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

mpir3

Registered User
Apr 7, 2010
224
216
I think the writing is on the wall…Team will be sold, expansion if/when an arena gets built. Coyotes name stays. Sucks for us but probably best long term .
 

Foggy1097

Registered User
Jan 14, 2014
2,515
2,405
Arizona
Why are they relocating the Coyotes to SLC when the auction is in two months? I don’t get it.
Is this for real? Is the league really that hurt about the prospect of playing a few more seasons at Mullet if necessary?
 

JasonDemersWasOkay

Awaiting the return of my beloved team
Nov 14, 2018
3,546
6,517
What the nhl should be doing instead of promising to give a team back to meruelo is courting Ishbia to redo footprint to get an expansion team. The NHL shouldn’t want Meruelo back and I sure as hell f***ing won’t
 

The Feckless Puck

Registered Loser
Sponsor
Oct 26, 2006
18,751
12,006
Just sounds like confirmation of plan B.

I mentioned before in my polite tussle with @rt about what might happen this summer that the NHL would have a fallback plan in place for a relocation. We're just seeing it public now.

Guarantee you this: Smith has had branding, marketing, ticket sales, and the whole non-hockey-ops infrastructure ready to go for months. He's already gotten his sweater designs, logos, and even team names - probably multiple options - approved through the NHL's line of authority already. He probably already has the purchase orders on a desk waiting for a stamp for a whole mess of signage, equipment, etc. All he needs is either the Coyotes' team infrastructure to plug into the gaps, or the green light from the NHL to start filling them in with expansion personnel.

It is the very definition of plug-and-play, no matter how the press hems and haws about detail work, lawyers, and so forth. Smith's existing holding company for the Jazz is more than capable of moving on short notice with all of this stuff. They already have decades of experience running a pro franchise. This is essentially a business version of cellular mitosis for them.

ALL OF THIS SAID - the fact that this has been in process and is now becoming public knowledge DOES NOT MEAN that the relocation is imminent. I know for a fact that a deal like this can pivot from a relocation prep to an expansion prep very quickly, because both processes share all the vital details of approvals, branding, marketing, and so forth - the only thing that really changes is the timetable. And as @rt and others have pointed out - why make all this fuss about the auction, only to turn around A WEEK LATER and dump the team? Unless, like I pointed out above, Meruelo wants the cash to quick-start the infrastructure build and site prep assuming the auction goes through.

Breathe, people, it's not over yet.
 

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