20 years old when the Diamondbacks started carping for more and threatening to pull stakes.

Voters learned their lesson with the D-Backs

This wasn’t just about the Diamondbacks.

We were still bruised from the Great Recession and its jobless recovery. The entire country was growing weary of generous handouts to sports teams at a time when so many Americans were struggling.

Based on their comments to us, Arizonans had begun to feel bad — bad that they had spent millions in tax dollars sating these ingrates.

But a lesson was learned.

Today, NHL Commissioner Bettman leaves no doubt that he is miffed with Tuesday’s election results. I like professional ice hockey, so I sympathize.

But if he would like to know why Tempe voters blew up his NHL arena, I would refer him first to a guy who is as much a household name in Calgary and Ottawa as Bettman is in Phoenix and Tempe.

He’s Ken Kendrick. Owner and managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tempe vote on the Arizona Coyotes failed miserably. Here's why