Way back in 2016ish I had a ton of optimism for the Arizona Coyotes. Arizona State was a brand new division 1 NCAA hockey program. The Coyotes had just been pretty competitive as recently as 2012. It even looked like they might be competitive again as the second decade of the twenty-first century came down the home stretch. The number one overall draft pick (Auston Matthews) was an Arizona native.

2016 was such a weirdly optimistic time. No one could have guessed what would transpire over the next six years. It feels like enough crazy things have happened for a lifetime in just the last half decade. You could easily take one big event out of the timeline and still call the latter half of the 2010s one of the most memorable five-year stretches in a long time. Harambe was taken from us, The Chicago Cubs won the dang World Series, Donald Trump was elected president, twenty years of conflict in Afghanistan came to a close, menthol cigarettes were officially banned in the European Union. The last six years have been a rollercoaster.

One of the more interesting developments to me has been the purgatory that the Arizona Coyotes have found themselves in. The arena drama this past fall was the culmination of years of financial ineptitude that came as a surprise to no one. The solution that the Coyotes decided to move forward with has been the surprise to me.

The Coyotes are gonna go ahead and play their homegames on campus at Arizona State University. That’s not a great look for the Coyotes. I think that observation has been made quite enough. It looks bad for the ‘Yotes and it looks bad for the league. Whatever.

I think it’s awesome. At first it was funny. Now that I’ve sat and let it stew I can’t help but think of how cool it is. When has a professional hockey team played home games like this on a college campus? And this isn’t just some college. It’s Arizona State. America’s party school. The butt-end of countless jokes about STDs, alcohol abuse and something about careers starting in libraries for all the wrong reasons. Simply put, it’s a fun place to go to college.

There’s no telling what that crowd will be like. Early ticket estimates look to be pretty pricey and that’s by design. Arizona State’s home rink has a way smaller capacity than any other arena in the league. Money will have to be made up somehow and it most likely starts with more expensive tickets. There will be a healthy amount of college students at the games.

It’s a big state school. The cool thing about college is that there are a ton of kids that have way too much of their parents’ money and not enough to do. There are plenty of students from around the country at ASU. Furthermore, Arizona can be a pretty popular destination for out-of-town fans to visit.

Arizona could even have their own “Vegas Effect” in the works here. Instead of Sin City it’s Sin UniverSITY. The younger teams in the league will have to reign it in on trips to the desert and stay focused. Lest they’ll fall victim to the temptations of Tempe and lose some points on the road. It’s the ultimate home-ice advantage, if your own players can stay out of trouble.

If anything, The Coyotes will be able to offer an experience that really no one else in the NHL can. I’m not saying it’s gonna be a slam-dunk great experience. But it is going to be pretty interesting nonetheless.