CXLIX - FINAL thoughts on the Arizona Coyotes

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LPHabsFan

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Why would the other owners care? They got paid.
Did they though? If you believe the public numbers, then the relocation fee was 200 million. How much of that went to the other owners, vs how much went to the league, we don't know. Even if you assume all of it went to the owners, that's still only roughly 6.45 (200/31) million per team. Considering what the owners had to swallow for this team existing in its state for so long, I don't think that will remove their "caring" of the situation, especially since they were probably promised much more than that.
 

aqib

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Alright agree to disagree. I believe media availability and exposure has a big impact on the following and popularity of a college sport.
Also there are some people who watch college sports to see who they want their pro teams to draft.
 

Shwan

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Did they though? If you believe the public numbers, then the relocation fee was 200 million. How much of that went to the other owners, vs how much went to the league, we don't know. Even if you assume all of it went to the owners, that's still only roughly 6.45 (200/31) million per team. Considering what the owners had to swallow for this team existing in its state for so long, I don't think that will remove their "caring" of the situation, especially since they were probably promised much more than that.

$200M Went to the owners.

A very large portion of the $1B went to paying off the debt the league has been holding to the Coyotes.

Meruelo walked away with the rest.

The owners were okay with that because servicing Coyotes debt at 6% interest as opposed to 2% would have done some damage to the league.
 

edog37

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Did they though? If you believe the public numbers, then the relocation fee was 200 million. How much of that went to the other owners, vs how much went to the league, we don't know. Even if you assume all of it went to the owners, that's still only roughly 6.45 (200/31) million per team. Considering what the owners had to swallow for this team existing in its state for so long, I don't think that will remove their "caring" of the situation, especially since they were probably promised much more than that.
If they did care, Bettman’s job would be in jeopardy.
 

TheLegend

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Did they though? If you believe the public numbers, then the relocation fee was 200 million. How much of that went to the other owners, vs how much went to the league, we don't know. Even if you assume all of it went to the owners, that's still only roughly 6.45 (200/31) million per team. Considering what the owners had to swallow for this team existing in its state for so long, I don't think that will remove their "caring" of the situation, especially since they were probably promised much more than that.

It’s called….. stopping the hemorrhaging. And to most of the owners that was probably more valuable to them than splitting $200 million into the 31 Baskin Robbin’s flavors.

The deal did several things.

- It preserved the going rate for expansion (with Atlanta in the wings)

- It got rid of a money pit of a debt load.

- It got rid of what could have been another decade’s worth of drama and uncertainty.

Only collateral damage ends up being another fanbase. But it isn’t like that’s never happened before either, so YMMV on that one.
 

Shwan

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Tempe/Phoenix IGA case might actually get settled this year. :laugh:

1000002289.png


All those Coyotes fans thinking the Tempe vote actually meant something, that it was somehow the fault of cat lady bookstore owners, when it was the Tempe City Council that threw Alex under the bus.

Wild times. Craig Morgan absolutely pied piper'd this franchise into the garbage dump lol.
 

LPHabsFan

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$200M Went to the owners.

A very large portion of the $1B went to paying off the debt the league has been holding to the Coyotes.

Meruelo walked away with the rest.

The owners were okay with that because servicing Coyotes debt at 6% interest as opposed to 2% would have done some damage to the league.
Thank you. As someone who is new to the thread, I had no idea about the details of the deal.

If they did care, Bettman’s job would be in jeopardy.
If enough of them cared, or the ones that did had enough political clout, they'd have forced a sale of the team anywhere from 5 to 10 years ago.

It’s called….. stopping the hemorrhaging. And to most of the owners that was probably more valuable to them than splitting $200 million into the 31 Baskin Robbin’s flavors.

The deal did several things.

- It preserved the going rate for expansion (with Atlanta in the wings)

- It got rid of a money pit of a debt load.

- It got rid of what could have been another decade’s worth of drama and uncertainty.

Only collateral damage ends up being another fanbase. But it isn’t like that’s never happened before either, so YMMV on that one.
My overall point, was that the 6.5 (rounded) million each team got, in my opinion, was not enough money to satisfy the owners level of "caring", as alluded to in the post I was replying to, which, I believe, is also what you're also saying with the first sentence of your post..
 
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aqib

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My overall point, was that the 6.5 (rounded) million each team got, in my opinion, was not enough money to satisfy the owners level of "caring", as alluded to in the post I was replying to, which, I believe, is also what you're also saying with the first sentence of your post..
It was partly to limit AM's upside. They weren't going to punish him as much as ASG but they weren't going to let him have a windfall for messing up so badly.

Also who knows if the league actually fully recovered their investment from owning and floating the Coyotes all those years (Glendale didn't pick up losses for the lock-out year), so this might have gone to paying that back.
 

Llama19

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Former Arizona Coyotes top executive Xavier A. Gutierrez has big plans for new initiative

To quote:

"Xavier A. Gutierrez saw firsthand how important the Latino sports fanbase is and can be, as president and CEO of the Arizona Coyotes. He made it his mission to seek out communities not typically associated with hockey fandom and welcome them to the sport and to experience an NHL game.

For all intents and purposes, his efforts gained traction as Gutierrez showed up everywhere in the community, from westside neighborhood centers to small businesses to food banks and beyond. He presided over the business side of the club as it transitioned out of what is now Desert Diamond Arena to Mullett Arena, and was front and center in the campaign to get a new arena for the team in Tempe.

But then, it all came to a rather sudden end when the Coyotes were relocated to Utah. Gutierrez's work for the Alex Meruelo family (former Coyotes owners) also ended, allowing him to focus on a new venture.

The first Latino to be an NHL president and CEO, Gutierrez is the co-founder of Latinos in Sports (LiS) and ImpactX Sports Group, the former a multi-strategy platform to elevate Hispanics within the sports industry, while connecting teams, leagues and brands with the power of the Hispanic community.

Looking back on what happened with the Coyotes, Gutierrez said he was disappointed. The departure of the team came quickly and left fans with only days to try to come to terms with the fact that the team would be no longer.

Gutierrez always had an advisory role to Meruelo and didn't disparage the former owner, though he completely understood the hurt feelings of fans. He said he was disappointed that the Coyotes couldn't fulfill the vision he and Meruelo laid out for a permanent facility for the team, but he felt the organization did a lot of positive things which he can build on through Latinos in Sports."

Source: www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2024/09/05/what-is-former-arizona-coyotes-president-xavier-a-gutierrez-up-to/75074838007/
 

Knights2017

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Former Arizona Coyotes top executive Xavier A. Gutierrez has big plans for new initiative

To quote:

"Xavier A. Gutierrez saw firsthand how important the Latino sports fanbase is and can be, as president and CEO of the Arizona Coyotes. He made it his mission to seek out communities not typically associated with hockey fandom and welcome them to the sport and to experience an NHL game.

For all intents and purposes, his efforts gained traction as Gutierrez showed up everywhere in the community, from westside neighborhood centers to small businesses to food banks and beyond. He presided over the business side of the club as it transitioned out of what is now Desert Diamond Arena to Mullett Arena, and was front and center in the campaign to get a new arena for the team in Tempe.

But then, it all came to a rather sudden end when the Coyotes were relocated to Utah. Gutierrez's work for the Alex Meruelo family (former Coyotes owners) also ended, allowing him to focus on a new venture.

The first Latino to be an NHL president and CEO, Gutierrez is the co-founder of Latinos in Sports (LiS) and ImpactX Sports Group, the former a multi-strategy platform to elevate Hispanics within the sports industry, while connecting teams, leagues and brands with the power of the Hispanic community.

Looking back on what happened with the Coyotes, Gutierrez said he was disappointed. The departure of the team came quickly and left fans with only days to try to come to terms with the fact that the team would be no longer.

Gutierrez always had an advisory role to Meruelo and didn't disparage the former owner, though he completely understood the hurt feelings of fans. He said he was disappointed that the Coyotes couldn't fulfill the vision he and Meruelo laid out for a permanent facility for the team, but he felt the organization did a lot of positive things which he can build on through Latinos in Sports."

Source: www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2024/09/05/what-is-former-arizona-coyotes-president-xavier-a-gutierrez-up-to/75074838007/
Blah, blah, blah.

XG was a piece of trash to staff, and a gutless turd.

I'm sure he got a nice cut of the money.
 
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TheLegend

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Former Arizona Coyotes top executive Xavier A. Gutierrez has big plans for new initiative

To quote:

"Xavier A. Gutierrez saw firsthand how important the Latino sports fanbase is and can be, as president and CEO of the Arizona Coyotes. He made it his mission to seek out communities not typically associated with hockey fandom and welcome them to the sport and to experience an NHL game.

For all intents and purposes, his efforts gained traction as Gutierrez showed up everywhere in the community, from westside neighborhood centers to small businesses to food banks and beyond. He presided over the business side of the club as it transitioned out of what is now Desert Diamond Arena to Mullett Arena, and was front and center in the campaign to get a new arena for the team in Tempe.

But then, it all came to a rather sudden end when the Coyotes were relocated to Utah. Gutierrez's work for the Alex Meruelo family (former Coyotes owners) also ended, allowing him to focus on a new venture.

The first Latino to be an NHL president and CEO, Gutierrez is the co-founder of Latinos in Sports (LiS) and ImpactX Sports Group, the former a multi-strategy platform to elevate Hispanics within the sports industry, while connecting teams, leagues and brands with the power of the Hispanic community.

Looking back on what happened with the Coyotes, Gutierrez said he was disappointed. The departure of the team came quickly and left fans with only days to try to come to terms with the fact that the team would be no longer.

Gutierrez always had an advisory role to Meruelo and didn't disparage the former owner, though he completely understood the hurt feelings of fans. He said he was disappointed that the Coyotes couldn't fulfill the vision he and Meruelo laid out for a permanent facility for the team, but he felt the organization did a lot of positive things which he can build on through Latinos in Sports."

Source: www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2024/09/05/what-is-former-arizona-coyotes-president-xavier-a-gutierrez-up-to/75074838007/

He spent the last 18-24 months working to get this rolling….. Wish him luck.
 

Shwan

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Looks like Tyson Nash didn't make the cut for Utah. Man what a deal Scripps got out of this especially if Utah comes out swinging in the league. They could have Vegas/Florida viewership numbers at half the cost for a considerably long time. They didn't say it on their Q2 earnings like I hoped but another piece of the puzzle was that while Coyotes fans were flexing over that "900% increase in viewership" they never actually bothered to ask people like Craig Morgan how much of that was coming from Utah :laugh:

 
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hockeyguy0022

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How long did this run for? since 08 this series has been going? Pretty sure I had like a 12-13 year posting gap. Wild.
 

aqib

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How long did this run for? since 08 this series has been going? Pretty sure I had like a 12-13 year posting gap. Wild.
Yeah in 08-09 there were rumblings the team was in trouble. 09 they filed bankruptcy. 2013 it seemed to be resolved for at least 5 years when the out clause in lease agreement kicked in. However in 2015 Glendale voided the lease and it's been non-stop until this year. I joined the boards in 2012. It's been a wild ride.
 
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Fatass

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Yeah in 08-09 there were rumblings the team was in trouble. 09 they filed bankruptcy. 2013 it seemed to be resolved for at least 5 years when the out clause in lease agreement kicked in. However in 2015 Glendale voided the lease and it's been non-stop until this year. I joined the boards in 2012. It's been a wild ride.
It’s been a real struggle on and off the ice for the club. Looks like the team is going to be good on the ice now in Utah. Maybe they’re still in the desert if they had on ice success?
 

Sgt Schultz

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It’s been a real struggle on and off the ice for the club. Looks like the team is going to be good on the ice now in Utah. Maybe they’re still in the desert if they had on ice success?
It's a fair question. There were at least three things that didn't happen: an NHL arena near where the fanbase was centered, decent (or better) ownership, and sustained success on the ice. Would solving the last of those potentially solved the first and then solved the issue of attendance? I have my doubts, but I guess we will never know.

My doubts are more based on getting anything major done in the Phoenix area than anything else. I lived there in 88-89 and things were not any easier then.
 
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aqib

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It’s been a real struggle on and off the ice for the club. Looks like the team is going to be good on the ice now in Utah. Maybe they’re still in the desert if they had on ice success?
Thats the subject of several thousand posts. If they were a perennial Stanley Cup contenders maybe but being just a team that gets to the playoffs about half the time I doubt it.
 
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Shwan

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Thats the subject of several thousand posts. If they were a perennial Stanley Cup contenders maybe but being just a team that gets to the playoffs about half the time I doubt it.
I would have argued that a consistent playoff team would have done it.

The problem (one of many) was that the team was just so boring to watch under Tippett and Tocchet even when they were being successful in stretches it would be a grating experience.

If the team was just entertaining it would have gone a very long way to getting people to go to Gila River Arena, or at least get more people to watch games on TV.

Other other issue was with the team being dirt cheap you had some of the worst churn and would never have any popular players stay. Couldn't keep Domi, or Garland, or Stone, or etc. etc. etc. most of these guys weren't asking for much but ownership still couldn't afford it. Maybe it was intentional to get us suckers with disposable income to keep buying new merch :laugh:
 

Shwan

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AZ's Event Wagering report for June dropped, Saharabets last full month of operation netted approximately $40k revenue, which definitely does not cover operating costs.

Saharabets was a flaming wreck from start to finish that Coyotes fans wilfully lived in la-la land about for 2 years, and some still to this day believe think was the golden goose Meruelo was after.

One of the last lies Craig Morgan spewed before slinking away to a Utah hockey podcast to pretend this never happened was that ASU and Coyotes apparently had an tentative plan to build a full size arena but Meruelo declined because he wouldn't be able to put a physical sports book in the Arena because it would be on-campus.

This farcical tale can easily be debunked by looking at the physical book numbers on the AZ DOG site. For instance in June the Draftkings and FanDuel books took in a $1.5M and $1.7M handle, but had wildly divergent results with Draftkings making $32k and Fanduel capturing $214k.

Likewise BetMGM and Caesar's books took $566k and $479k in-person for June. BetMGM lost all their cash and Caesar's kept $70k.

No one, even Meruelo, would have decided that such a wildly inconsistent income stream was more important than securing a proper home for your team.
 
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