Not sure if this was posted already:
A few pieces of the article:
“No one should be surprised at this ownership groups’ incompetence and duplicity,”
Tempe councilman Randy Keating told Front Office Sports. “They were told several times what they needed to do to move forward with the auction by the City of Phoenix and not only chose not to do so, but then had the gull to cast blame. The call is, and always has been, coming from inside the house. Fans deserve so much better.”
The land department does not want to sell a seemingly important piece of developable land to an untrustworthy ownership group that wasn’t wanted in Glendale (the city) or Tempe (the voters). And the ASLD especially should not have if it caught any sense that the city of Phoenix wasn’t going to clear the way for the Coyotes to develop the land. Or if it thought the Coyotes might not have the easiest financial path to develop the land before getting to building.
Mayor Kate Gallego’s spokesperson told AZCentral that a pro sports arena is
not allowed under the existing zoning. The Coyotes’ former zoning lawyer,
Nick Wood of Snell & Wilmer, said in April that he believed rezoning was not necessary.
There are nuances and complications in those two messages that don’t jive.
What
is clear is that zoning semantics probably could be cleared up if there was motivation for Phoenix to bring the NHL back within its boundaries.
Why wouldn’t Phoenix want the Coyotes?
For starters, look at Meruelo’s history and reputation.
So here’s where we are: You can blame Glendale city leaders for forcing the Coyotes out. You can blame Tempe voters for not welcoming them in. Blame the NHL and commissioner Gary Bettman, the latter who deserves massive credit for somehow convincing an owner living in a false reality to sell his hockey team to a Utah ownership group, lending an unlikely lifeline for Meruelo to restart the franchise. That was quite the threading of the needle. Sure, you can blame Phoenix for not doing everything in its power to bring back the NHL team.
But at some point, save the conspiracies that span multiple cities and
the freakin’ NHL that didn’t want this version of the Coyotes in Arizona. Blame Alex Meruelo.