CXLIV - The Tempe era set to begin as ASU opens Mullett Arena

[PredsHead]

So the commissioner of the NHL is calling smalltime radio hosts to solicit interviews?




Doug Franz Unplugged | a podcast by Doug Franz

This guy says, around 15:00 mark, that Bettman called him out of the blue to ask for an interview. Actual interview starts around 30:00 minute mark.

 

[PredsHead]

No, it's because the COG knew that AM was looking for his own arena. Obviously, if AM moves from Glendale, that's lost revenue to them. Why help keep a team in the valley, that will eventually move to a new arena, that would compete for other events? That doesn't make much sense. They did the smart thing by kicking them to the curb and hoping that they couldn't find a place to stay in AZ. If ASU didn't have their new arena, who knows what might have happened with the team.

If that was the case then why not pull the plug when Gary Bettman came out and said "the Coyotes cannot and will not remain in Glendale" two years before Meruelo even bought the team?

Gary Bettman: Arizona Coyotes 'cannot and will not remain in Glendale' | FOX Sports

Or put up with Meruelo not paying his bills on time for another two years once he did?

 

[Tawnos]

If that was the case then why not pull the plug when Gary Bettman came out and said "the Coyotes cannot and will not remain in Glendale" two years before Meruelo even bought the team?

Gary Bettman: Arizona Coyotes 'cannot and will not remain in Glendale' | FOX Sports

Or put up with Meruelo not paying his bills on time for another two years once he did?

Circles really do have no end.

 

[LPHabsFan]

Nobody knows how much debt the Coyotes actually have. And why is that an issue to YOU or anyone else? If the owner is ok with the debt, why does it matter? Perhaps when AM bought the team, the league forgave all the debt.

AM is the first owner the Coyotes have had that can actually do what he says. The issue with the Coyotes in Glendale is that the owner didn't also own Westgate. The only way the Coyotes work(and a lot of pro sports teams to be honest), is either A) Be the managing group behind events at the arena and get a cut of all events that take place there, or B) Have other businesses that can help offset losses or just be an additional players in the business itself. AM has many other ventures that he makes money from, I'm not concerned about his liquidity like you mention.

Ah yes the good ol "it's not your money" or "you're not a fan of the team" so it's none of your business argument. Classic.

And are you really trying to suggest that the NHL was just like, "ya no problem, we'll forgive hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and we'll just pay it off for you"?

I'm not even sure where to begin with that second paragraph. Firstly, I never said I was concerned with his liquidity. I said that there is no way that Muruelo or anyone would just plop down the amount of money needed to build this whole project. That's not the same thing.

I think people are forgetting the fact that these types of projects don't make the money they make because of monthly or yearly income. They make them on resale. But again, AM is part of a group that will own TED. We don't know how much of it will actually be his.

Regardless, you're not seeing the fact that none of the significant sales that will make this project financially make sense will happen for at least 5 - 7 years. Especially since, as has been mentioned, the homes are the big selling point and if I'm not mistaken, they won't be built until much later on in the process.

All the while the Coyotes will continue to rack up 10 of millions of dollars of debt on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars of debt they already have.

Face it, at best, him owning the Coyotes is a means to an ends and that's to get the district built. As soon as humanly possible after that's well and done, IF it even gets off the ground, he's out.

Doesn't he also have a history of basically flipping properties/companies?

You know Quebec City thought that..... get the PUBLIC to build an arena and the return of the Nordiques was a lock.

Didn't turn out that way, did it??

But sure.... it's so nice to know that we have so many experts in this forum who know everything there is about Alex Meruelo because they have more vetting power than a 100 Glendale's or Tempe's or ASUs to fill us full of cute memeisms.

Oof. Someone must have seen the "Habs" in my name and just made a whole boatload of assumptions based just on that. My feelings on the Nordiques is extremely complicated and has ties to local politics including language politics so depending on the day, I either want them back so it can show on an an even bigger level how ass backwards the Government here is or I don't want them back because f*** the people in Quebec City.

As for the spending of public money on the arena, I mean unfortunately there's nothing that can be done about that but honestly the money they spent on that but if you know about Quebec and their spending of public money, that's nothing in the grand scheme of things.

As to your last point, I mean are you really trying to tell me that we should trust the people in charge of those organizations and their vetting ability? Glendale? Really? Even Tempe? I mean if you trust them, I have a bridge I'd like to talk to you about in terms of potential ownership and the millions you could make off of it once you own it.

 

[gstommylee]

Its also Tempe's risk, hence the referendum. Please bring them I would love for you to tell us how a town that built the Coyotes an arena and paid them what $15M a year for how many years is the bad guy in this story.


Why wouldn't Glendale want a long-term lease? They were still paying for the bonds on the arena they built for the Coyotes and were about to have to pay for upgrades and repairs to the arena.

The only risk by tempe has NOTHING to do with the buildings itself. It has to do with cleaning up the land and infrastructure which they WILL still have some risk no matter WHAT goes there.

 

[PredsHead]

The only risk by tempe has NOTHING to do with the buildings itself. It has to do with cleaning up the land and infrastructure which they WILL still have some risk no matter WHAT goes there.

Tempe is trusting Meruelo to abide by his end of the DDA. What happens if Bluebird goes bankrupt halfway through the project? Or Katie Strang drops another hit piece and Meruelo ends up like Sarver? Or what if they do build the arena and it ends up being Glendale 2.0 and even though they have a lovely new arena the crowd just doesn't show up? Will Bettman be saying "the Coyotes cannot and will not remain in Tempe" just like he did Glendale less than 15 years after that arena was built?

 

[awfulwaffle]

Ah yes the good ol "it's not your money" or "you're not a fan of the team" so it's none of your business argument. Classic.

And are you really trying to suggest that the NHL was just like, "ya no problem, we'll forgive hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and we'll just pay it off for you"?

I'm not even sure where to begin with that second paragraph. Firstly, I never said I was concerned with his liquidity. I said that there is no way that Muruelo or anyone would just plop down the amount of money needed to build this whole project. That's not the same thing.

I think people are forgetting the fact that these types of projects don't make the money they make because of monthly or yearly income. They make them on resale. But again, AM is part of a group that will own TED. We don't know how much of it will actually be his.

Regardless, you're not seeing the fact that none of the significant sales that will make this project financially make sense will happen for at least 5 - 7 years. Especially since, as has been mentioned, the homes are the big selling point and if I'm not mistaken, they won't be built until much later on in the process.

All the while the Coyotes will continue to rack up 10 of millions of dollars of debt on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars of debt they already have.

Face it, at best, him owning the Coyotes is a means to an ends and that's to get the district built. As soon as humanly possible after that's well and done, IF it even gets off the ground, he's out.

Doesn't he also have a history of basically flipping properties/companies?

Oof. Someone must have seen the "Habs" in my name and just made a whole boatload of assumptions based just on that. My feelings on the Nordiques is extremely complicated and has ties to local politics including language politics so depending on the day, I either want them back so it can show on an an even bigger level how ass backwards the Government here is or I don't want them back because f*** the people in Quebec City.

As for the spending of public money on the arena, I mean unfortunately there's nothing that can be done about that but honestly the money they spent on that but if you know about Quebec and their spending of public money, that's nothing in the grand scheme of things.

As to your last point, I mean are you really trying to tell me that we should trust the people in charge of those organizations and their vetting ability? Glendale? Really? Even Tempe? I mean if you trust them, I have a bridge I'd like to talk to you about in terms of potential ownership and the millions you could make off of it once you own it.

I'm not suggesting anything, just stating a fact that nobody knows how much debt AM might have taken on. If the league really wants to stay in Phoenix, a very big market population wise, who knows?

I get your point about selling real estate, I do, I work in real estate. But at the same time, real estate is also a money making business. If AM said I'm going to hold onto this, he's going to come out net positive from it. You don't know his end goal. If someone were to hold onto the Coyotes and the surrounding entertainment district with all the residential units, it's going to be a net positive. Why do you think Phoenix is making such a big stink about the residential units? The end goal is to not allow another arena to compete for events. Plain and simple.

 

[TheLegend]

So the commissioner of the NHL is calling smalltime radio hosts to solicit interviews?




Doug Franz Unplugged | a podcast by Doug Franz

This guy says, around 15:00 mark, that Bettman called him out of the blue to ask for an interview. Actual interview starts around 30:00 minute mark.

Oh hell…. Someone call Katie Strang. Has to absolutely be something nefarious about this.

 

[TheLegend]

Oof. Someone must have seen the "Habs" in my name and just made a whole boatload of assumptions based just on that. My feelings on the Nordiques is extremely complicated and has ties to local politics including language politics so depending on the day, I either want them back so it can show on an an even bigger level how ass backwards the Government here is or I don't want them back because f*** the people in Quebec City.

As for the spending of public money on the arena, I mean unfortunately there's nothing that can be done about that but honestly the money they spent on that but if you know about Quebec and their spending of public money, that's nothing in the grand scheme of things.

As to your last point, I mean are you really trying to tell me that we should trust the people in charge of those organizations and their vetting ability? Glendale? Really? Even Tempe? I mean if you trust them, I have a bridge I'd like to talk to you about in terms of potential ownership and the millions you could make off of it once you own it.

You screenname doesn’t mean crap to me, nor do your feelings about anything for that matter.

Second…. Meruelo has never flipped an asset. At least none I could find.

Third…. Tempe, the FCC, the Nevada Gaming Commission, Federal Banking Commission have all vetted the man. He’s got more alphabet entities regulating his businesses than anyone can imagine. But if you honestly want to think they’re all dummies, then you do you.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

Oh hell…. Someone call Katie Strang. Has to absolutely be something nefarious about this.

If I were commissioner or had any kind of noteriaity, I'd be constantly doing stuff like this, lol.

 

[PredsHead]

Oh hell…. Someone call Katie Strang. Has to absolutely be something nefarious about this.

Nothing nefarious but it shows the ridiculous lengths Bettman is willing to go to try and save the Coyotes. I would say that this illustrates the commissioner is so worried about the vote that he felt the needed to not only have a press conference and then separately speak to all the media that wanted to have him on but also basically call other media and beg them to have him on. And again Alex Meruelo can't even speak at the press conference....

 

[TheLegend]

Nothing nefarious but it shows the ridiculous lengths Bettman is willing to go to try and save the Coyotes. I would say that this illustrates the commissioner is so worried about the vote that he felt the needed to not only have a press conference and then separately speak to all the media that wanted to have him on but also basically call other media and beg them to have him on. And again Alex Meruelo can't even speak at the press conference....

You say it's nothing nefarious but you seem to be trying like hell to make it look like that.

 

[TheLegend]

While I'm here.... for those looking for more nefariousness......

An "independent" think group will be releasing their opinion of TED on the 17th.

Grand Canyon Institute releases analysis on Tempe Entertainment District - Tempe Independent

The Grand Canyon Institute has announced it will release an independent policy analysis on April 17 of the Arizona Coyotes arena and music venue, the main economic drivers of the proposed Tempe Entertainment District.

www.yourvalley.net

Which happens to be less than 24 hours prior to that debate the AZ Republic is putting on.

Oh the drama.......

 

[mouser]

Doesn't he also have a history of basically flipping properties/companies?

I would opine Meruelo’s business empire has been largely built on purchasing distressed assets and making changes to operate them profitably while continuing to own them. Not on pumping up and flipping the assets/properties/companies he’s bought.

 

[mouser]

Tempe is trusting Meruelo to abide by his end of the DDA. What happens if Bluebird goes bankrupt halfway through the project?

Multiple answers to your question depending on when this hypothetical bankruptcy happens.

- Meruelo is making a non refundable $40m deposit. If Meruelo doesn‘t execute the phase 1 land purchase to build the arena Tempe can sell the land to another developer and pocket the $40m or use it to offset any land remediation already completed.

- The Community Facilities District (CFD) bonds are secured by the land and construction built by Bluebird. The CFD would likely have priority standing in any hypothetical bankruptcy mid project.

- The CFD bonds are issued in stages as each of the four phases of the project are completed. If Bluebird fails to complete the project at any stage the debt taken on by the CFD is lower.

- Tempe is not financially responsible for any bonds the CFD issues.

Even if everything goes wrong Tempe is financially insulated. There’s a reason the deal was crafted this way and Tempe mayor Corey Woods and the entire city council voted Yes on it. There’s no financial risk to the city.

 

[PredsHead]

Multiple answers to your question depending on when this hypothetical bankruptcy happens.

- Meruelo is making a non refundable $40m deposit. If Meruelo doesn‘t execute the phase 1 land purchase to build the arena Tempe can sell the land to another developer and pocket the $40m or use it to offset any land remediation already completed.

- The Community Facilities District (CFD) bonds are secured by the land and construction built by Bluebird. The CFD would likely have priority standing in any hypothetical bankruptcy mid project.

- The CFD bonds are issued in stages as each of the four phases of the project are completed. If Bluebird fails to complete the project at any stage the debt taken on by the CFD is lower.

- Tempe is not financially responsible for any bonds the CFD issues.

Even if everything goes wrong Tempe is financially insulated. There’s a reason the deal was crafted this way and Tempe mayor Corey Woods and the entire city council voted Yes on it. There’s no financial risk to the city.

What if Bluebird fails during the arena construction? Bluebird would have title to the biggest parcel already correct? What happens if those bonds don't sell?

 

[mouser]

What if Bluebird fails during the arena construction? Bluebird would have title to the biggest parcel already correct? What happens if those bonds don't sell?

a) Bluebird would have title to the phase 1 parcel, but that land ownership is pledged to the CFD as secured collateral. So if there is a bankruptcy the CFD should have priority over any other lender for the land value in court.

b) Bonds always sell. The important question is what the interest rate on them will be.

 

[TheLegend]

Multiple answers to your question depending on when this hypothetical bankruptcy happens.

- Meruelo is making a non refundable $40m deposit. If Meruelo doesn‘t execute the phase 1 land purchase to build the arena Tempe can sell the land to another developer and pocket the $40m or use it to offset any land remediation already completed.

- The Community Facilities District (CFD) bonds are secured by the land and construction built by Bluebird. The CFD would likely have priority standing in any hypothetical bankruptcy mid project.

- The CFD bonds are issued in stages as each of the four phases of the project are completed. If Bluebird fails to complete the project at any stage the debt taken on by the CFD is lower.

- Tempe is not financially responsible for any bonds the CFD issues.

Even if everything goes wrong Tempe is financially insulated. There’s a reason the deal was crafted this way and Tempe mayor Corey Woods and the entire city council voted Yes on it. There’s no financial risk to the city.

Perusing the summary...

Bonds for each phase can only be sold once the developer obtains financing for that phase. So there is a failsafe in place for each of the phases.

And for Bluebird to begin building the arena (phase 1), the full financing has to be in place.

 

[Stumbledore]

But is the bigger story here that the commissioner of the NHL was going to do a press conference for the Coyotes at a Goodwill? I understand they are a big partner of the Coyotes but the optics of that would have just been awful.

Maybe they couldn't find a landscaping service next door to a porn shop?

 

[JimAnchower]

Maybe they couldn't find a landscaping service next door to a porn shop?

Ritz-Carlton Landscaping has good ring to it.

 

[awfulwaffle]

Just wanted to point out, they mention commercial space for revenue. It's plain and simple, owning a sports team is a hobby,

 

[TheLegend]

Some people have wondered why would Meruelo go through all the trouble he is for TED.

This info in this article described below is one reason. Tempe has over 2 million square feet of office space in the planning stages for Tempe Town Lake. While some companies are downsizing (Carvana most recently), realtors of high end office space are very bullish on the market.

(normally their articles are paywalled but I got in through this tweet.)

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2023/04/14/tempe-town-lake-office-leasing.html?csrc=6398&taid=643af440ff23be000133d9be&utm_campaign=trueAnthemTrendingContent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

 

[Llama19]

Carvana to exit current Tempe HQ once lease expires in 2024

www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2023/04/14/carvana-tempe-hq-lease-expires.html

Then...there will be others downsizing...it appears...as 'backfillers' are always 'bullish'...from that same PBJ article:

"Despite it being the metro's hottest office submarket, high-profile companies including DoorDash, Carvana, OpenDoor, Peloton and Robinhood recently elected to downsize or move out of their Tempe space. High-profile sublease space has hit the market as a result, but brokers are bullish on the prospect of backfilling those spaces on the lakefront."

Everything is not as rosy...because...there could be a repeat of 2008...

Commercial real estate industry on edge as downtown empty office space goes unused

www.foxbusiness.com/economy/commercial-real-estate-industry-edge-downtown-empty-office-space-goes-unused

 

[Llama19]

From Phoenix Sky Harbor, Initial Analysis of Potential Flight Traffic

To quote:

"The two runways account for 68% of the flight activity at Sky Harbor and 95% of the departures. The blue lines are generated by software showing actual flights and show the path of departing aircraft directly over the proposed site. Flights would depart or arrive over this location every day, every hour, and during the busiest times every minute. Sky Harbor has about 1,200 takeoffs and landings each day.

Chase Field and other nearby developments west of Sky Harbor are not under the flight paths. The newest development (commonly referred to as The Blue or the OIC Building) was permitted only after careful consultation with the airlines. It was determined not to result in negative impacts to air traffic. None of these developments are in a high noise environment as defined by the FAA in contrast with the proposed Tempe Development."

Related graphics:

Proposed TED (Tempe)

Chase Field (Phoenix)

Source: www.skyharbor.com/about-phx/noise-and-flight-paths/tempe-entertainment-district/initial-analysis-of-potential-flight-traffic/

 

[TheLegend]

From Phoenix Sky Harbor, Initial Analysis of Potential Flight Traffic

To quote:

"The two runways account for 68% of the flight activity at Sky Harbor and 95% of the departures. The blue lines are generated by software showing actual flights and show the path of departing aircraft directly over the proposed site. Flights would depart or arrive over this location every day, every hour, and during the busiest times every minute. Sky Harbor has about 1,200 takeoffs and landings each day.

Chase Field and other nearby developments west of Sky Harbor are not under the flight paths. The newest development (commonly referred to as The Blue or the OIC Building) was permitted only after careful consultation with the airlines. It was determined not to result in negative impacts to air traffic. None of these developments are in a high noise environment as defined by the FAA in contrast with the proposed Tempe Development."

Related graphics:

View attachment 689361
Proposed TED (Tempe)

View attachment 689358
Chase Field (Phoenix)

Source: www.skyharbor.com/about-phx/noise-and-flight-paths/tempe-entertainment-district/initial-analysis-of-potential-flight-traffic/

And what they don’t tell you is how many of those 1200 flights per day take off to the West. Which is next to none.

The proposed Cardinals stadium wasn’t in any flight paths either. But they objected to that one as well.