With Arizona Coyotes gone, $40M makeover of Glendale's Desert Diamond Arena starts soon. What's in store?

Glendale's relationship with the Arizona Coyotes will stay in the past, and nothing says moving on more than a glow up.

A $40 million renovation plan at Desert Diamond Arena will get underway in June, as the city and ASM Global, the venue-management company leasing the 20-year-old facility, are looking to modernize the hockey team’s former home and improve event-goers’ experiences.

“Let's get away from the past, and I think that's been our focus,” ASM General Manager Dale Adams told Glendale leaders on Tuesday. “The past is the past, it's 20 years, we're done with it. Let's move forward and see what we can do.”

The arena's upcoming renovations come as the Coyotes' ownership shocked the Valley and fans this month by announcing a deal that sent the team to Salt Lake City.

During the City Council’s workshop meeting, Adams detailed the upgrades to the venue, which are expected to be completed in February.

What’s getting upgraded at Desert Diamond Arena?

Since the Coyotes were booted from Glendale in 2022, the arena has largely become a space for live entertainment and the new home of the IFL’s Arizona Rattlers.

To signify the new era for the arena, it’s getting a makeover, both inside and out.

The renovations, Adams said, are “all about improving customer service, improving revenues, and making it a better experience for everybody and modernizing the building a bit.”

With that goal in mind, much of the interior upgrades are focused on creating club- and bar-like atmospheres throughout the stadium and streamlining and expanding food and beverage purchases with grab-and-go concession areas.

“Quick — get ‘em in, get ‘em out, get ‘em back to their seat,” Adams said.

Areas like the storage tunnel that the Coyotes used will be turned into a grab-and-go convenience market. Existing concession stands in the main concourse will also be remodeled and repurposed for the grab-and-go concept.

The former team merchandise store will become a meeting and banquet room.

Desert Diamond is also saying goodbye to some of its suites.

The upper-level suites on the building’s east corridor will be turned into a social club with two full-service bars. It will have open seating throughout and along the railing overlooking the main floor. There will only be two suites, one on each end of the section.

On the west side, the upper-level suites will be converted into a networking concept, largely similar to the social club side — but with less open seating and more suite space.

Other areas around the arena will also see updates, including the main concourse, which will get fresh paint and new digital signage.

“It'll be a kind of a new experience, there too, but hopefully, more efficient, more fun,” Adams said.

Outside, the arena will also be painted with new colors.

One aspect of the building that Adams is eager to remove is the outer metal gates that adorn the entrance.

“They drive me crazy,” he said, referring to the aesthetic feature as “penitentiary gates.”

When construction begins in June, ASM intends to keep the arena open for its planned events and concerts by completing the work in stages, only shutting down certain areas at a time.

“Probably, the first thing we're going to do is shut down the upper-suite level because that's going to take the most work and we're going to push everyone into the lower-suite level,” Adams said.

Glendale, ASM develop long-term partnership

Expounding on those plans to finish the upgrades by section and whether it will impact capacity during Rattlers’ games and upcoming concerts, Glendale City Manager Kevin Phelps noted that the suites being updated don’t typically reach capacity anyway.

“You can have sections of those (suites) for the remodeling, and not greatly reduce the overall patrons attending the event,” he said, before expressing confidence in ASM’s track record when it comes to maintaining and upgrading its venues throughout the country.

Before ASM became the city’s tenant at Desert Diamond, it was the arena’s longtime management company when the Coyotes played there.

After Glendale cut ties with the Coyotes, opting not to renew the team’s lease at the end of the 2021-2022 NHL season, ASM gave the city the long-term commitment it had desired: a 20-year lease agreement worth nearly $33.3 million.

“Part of our decision on the Coyotes wasn’t just about the financial part of it, even though they were slow to pay their bills,” Phelps said, adding, “A lot of it was just the partnership … they didn’t align well with our world view of how a partnership would work.”

The Coyotes relocated to Tempe for the start of the 2022-2023 season, playing at ASU’s Mullett Arena for two years.

Team owner Alex Meruelo was unsuccessful in convincing Tempe voters to approve a slate of ballot measures that would have secured the space needed to construct a new arena.

Afterward, Meruelo turned to northeast Phoenix, where he planned to bid on state trust land to build an NHL hockey facility. Despite those plans, he sent the Coyotes to Salt Lake City.

Asked whether city management and leadership had ever considered letting the Coyotes back at Desert Diamond while Meruelo worked on getting the land in the East Valley, Phelps said he was unaware of any formal discussions.

“If there were any, that would have been discussions with ASM," Phelps said. "But on something of that magnitude, I can’t envision ASM not letting my office know they had some inquiry on that."

Adams of ASM did not return a call seeking additional comment.

How has ASM’s lease benefited Glendale?

Anchoring Glendale’s Westgate Entertainment District, Desert Diamond Arena has reportedly flourished since ASM secured the lease. The multipurpose venue had its most profitable year in 2023, executives told reporters when first announcing the renovation plan in January.

While unable to provide an exact dollar figure, Phelps said ASM grossed about $10 million more in 2023 compared with the previous year.

Before the long-term lease agreement, the city covered the $5.8 million in operating costs but would collect roughly $1 million to $1.5 million in revenue back from ASM.

“We no longer take a check back from (ASM), but we no longer have the $5.8 million (expense) that we had to budget,” Phelps explained, adding, “They have absorbed all of the operational maintenance costs, but they get to retain all of the revenue from that.”

As a result, the company isn’t required to disclose to the city how much revenue it makes from its events.

With a long-term commitment, the city is ready to move forward with the renovations. ASM is contributing $15 million, while the city is putting up $25 million.

Take a peek: New Desert Diamond Casino near Glendale is on track to open this year

Shawn Raymundo covers the West Valley cities of Glendale, Peoria and Surprise. Reach him at sraymundo@gannett.com or follow him on X @ShawnzyTsunami.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Glendale is giving 20-year-old Desert Diamond Arena a $40M makeover