Phoenix has never topped the average attendance (15,604) of it's inaugural season. This year that number would have put the team 26th in league attendance. In 2001-02, the last time the team made the playoffs the average attendance was 13,165.
I don't think the lockout made an impact on attendance either. The average attendance actually went up in the year after the lockout.
TV numbers from January showed that the Coyotes games, locally, were being viewed by a little over 9,000 households (Source:
Washington Post). Now, that number is apparently up 100% from the previous year... so that means the number was at 4,500 households before. That's shockingly low.
Can a region really support a team with attendance and tv numbers that low?
Getting back to the legal battle. Now that the NHL has stripped Jerry Moyes of basically any responsibility of the team, where does that put a potential sale if the Chapter 11 filing is revoked, as the league wants it to be. Can the league than force a sale with a particular buyer without any input from Moyes? If the league can do that, I'd be curious to know how other league owners feel about that.