Permanently.
My guess is after Tempe fell through, combined with the litany of other headaches Meruelo has caused, the league wants him out and has been contacting outside suitors and prospective expansion buyers about relocating the Coyotes. Ryan Smith steps in, him and the NHL not only publicly flirt with each other about how much Smith wants a team in SLC, but he's willing to pay out the nose - overpay by at least double/triple what the Coyotes are worth. Meruelo realizes the league wants him out, but knows they have no grounds to force him out legally. He has them over a barrel. So now he's conjuring up this sudden auction and plot for state land in North Phoenix and likely isn't sincere about it - nothing in his track record suggests that he is. But nonetheless, he now has leverage and adds to his leverage. Especially with an auction that is due after the league would be able to relocate them and a league that does not want this tied up in the courts. Meruelo bought the team for $300M several years ago and now stands to sell for $1B. He stands to make $700M in profit for running a team into the ground and being a cheap two-bit grifter through-and-through. And he gets right-of-first-refusal for a new franchise in AZ, rights he no doubt will be keen on flipping for a profit. So at this point, the team is all but packing its bags for SLC while Meruelo tries to play chicken for as long as possible to get a more favorable payout.
Shocking the guy that the NBA turned away because he had red flags visible from space ended up being a total grifter. But this is the same league that allowed the likes of a misogynistic fraudster to own my Leafs from prison, a literal con man who didn't have money to own your Isles, and the f***ing Yakuza to own the expansion Lightning. Clearly, due diligence is not in this league's charter.
