When Seattle is ahead of you for a pro hockey team, it’s time to let that dream go

• Real Media
• The Sprint Center is young and pretty. But there’s always somebody younger and prettier.

Hockey hasn’t done itself many favors over the past decade, which is why it is unsurprising that the Coyotes franchise is struggling in Phoenix, Arizona. It probably doesn’t help that the temperature for today in Phoenix is forecast to have a high of 72 degrees.

NBC Sports considers the potential future destinations for the Arizona team, and tops on that list right now is Seattle, Washington. Kansas City gets a passing mention alongside Las Vegas, but neither is suggested as a realistic possibility. In fact, Kansas City is routinely brought into the discussion for one reason, which is oft-mentioned on sports blogs, and that reason is the state-of-the-art Sprint Center.

But it’s been five years since the Sprint Center opened, and the accepted useful economic life of a stadium is only 30 years total. The first five years might even be the best, the honeymoon period when people are still enamored of the amenities because somebody hasn’t yet gone and built a 160-foot-wide screen. At what point is the Sprint Center too old to be attractive to potential pro franchises looking to jump ship or owners of a new expansion team?