Xavier Gutierrez and other Arizona Coyotes executives didn’t have to look too far across the desert for a plan once regional sports broadcaster Diamond Sports Group bailed on a pro franchise in bankruptcy court.

In July, a bankruptcy judge allowed DSG to reject the Arizona Diamondbacks’ broadcast rights, which forced the team to make a quick pivot to a new distribution deal anchored by MLB.TV. With the Phoenix Suns deal up, the Coyotes were left as the only major sports team on Bally Sports Arizona.

“For us, that’s when we really started [planning] in earnest,” Gutierrez, the president of the Coyotes, told Front Office Sports. “We had to continue to maneuver through the bankruptcy because we did not want to do anything to run afoul of any of the bankruptcy [proceedings]. We had to get an order in the court.”