Around the NHL 11 - 2023/24

[Guardian17]

Arizona Coyotes players told team is moving to Utah

According to several sources, Arizona Coyotes players and staff were informed before Friday’s game in Edmonton that the team is headed to Utah, and there will be attempts to help those affected visit Salt Lake City.

www.sportsnet.ca

 

[ps241]

Salt Lake City metro is smaller than Calgary, Edmonotn and Ottawa, don't know how they support both the NBA and NHL with only 1.3M

It will be interesting to see. I agree it’s not very big city for two professional leagues whose seasons overlap.

 

[snowkiddin]

1 - a fanbase that LOST their franchise once and was gutted because of it should not be "happy" for another fanbase losing their team.

2 - the both fans comment is so trite.

Many people (myself included) do feel bad for the fans — it sucks. But in particular it’s difficult for a lot of Winnipeggers to feel too much sorrow given the circumstances. The NHL did everything possible to keep them there and it just didn’t work out. I understand the resentment of Jets fans who feel shafted that their team was shipped out lickity split to a place that failed for 28 years but was given chance after chance after chance.

2. It was a pretty low hanging fruit joke, yeah.

 

[Gm0ney]

They're Mormons, the beer line is going to be the shortest in the league. It's about "expansion into non-traditional markets".

There is an upside...

 

[Stumbledore]

There is more to why Glendale failed. The team did not get any revenue from concessions or parking. When they tried to negotiate a new deal the deal died and they got booted out.

There's a 16 year history of politics, bad marketing, criminal owners and bad luck in the failure of the Coyotes. Head over to the Business of Hockey Forum and you can find over 148,000 posts about the problems.

 

[King Woodballs]

Many people (myself included) do feel bad for the fans — it sucks. But in particular it’s difficult for a lot of Winnipeggers to feel too much sorrow given the circumstances. The NHL did everything possible to keep them there and it just didn’t work out. I understand the resentment of Jets fans who feel shafted that their team was shipped out lickity split to a place that failed for 28 years but was given chance after chance after chance.

2. It was a pretty low hanging fruit joke, yeah.

This is exactly it right here.

I feel zero remorse for anyone because of how f***ed Winnipeg and their fans got.

Arizona had almost 3 decades to get it to work and couldn’t even come remotely close to being functional.

 

[snowkiddin]

This is exactly it right here.

I feel zero remorse for anyone because of how f***ed Winnipeg and their fans got.

Arizona had almost 3 decades to get to working and couldn’t even come remotely close to being functional.

The majority of “neutral” forums (like the main boards) are offering an outpouring of condolences to the fanbase and are shitting on that Merulo f***er.

I do feel bad for the fans and I think it’s such a dick move to troll on the Coyotes forum so I totally understand that mod’s note.

But while I’m empathetic to the fans, I am happy that disaster is finally over. At the end of the day, the only people who seemed interested in owning the team were people who wanted to run the team at the cap floor with an assload of money tied up in the LTIR. The NHL repeatedly bailed them out for years. The Coyotes pissed off other owners, and poisoned their relationship with cities in Arizona.

Every city — Winnipeg, Quebec City, Hartford, Atlanta, all of them — deserve to have the NHL try to keep a team in their city as much as they did with Arizona.

Even Bettman is finally conceding defeat on this one. After nearly three decades of a cycle of bad owners in a bad market enabled by Bettman, his pride, and his love of trying to grow the game in non-traditional hockey markets, it’s about time this saga is over.

 

[Buffdog]

Salt Lake City Stormin' Mormons?

Had a Mormon guy on my college team. Of course we called him that

 

[bustamente]

Sounds like the NHL is glad to get rid of Merulo who sounds like a con man and grifter, sure seems like a lot of that is going on in the world nowadays. He may maintain the rights for the Coyotes if they can ever get a team back but I bet he takes the money and runs maybe even sells the rights in the future.

 

[Andy6]

It will be interesting to see. I agree it’s not very big city for two professional leagues whose seasons overlap.

It's 2.7 million if you include the adjacent Provo and Ogden metro areas, each of which alone is in the 500-700k range.

 

[mondo3]

Is anyone here been to Salt Lake City? If so, to which other city would it compare?

 

[roccerfeller]

To me, SLC is about as boring a city as you can get for getting the Coyotes.

It sucks for hockey fans in Quebec City -passed over for a 3rd time. From the time TN built the MTS Centre, no new hockey markets received teams until the Thrashers came to Winnipeg. So we never had to suffer through the pain of being passed over even a single time.

Yeah, Las Vegas and Seattle were solid choices for expansion. But Utah? No strong hockey history and not even that big a city/media market. QC being passed over for SLC is a punch to the gut to the thousands who hope for a return of Les Nordiques. It seems inevitable that the Videotron Centre will have the same fate as Copps Coliseum in Hamilton: an arena built for an NHL dream that will never be fulfilled. I hope I'm wrong.

In the NHLs eyes, Ryan Smith > PKP

No one else seems to be interested in bringing a team to QC and PKP for whatever possible myriad of reasons isn't atop the NHLs good books

 

[roccerfeller]

Yeah, part of the reason the Jets moved the first time was the arena and a lack of a new one. There's no way 5 years at Mullett was sustainable without the new arena already being under construction.

Apparently the sale is $1.2bn with $1bn going to Meruelo and 200m to the owners as a relocation fee. Meruelo also has a guarantee that he'll get a team if they can build a rink within 5 years and then Meruelo will have to pay back the $1bn, something tells me the arena won't be built.

I do think SLC will work for hockey. Utah is great for an outdoorsman and the Church doesn't have that big a hold on the city itself, though it definitely impacts life from day to day. Could be seeing it on the top NTC destinations starting next year.

I sorta backed off following the NBA after the 76ers Iverson era ... always hear how Raptors are low on NBA players list of destinations. How does SLC fare with the Jazz in attracting players?

 

[bustamente]

Until someone with deep pockets who can take over the arena, buy a team and play a relocation fee Quebec will have a had time getting back into the NHL. Expansion is around the corner and the league wants 1 of Houston , Atlanta or KC, but do those markets wants in.

 

[bustamente]

I sorta backed off following the NBA after the 76ers Iverson era ... always hear how Raptors are low on NBA players list of destinations. How does SLC fare with the Jazz in attracting players?

In the hey day of Stockton and Malone they had no problems with keeping and or bringing in new players. Sloan was a great coach and that helped too. I believe it will work in SLC but they need a new arena

 

[macmaroon]

Is anyone here been to Salt Lake City? If so, to which other city would it compare?

I usually go to Salt Lake City and surroundings at least once a year and think the NHL will do well. The metro area is huge, running from Ogden to the north and Provo to the south. Can't be any worse than the Coyotes debacle for over twenty years...

 

[sipowicz]

Salt Lake City Stormin' Mormons?

Had a Mormon guy on my college team. Of course we called him that

Used to play shinny with a couple Marmots, one guy was Colorado and the other from Minny, both were pretty good for Merkans!

 

[Jet]

DW boys, the desert dogs live on

 

[ps241]

It's 2.7 million if you include the adjacent Provo and Ogden metro areas, each of which alone is in the 500-700k range.

Provo appears to be about a 45 minute drive to Salt Lake City (Delta centre), 53 minutes from Ogden to the Delta centre. That is doable but not great.

 

[AussieBomberJet]

Never has and never will, except for the fact that there's been a professional hockey team playing in SLC since 1984.

I was referring to Phoenix.

 

[macmaroon]

Provo appears to be about a 45 minute drive to Salt Lake City (Delta centre), 53 minutes from Ogden to the Delta centre. That is doable but not great.

They have Metro Rail and Diamond Lanes on the Interstate, very doable...

 

[macmaroon]

Good article about Utah Jazz owner and hockey history in Utah...

In Ryan Smith’s NHL dream, the puck stops in Salt Lake City

 

[RabidOne]

I usually go to Salt Lake City and surroundings at least once a year and think the NHL will do well. The metro area is huge, running from Ogden to the north and Provo to the south. Can't be any worse than the Coyotes debacle for over twenty years...

What takes you there?

 

[macmaroon]

What takes you there?

On my way to Vegas...

Actually, I would go there anyway, Utah is a very beautiful state and I find the people very friendly. I even had a lady stop me before I got in my car one day to tell me her daughter did missionary work in Winnipeg and liked it very much! At least they know where Manitoba is...

 

[Section 325]

Is anyone here been to Salt Lake City? If so, to which other city would it compare?

I have. I would say it's like a smaller version of Denver? The Metro is very spread out but in a pretty strange way. It is maybe 8-10km East to West but it just keeps going and going North to South for about 100-120km (Ogden to Salt Lake City to Provo).

It is an absolutely beautiful place so I think it has that going for it.

If anybody is interested in going to the final Coyotes game in Phoenix...