I really feel bad for the actual thousands of real hockey fans in the desert. The Coyotes leaving them, will hurt them every bit as much as it hurt folks in Quebec when we were gifted the Avalanche.
What doesn't make sense to me, is how long Gary insisted on trying to make it work in Arizona. The league treats the fly over states as exactly that. They do a great job with the original 6 (Chicago) a bit better with the older team (St. Louis) but they care f*** all for the rest of the central. They constantly allow their TV partners to not air the complete games for teams outside of the eastern conference by allowing double headers without adequate time for to account for OT. So why Arizona? Why try so hard to make it work? If Arizona had succeeded wildly, it would be a terribly situation for the league with a great team in a terrible hockey TV market and a team that in fairness, would probably sell out most nights if they were true contenders. But they've never sold the team to an owner with the financial wherewithal to actually do what needs to be done...build his own f***ing arena and build a contender willing to spend to the cap ceiling when an arena was in hand. Yes, Meruelo is a billionaire but I'm not sure he's got the assets or clout available to finance a deal on his own, he's got a net worth of ~2B according to Forbes. I'm not sure if the league will allow him to move the franchise, or if they will force him to sell it to someone who can afford their own deal and allow them to move it. The team is only valued at
450M by Forbes. (Note to self, there are some business pages that you need to remember have some really interesting information on NHL teams, Forbes happens to be one, I need to frequent more often.)
Not exactly what I would call a healthy organization to be buying. A real owner should understand that drastic changes are needed. My final evaluation on why it's taken so long, is because the other owners told Gary they liked having a safety valve to stick bad contracts on and the weak ass owners the Yotes have had have gone along with it.
Final thought, as much as we joke, we really should not blame the community. They did a lot better when they first arrived and had a much better TV draw back then. They made the playoffs the first four seasons had a decent team with Roenick, Amonte and Tkachuk. I remember them adopting Winnipegs whiteout as a tribute those four springs and it was actually rocking in the desert during the playoffs. You can't blame the people of Arizona for the failures the organization had after that welcoming. You can blame location they chose to place their arena (Glendale), similar to how Florida is being killed in the regular season by being so far away from Miami/South Beach. But don't crap on the fans. They have a lot of die hards that love that team like we love ours and today's news is going to be what feels like a dagger in the back, because I can't see a path forward that involved an arena in Arizona. They only path I think of that could be feasible probably was already tried. Was there an attempt to convert Footprint arena into dual use with an ice-hockey rink added to the basketball court? That location could work, and that cost might be something an owner could afford to put together that would, I hope, cost considerably less than a new arena.
