It is a poor severance, particularly when you consider how little they actually get paid, the unwritten logic being that part of the pay is being around the team.
I believe the employees going to Utah part is actually up to SEG though, no?
Yeah, it was, which also just shows Smith isn't the savior people think he is. Can't really blame him for not wanting to move everyone, but it would have been a nice and classy thing to do. Wonder if the hockey fans in the families of staff will follow the team to Utah? I doubt they'll be sticking it out for Meruelo, at the very least.
It is wrapped up neat and tidy. There's no sense in rushing a team name/logo when you can do it this way, get fans engaged, give them time to get invested in the team, then do a big reveal down the road. Since the NHL let the King Clown and Clown Prince keep the Coyotes name, I'd say this is exactly how you should do it.
The deal for the Coyotes is wrapped up neat and tidy. Hockey operations in Utah, far from it.
And while it's certainly possible this will work out and not impact things, it's still a joke that there's a team without a name going to be playing for at least a year, just as much as it was a joke that the Coyotes played in a 5k seat arena. One of these things was constantly made fun of among calls to relocate the team, and the other will be spun as a positive and a sign that ownership knows what they're doing.
Do you think Smith will sell as many jerseys of players this year without a name or logo? They're going to just put UHC on the sleeves for this year, right? Wonder if those jerseys will be considered collector items or not. Hopefully they come up with a name everyone likes, though from the polling that doesn't seem very possible lol.