Confirmed with Link: All-Purpose "Days of Our Meruelo" Talk

[Coyotedroppings]

I call coyotedroppings.

When you said that you couldn't re-sell your extra two tickets for a Mother's Day playoff game against the Preds, what did you mean if it wasn't a jab at the Coyotes playoff attendance?

Were you just pointing out that no one was willing to sit next to you unless the tickets were free? Please explain it for all of us with poor comprehension.

FYI, I think that the game on Mother's Day 2012 was actually game 1 against the Kings.

Sorry, your gotcha moment still evades you. I pointed out the Mothers day game because in an area of over 4M folks Mothers day took priority over NHL playoffs. I checked and it looks like it was the Kings, so basically the optics are even worse, in that it was a conference final. The extra tix (where I sate for a few previous seasons) were five sections away from where I sat, I kept them for a season in case i didn't like the seats I moved to.

Good luck on your pursuit of a gotcha moment, you won't find one, but ya gotta love a little feller trying!

 

[DaBadGuy7]

I’m concerned that the NHL might want to ignore this market for 20 years. The baggage attached to this market won’t disappear for a generation

I say at least 10 years or until Ishbia’s group wants a new downtown arena for the Suns. I think once that happens him or another group can start the ball rolling on an expansion/revived team. I don’t see a new arena being built just for hockey coming.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

I believe your opinion has always been, much like you said here, that if we had sellouts and fan support/better attendance that we wouldn't have moved from Glendale, that Glendale would have been happy with us, and that all of our previous owners wouldn't have sold the team (or most of them) if we did have that support.

But no, I don't think that's true. I don't think selling out would have erased the debt we already had at that time, nor do I think it would have prevented Moyes and Ellman, IA, or Barroway or Meruelo from selling the team.

It might have prevented Gretzky from getting involved and it might have prevented our roulette of arenas if we were immediately successful at what is now Footprint but let's be real, our attendance was pretty decent for years (plenty of near max capacity at Footrpint and a few pretty high ones at Glendale) and we had really good pre season attendance and playoff attendance when the team was exciting for a few years, especially right after Winnipeg moving.

But ticket sales aren't the end all be all to a franchise's success. Neither is merch and events and shit, but those are just as important. So is business outreach. Businesses make up a huge portion of box seats and I don't think we had those much at all at any Arena. Same as how Winnipeg even now wasn't making money with full fan support because they didn't have business support buying boxes so fans were the ones doing that and since Covid fan support, even in Winnipeg, has been down. It was only this last year that it bounced back and we're still seeing it have an effect. The Jets for example went on a business campaign to get people in the boxes.

Arizona has supposedly been profitable for a few of it's years but if the team is profitable in Utah I can tell you right now it won't be because of fan support.

I appreciate the intelligent, non-defensive, response.... refreshing.

We can't say whether they would have sold, or not, I'm inclined to think that many (perhaps most/all) would have. The goal for these guys was to capitalize on increased value, as interim owners. As per my response above, I don't think these guys were about to invest any more that would subtract from their bottom line, although with fan support that may have been different.

Corporate support is the same as fan support, in fact I'd wager (if I were a betting man) that they (for the most part) mirror each other. You can call Mike Briody and get all the scoop on suite sales, if you like, of course company's also purchase loge and regular seating.

I can tell you that Jerry Moyes gave it his best shot for as long as he could. He knew not what he was doing, but was the opposite of the asshats, in that he did everything those with experience told him he should, that perfect storm just became too much. He initially wanted to help put his city on the map and wound up owning a team, he never really wanted, so yeah.... he was a seller from the start, that just couldn't hang on any longer.

Edit: When I said previously "we'd have never had Mereulo", I believe we'd have already been able to attract qualified, experienced ownership.

 

[Arizonatah Coyetis]

Sorry, your gotcha moment still evades you. I pointed out the Mothers day game because in an area of over 4M folks Mothers day took priority over NHL playoffs. I checked and it looks like it was the Kings, so basically the optics are even worse, in that it was a conference final. The extra tix (where I sate for a few previous seasons) were five sections away from where I sat, I kept them for a season in case i didn't like the seats I moved to.

Good luck on your pursuit of a gotcha moment, you won't find one, but ya gotta love a little feller trying!

There may be 4M folks in Arizona, but there are less than 20,000 seats in the arena and I recall the games being sold out. Your inability to re-sell two tickets hardly makes a valid point. Comical actually.

And for someone that claimed they never said playoff attendance was an issue, here you are still staying it.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

There may be 4M folks in Arizona, but there are less than 20,000 seats in the arena and I recall the games being sold out. Your inability to re-sell two tickets hardly makes a valid point. Comical actually.

And for someone that claimed they never said playoff attendance was an issue, here you are still staying it.

The point is that in a real hockey market there would literally be thousands of folks wanting tix, that can't get them and there would be no surplus of tix on the market. Not a pair of tickets left and still thousands left wanting some.

 

[Arizonatah Coyetis]

The point is that in a real hockey market there would literally be thousands of folks wanting tix, that can't get them and there would be no surplus of tix on the market. Not a pair of tickets left and still thousands left wanting some.

Cause and effect matter when analyzing why something either is or isn't. You're stuck on the effect and refuse to acknowledge the cause. Go ahead and keep on making excuses for a joke of an NHL franchise not turning Arizona into a better hockey market and blaming the fans for not being into it if it helps you cope, even if it's completely unrealistic.

 

[Arizonatah Coyetis]

@Coyotedroppings

I enjoy bickering with you, doesn't mean that I dislike you in any way because we disagree. Just so you know

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Cause and effect matter when analyzing why something either is or isn't. You're stuck on the effect and refuse to acknowledge the cause. Go ahead and keep on making excuses for a joke of an NHL franchise not turning Arizona into a better hockey market and blaming the fans for not being into it if it helps you cope, even if it's completely unrealistic.

Arizona is a failed NHL market because the fans were not interested enough in keeping the NHL here and proved so with their lack of attendance.

@Coyotedroppings

I enjoy bickering with you, doesn't mean that I dislike you in any way because we disagree. Just so you know

I'm quite likeable..... despite it all.

 

[Dead Coyote]

I appreciate the intelligent, non-defensive, response.... refreshing.

We can't say whether they would have sold, or not, I'm inclined to think that many (perhaps most/all) would have. The goal for these guys was to capitalize on increased value, as interim owners. As per my response above, I don't think these guys were about to invest any more that would subtract from their bottom line, although with fan support that may have been different.

Corporate support is the same as fan support, in fact I'd wager (if I were a betting man) that they (for the most part) mirror each other. You can call Mike Briody and get all the scoop on suite sales, if you like, of course company's also purchase loge and regular seating.

I can tell you that Jerry Moyes gave it his best shot for as long as he could. He knew not what he was doing, but was the opposite of the asshats, in that he did everything those with experience told him he should, that perfect storm just became too much. He initially wanted to help put his city on the map and wound up owning a team, he never really wanted, so yeah.... he was a seller from the start, that just couldn't hang on any longer.

Edit: When I said previously "we'd have never had Mereulo", I believe we'd have already been able to attract qualified, experienced ownership.

So...you agree that fan support didn't matter to most if not all of these owners and that they would have sold anyways.

Corporate support definitely isn't the same as fan support as Corporate support is about making money and incentivizing people to support them and rewarding employees who perform. Has nothing to do with enjoying the experience or rooting for a team.

So if you agree that fan support wouldn't have stopped the team from moving arenas or owners...why exactly do you think it would have stopped the team from moving to Utah?

You think we would have attracted qualified, experienced ownership if we had more fan support. Okay. Who would this have been? Who would want to take over a franchise that is in debt, has had no good arena at any point in time, has no support from the city(ies) and has perenially sucked at playing the game?

The only guy I'm aware of who has been interested in buying the team and has that level of knowledge and experience was...Jim Balsille. Who was going to move the team to Hamilton anyways.

There hasn't been a single rumour of anyone else on his level being interested in the team, and there hasn't been a single rumour that any kind of hockey fan was interested in the team either. That's pretty much just true of every team in the NHL, with the possible exception of the Ryan Reynolds bid for Ottawa.

Who is out there who is a die hard hockey fan, wants hockey in Arizona, and is rich enough to take on a massive amount of debt, probably losing money even with fan support (hey, turns out leasing costs to use an arena and not having access to the revenue streams in said arena is a lot of money and a pretty big deal!) and either owns an arena already or is willing to spend even more money to build one so they don't keep losing money? We're assuming still that we still have that fan support.

The only time I've ever heard of anything remotely similar to this is now when PHNX said that Shane Doan might be part of a new ownership group, which is completely unconfirmed and we haven't heard anything new about in like a month.

Everyone who has been interested in this team has been a businessman first, hockey fan distant 2nd, and most of them have been looking to cash in on an investment. As we've learned, Meruelo despite being a billionaire wasn't smart or knowledgeable enough either.

To say that if we had fan support we would've attracted an experienced, qualified owner when we never had an arena of our own, were always in debt, never had consistently good results, and everyone who has owned the team has been an investor first is...well, a load of BS, honestly.

Fan support is one thing that would help us a lot- absolutely! But you can't just ignore everything else that has been wrong with this team.

The only people who are willing to take on distressed assets that require an investment to make money are investors or people who don't care if they lose money and can afford it.

In 30 years, there hasn't been a single indication that Arizona even has the 2nd. The fact we've been sold to like 5 different investors/hedge funds/groups etc pretty much shows, in my opinion, that there is no saviour for this team, they simply don't exist currently.

The richest person in Arizona, as far as I know, is Ernest Garcia who has no ties to hockey and somewhere between 5-10b in net worth.

 

[Jamieh]

So...you agree that fan support didn't matter to most if not all of these owners and that they would have sold anyways.

Corporate support definitely isn't the same as fan support as Corporate support is about making money and incentivizing people to support them and rewarding employees who perform. Has nothing to do with enjoying the experience or rooting for a team.

So if you agree that fan support wouldn't have stopped the team from moving arenas or owners...why exactly do you think it would have stopped the team from moving to Utah?

You think we would have attracted qualified, experienced ownership if we had more fan support. Okay. Who would this have been? Who would want to take over a franchise that is in debt, has had no good arena at any point in time, has no support from the city(ies) and has perenially sucked at playing the game?

The only guy I'm aware of who has been interested in buying the team and has that level of knowledge and experience was...Jim Balsille. Who was going to move the team to Hamilton anyways.

There hasn't been a single rumour of anyone else on his level being interested in the team, and there hasn't been a single rumour that any kind of hockey fan was interested in the team either. That's pretty much just true of every team in the NHL, with the possible exception of the Ryan Reynolds bid for Ottawa.

Who is out there who is a die hard hockey fan, wants hockey in Arizona, and is rich enough to take on a massive amount of debt, probably losing money even with fan support (hey, turns out leasing costs to use an arena and not having access to the revenue streams in said arena is a lot of money and a pretty big deal!) and either owns an arena already or is willing to spend even more money to build one so they don't keep losing money? We're assuming still that we still have that fan support.

The only time I've ever heard of anything remotely similar to this is now when PHNX said that Shane Doan might be part of a new ownership group, which is completely unconfirmed and we haven't heard anything new about in like a month.

Everyone who has been interested in this team has been a businessman first, hockey fan distant 2nd, and most of them have been looking to cash in on an investment. As we've learned, Meruelo despite being a billionaire wasn't smart or knowledgeable enough either.

To say that if we had fan support we would've attracted an experienced, qualified owner when we never had an arena of our own, were always in debt, never had consistently good results, and everyone who has owned the team has been an investor first is...well, a load of BS, honestly.

Fan support is one thing that would help us a lot- absolutely! But you can't just ignore everything else that has been wrong with this team.

The only people who are willing to take on distressed assets that require an investment to make money are investors or people who don't care if they lose money and can afford it.

In 30 years, there hasn't been a single indication that Arizona even has the 2nd. The fact we've been sold to like 5 different investors/hedge funds/groups etc pretty much shows, in my opinion, that there is no saviour for this team, they simply don't exist currently.

The richest person in Arizona, as far as I know, is Ernest Garcia who has no ties to hockey and somewhere between 5-10b in net worth.

Fan support leads to corporate support which leads to less financial losses which leads to better and more stable ownership. If the building regularly sold out in Glendale all of the rest would have followed. When you fail at step 1 the chance of ever getting the end result is rather low.

 

[Bonsai Tree]

@Coyotedroppings I’m not sure why you believe that poor attendance was the root cause of the Coyotes demise. We both know that the demise of the Coyotes was not due to a single point failure. Poor fan support was part of the mix, for sure. Poor ownership, the NHL strikes, economic collapse of 2008, poor front office and yes, poor arena location all amplified each other’s severity.

 

[Dead Coyote]

Fan support leads to corporate support which leads to less financial losses which leads to better and more stable ownership. If the building regularly sold out in Glendale all of the rest would have followed. When you fail at step 1 the chance of ever getting the end result is rather low.

Going from being 200 million in debt to 150 million in debt doesn't actually change much, actually.

If the building regularly sold out in Glendale any owner would still be missing concession revenue, other event revenue, and would still be paying the lease. That's not a positive formula.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

I'll start at the top

So...you agree that fan support didn't matter to most if not all of these owners and that they would have sold anyways.

Corporate support definitely isn't the same as fan support as Corporate support is about making money and incentivizing people to support them and rewarding employees who perform. Has nothing to do with enjoying the experience or rooting for a team.

So if you agree that fan support wouldn't have stopped the team from moving arenas or owners...why exactly do you think it would have stopped the team from moving to Utah?

You think we would have attracted qualified, experienced ownership if we had more fan support. Okay. Who would this have been? Who would want to take over a franchise that is in debt, has had no good arena at any point in time, has no support from the city(ies) and has perenially sucked at playing the game?

The only guy I'm aware of who has been interested in buying the team and has that level of knowledge and experience was...Jim Balsille. Who was going to move the team to Hamilton anyways.

There hasn't been a single rumour of anyone else on his level being interested in the team, and there hasn't been a single rumour that any kind of hockey fan was interested in the team either. That's pretty much just true of every team in the NHL, with the possible exception of the Ryan Reynolds bid for Ottawa.

Who is out there who is a die hard hockey fan, wants hockey in Arizona, and is rich enough to take on a massive amount of debt, probably losing money even with fan support (hey, turns out leasing costs to use an arena and not having access to the revenue streams in said arena is a lot of money and a pretty big deal!) and either owns an arena already or is willing to spend even more money to build one so they don't keep losing money? We're assuming still that we still have that fan support.

The only time I've ever heard of anything remotely similar to this is now when PHNX said that Shane Doan might be part of a new ownership group, which is completely unconfirmed and we haven't heard anything new about in like a month.

Everyone who has been interested in this team has been a businessman first, hockey fan distant 2nd, and most of them have been looking to cash in on an investment. As we've learned, Meruelo despite being a billionaire wasn't smart or knowledgeable enough either.

To say that if we had fan support we would've attracted an experienced, qualified owner when we never had an arena of our own, were always in debt, never had consistently good results, and everyone who has owned the team has been an investor first is...well, a load of BS, honestly.

Fan support is one thing that would help us a lot- absolutely! But you can't just ignore everything else that has been wrong with this team.

The only people who are willing to take on distressed assets that require an investment to make money are investors or people who don't care if they lose money and can afford it.

In 30 years, there hasn't been a single indication that Arizona even has the 2nd. The fact we've been sold to like 5 different investors/hedge funds/groups etc pretty much shows, in my opinion, that there is no saviour for this team, they simply don't exist currently.

The richest person in Arizona, as far as I know, is Ernest Garcia who has no ties to hockey and somewhere between 5-10b in net worth.

So...you agree that fan support didn't matter to most if not all of these owners and that they would have sold anyways.

No, I don't agree. What I said was, "we can't say, I was inclined to think and perhaps."

Corporate support definitely isn't the same as fan support as Corporate support is about making money and incentivizing people to support them and rewarding employees who perform. Has nothing to do with enjoying the experience or rooting for a team.

Having had some experience with corporate suites with the Yotes, I can promise you that it's basically a mirror. You're correct in sighting some of the uses and logic, but in the end it all comes down to entertainment dollars, be it for an individual or a corporation's employees, business associates etc.

You think we would have attracted qualified, experienced ownership if we had more fan support. Okay. Who would this have been? Who would want to take over a franchise that is in debt, has had no good arena at any point in time, has no support from the city(ies) and has perenially sucked at playing the game?

Jerry Reinsdorf. Now don't ask me why he was interested, because I've contended from day one, that I wouldn't touch this franchise because of the apathetic nature of the valley sports fans. I don't know where in the hell your getting no support from the city though. You must have forgotten that Glendale built them an arena.

The only guy I'm aware of who has been interested in buying the team and has that level of knowledge and experience was...Jim Balsille. Who was going to move the team to Hamilton anyways.

There hasn't been a single rumour of anyone else on his level being interested in the team, and there hasn't been a single rumour that any kind of hockey fan was interested in the team either. That's pretty much just true of every team in the NHL, with the possible exception of the Ryan Reynolds bid for Ottawa.

Jerry Reinsdorf.

Who is out there who is a die hard hockey fan, wants hockey in Arizona, and is rich enough to take on a massive amount of debt, probably losing money even with fan support (hey, turns out leasing costs to use an arena and not having access to the revenue streams in said arena is a lot of money and a pretty big deal!) and either owns an arena already or is willing to spend even more money to build one so they don't keep losing money? We're assuming still that we still have that fan support.
The only time I've ever heard of anything remotely similar to this is now when PHNX said that Shane Doan might be part of a new ownership group, which is completely unconfirmed and we haven't heard anything new about in like a month.
Everyone who has been interested in this team has been a businessman first, hockey fan distant 2nd, and most of them have been looking to cash in on an investment. As we've learned, Meruelo despite being a billionaire wasn't smart or knowledgeable enough either.

Weird..... who says that it has to be a die hard hockey fan? Most owners are going to be looking at the ability to make a buck. Franchise values will typically go up and have, if they run the team well, the value escalates further.

To say that if we had fan support we would've attracted an experienced, qualified owner when we never had an arena of our own, were always in debt, never had consistently good results, and everyone who has owned the team has been an investor first is...well, a load of BS, honestly.

We would have indeed, hell Reinsdorf was interested and we were a steaming pile of dung at the time. We did have our own arena.... Glendale, built it for the Coyotes. Lastly and yet again, most owners will be investors first.

Fan support is one thing that would help us a lot- absolutely! But you can't just ignore everything else that has been wrong with this team.

I never have ignored the problems, I've written about "the perfect storm" many times. None of that changes the fact that there wasn't enough fans willing to go to games, even though the writing has been on the wall for over two decades.

The only people who are willing to take on distressed assets that require an investment to make money are investors or people who don't care if they lose money and can afford it.
In 30 years, there hasn't been a single indication that Arizona even has the 2nd. The fact we've been sold to like 5 different investors/hedge funds/groups etc pretty much shows, in my opinion, that there is no saviour for this team, they simply don't exist currently.

The fans needed to be the saviors, they chose not too, even though the writing has been on the wall for over two decades. The beauty of that would have been that owners eventually would have had the support level they needed to allow them to stop trying to piece meal a competitive enough team together, that would attract fans. At that point they could have concentrated on a proper rebuild.

The richest person in Arizona, as far as I know, is Ernest Garcia who has no ties to hockey and somewhere between 5-10b in net worth.

That's nice, I'm sure he's smart enough not to get involved because the lack of fans has been our one constant and thus our claim to fame.

 

[Jamieh]

Going from being 200 million in debt to 150 million in debt doesn't actually change much, actually.

If the building regularly sold out in Glendale any owner would still be missing concession revenue, other event revenue, and would still be paying the lease. That's not a positive formula.

It changes everything. You go from bottom of League in revenue to middle of the pack, and that full building leads to more money for players which leads to better team which leads to more demand for tickets and so on. From there Corporations want to get onboard with sponsorship and suite purchases as their customers are showing them they need to be there.

This is the most basic of economics and I'm not sure how anyone can present an arguement against it???

 

[Coyotedroppings]

@Coyotedroppings I’m not sure why you believe that poor attendance was the root cause of the Coyotes demise. We both know that the demise of the Coyotes was not due to a single point failure. Poor fan support was part of the mix, for sure. Poor ownership, the NHL strikes, economic collapse of 2008, poor front office and yes, poor arena location all amplified each other’s severity.

I'm not sure why anyone doesn't believe it. Look, if you break this down to the brass tacks: The team would still be here had they sold out every game. Now, every game is an exaggeration, but suffice it to say that better (much better) attendance would have done the trick.

Everything you list is true and are reasons folks chose not to attend, now we have no team. You were aware of all those reasons, yet you had season tickets last year (and maybe all 28 years idk), why?

 

[Bonsai Tree]

I'm not sure why anyone doesn't believe it. Look, if you break this down to the brass tacks: The team would still be here had they sold out every game. Now, every game is an exaggeration, but suffice it to say that better (much better) attendance would have done the trick.

Everything you list is true and are reasons folks chose not to attend, now we have no team. You were aware of all those reasons, yet you had season tickets last year (and maybe all 28 years idk), why?

Faith. And loyalty to the home team, I guess. 20 years plus. I had faith that it would eventually work out. And, I really like hockey.

I could use your argument for why American Motors went out of business. Fault of purchasers. Not enough drivers wanted to buy a Rambler. Insufficient customers is due to poor product. Poor attendance is due to poor product (on ice or off, doesn’t matter).

You see, I had disposable income to spend on a poor product without worrying about giving up some other product. I would assume that not too many were as fortunate. Certainly my kids aren’t. If it were the Coyotes or my symphony and theater tickets, or vacations, I might have chosen not to purchase Coyotes tickets.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

@Dead Coyote You keep repeating concession revenue not going to the team and I was certain that was not the case.

Coyotes Chief Business Officer Nick Sakiewicz said the club’s lease in Glendale limited its ability to maximize revenue there, but Phelps asserted that the club’s agreement with arena manager ASM Global was among the most team-friendly in the NHL. Under that deal, the club paid $500,000 in base rent to play in the arena and house its business headquarters there. The Coyotes retained 80% of their $2.1 million arena naming-rights fee with Gila River Resorts & Casino, along with 100% of ticket, game-day food and beverage, merchandise and parking sales. The team paid ASM a flat fee of $750,000 to sell and retain revenue from premium seating for all in-arena events and $820,000 to sell and retain revenue from all in-arena sponsorship inventory, such as dasherboards and interior and exterior signage.

Coyotes on Campus

For the next three years (at least), an NHL franchise will play in a college arena. How Arizona is working to pass a critical test with its future on the line.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

The article goes on to address attendance numbers, for those interested in reading. I'd like to point out that part of those numbers were from the team selling ice time to youth teams, giving them tickets (a lot of tickets) along with the ice time and counting it as ticket sales.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Faith. And loyalty to the home team, I guess. 20 years plus. I had faith that it would eventually work out. And, I really like hockey.

I could use your argument for why American Motors went out of business. Fault of purchasers. Not enough drivers wanted to buy a Rambler. Insufficient customers is due to poor product. Poor attendance is due to poor product (on ice or off, doesn’t matter).

You see, I had disposable income to spend on a poor product without worrying about giving up some other product. I would assume that not too many were as fortunate. Certainly my kids aren’t. If it were the Coyotes or my symphony and theater tickets, or vacations, I might have chosen not to purchase Coyotes tickets.

Those analogies don't fit imo. Sports are different than automobiles and most all other businesses. However, I would imagine there were plenty of AMC owners that loved their vehicles and had some emotional attachment to the vehicles and continued to purchase. There just wasn't enough of these owners, just like there wasn't enough of us. The greater Phoenix area is just shy of 5M people, I doubt you and I are anomalies.

 

[hockeyboy1923]

I am confident the Coyotes would be successful in Phoenix with good ownership given recent demographic changes. Phoenix MSA has 5MM people and is one of the fastest growing in the country, including a significant number of transplants from the Midwest and Northwest, where hockey is popular.

Unfortunately, the history of the franchise and poor ownership has proven too much to overcome. I am pessimistic on anything getting done in the near-term because we are back in line for an expansion franchise and there is a lot of historical negative baggage. Before being up for consideration we need an ownership group and arena, even with that we would need support from the NHL board of governors, which is unlikely. The NHL clearly hates PHX if they were willing to rush and dump it in SLC which is a tiny market where longterm prospects are questionable. Too many people think Arizona was a failed experiment and the market won't work, without realizing all the mistakes that were made by the NHL/management and the Phoenix area today is very different from 15 years ago (3mm in 2020 vs. 5mm people today, significant demographic changes, etc.).

I think the lack of corporate support can also be partially attributed to the arena location in Glendale. If there was an arena in a nicer areas, such as Tempe or Scottsdale, I think there would have been plenty of interest in suites and sponsorships. Demographics more favorable to hockey and it would also be a convenient social event to attend.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

 

[AZDesertKnight]

Hooray!

Now shut this place down. lol

 

[Dirty Old Man]

LOL. This is like 25 years ago, when I dated a woman I worked with and had to say goodbye 4 times. First when she initially dumped me; then when I got transferred to another site; then when I left that company and had my going away lunch; then after our last co-ed rec softball game (all this within 3 months)...it's like "okay, okay, it's over, I get it, Universe. Stop telling me it's over."

 

[Sinurgy]

The one time he's actually able to get something done.

 

[RemoAZ]

I can almost hear Meruelo still laughing at us while celebrating his coup.

 

[Jamieh]

I can almost hear Meruelo still laughing at us while celebrating his coup.

But he lost his lifelong dream of owning a winning sports franchise and bringing a championship to the people!!!!
#sarcasmoff