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

[TheLegend]

I don’t want to be too in depth but follow the $$$ - The recent VGK event in Gilbert wasn’t received well by some. Which is ridiculous

Probably because it's too soon.

I have my own reasons for not caring for Vegas. But I don't hold it against them trying to reach into what is technically and open market after losing another area.

That said.......

There's been an underlying and slow smoldering distaste for Vegas around the league in general. Because they were literally handed a Stanley Cup competitive franchise from the get go.

Now couple that with trying to come into a market that was saddled with a 28 year old clown show and having it ripped from them at the time when it looked like they would finally get somewhere.

And add to that Vegas hiring a PR guy who spent well over a decade writing countless articles that constantly piled shit onto "desert hockey" and more specifically the Arizona market itself..... and just last year in a game broadcast openly said that market and fanbase should lose their team.

 

[TheLegend]

@Coyotedroppings will love this one....

Asshattery confirmed.....

[paywalled but you can get around it]

At Mater Dei, a unique link to USC's secret admission system for donors' kids

The former president of this Orange County school helped affluent students enter USC as walk-on athletes — a route that the university now acknowledges as fraud.

www.latimes.com

Updated:

The person who is the subject of this article is still with the team in Utah.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1854997780743303289

 

[AZDesertKnight]

Probably because it's too soon.

I have my own reasons for not caring for Vegas. But I don't hold it against them trying to reach into what is technically and open market after losing another area.

That said.......

There's been an underlying and slow smoldering distaste for Vegas around the league in general. Because they were literally handed a Stanley Cup competitive franchise from the get go.

Now couple that with trying to come into a market that was saddled with a 28 year old clown show and having it ripped from them at the time when it looked like they would finally get somewhere.

And add to that Vegas hiring a PR guy who spent well over a decade writing countless articles that constantly piled shit onto "desert hockey" and more specifically the Arizona market itself..... and just last year in a game broadcast openly said that market and fanbase should lose their team.

I won't lie, I do want to punch my TV every time I see Gary Lawless on my screen.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

@Coyotedroppings will love this one....

Asshattery confirmed.....

[paywalled but you can get around it]

At Mater Dei, a unique link to USC's secret admission system for donors' kids

The former president of this Orange County school helped affluent students enter USC as walk-on athletes — a route that the university now acknowledges as fraud.

www.latimes.com

Updated:

The person who is the subject of this article is still with the team in Utah.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1854997780743303289

Can't seem to find my way around the paywall.

 

[TheLegend]

Can't seem to find my way around the paywall.

Go here and copy/paste the article link in

RemovePaywall | Free online paywall remover

Remove Paywall, free online paywall remover. Get access to articles without having to pay or login. Works on Bloomberg and hundreds more.

www.removepaywall.com

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Go here and copy/paste the article link in

RemovePaywall | Free online paywall remover

Remove Paywall, free online paywall remover. Get access to articles without having to pay or login. Works on Bloomberg and hundreds more.

www.removepaywall.com

Thanks and yes I absolutely "loved" it! Asshatery at it's finest.

 

[TheLegend]

Thanks and yes I absolutely "loved" it! Asshatery at it's finest.

Shades of the “Varsity Blues” case, no?

I remember my father had someone help me into getting me in at Cal Poly SLO but there wasn’t any payola involved and CP back then was only beginning to tighten its admissions requirements.

My SAT scores were way over my GPA so it wasn’t that big of a deal. This is just “wow”.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Shades of the “Varsity Blues” case, no?

I remember my father had someone help me into getting me in at Cal Poly SLO but there wasn’t any payola involved and CP back then was only beginning to tighten its admissions requirements.

My SAT scores were way over my GPA so it wasn’t that big of a deal. This is just “wow”.

Definitely

I could go on about this, but would wind up getting political. Suffice it to say that my belief has always been that the pendulum is best in the middle, be it management / labor, or rich assholes / DEI.

 

[Sinurgy]

I'm sure everyone saw the Biz stuff. New footage today (new to me anyway) shows those same pieces of shit assaulting servers at the golf course too. Such pieces of shit!

 

[Bondurant]

Why is VGK blacked on on ESPN+ when Utah is on KASW?

 

[TheLegend]

Why is VGK blacked on on ESPN+ when Utah is on KASW?

AFAIK….. ESPN considers Arizona is home territory for both teams.

 

[Bondurant]

AFAIK….. ESPN considers Arizona is home territory for both teams.

They do but when one of the games is not broadcast locally, I would think it should be available on ESPN+ but, then again, I shouldn't anticipate them to be that intuitive.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

Bettman on the Michael Kay Show (NY sports radio show) said that the reason they left Arizona is because there was no prospect of a new building in the next 5 years. Basically, NHL knew Meruelo was not gonna build that arena in Phoenix/Scottsdale and knew they had to get rid of him.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Bettman on the Michael Kay Show (NY sports radio show) said that the reason they left Arizona is because there was no prospect of a new building in the next 5 years. Basically, NHL knew Meruelo was not gonna build that arena in Phoenix/Scottsdale and knew they had to get rid of him.

Meruelo was the straw that broke the camel's back. Bettman and co. proved to be willing to bend much farther than they probably should have when it came to the Rotating Door of Circus Clowns starting with Jerry Moyes, but the Meruelos were too much. And that's saying something.

Based solely on the narrative the NHL is pushing about Ryan Smith being the greatest owner of all time (see: Mark Spector's latest), the league is never coming back here. And considering that nobody has any sort of concrete plan to try it, that's probably for the best.

 

[AZDesertKnight]

Meruelo was the straw that broke the camel's back. Bettman and co. proved to be willing to bend much farther than they probably should have when it came to the Rotating Door of Circus Clowns starting with Jerry Moyes, but the Meruelos were too much. And that's saying something.

Based solely on the narrative the NHL is pushing about Ryan Smith being the greatest owner of all time (see: Mark Spector's latest), the league is never coming back here. And considering that nobody has any sort of concrete plan to try it, that's probably for the best.

There is only one path forward.. anyone telling you differently is the same boat of the Meruelo, Ice Arizona, Greg Jamison, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Ellman bunch of pretenders. But its going to be 5-10 years

 

[DaBadGuy7]

Meruelo was the straw that broke the camel's back. Bettman and co. proved to be willing to bend much farther than they probably should have when it came to the Rotating Door of Circus Clowns starting with Jerry Moyes, but the Meruelos were too much. And that's saying something.

Based solely on the narrative the NHL is pushing about Ryan Smith being the greatest owner of all time (see: Mark Spector's latest), the league is never coming back here. And considering that nobody has any sort of concrete plan to try it, that's probably for the best.

To me it will depend on if the Suns new arena down the line will be fitted for hockey (which should be case just to host hockey based events anyway). If it is, NHL will be back imo, but that’s 10 years down the line based on the recent Footprint Center renovations.

 

[TheLegend]

Meruelo was the straw that broke the camel's back. Bettman and co. proved to be willing to bend much farther than they probably should have when it came to the Rotating Door of Circus Clowns starting with Jerry Moyes, but the Meruelos were too much. And that's saying something.

Based solely on the narrative the NHL is pushing about Ryan Smith being the greatest owner of all time (see: Mark Spector's latest), the league is never coming back here. And considering that nobody has any sort of concrete plan to try it, that's probably for the best.

FWIW..... they said similar things about IceArizona, Andrew Barroway and Alex Meruelo..

With the NHL you're the greatest until you're not.

 

[TheLegend]

They do but when one of the games is not broadcast locally, I would think it should be available on ESPN+ but, then again, I shouldn't anticipate them to be that intuitive.

That would involve a bunch of single level programming at the distribution level and they aren't going to pay a couple of internes to do that.

Hell..... Cox didn't even list last night's Stars @ UHC gme at all.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

FWIW..... they said similar things about IceArizona, Andrew Barroway and Alex Meruelo..

With the NHL you're the greatest until you're not.

I know what you're saying, but they never said that IceArizona, Barroway, and Meruelo were providing the team with everything they needed immediately, like practice arenas, effective transportation, an actual hockey ops budget, etc., like the Smiths are doing for UHC - because none of those groups ever did all of that stuff. Hell, we rejoiced like it was Christmas whenever Barroway or Meruelo loosened the purse strings to sign anyone over a league-minimum contract - and here are the Smiths building new practice barns, creating infrastructure on the fly with the help of an extremely interested legislature, etc. - IOW, acting like real owners rather than scab caretakers.

And sure, the fact that this is the new toy for the SLC area isn't going to sustain the franchise long-term, any more than it did for the Coyotes when they first got to Phoenix, but there's no question that the most aggravating thing about thinkpieces like Spector's - that the team is miles and miles better off than they were in Arizona - is that they're right.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

It still blows my mind thinking about - 10 years ago - if you'd said Las Vegas, Seattle, and SLC would all be in the NHL, and Arizona out of it... 2 months into the season and I still can't shake that "kicked out of the club" feeling... plus my two favorite basketball teams (Magic, U. of Florida) are both really good for once... I mean, I'm addicted to HF so I still check here a lot, but it's weird after 28 years, not really caring about the NHL. Good on Grimes and rt for channeling it positively, though. It's encouraging.

 

[TheLegend]

I know what you're saying, but they never said that IceArizona, Barroway, and Meruelo were providing the team with everything they needed immediately, like practice arenas, effective transportation, an actual hockey ops budget, etc., like the Smiths are doing for UHC - because none of those groups ever did all of that stuff. Hell, we rejoiced like it was Christmas whenever Barroway or Meruelo loosened the purse strings to sign anyone over a league-minimum contract - and here are the Smiths building new practice barns, creating infrastructure on the fly with the help of an extremely interested legislature, etc. - IOW, acting like real owners rather than scab caretakers.

And sure, the fact that this is the new toy for the SLC area isn't going to sustain the franchise long-term, any more than it did for the Coyotes when they first got to Phoenix, but there's no question that the most aggravating thing about thinkpieces like Spector's - that the team is miles and miles better off than they were in Arizona - is that they're right.

Smith has the luxury of legislative bodies who have yet to be taken to the cleaners by the Colangelos, Ellmans and Bidwills of the world.

Nor have they faced the same kinds of growing pains over the last two decades of an Arizona.

Will be interesting to see if they go through with the MLB bid too.

 

[Sinurgy]

It still blows my mind thinking about - 10 years ago - if you'd said Las Vegas, Seattle, and SLC would all be in the NHL, and Arizona out of it... 2 months into the season and I still can't shake that "kicked out of the club" feeling... plus my two favorite basketball teams (Magic, U. of Florida) are both really good for once... I mean, I'm addicted to HF so I still check here a lot, but it's weird after 28 years, not really caring about the NHL. Good on Grimes and rt for channeling it positively, though. It's encouraging.

Same...I came back here and posted about Biz partly just to mention it but equally because I couldn't stand how long it had been since anything posted here. I'm addicted to HF too but mostly just forum 40. It's crazy though, I don't think I've watched a single NHL game this year, at least not in its entirety, and this is coming from someone who would of course watch the vast majority of Coyotes games but also any given season I'd watch well over a hundred games in general. The NHL just makes it sooooooo f***ing easy not to watch any of their content. I have YouTube TV, Hulu, Max, Amazon, Paramount+, Disney+, ESPN+, Netflix, and probably others I'm not even thinking of right now and basically ESPN+ is the only one that has NHL games. I haven't seen a single Utah game, not even cause I'm bitter, it's just impossible to f***ing watch cause it's either not on at all or it's blacked out for reasons. The NHL can be so f***ing ghetto!

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Same...I came back here and posted about Biz partly just to mention it but equally because I couldn't stand how long it had been since anything posted here. I'm addicted to HF too but mostly just forum 40. It's crazy though, I don't think I've watched a single NHL game this year, at least not in its entirety, and this is coming from someone who would of course watch the vast majority of Coyotes games but also any given season I'd watch well over a hundred games in general. The NHL just makes it sooooooo f***ing easy not to watch any of their content. I have YouTube TV, Hulu, Max, Amazon, Paramount+, Disney+, ESPN+, Netflix, and probably others I'm not even thinking of right now and basically ESPN+ is the only one that has NHL games. I haven't seen a single Utah game, not even cause I'm bitter, it's just impossible to f***ing watch cause it's either not on at all or it's blacked out for reasons. The NHL can be so f***ing ghetto!

I haven't watched a single NHL game, and I'm not even tempted to. The avalanche of schadenfreude from all quarters about how it's about damn time the league wasn't in Arizona - half of the UHC coverage outside of Salt Lake City is more about "Yay! No more Arizona!" than it is "Yay! A Utah hockey team!" - makes me feel like the NHL and its fans couldn't give less of a shit about me. And yes, it feels goddamned personal.

But also, the continuing narrative from UHC coaches, players, and management about how they're finally in a "winter city" and all that horseshit is making it easier every second for me to ignore my former team. The fact that Josh Doan is playing for the soon-to-be-Reno Roadrunners only greases the skids more.

It's crazy - I've had two sporting obsessions in my life, and it just blows my mind how time and fate have conspired to make me loathe both of them after years of thinking I'd follow them the rest of my life. Time and age are crazy, folks.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

But also, the continuing narrative from UHC coaches, players, and management about how they're finally in a "winter city"...

I will sheepishly concede that one point: about, I dunno, 8-10 years ago I went to SLC for a weekend for the heck of it, and while I was there I went to an ECHL Grizzlies game, and I also went to visit the Olympic speed skating venue, which happened to be hosting a youth hockey tournament at the time. And as I looked around, the thought did occur to me "y'know... you could make the argument an NHL team makes more sense here", and this was long long before anyone had ever brought that possibility up.

 

[Sinurgy]

It's crazy - I've had two sporting obsessions in my life, and it just blows my mind how time and fate have conspired to make me loathe both of them after years of thinking I'd follow them the rest of my life. Time and age are crazy, folks.

We're pretty much the same here. My other sport is college football and while I'm still hanging in there, it's getting very tough. I am all for NIL and I don't think they could've done a worse job of implementing it. Almost seems like the goal all along was to destroy the sport.