Very long and I don’t give a shit if you all read it or not
16 1/2 years. This is how long I’ve had invested on this file. Back before I even joined up and was just a lurker
I would like to thank the League for being the ones holding the “Biggest Who’s to Blame” bag.
Ironic that I type that last part (and being the Metal Head that I am), I keep hearing the riffs and the lyrics to “Who’s to Blame” from Phoenix’s own Sacred Reich. Anyway…
I also give a huge thank you to Alex Meruelo and Xavier Gutierrez. Thank you for setting the bar to its lowest point of being the worst ownership group to ever lay their hands on this franchise. And that’s saying something considering everything else before this. If you know, you know.
Most of us know the previous ownership groups were pretenders, even outright f***ing idiots. But the second this group took over, and their track record and business practices, you just pinched your nose and hoped (I’m looking at you Yotes fans) those practices would not creep in to the day-to-day operations of this club
I get standard business speak. I’ve heard it, I’ve seen it, and even (God forbid) had to say some of the things that you’ve heard come out of AM and/or XG’s pie holes. Not living up to expectations, and openly-spouted promises, that happens in business all the time
But to ghost personnel, staff, players, and the devoted fan base that you fed heaping spoonfuls of bullshit to… to convince them to blindly and diligently believe in your grand scheme(s)… I mean for f***s sake you f***ing cowards, you sent your GM to be the Grim Reaper today
Cowards
That’s appalling, but it’s not surprising either, isn’t it?
If that doesn’t put the hook in you to realize how shitty this group is, and why everywhere else in the business world you hear nothing but cringeworthy things about them, I don’t know what else it would take.
I really feel bad for a majority of the Coyotes fans . Not all of them as, I’m not gonna lie (now that it’s over), that some of their pom-pom waving and constant bashing of this forum drove me nuts.
But the ones I have had direct contact with, either personally, responding to posts, or through messaging via this forum, l’m sorry that it’s officially over and you all deserved much more from the League than the effort level they gave you
Sure, you can come at me with everything they did to keep the team there and that this team should’ve been gone a long time ago. That’s not lost on me, but that’s also not the reason why.
I have long felt that the League went through all these lengths and efforts for optics. To impress upon other municipalities and agencies that some club(s) is tethered to for some measure of sustainability (and survivability) that they “won’t run out on you”. So when the next hotspot pops up that they can point back to this file and convince the naïve idiots that sit behind a council desk, the great efforts they put forth to keep this team here.
I want to say that CF is lurking this thread right now, possibly waiting for the right moment to chime in, but it does have an air of personal sadness that Fugu (RIP), Killian, BarneyG, OthmarAmmann and others are not here one last time to close this file
Ending it with this because I’m really tired and I need to go to bed. I have no doubt that the NHL will put another franchise back in this market and fairly quickly.
But it will not be through the means of this “get out of jail free” card five-year plan bullshit with Meruelo. I absolutely do not see him lasting through this five-year window.
This arrangement does nothing more than keep both parties out of court. The league effectively forced the sale and are doing enough to keep it from having lawyers attacking each other over it.
/rant
