CXLVIII - Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo had 'productive' meeting with Phoenix mayor

[awfulwaffle]

How the NHL moved the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City

The Arizona Coyotes era is over, as the team is set to move to Salt Lake City, Utah with new owner Ryan Smith. Elliotte Friedman writes about how we got here and what's next for both Arizona and Utah.

www.sportsnet.ca

"If the Coyotes weren’t on the rise, with a lot of good young players and prospects, I’m not sure this happens," one owner said this week.

"That’s fair," another executive added. "If this was a rebuilding team, or a team headed into one, I don’t know if it works."

This hurts even more, because Coyotes fans for a long time have had to deal with bad teams, and we finally were in a proper rebuild with a lot of young talent, and even more draft picks to come.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

can someone give me a quick TLDR as to why Coyotes ownership/NHL ownership stopped trying to get something done in Phoenix? Never understood the obsession with Tempe and the surrounding areas

 

[Llama19]

And...that clock is counting down...

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[Brodie]

can someone give me a quick TLDR as to why Coyotes ownership/NHL ownership stopped trying to get something done in Phoenix? Never understood the obsession with Tempe and the surrounding areas

They didn’t, they are still trying to build an arena in northern Phoenix. It seems like the NHL was unhappy with the five-year timeline to get that done and there’s a lot of subtext they don’t believe it actually will happen but feel compelled to make this offer to force Meruelo out

 

[MeHateHe]

can someone give me a quick TLDR as to why Coyotes ownership/NHL ownership stopped trying to get something done in Phoenix? Never understood the obsession with Tempe and the surrounding areas

Officially, the league lost faith that the Scottsdale project was going to work out and they'd be stuck at Mullet for multiple years.

Or maybe unofficially.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Plus. Arizona - Houston - Quebec - Atlanta balances the four divisions.

Would the NHL immediately go to 36? I'm not sure about that. The NHL should stop at 34 and see how that goes, with Quebec being #17 in the East.

 

[GKJ]

I don’t mind the idea of Utah not having a name if they choose to. Maybe something organically emerges in that time.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

For a potential timeline comparison, back in 2011 from the relocation announcement of Atlanta to Winnipeg, it took:

- 24 days for a name announcement,
- 52 days for a logo reveal, and
- 98 days for a uniform reveal



Assuming an identical timetable, that'd put the respective dates at May 12th, June 9th, and July 25th, assuming my assuredly wrong math is correct.

In the case of Winnipeg there was extremely obvious branding to pick so it required less thought.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Throughout his tenure, Gary Bettman was willing to let anyone that could sign their name to a piece of paper, own an NHL franchise.... so you get what you get.

Yep...they approved an ownership group that literally said they didn't want the team they had to buy (and immediately tried to sell).

 

[Heavy Dee]

Interesting. Friedman just said it would still need board approval.

 

[Brodie]

I don’t mind the idea of Utah not having a name if they choose to. Maybe something organically emerges in that time.

Isn’t Smith’s entire business marketing analytics software? Whatever name they pick is going to be data driven to a T

 

[sneakytitz]

How the NHL moved the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City

The Arizona Coyotes era is over, as the team is set to move to Salt Lake City, Utah with new owner Ryan Smith. Elliotte Friedman writes about how we got here and what's next for both Arizona and Utah.

www.sportsnet.ca

This hurts even more, because Coyotes fans for a long time have had to deal with bad teams, and we finally were in a proper rebuild with a lot of young talent, and even more draft picks to come.

"The NHL will be back in Arizona. Count on it. Whether it is Meruelo, or someone else, Bettman believes this market is too important to abandon. "If you build it they will come." Next time, it will be built in the proper place. "

What a complete crock a shit. Atlanta 13 years ago was bigger than Phoenix is now, in terms of money, population, TV sets, etc. That SoB better announce an Atlanta team soon if he thinks markets are too important to abandon now that his problem child has been grounded.

 

[ponder719]

Would the NHL immediately go to 36? I'm not sure about that. The NHL should stop at 34 and see how that goes, with Quebec being #17 in the East.

If the NHL stops at 17/17, Quebec will not be the 17th team in the East; Atlanta will be. Quebec absolutely needs to hope that the NHL pushes forward to 36 as quickly as possible.

 

[Brodie]

Throughout his tenure, Gary Bettman was willing to let anyone that could sign their name to a piece of paper, own an NHL franchise.... so you get what you get.

I don’t really think it’s fully Bettman’s fault that there aren’t enough truly wealthy individuals who want to own NHL teams. It’s just reality.

It’s why it’s absolutely insane that this league is talking about going to 36 teams or more, the owners like quick injections but it just feels like creating problems down the line

 

[No Fun Shogun]

I don’t mind the idea of Utah not having a name if they choose to. Maybe something organically emerges in that time.

Problem is that anything organically developed would then have a rush to file the necessary legalese versus squatters.

I'd be surprised if the Smith's inner circle didn't have a small pool of names given that they've been seemingly interested about wanting a team for at least a year now.

In the case of Winnipeg there was extremely obvious branding to pick so it required less thought.

Very true.

 

[GKJ]

In the case of Winnipeg there was extremely obvious branding to pick so it required less thought.

They had to be convinced to do that though.

They wanted to be Manitoba, because it was Manitoba’s team, just like the Moose. As if it gets confusing once you get past Winnipeg.

 

[Brodie]

They had to be convinced to do that though.

They wanted to be Manitoba, because it was Manitoba’s team, just like the Moose. As if it gets confusing once you get past Winnipeg.

TNSE was overly obsessed with the organic brand they built with the Moose and seemed to be under the mistaken belief that anyone besides them cared more about that than the Jets legacy

 

[aqib]

Your view of #1 and #3 are both obtuse. It's people who think that way who aren't going to be a fan either way, just like the people who believe #1 and #3 are going to argue that a team shouldn't come back to Phoenix.

The Coyotes fans embraced the Coyotes. Again, go look at the ATL thread, They want the Thrashers back, they are Thrashers fans. It's literally no different than the Jets or Nordiques.

Well since I joined this board in 2012 I've had Arizonans tell me how I didn't understand a whole bunch of things and didn't know what I was talking about. Well here we are and the NHL did eventually run out of patience and Muerelo wasn't the savvy magician people made him out to be. It turned out Ryan Smith was working as closely with the NHL as I said he was and not being Jim Balsillie 2.0 and just talking out of school.

So while I recognize the pain of the few Coyotes faithful (which is why I have never gone to the main Coyotes board) I think I'm entitled to a few "I told you sos" here.

 

[sneakytitz]

Just curious, can Meruelo continue to sell Coyotes merchandise in the interim? I got hit with an email from the AZ Collection Store 2 hours before the BoG meeting to buy Coyotes jerseys. Not going to be a big bread winner going forward but curious as to how long he can continue make money from the trademarks.

 

[Yukon Joe]

I don’t mind the idea of Utah not having a name if they choose to. Maybe something organically emerges in that time.

Yeah - I don't mind the idea of "Utah HC" for a year, then rebranding summer 2025. That would make any jerseys from next year fairly unique for jersey collectors. Plus, as you say, maybe something comes up organically.

 

[KevFu]

Well since I joined this board in 2012 I've had Arizonans tell me how I didn't understand a whole bunch of things and didn't know what I was talking about. Well here we are and the NHL did eventually run out of patience and Muerelo wasn't the savvy magician people made him out to be. It turned out Ryan Smith was working as closely with the NHL as I said he was and not being Jim Balsillie 2.0 and just talking out of school.

So while I recognize the pain of the few Coyotes faithful (which is why I have never gone to the main Coyotes board) I think I'm entitled to a few "I told you sos" here.

The irony being that you and I have disagreed on virtually everything, and it played out like I said as well.

 

[red devil]

 

[KevFu]

can someone give me a quick TLDR as to why Coyotes ownership/NHL ownership stopped trying to get something done in Phoenix? Never understood the obsession with Tempe and the surrounding areas

View it from the standpoint of: The NHL decided on giving Smith an expansion team in Utah. He'd need time to build a hockey operations staff to draft a roster; but he has an arena now. Arizona has a staff and roster, but no arena. So instead of an incomplete franchise playing in Arizona while we wait on Utah's expansion draft...we have one complete franchise that only has to work out branding.

Would the NHL immediately go to 36? I'm not sure about that. The NHL should stop at 34 and see how that goes, with Quebec being #17 in the East.

The NHL doesn't immediately do anything. We talked about the NHL going to 32, and it was obvious to nearly all it was "happening" ... and it still took 8-10 years to get the 32nd team on the ice. I believe the NHL is going to to go 36 sooner rather than later, and it's "happening," but that doesn't mean it's gonna be closer to 2030 than 2040.

"The NHL will be back in Arizona. Count on it. Whether it is Meruelo, or someone else, Bettman believes this market is too important to abandon. "If you build it they will come." Next time, it will be built in the proper place. "

What a complete crock a shit. Atlanta 13 years ago was bigger than Phoenix is now, in terms of money, population, TV sets, etc. That SoB better announce an Atlanta team soon if he thinks markets are too important to abandon now that his problem child has been grounded.

apples and oranges. Atlanta is not competing with any other market for a franchise. A new Phoenix arena helps Atlanta. And Houston. And Quebec. And anyone else.

 

[LadyStanley]

 

[bleedblue94]

We've seen the NHL sacrifice valuable markets in order to be rid of horrible ownership in the past.

If Meruelo outfoxes the NHL and builds an arena, as an attempt to get his franchise rights back, I'd think that the NHL would likely let him sit.

Which valuable markets? Curious which ones exactly you are referencing.