BREAKING: It's over. Multiple sources confirm to @PHNX_Sports that Alex Meruelo is walking away from his ownership of the Coyotes.

[robertmac43]

Going to be a process but hopefully AZ fans get a better owner when the NHL comes back.

 

[stats1]

By the year 2060-2070 sports is going to one global league. I read something like the NFL is thinking of adding 10-15 teams over the globe in the next 30-40 years. The NHL could probably do the same thing in Europe. As long big money can be made expansion will always happen

 

[Curufinwe]

Does this mean Utah could use the "Coyotes" name?

Coyetis

By the year 2060-2070 sports is going to one global league.

No it's not.

 

[MikeK]

By the year 2060-2070 sports is going to one global league. I read something like the NFL is thinking of adding 10-15 teams over the globe in the next 30-40 years. The NHL could probably do the same thing in Europe. As long big money can be made expansion will always happen

By that time most full contact leagues will be using AI and look vastly different than what they are today. Enrolment continues to decline across the big leagues because of everything we now know about head injuries. More and more parents are putting their kids in other activities. By 2060-2070 sports as we know it today won't exist.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Does this mean Utah could use the "Coyotes" name?

nope....

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

By the year 2060-2070 sports is going to one global league. I read something like the NFL is thinking of adding 10-15 teams over the globe in the next 30-40 years. The NHL could probably do the same thing in Europe. As long big money can be made expansion will always happen

Do time zones not exist in the future?

 

[Voight]

So then the combined Jets 1.0 and 2.0 would be an NHL franchise from 1979-1996, then inactive from 1996-2011? Then the league pretends the Thrashers didn't exist? Seems complicated. Easier to give Jets 1.0 + Coyotes history to Utah as there's actually a direct correlation.

Either put the Thrashers history on ice incase there's a future Atlanta team or considered them a folded team.

 

[Cas]

Does this mean Utah could use the "Coyotes" name?

Presumably they'll still have to buy the rights from Meruelo. He still owns the franchise, he's just abandoning plans to to what it takes to keep it alive after 2029.

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

Have they tried introducing hockey teams to cities that actually care about hockey?

Good timing on the comment with the recent Cup champs.

 

[Louie the Blue]

For the good of the NHL I think they should shut down the Coyotes experiment until they can find a market down there with a good amount of support.

Obviously at the end of the day this is a numbers problem and hockey in Az is not really happening. I think the NHL should just cut their losses and fully disband the franchise. They’ve been in financial ruin for so long because the fan support is just very weak.

What? The one good thing that the Coyotes did during those in Arizona was grow the game and increase youth participation in the sport.

Hockey in Phoenix can work if it has competent ownership that has the money to run a team and plays in a venue that isn’t a pain in the ass for a majority of the metro area population to get to multiple times a week.

Their financial problems date back to a construction of an arena in a location that they didn’t focus on in the first place. If their arena was in Tempe, Scottsdale, or actual Phoenix instead of freaking Glendale they’d be OK as well as not having complete buffoons own and operate the team during the majority of their existence.

 

[cptjeff]

Presumably they'll still have to buy the rights from Meruelo. He still owns the franchise, he's just abandoning plans to to what it takes to keep it alive after 2029.

The rights are non-transferable. If Meruelo has truly given up, he can surrender them back to the NHL, but that's it.

 

[Skidooboy]

Either put the Thrashers history on ice incase there's a future Atlanta team or considered them a folded team.

no.

it's a pen stroke for the BOG.

the Jets get the Jets 1.0 history
Atlanta and AZ are listed as "Inactive" and either market gets the history if and when they get a team, and Utah gets it's own "expansion franchise" with a shiny new history just like Vegas and Seattle etc.

The rights are non-transferable. If Meruelo has truly given up, he can surrender them back to the NHL, but that's it.

the NHL can also seize them if he fails to meet any of their reportedly extensive Benchmarks... so his "walking away" is just that...he walks and the League takes it's toys back.

 

[Cas]

The rights are non-transferable. If Meruelo has truly given up, he can surrender them back to the NHL, but that's it.

Who owns the rights to the intellectual property? As I understood it, that remains Meruelo.

The franchise is non-transferable, but I don't believe the name "Coyotes" is.

 

[Skidooboy]

Presumably they'll still have to buy the rights from Meruelo. He still owns the franchise, he's just abandoning plans to to what it takes to keep it alive after 2029.

no he will be forced to relinquish those righhts to the league...There were reportedly a series of Benchmarks for Murello to hit in order to retain the brand.. so he gets nothing for that....rumors indicate he also didn't ever and will never get $1Billion.....there is a persistent rumor that much of Murello's "ownership' was as a figurehead on paper, and the League still held a significant portion of franchise...

I heard Murello gets at best? a few hundred million... which is still more than he deserves

 

[Garbageyuk]

Good riddance to him and that absolute joke of a franchise.

 

[archangel2]

not shocked by this. But what happens to the money UTAH have him? Bought for 1.2 billion with 1bill to activate the team when the new arena was built. Does the NHL keep the money in the bank?

When I read his proposal for what he wanted to bid? It was a joke,

 

[jokesondee]

Now give the Winnipeg Jets back their f***ing history.

 

[FoxYou727]

By the year 2060-2070 sports is going to one global league. I read something like the NFL is thinking of adding 10-15 teams over the globe in the next 30-40 years. The NHL could probably do the same thing in Europe. As long big money can be made expansion will always happen

Will never happen. I do think the NFL will be the first league to expand to Europe even so that is still EXTREMELY unlikely. The NHL wants to expand it's American footprint more than anything and I remember reading the IIHF would oppose any expansion into Europe... Regardless I do hope if the NHL does go to 40 we get a Canadian division with 10 teams and 30 in the States

 

[BaileyFan]

So can the NHL now acknowledge that Utah HC is a continuation of the Coyotes/Jets franchise or are they still gonna do the ridiculous “no, they’re an expansion team that just inherited every AZ player and draft pick” song and dance?

Utah Coyotes is a better name and brand than any of the options they’ll end up choosing.

 

[GordonGraham]

Great news been waiting for this day for years

Yes they had some die hard fans but clearly not enough and didnt grew their fan base at all in 25+ years, failed in 3 different buildings with 5 or 6 different ownership group

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

So can the NHL now acknowledge that Utah HC is a continuation of the Coyotes/Jets franchise or are they still gonna do the ridiculous “no, they’re an expansion team that just inherited every AZ player and draft pick” song and dance?

Utah Coyotes is a better name and brand than any of the options they’ll end up choosing.

separate franchise

 

[cptjeff]

Who owns the rights to the intellectual property? As I understood it, that remains Meruelo.

The franchise is non-transferable, but I don't believe the name "Coyotes" is.

The IP is owned by the franchise, as is the case with every NHL team, not the owner personally. If the franchise itself is dissolved, it all reverts to the NHL.

 

[Guardian17]

Now return the Jets 1.0 history to Winnipeg.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Now return the Jets 1.0 history to Winnipeg.

separate franchises

 

[Guardian17]

separate franchises

Doesn't matter.

The NBA transferred the Hornets 1.0 records from the New Orleans Pelicans to the Hornets 2.0 who came into the NBA as the Bobcats.

The world did not end when this happened.