Meruelo proposing 10k arena for Reno for UNR basketball and relocated AHL franchise

LadyStanley

Registered User
Sep 22, 2004
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"No public money", but asking for tax dollars.

That's the current Tucson Roadrunners he owns, on resort/casino he owns.
 
Update: The project is still moving along. Should be a definitive decision by the end of this month.



This podcast gives an overview of the project to date.

 
Update: The project is still moving along. Should be a definitive decision by the end of this month.



This podcast gives an overview of the project to date.


Obviously everyone here will believe it when they see it. I just wonder who is going to want to work with this guy with an affiliate agreement.
 
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Obviously everyone here will believe it when they see it. I just wonder who is going to want to work with this guy with an affiliate agreement.

That's the big question. AIUI..... They have clearance to get the building permits needed, but the final vote by the city council is still needed for the TIF they want (which is estimated at $97M).

Ideally, it would be an advantage for Utah to keep the affiliation because it puts their prospects closer than they would be in Tucson. But I know there was some friction between the two when IceArizona wanted to use Mullett at ASU for half the home games.

Utah pays for the coaching staff and player support on top of the players with 2-way contracts. Wouldn't be that hard for Ryan Smith to simply create his own AHL franchise and operate out of SLC.
 
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That's the big question. AIUI..... They have clearance to get the building permits needed, but the final vote by the city council is still needed for the TIF they want (which is estimated at $97M).

Ideally, it would be an advantage for Utah to keep the affiliation because it puts their prospects closer than they would be in Tucson. But I know there was some friction between the two when IceArizona wanted to use Mullett at ASU for half the home games.

Utah pays for the coaching staff and player support on top of the players with 2-way contracts. Wouldn't be that hard for Ryan Smith to simply create his own AHL franchise and operate out of SLC.
Would be even easier if he simply bought the Utah Grizzlies, but haven’t heard anything about that, his focus apart from the NHL team is more on youth level support and building more rinks.
 
Would be even easier if he simply bought the Utah Grizzlies, but haven’t heard anything about that, his focus apart from the NHL team is more on youth level support and building more rinks.

Well he's doing more than just hockey ATM.....

Since buying the Jazz, he also went into a partnership with David Blitzer to buy two pro soccer teams leading up to getting the NHL franchise.



The group who owns the Grizzlies (Elmore Sports Group) primarily own baseball teams. Grizzlies are their only hockey team.


Would Elmore sell the Grizzlies?? I'd imagine for the right price they might.
 
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How difficult would AHL approval be? Geographically it would be a wash since it won't be a big difference in travel for the cluster of California teams but it seems like they draw pretty well in Tucson.
 
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How difficult would AHL approval be? Geographically it would be a wash since it won't be a big difference in travel for the cluster of California teams but it seems like they draw pretty well in Tucson.

Not sure the AHL can stop an existing owner from moving a team. Same issue as all the other pro sports league deal with.

It would be interesting is if Ryan Smith wanted to bring a new team of his own into the AHL, drop the affiliation with Meruelo, leaving Meruelo's franchise (wherever it plays) to go as an independent (until maybe the next NHL expansion).

The sense I got after everything went down in Arizona last year is the NHL wants to completely divest itself from Alex Meruelo.
 
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Not sure the AHL can stop an existing owner from moving a team. Same issue as all the other pro sports league deal with.

It would be interesting is if Ryan Smith wanted to bring a new team of his own into the AHL, drop the affiliation with Meruelo, leaving Meruelo's franchise (wherever it plays) to go as an independent (until maybe the next NHL expansion).

The sense I got after everything went down in Arizona last year is the NHL wants to completely divest itself from Alex Meruelo.

Its been a while since anyone tried to move a team when the league didn't want them to. Now the AHL has had an insane amount of movement like that huge shift to California a few years ago, and they have a few franchises like Texas, Colorado, Abbostford, Manitoba, and Calgary which aren't near other AHL teams but closer to their NHL parent. So I doubt they would raise a kerfuffle over this, just curious if they could stop it if they wanted to.
 
Its been a while since anyone tried to move a team when the league didn't want them to. Now the AHL has had an insane amount of movement like that huge shift to California a few years ago, and they have a few franchises like Texas, Colorado, Abbostford, Manitoba, and Calgary which aren't near other AHL teams but closer to their NHL parent. So I doubt they would raise a kerfuffle over this, just curious if they could stop it if they wanted to.
Well like I said.... if Ryan Smith wanted to have his own AHL team in SLC (or nearby) and left Meruelo as an independent (which he would struggle to be competitive and cost a LOT more in player contracts).... would the AHL accept it??
 
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Well like I said.... if Ryan Smith wanted to have his own AHL team in SLC (or nearby) and left Meruelo as an independent (which he would struggle to be competitive and cost a LOT more in player contracts).... would the AHL accept it??

How did they feel about Chicago being unaffiliated?

Another thing I wonder about is would the NHL ever consider letting expansion teams start their farm systems early like MLB did in the last 2 rounds of expansion. Maybe let them draft towards at the end of the first round so it wouldn't be guys who would be making the jump straight to the NHL anyway.
 
How did they feel about Chicago being unaffiliated?
The AHL has been trying to get them to accept fate for years, but the Wolves remain steadfast. By this point, I fully believe the AHL is just waiting for the string to be played out and the Wolves reach the point where they are forced to be affiliated with someone for a long period of time.
 
The AHL has been trying to get them to accept fate for years, but the Wolves remain steadfast. By this point, I fully believe the AHL is just waiting for the string to be played out and the Wolves reach the point where they are forced to be affiliated with someone for a long period of time.
Haven’t they given up the ghost on that? Carolina has all of their people in there now I thought.
 
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Okay....

reno.jpg
 
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Is it like how University of California Berkeley just goes by Cal as opposed to University of California Los Angeles going by UCLA?
Somewhat.... California has two systems. UC and CSU (includes the two Polytechnic schools). Berkeley is known as "Cal" in layman terms, because it is the oldest. But officially it's University of California,1 Berkeley.

Reno is the oldest in the University of Nevada system so it's often referred to as just "Nevada". But it was also called "UNR" even way back when I was living in Reno in the mid-late 80's.)
 

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