Per Friedman: Coyotes players told team moving to Utah starting next season (Mod warning post #50)

[WaitingForThatCab]

Well, this is awful.

 

[cptjeff]

Confirms that Meruelo will get exclusive rights to bring back the Coyotes. Honestly, I'm expecting him to try to sell those rights to someone else and just cash out.

Eh, it really sounds like he believes in the market and wants to make it happen- but they need an arena. Until the arena is sorted, it's not viable. Once it is, he'll bring them back. That's not crazy.

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

but yet other reporters are saying the opposite

Twitter is the magic 8 ball of the internet

Probably truth in both. Imagine the players who committed there longer term love living in Arizona & arent excited to uproot, while the players more generally hate playing in that arena.

I imagine after the fiasco with Meurello the ones who are furious might look forward to playing under competent ownership aswell.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

The nuance might be that the Arizona new team might not need a franchise fee

Or maybe it's just symbolic so the league can say that they didn't really fail in Arizona yet, or just something to keep the hardcore fans hoping.

I think it's incredibly far-fetched to think Phoenix II would come into the league for free and any discount will probably still be relatively minimal. Even when the Cleveland Browns were resurrected, Al Lerner still had to pay the NFL $530 million and then the Houston Texans came in for $700 million.

Everything else IMO is nostalgia or trying to play 5D chess with the situation. Start with basic explanations, don't ascribe more complexity until/unless the facts support it or it's evident basic explanations and solutions aren't sufficient.

 

[Duder54]

Gambling ads are illegal in Utah.

After 2 years of being bombarded with gambling ads at every turn, I kind of wish they were illegal everywhere…

 

[Empoleon8771]

Eh, it really sounds like he believes in the market and wants to make it happen- but they need an arena. Until the arena is sorted, it's not viable. Once it is, he'll bring them back. That's not crazy.

I'm not sure that it isn't just a charade and he'll just cash out when given the opportunity.

The dude doesn't even pay hotel bills for his team. I wouldn't be even a little bit surprised if his interest in the land auction is just a farce and he'll just sell the rights of the Coyotes for even more money.

 

[BB88]

houston arizona atlantia and probs kansas city im guessing.. quebec be frozen out again

Just insanity

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

Confirms that Meruelo will get exclusive rights to bring back the Coyotes. Honestly, I'm expecting him to try to sell those rights to someone else and just cash out.

He should. How the hell can he expect to build hype around a revival when he's selling the current young iteration so they can have their success down the road? "Yeah, sorry we had to ship 'em off 5-10 years ago - but look! Now you can cheer for a mediocre expansion franchise while SLC makes consistent playoff appearances!"

I say this with all due respect to present Coyotes fans, but if you're moving the team right now, KILL. THAT. BRAND. Do *not* bring back a Coyotes 2.0 years from now once the arena is built. All you'll be doing is bringing up sore memories of a franchise that failed.

Give 'em a new, fresh identity. Incorporate the present franchise's records as the OGs of Arizona hockey. And when the time is right, do some throwback jersey nights or whatever. But don't just blithely wheel the Coyotes identity back out when they were made to die a tragic death.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Murillo might own the rights to the franchise but Bettman would still need to approve the expansion when the time comes. So unless it’s disclosed that when the time comes Bettman must allow the expansion process to go through, Bettman can simply just ignore Muerello and not approve of any future expansion unless of course someone else owns the franchise.

But you know grifters are gonna grift. Murello is a con artist.

 

[Donnie740]

It’s absolutely ridiculous to drive this towards being a 36 team league

Insanity

Agree 100%

The talent is already badly watered down with 32 teams and there’s ZERO interest for hockey in places like Phoenix and Atlanta.

Why would the NHL even suggest the possibility of returning to such a joke location like Phoenix?

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Twitter is the magic 8 ball of the internet

If that isn't trademarked, you should drop everything and go do it immediately.

 

[Empoleon8771]

He should. How the hell can he expect to build hype around a revival when he's selling the current young iteration so they can have their success down the road? "Yeah, sorry we had to ship 'em off 5-10 years ago - but look! Now you can cheer for a mediocre expansion franchise while SLC makes consistent playoff appearances!"

I say this with all due respect to present Coyotes fans, but if you're moving the team right now, KILL. THAT. BRAND. Do *not* bring back a Coyotes 2.0 years from now once the arena is built. All you'll be doing is bringing up sore memories of a franchise that failed.

Give 'em a new, fresh identity. Incorporate the present franchise's records as the OGs of Arizona hockey. And when the time is right, do some throwback jersey nights or whatever.

I honestly think it's more "NHL is pressuring him to sell" than "Meruelo selling off the team".

But that doesn't change my thought that Meruelo is a grifter and I could absolutely see him just selling the rights to the Coyotes/Phoenix expansion team and just getting a couple extra million.

Honestly, that's probably better for Coyotes fans than Meruelo being the owner of a new expansion team anyway.

Murillo might own the rights to the franchise but Bettman would still need to approve the expansion when the time comes. So unless it’s disclosed that when the time comes Bettman must allow the expansion process to go through, Bettman can simply just ignore Muerello and not approve of any future expansion unless of course someone else owns the franchise.

But you know grifters are gonna grift. Murello is a con artist.

I think any part of the sale is going to explicitly have the wording that Phoenix will get an expansion team if the arena situation gets sorted out.

 

[thekernel]

Yknow, the signs have been there for years, yet somehow I was convinced they would literally let them play in an empty parking lot if it meant Gary didn't have to relocate them. It shouldn't come as a surprise, yet here I am, shocked that they're actually moving. Condolences to the diehards...Meruelo can go suck a wet sock

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Only way a soft cap works if it satisfies the 50/50 agreement.
So going over $5 million will cost team $10 million. Maybe make it $15 million to help with escrow.
But in reality, can’t see it happening.

This. A "soft cap" is "great" in that it allows teams to spend more money, but with the 50/50 split every extra dollar spent merely comes out of the pocket of the players. They get nothing for it other than higher escrow and a reshuffling of who keeps how much.

The owners were offered a soft cap in 1994, 2004 and 2012. They rejected it every time. In 2024, there's literally no reason to think they're suddenly going to jump on it.

 

[canadianmagpie]

After 2 years of being bombarded with gambling ads at every turn, I kind of wish they were illegal everywhere…

I think John Oliver did a show on it. Sports betting isn't defined as gambling but something along the line of "skill". Therefore, the ads aren't promoting gambling, but a skill game.

 

[Golden_Jet]

But that doesn't change my thought that Meruelo is a grifter and I could absolutely see him just selling the rights to the Coyotes/Phoenix expansion team and just getting a couple extra million.

NHL wouldn’t allow that,

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

I honestly think it's more "NHL is pressuring him to sell" than "Meruelo selling off the team".

But that doesn't change my thought that Meruelo is a grifter and I could absolutely see him just selling the rights to the Coyotes/Phoenix expansion team and just getting a couple extra million.

Honestly, that's probably better for Coyotes fans than Meruelo being the owner of a new expansion team anyway.

If the NHL is pressuring Meruelo to sell on promises of future expansion *if* he manages to get something built, it speaks volumes to their confidence in him managing to secure an arena deal - or the prospect of playing in Mullet in the interim is really too odious to handle.

They're essentially hedging their bets that it is preferable to give a known owner in SLC a franchise on sweetheart deal (where the league splits only a cut of the proceeds) and take a hypothetical Arizona expansion fee later, than to save the Coyotes now and take an SLC expansion later. It's such a bizarre process.

 

[Empoleon8771]

NHL wouldn’t allow that,

Why wouldn't they? I doubt the NHL is particularly fond of Meruelo as an owner, and if he's selling it to a new owner that will actually have the Coyotes in Phoenix, why would they care?

 

[Empoleon8771]

If the NHL is pressuring Meruelo to sell on promises of future expansion *if* he manages to get something built, it speaks volumes to their confidence in him managing to secure an arena deal - or the prospect of playing in Mullet in the interim is really too odious to handle.

They're essentially hedging their bets that it is preferable to give a known owner in SLC a franchise on sweetheart deal (where the league splits only a cut of the proceeds) and take a hypothetical Arizona expansion fee later, than to save the Coyotes now and take an SLC expansion later. It's such a bizarre process.

I think both the NHLPA and NHL view playing in Mullett Arena indefinitely as a flat out unacceptable option. At minimum, you're playing there for an additional 3 years, which will probably be longer based on the Coyotes entire history.

Purely logically, the move makes a ton of sense. Salt Lake City has an owner who desperately wants a team and they already have funding committed for the arena. Rather than the Coyotes playing in Mullett Arena indefinitely until the arena is done, they'll play in an actual professional arena in Salt Lake City while Phoenix gets the arena situation sorted out.

I'm just skeptical that Meruelo actually wants to get the arena situation sorted out.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Why wouldn't they? I doubt the NHL is particularly fond of Meruelo as an owner, and if he's selling it to a new owner that will actually have the Coyotes in Phoenix, why would they care?

They care about every new owner and must be approved, if not AM, then it would be a higher priced expansion number.
NHL is definitely not letting AM pocket possible expansion money.

 

[tkb81]

well at least doans boy got to put on a arizona jersy leats go Utah .. lived that way for a year while pipelining besides the early closure of bars its a great place ...

 

[NotASheep]

I agree that the NHL is getting to big. NHL will soon have the most teams have any league but will ne the earner of the traditional big 4. NHL was the last of them to expend and are now making up for lost time and I believe they are heading towards a cliff.

 

[Bubbles]

Anyone check on Gary Bettman? He doing okay?

Looks fine to me:

 

[Gardner McKay]

Agree 100%

The talent is already badly watered down with 32 teams and there’s ZERO interest for hockey in places like Phoenix and Atlanta.

Why would the NHL even suggest the possibility of returning to such a joke location like Phoenix?

That's not true.

There is significant interest in Atlanta. The arena was in a bad spot and there was a terrible ownership group.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

This could be a last minute gambit by Bettman and Coyotes to pressure officials in AZ to work with them on getting a rink built but I doubt it.

I don’t buy at all that they’re just now realizing that even if they win the land auction, there will be obstacles still and it’ll be years before they’re playing in a new arena, they knew that the minute the Tempe vote failed. I’m betting their plan all along (since Tempe fell through) has been to tease the SLC group with a possible sale to try to bend them over and sucker them into overpaying. Wouldn’t be surprised if they end up paying over 1B when it’s all said and done. Mereulo basically doubles his money in 5 years and gets to walk away from the headache and redeploy this capital elsewhere, Bettman and the league get to save face on this colossal never ending failure by getting a nice relocation fee and driving up franchise values.

Smith gets his second Pro franchise in a fast growing SLC market but it costs him.

Everybody wins, except Coyotes fans who’ve been lied to for the last year to keep them interested just in case a sale didn’t get finalized and they went down the North Phoenix path.

This isn't last minute.

It's pretty obvious that they had this planned behind the scenes for a while. Back in January, Ryan Smith made a public statement that he intended to bring the NHL to Utah. That doesn't happen without some sort of coordination between Smith and the league.

So if the public declaration was all the way back in January, it's reasonable to assume that they had private talks prior to that.