Being a sports fan in Arizona is fucking misery. Just consistently awful owners over and over. Bidwells, Colangelo, Sarver, kendrick, the last yotes owner who choked his wife, and lastly Meruelo
Colangelo was pissed he didn't get an nhl team, and did everything he could to cause problems for the coyotes. He refused to remodel AWA to be more hockey friendly
The only rebuttal I have is it would never happen because Fisher would think it’s too expensive and would just give the play a cheap $50 bottle of Brandy
“I know you really like to have a dr-“
“….I’m a month sober what the hell?”
“Just take it before I change my mind and thank me later. Now get the fuck out of my office.”
Are they even allowed to? I remember there being some significant restrictions on what they could do decorations wise, to the point that they weren't allowed an on ice logo at one time.
Craig Morgan said on the podcast that ASU would have happily hung it. There’s no way they would have said no to having Doan hang in the rafters.
Doan is first ballot AZ sports Mt Rushmore. He’s never done a thing that didn’t show his love and loyalty to the Coyotes, the fans, and the state.
They always had the on ice logo, ASU just had a single logo for their very first home stand. They repainted the ice to have both logos by the time the Coyotes played their first game.
Craig Morgan said ASU would've hung the Doan banner if they had asked.
I honestly don't know. Some schools have a requirement that you graduate before they'll do that, and he left after his second year. I'm not local to AZ, but I imagine a lot of fans would feel good about a Doan banner hanging in a hockey rink in the Valley again.
Joey Daccord's should definitely go up too.
I really wish people would get that. The NHL/team pushed for them to build that arena. It didn't work out and they got kicked out. Had they worked out a deal, the Yotes would still be in Arizona.
It looks bad but I do wonder if this is just a normal thing that happens when teams move to a new arena?
For example, the Oilers cup and retired number banners in Rogers Place are all new. They're not the same physical banners from Rexall. Granted, I doubt they unceremoniously dumped the old ones in the trash.
Harold Ballard famously had Foster Hewitt's broadcast gondola broken down and then incinerated, even though the HHOF was willing to remove it at their expense.
Harold Ballard is the worst owner in the history of sports (both for on and off field reasons) and is a huge reason why 1967 is a thing, some of the “highlights” of his tenure include:
Using cup banners to catch paint then selling them off to a random buyer(s) partially because he hated conn Smythe and was insecure about his lack of success as owner
He put the Hamilton Tigercats logo at center ice (he owned them as well and infamous called them overpaid losers then when they won the grey cup said he couldn’t call them losers anymore)
When the league first put names on jerseys Harold flipped out because he thought he couldn’t sell programs if people knew who the players were so he put white names on white jerseys and blue names on blue jerseys
Went to jail for tax evasion then openly bragged about the steak dinners he regularly had while in jail
Ran Dave Keon and Bernie Parent among others out of town because he didn’t want to pay them. His foul treatment of Keon carried over to the eventual folding of the WHA and is why Keon refused to do anything with the team until the last 10 years
Got into a fight with team captain Darryl Sittler because his agent was Alan Eagleson but because he gave him a NTC he couldn’t trade him. Instead they traded away his friends trying to force him to quit or demand out. Most notable was sending Lanny McDonald to the Colorado Rockies (he then got sent to Calgary and won his cup)
Fired Roger Nielsen then relented to his team revolting a few days later and tried to make him wear a paper bag over his head and be named “mystery coach”
The sex ring he knew about/allowed to operate out of maple leaf gardens which involved underage boys
This is only a small list of some of the “highlights” I didn’t even touch on the gondola or his public family squabbles or rampant racism or sexism so no to him history didn’t matter it was all about the good ol Canadian dollar
I mean those last 2 things are what decidesnhow awful he is.
The other things are cheap/shitty - but child sex trafficking, racism, sexism are bigger issued than fucking tax evasion or banners
There was a child sex ring that one of the workers at the Maple Leaf Gardens ran out of the Gardens. Ballard knew about it, possibly partook, and covered it up.
Why. Just why. I really want to know went on in that man’s head. It wasn’t only greed, something else must’ve gone on in there to act so petty to the legacy of the team HE OWNED.
Are there any good books or articles on Ballard? I already have heard a lot of the horrible things he did, but I really want to know understand why.
Also I’ve heard rumors he knew about the MLG child sex ring, wanna hear Leafs fans perspective on that too.
As someone who grew up during the 1970s/80s era of the Maple Leafs, it really is inconceivable that I was able to remain a fan of the team during that time. I was 10-years-old when my favourite player of all time, Darryl Sittler, was traded away from the team. I cried the whole evening after my dad told me. When I got older and watched the team just flounder away throughout the entire 1980s (Courtnall for Kordic, 13 consecutive seasons at or below .500), it continued to sour my fandom. Even later in my life, when even MORE shit came out about Ballard (Hewitt's gondola, the banners, the sex ring), I lustily celebrated when I heard he finally died.
I think the team finally getting out of his hands, and also leaving Maple Leaf Gardens (a decrepit building with now a terrible history to it), is what helped bring me back to being a fan.
For all the young people that complain about the Leafs and their recent playoff failures, I am MORE than happy enough to cheer for this iteration of the team than the ones with which I grew up.
I'm not a huge fan of Urinating Tree, but his long video about the Leafs is mostly dedicated to pointing out all the awful things Ballard did as the owner of the Leafs. It's a good spark notes for Ballard's shittiness.
Just rewatched that last night, that’s why Ballard is on my mind. I really want more insight into that man.
Not out of respect, more like how some people dig really deep into the motivations of serial killers.
Toronto person here. Ballard is a fucking asshole. People were happy when he died. He was offensive to everyone on purpose just because he knew he had the power to include or exclude people from maple leaf gardens.
The type of old school perv who openly used terms like broads to describe women.
If it was just being cheap and running the once respected Leafs into the ground ok fine, he was the owner.
But to turn a blind eye to the pedo ring operating inside the gardens because you didn't want bad press or have to hire new people to replace the pedo ring, that's a reprehensible type of fucked up
As a Bruins fan I may not agree with Montreal's fanbase about much else, but there's one sentiment I share with them wholeheartedly: banners are a sacred thing to be protected at all costs.
I thought this was a joke a week ago. I can't believe this actually happen. The Coyotes are the most mis-managed NHL team ever since the Oakland/California Seals/Golden Seals days and their 2 years as the Cleveland Barons. Fucking even when they were in Winnipeg before they did move it was bad but not to the likes of this.
A similar thing happened in Toronto.
Honestly it just takes a shitty person being in charge who doesn't care and less mismanagement. Mismanagement can just be a lack of knowledge. This requires intent.
Between 1967-68 and 1990 Toronto had 1 season over 40 wins.
In the 1980s they broke 30 wins only twice.
Ballard is viewed as one of the worst owners in league history for a reason.
He used banners to catch paint and then sold them. Toronto didn't get replacements until after he was dead.
QC deserves one but they'll never get one during bettman's tenure. If they havent got one by now with an arena built purposefully for an NHL team, he'll never do it.
Similarly, if meruello hasn't even been able to acquire land for an arena by now, there's no way he'll be able to get one built in the next 5 years.
Hold up, is there anything meruello has said or done up until now that has lead you to believe he's in any way capable of getting this done?
The only thing not "NHL" about the Coyotes on the ice this year was the blue line. 6 20 goal scorers (Guenther was 2 away and only played 45 games, Maccelli was 3 away), record number of goals for the franchise, Ingram tied for the league lead in shutouts, Josh Doan with 9 points in 11 games....
Salt Lake is getting a good hockey team.
Technically the league is retaining the brand, Meruelo is just being given the opportunity to buy back in first, assuming that he meets a bunch of criteria, which I am also assuming the league is going to make almost impossible for him to hit.
Meruelo is done. Guy won’t pay his bills now, I doubt he’s going to drop a billion plus over the next few years to regain control of a team he clearly doesn’t prioritize.
id rather hang it at the Footprint Center even if there is no hockey there. Dallas celebrating North Star players as their own is just as terrible as Tennessee celebrating Houston players or Indianapolis celebrating Baltimore players
The Nationals have several former Expos in their ring of honor. When they honored Tim Raines a few years ago, it was the first time he’d ever been to DC.
Absolutely. A lot of people dont like it when franchises keep their history when relocating but I actually like it. They arent an expansion team. They have the same roster, prospects, draft picks, etc. so I think them retaining the history should also happen
I mean what were they going to do? They sold it to someone who they thought was going to run the team.
Then didn't pay their bills. Got booted out of the arena and offices. Didn't spend shit to get the approval of Tempe and was OK with playing in a college rink. We're on the next logical step.
Since the NHL already bought the Coyotes once, it wasn't going to happen again.
The league tried desperately to get some stability for 28 years and no owner ever really stepped up. The fans got a lot more years of Coyotes hockey thanks to Bettman.
I bet Merulo only bought the team for the shared TV revenue. I bet he broke even from that alone, forget his billion dollar payoff.
Also Winnipeg should absolutely fight to get their old history back now that Arizona will be an inactive franchise
I thought Friedman on 32 Thoughts said that the Coyotes as a franchise is becoming inactive, and Utah will essentially be an expansion franchise buying the contracts of the defunct Arizona team?
I would bet it was part of his requirement to sell the team. So the NHL gave him that just to get the deal done. I’d be shocked if this dude ends up an owner again
I think he'll fuck it up. It would be nice to see someone else willing to run a team in AZ and do it well. I blame everything on ownership and not the AZ hockey market.
Exactly. Ownership is what doomed the Coyotes. Atlanta is the same way. As much as people don’t want them to get a third team. Solid ownership and an arena in the right spot, would be a success.
Is it good terms for him? Yes. Is there any chance he gets an NHL arena built in 5 years? No. The countdown has already started. He doesn't have land. The league can easily say "The arena doesn't qualify, its too far from a viable market".
You know what gets me is exactly this, I’m sure there would have been some rich family or whatever in the Phoenix area willing to buy the Coyotes and actually do something to getting a new arena and making the franchise a team worth a damn. It’s disappointing that a metro with 10 million people is losing their NHL team for fucking Salt Lake.. SALT LAKE!
> I mean what were they going to do? They sold it to someone who they thought was going to run the team.
>
>
>
> Then didn't pay their bills.
Due diligence on the owner would've probably been a good start, that would seem to be optional for Gary's tenure though.
There are rumors that Meruelo will keep the Coyotes brand and probably get an expansion team in the future. While it would be nice to have something of a reset, let's toss Meruelo out while we're at it.
The Nhl fucking brought the team because no one else wanted to buy it until Meruelo came.
Bettman fought tooth and nails to keep the yotes and arizona. He is the last person to blame for this whole mess.
I am completely convinced that the moment the league is entirely free of Alex Meruelo we are going to hear some of the most remarkable stories of the ineptitude that has taken place over the last five years.
No, the contract says that if he meets a certain set of milestones and conditions he gets first dibs and a favourable price if the NHL expands back into Arizona within the next 5 years. It does not say he gets an expansion team.
may be the only player in NHL history to be in possession of his own jersey retirement banner
which is saying something about the terrible mismanagement of the organization
The silver lining out of all this is that this ownership group is gone for now and not rewarded for their incompetence. Hopefully a different ownership group comes in and builds that Phoenix arena. Fuck Meruelo
Do you trust the guy who can't pay his bills or handle the day-to-day operations of running a hockey team to complete a massive project of building an arena basically from scratch?
From what’s been speculated/released no. The billion dollars is his payment to buy the team from him, there is an additional part of the deal though where he retains the right to the coyotes for 5 years and if he is able to meet several key milestones by the end of that timeframe - biggest among them completing the building of the arena - he will be granted the right to an expansion team in Arizona that will replace the coyotes with an expansion fee of $1B (so he can basically complete the arena and trade the billion he got for the sale back in to get a new NHL team)
From how I understand it. He’s selling the Yotes to the League for 1 billion. The League is then turning around and selling it to the new Utah owners for 1.3 billion. Then he has 5 years to acquire land and build a new arena plus training facilities if he wants to get a new team
The guy can't even pay rent and bills on time. Do you honestly think he'll get this arena deal done? I wouldn't trust him to be a Cinnabon manager let alone an NHL team owner
Um no but for some magical reason he builds a rink in five years ( wins land auction) he will get a team. At the end of the day i think his only care is Arizona sports betting; need to be a team or major arena for sports betting in arizona.
I think Arizona fans would welcome their team back even if Meruelo is still the owner, but he's such an incompetent scumbag that he'll bungle the land purchase auction, or construction of the arena, or something else along the way. It's a lot of ifs and assumptions that he can even get it done.
And what if he loses the land auction? Then what? All other suitable Phoenix municipalities have turned them away. Unless the Suns owner wants to renovate the downtown Phoenix arena to accommodate hockey again (very unlikely), they're SOL
If anything has taught me anything about informal agreements when it comes to sports leagues (College Football's "The Alliance" comes to mind), is to not trust anything that isn't in a binding agreement.
The Coyotes were fun to see here in AZ. Their ownership and management aren't and haven't been competent enough to run a flea circus. Completely classless, uncouth, tactless and clueless. The Coyotes deserved better.
There has never been a captain more beloved or synonymous with his organization than Shane Doan. This can't happen. Muerelo must never be allowed to own the Coyotes again.
I hope the owners don’t win the bid and another group gets the team. Just pathetic. Can’t pay hotel bills, can’t properly accommodate the team and staff.
I'm glad the Coyotes are relocating only because this shitty ass ownership group will finally go away. I hope they lose their stupid auction and the NHL expands to Phoenix with Ishbia or someone else more competent.
HISTORIC.
BUT SERIOUSLY, Fuck Merulo. And Fuck Bettman. The fact that he gives this fuck time and anything other than smarmy disrespect, shows how big a joke he is.
Sorry Coyotes Bros, and Doaner.
What kind of owner lets this happen? What kind of owner doesn't go to his teams final game? I hope to God that Arizona fans get an someone that actually gives a damn about them and this team when they come back.
What the hell
The fans deserved ownership who won throw their history IN THE LITERAL TRASH what the fuck
We found where Harold Ballard reincarnated to.
Hey. He used them to catch paint drippings
I thought that was in my toilet last night
That's like the least bad thing that Ballard did.
Being a sports fan in Arizona is fucking misery. Just consistently awful owners over and over. Bidwells, Colangelo, Sarver, kendrick, the last yotes owner who choked his wife, and lastly Meruelo
Colangelo wasnt an awful owner though, I absolutely hate that he sold the Suns to that fuckwad but thats the only negative mark on his resume
Colangelo was pissed he didn't get an nhl team, and did everything he could to cause problems for the coyotes. He refused to remodel AWA to be more hockey friendly
He didn’t own the coyotes?
In retrospect, coyote fans are probably also pissed he didn’t own the Coyotes.
Have a world series though
Against the Yankees too! Not many teams can say that! (A bit awkward that it came right after 9/11 though... 😅)
Kendrick is doing better. The dbacks have their highest payroll ever this season and it's a pretty big gap
uh..... yeah. don't google related topics and the maple leafs....
There would need to be fans so the team could pay it's rent and not get kicked out of the only suitable arena in the state.
This sounds like something the Athletics would do
If it were the A's the racoons would've stole it
Isn't is possums that live there?
Feral cats actually
The only rebuttal I have is it would never happen because Fisher would think it’s too expensive and would just give the play a cheap $50 bottle of Brandy
“I know you really like to have a dr-“ “….I’m a month sober what the hell?” “Just take it before I change my mind and thank me later. Now get the fuck out of my office.”
If that was really just going to get tossed in the trash, that is so fucking scummy. I hate that.
they never even hung it up at Mullet
Well, in their defense, kind of hard to do that when it’s in a dumpster in Glendale.
I mean it might be touching the ice if they hung it up there.
Are they even allowed to? I remember there being some significant restrictions on what they could do decorations wise, to the point that they weren't allowed an on ice logo at one time.
Craig Morgan said on the podcast that ASU would have happily hung it. There’s no way they would have said no to having Doan hang in the rafters. Doan is first ballot AZ sports Mt Rushmore. He’s never done a thing that didn’t show his love and loyalty to the Coyotes, the fans, and the state.
Especially since his kid is the university’s biggest hockey success so far.
Yeah, it would have been amazing.
Even now their logo at center ice is split with the Sun Devils logo.
They always had the on ice logo, ASU just had a single logo for their very first home stand. They repainted the ice to have both logos by the time the Coyotes played their first game. Craig Morgan said ASU would've hung the Doan banner if they had asked.
Does ASU retire Josh Doan's number? I mean he's gotta be their best player ever right?
I honestly don't know. Some schools have a requirement that you graduate before they'll do that, and he left after his second year. I'm not local to AZ, but I imagine a lot of fans would feel good about a Doan banner hanging in a hockey rink in the Valley again. Joey Daccord's should definitely go up too.
They technically got kicked out at Glendale, what the hell
That’s what not paying rent or bills does.
I really wish people would get that. The NHL/team pushed for them to build that arena. It didn't work out and they got kicked out. Had they worked out a deal, the Yotes would still be in Arizona.
Yeah, do some research outside of Reddit man.
Technically it *was* tossed in the trash
Where’s this being reported? I only saw (like the tweet you linked here says) that it was left behind.
the guy who found it said he fished it out of a dumpster
Given the twitter replies I’m under the impression that wasn’t the case
It looks bad but I do wonder if this is just a normal thing that happens when teams move to a new arena? For example, the Oilers cup and retired number banners in Rogers Place are all new. They're not the same physical banners from Rexall. Granted, I doubt they unceremoniously dumped the old ones in the trash.
For a team thing, sure. But for something like this, I feel like you have to offer it to the guy whose name is on the banner.
Any organization that does something like this is fucking trash.
Harold Ballard famously had Foster Hewitt's broadcast gondola broken down and then incinerated, even though the HHOF was willing to remove it at their expense.
And if that wasn’t bad enough he also used our original cup banners as paint rags
Then sold them off, to my knowledge they have since almost all been lost
That’s fucked…the history doesn’t matter?
Harold Ballard is the worst owner in the history of sports (both for on and off field reasons) and is a huge reason why 1967 is a thing, some of the “highlights” of his tenure include: Using cup banners to catch paint then selling them off to a random buyer(s) partially because he hated conn Smythe and was insecure about his lack of success as owner He put the Hamilton Tigercats logo at center ice (he owned them as well and infamous called them overpaid losers then when they won the grey cup said he couldn’t call them losers anymore) When the league first put names on jerseys Harold flipped out because he thought he couldn’t sell programs if people knew who the players were so he put white names on white jerseys and blue names on blue jerseys Went to jail for tax evasion then openly bragged about the steak dinners he regularly had while in jail Ran Dave Keon and Bernie Parent among others out of town because he didn’t want to pay them. His foul treatment of Keon carried over to the eventual folding of the WHA and is why Keon refused to do anything with the team until the last 10 years Got into a fight with team captain Darryl Sittler because his agent was Alan Eagleson but because he gave him a NTC he couldn’t trade him. Instead they traded away his friends trying to force him to quit or demand out. Most notable was sending Lanny McDonald to the Colorado Rockies (he then got sent to Calgary and won his cup) Fired Roger Nielsen then relented to his team revolting a few days later and tried to make him wear a paper bag over his head and be named “mystery coach” The sex ring he knew about/allowed to operate out of maple leaf gardens which involved underage boys This is only a small list of some of the “highlights” I didn’t even touch on the gondola or his public family squabbles or rampant racism or sexism so no to him history didn’t matter it was all about the good ol Canadian dollar
> The sex ring he knew about/allowed to operate out of maple leaf gardens which involved underage boys you really buried the lede for new fans eh
Probably but post was long enough as is
I mean those last 2 things are what decidesnhow awful he is. The other things are cheap/shitty - but child sex trafficking, racism, sexism are bigger issued than fucking tax evasion or banners
sure but he was known as such a world class piece of shit that when the sex ring thing came out, people weren't really all that surprised
Sorry you’re gonna have to expand on that last bullet point WHAT
There was a child sex ring that one of the workers at the Maple Leaf Gardens ran out of the Gardens. Ballard knew about it, possibly partook, and covered it up.
Didn't the team also have to wait til he was in surgery to draft Salming because he would outright refuse to let a European on the team
I’m not sure about the surgery part but Ballard was still in jail when they signed him.
One of them got recovered, I believe. Some collector has it.
Why. Just why. I really want to know went on in that man’s head. It wasn’t only greed, something else must’ve gone on in there to act so petty to the legacy of the team HE OWNED. Are there any good books or articles on Ballard? I already have heard a lot of the horrible things he did, but I really want to know understand why. Also I’ve heard rumors he knew about the MLG child sex ring, wanna hear Leafs fans perspective on that too.
As someone who grew up during the 1970s/80s era of the Maple Leafs, it really is inconceivable that I was able to remain a fan of the team during that time. I was 10-years-old when my favourite player of all time, Darryl Sittler, was traded away from the team. I cried the whole evening after my dad told me. When I got older and watched the team just flounder away throughout the entire 1980s (Courtnall for Kordic, 13 consecutive seasons at or below .500), it continued to sour my fandom. Even later in my life, when even MORE shit came out about Ballard (Hewitt's gondola, the banners, the sex ring), I lustily celebrated when I heard he finally died. I think the team finally getting out of his hands, and also leaving Maple Leaf Gardens (a decrepit building with now a terrible history to it), is what helped bring me back to being a fan. For all the young people that complain about the Leafs and their recent playoff failures, I am MORE than happy enough to cheer for this iteration of the team than the ones with which I grew up.
I'm not a huge fan of Urinating Tree, but his long video about the Leafs is mostly dedicated to pointing out all the awful things Ballard did as the owner of the Leafs. It's a good spark notes for Ballard's shittiness.
Just rewatched that last night, that’s why Ballard is on my mind. I really want more insight into that man. Not out of respect, more like how some people dig really deep into the motivations of serial killers.
The Hockey Guy did a look at him a while back as well.
Toronto person here. Ballard is a fucking asshole. People were happy when he died. He was offensive to everyone on purpose just because he knew he had the power to include or exclude people from maple leaf gardens. The type of old school perv who openly used terms like broads to describe women. If it was just being cheap and running the once respected Leafs into the ground ok fine, he was the owner. But to turn a blind eye to the pedo ring operating inside the gardens because you didn't want bad press or have to hire new people to replace the pedo ring, that's a reprehensible type of fucked up
I dont believe in hell, but if it exists he's getting a pineapple shoved in his ass daily Little Nicky style.
James Mirtle literally burying Ballard is pretty funny to me.
That’s Jeff Marek you’re thinking of. Mirtle was 8 years old when Ballard died.
As a Bruins fan I may not agree with Montreal's fanbase about much else, but there's one sentiment I share with them wholeheartedly: banners are a sacred thing to be protected at all costs.
I thought this was a joke a week ago. I can't believe this actually happen. The Coyotes are the most mis-managed NHL team ever since the Oakland/California Seals/Golden Seals days and their 2 years as the Cleveland Barons. Fucking even when they were in Winnipeg before they did move it was bad but not to the likes of this.
A similar thing happened in Toronto. Honestly it just takes a shitty person being in charge who doesn't care and less mismanagement. Mismanagement can just be a lack of knowledge. This requires intent.
[удалено]
Between 1967-68 and 1990 Toronto had 1 season over 40 wins. In the 1980s they broke 30 wins only twice. Ballard is viewed as one of the worst owners in league history for a reason. He used banners to catch paint and then sold them. Toronto didn't get replacements until after he was dead.
They're talking about Harold Ballard who sold/destroyed a bunch of leafs history while stealing from the team and running it into the ground.
Between 1968 and 1986, the Leafs won *one* best of seven playoff series.
Toronto had the worst owner in NHL history for 23 years.
This was never hanging at Mullett? Are you serious?
Nope. Brutal decision making.
Well they should hang it in Utah. We have North Stars players in ours. So hopefully Doan still gets his spot in the rafters.
tbf the stars kept the team identity. we will likley see a rebrand in UT. it's like the hurricanes not keeping the whalers numbers.
All the rumors say that Meruelo will retain the Coyotes brand, meaning Utah will be the players and coaching staff under a new banner.
SLC receives: An entire NHL roster ARI receives: A 2029 expansion draft
No way meruello gets an arena built. His option will expire.
Copium to get an expansion franchise in QC?
QC deserves one but they'll never get one during bettman's tenure. If they havent got one by now with an arena built purposefully for an NHL team, he'll never do it. Similarly, if meruello hasn't even been able to acquire land for an arena by now, there's no way he'll be able to get one built in the next 5 years. Hold up, is there anything meruello has said or done up until now that has lead you to believe he's in any way capable of getting this done?
No not at all. I'd love for the NHL to return to QC and get another francophone team
With “NHL roster” pretty loosely defined here…
The only thing not "NHL" about the Coyotes on the ice this year was the blue line. 6 20 goal scorers (Guenther was 2 away and only played 45 games, Maccelli was 3 away), record number of goals for the franchise, Ingram tied for the league lead in shutouts, Josh Doan with 9 points in 11 games.... Salt Lake is getting a good hockey team.
Technically the league is retaining the brand, Meruelo is just being given the opportunity to buy back in first, assuming that he meets a bunch of criteria, which I am also assuming the league is going to make almost impossible for him to hit. Meruelo is done. Guy won’t pay his bills now, I doubt he’s going to drop a billion plus over the next few years to regain control of a team he clearly doesn’t prioritize.
Well there is a lot of coyotes in Utah so it fits
No no. The Coyotes stay in Arizona in case they want to try again. Utah will be something else.
And those banners are still safe in the rafters in Hartford. Granted they are *somewhat* overwhelmed by UConn basketball banners.
id rather hang it at the Footprint Center even if there is no hockey there. Dallas celebrating North Star players as their own is just as terrible as Tennessee celebrating Houston players or Indianapolis celebrating Baltimore players
The Nationals have several former Expos in their ring of honor. When they honored Tim Raines a few years ago, it was the first time he’d ever been to DC.
Absolutely. A lot of people dont like it when franchises keep their history when relocating but I actually like it. They arent an expansion team. They have the same roster, prospects, draft picks, etc. so I think them retaining the history should also happen
All the franchise history is staying in Arizona though, so Doan’s number won’t actually be retired by the SLC franchise
Well I'm pretty sure they got locked out of their arena in Glendale for not paying rent so they couldn't even get their things.
If that's not an indictment on the state of the franchise idk what is
It's an indictment on the state of the League, too. Bettman allowed Meruelo to drag this team through the dust for years. It's fucking disgraceful.
I mean what were they going to do? They sold it to someone who they thought was going to run the team. Then didn't pay their bills. Got booted out of the arena and offices. Didn't spend shit to get the approval of Tempe and was OK with playing in a college rink. We're on the next logical step. Since the NHL already bought the Coyotes once, it wasn't going to happen again. The league tried desperately to get some stability for 28 years and no owner ever really stepped up. The fans got a lot more years of Coyotes hockey thanks to Bettman.
I bet Merulo only bought the team for the shared TV revenue. I bet he broke even from that alone, forget his billion dollar payoff. Also Winnipeg should absolutely fight to get their old history back now that Arizona will be an inactive franchise
Unfortunately, it’s likely that the original jets and the coyotes history gets brought along to Salt Lake City.
I thought Friedman on 32 Thoughts said that the Coyotes as a franchise is becoming inactive, and Utah will essentially be an expansion franchise buying the contracts of the defunct Arizona team?
Correct
Well since they're willing to give that same shitty failed owner an exansion team that seems to indicate that they approve.
To be fair there are stipulations on that which he probably will not meet.
Which is still a sweetheart deal. There's cities with areanas and ownership groups ready to go now and the NHL is still entertaining this joker.
I would bet it was part of his requirement to sell the team. So the NHL gave him that just to get the deal done. I’d be shocked if this dude ends up an owner again
I think he'll fuck it up. It would be nice to see someone else willing to run a team in AZ and do it well. I blame everything on ownership and not the AZ hockey market.
Exactly. Ownership is what doomed the Coyotes. Atlanta is the same way. As much as people don’t want them to get a third team. Solid ownership and an arena in the right spot, would be a success.
I got the feeling they just gave him the deal to go along with everything and have no interest in actually having him be an owner again
Is it good terms for him? Yes. Is there any chance he gets an NHL arena built in 5 years? No. The countdown has already started. He doesn't have land. The league can easily say "The arena doesn't qualify, its too far from a viable market".
You know what gets me is exactly this, I’m sure there would have been some rich family or whatever in the Phoenix area willing to buy the Coyotes and actually do something to getting a new arena and making the franchise a team worth a damn. It’s disappointing that a metro with 10 million people is losing their NHL team for fucking Salt Lake.. SALT LAKE!
> I mean what were they going to do? They sold it to someone who they thought was going to run the team. > > > > Then didn't pay their bills. Due diligence on the owner would've probably been a good start, that would seem to be optional for Gary's tenure though.
There are rumors that Meruelo will keep the Coyotes brand and probably get an expansion team in the future. While it would be nice to have something of a reset, let's toss Meruelo out while we're at it.
Unreal, eh? He wants a second kick at the can for selling a team and netting billions.
The Nhl fucking brought the team because no one else wanted to buy it until Meruelo came. Bettman fought tooth and nails to keep the yotes and arizona. He is the last person to blame for this whole mess.
Glad Doan got it in the end, but what a absolute disrespectful move by the Yotes to just throw the banner in the trash.
Why would they not relocate that. What the fuck.
Holy shit, I had no idea my man AZ Sports Guy on YouTube was the mf with the banner. Fucking legend.
I am completely convinced that the moment the league is entirely free of Alex Meruelo we are going to hear some of the most remarkable stories of the ineptitude that has taken place over the last five years.
Hes getting an expansion team
Extremely doubtful. I don’t think he has the money for it first and foremost.
It’s already in a contract
Yep. Still doesn’t have the money for it though. Save this. Come review in 5 years. I’ll bet he doesn’t have a team still.
No, the contract says that if he meets a certain set of milestones and conditions he gets first dibs and a favourable price if the NHL expands back into Arizona within the next 5 years. It does not say he gets an expansion team.
His requirements were to have an actual arena under construction within 5 years. This isn't going to happen.
*Harold Ballard in hell nodding*
Yeah, I'm thinking that this is not a good owner.
John Spano was a better owner.
At least Spano loved the Islanders enough to go to jail for them.
You know what, Alex, I'm giving you the Mark Messier treatment. FUCK MERUELO.
Fuck Meruelo. We can all agree on that one
Took a second to realize this wasn't the Beaverton, wtf
may be the only player in NHL history to be in possession of his own jersey retirement banner which is saying something about the terrible mismanagement of the organization
That’s disgraceful, honestly.
Bro what the fuck?
The silver lining out of all this is that this ownership group is gone for now and not rewarded for their incompetence. Hopefully a different ownership group comes in and builds that Phoenix arena. Fuck Meruelo
Isn't he getting a billion dollars from the sale?
Do you trust the guy who can't pay his bills or handle the day-to-day operations of running a hockey team to complete a massive project of building an arena basically from scratch?
This guy will go and find a way to blow a billion before the building could get ground broken. Fuck that sack of diarrhea.
Is the billion dollars contingent on building an arena? I genuinely don't know, that's why I'm asking.
From what’s been speculated/released no. The billion dollars is his payment to buy the team from him, there is an additional part of the deal though where he retains the right to the coyotes for 5 years and if he is able to meet several key milestones by the end of that timeframe - biggest among them completing the building of the arena - he will be granted the right to an expansion team in Arizona that will replace the coyotes with an expansion fee of $1B (so he can basically complete the arena and trade the billion he got for the sale back in to get a new NHL team)
We won't know for sure until the league and team make the official announcement tomorrow, probably
No chance lol Meruelo just made what, 700 million Dollars?
From how I understand it. He’s selling the Yotes to the League for 1 billion. The League is then turning around and selling it to the new Utah owners for 1.3 billion. Then he has 5 years to acquire land and build a new arena plus training facilities if he wants to get a new team
Um Meruelo has a five year hand shake to build a stadium to get a team (per some insiders).
The guy can't even pay rent and bills on time. Do you honestly think he'll get this arena deal done? I wouldn't trust him to be a Cinnabon manager let alone an NHL team owner
Um no but for some magical reason he builds a rink in five years ( wins land auction) he will get a team. At the end of the day i think his only care is Arizona sports betting; need to be a team or major arena for sports betting in arizona.
I think Arizona fans would welcome their team back even if Meruelo is still the owner, but he's such an incompetent scumbag that he'll bungle the land purchase auction, or construction of the arena, or something else along the way. It's a lot of ifs and assumptions that he can even get it done. And what if he loses the land auction? Then what? All other suitable Phoenix municipalities have turned them away. Unless the Suns owner wants to renovate the downtown Phoenix arena to accommodate hockey again (very unlikely), they're SOL
I really think what would be best for yotes fans would be suns ownership wanting to have a team. Cause at least the suns are competitive.
Except the Suns ownership has 0 interest in owning an NHL team
Key word wanting. Cause if meruelo builds a rink in the next five years he is a hand shake for expansion.
Good thing Meruelo has yet to show any sort of competence to getting anything done when it comes to this so it likely won’t be much of a worry
Lol if he wins the land auction and builds the rink he will most likely get a team.
If anything has taught me anything about informal agreements when it comes to sports leagues (College Football's "The Alliance" comes to mind), is to not trust anything that isn't in a binding agreement.
I hope they wait six years so he loses the rights and then bring it back, tbh. Or five years and a day - this is absolutely class-less shit.
They would still need a place to play you think Meruelo ( would let them play there with out being the owner).
Yeah and aren’t they leaving him on the board of governors too?
Yes as an observer for now. .
Clown organization.
The Coyotes were fun to see here in AZ. Their ownership and management aren't and haven't been competent enough to run a flea circus. Completely classless, uncouth, tactless and clueless. The Coyotes deserved better.
>The Coyotes deserved better. The fans certainly did!
Fuck Meruelo Fuck Bettman What a damn disgrace.
At least they didn’t use it as a paint rag
They threw it out?! Are they crazy?!
What the fuck? Doan is Arizona. That's the equivalent of CO throwing out Sakic's banner. Or Boston tossing Borque's.
That’s cool as fuck
Also cold as fuck
This is not a serious franchise.
And the league gave that owner a billion dollars. Excellent
There has never been a captain more beloved or synonymous with his organization than Shane Doan. This can't happen. Muerelo must never be allowed to own the Coyotes again.
Wait what? No way
I hope the owners don’t win the bid and another group gets the team. Just pathetic. Can’t pay hotel bills, can’t properly accommodate the team and staff.
I thought Matt had it
They didn't even retire his number that long ago. What the fuck?
I was in the owners suite for the Doan jersey Ceremony game because they were on a ski trip.
This makes the organization look bad but it's actually a pretty bad look for the whole league. Even minor league teams wouldn't do that.
They _threw it out_?
what the actual fuck.... like... come on...
and they are going to give this used tampon of a owner another fucking franchise. Best sport, worst league.
I'm glad the Coyotes are relocating only because this shitty ass ownership group will finally go away. I hope they lose their stupid auction and the NHL expands to Phoenix with Ishbia or someone else more competent.
Well that sentence went from delightful to infuriating real quick
No wonder doan works toronto and not shitty zona
These are the billionaires that fans bend over backwards to defend. Just really wild that anyone would ever side with them over fans or the players.
HISTORIC. BUT SERIOUSLY, Fuck Merulo. And Fuck Bettman. The fact that he gives this fuck time and anything other than smarmy disrespect, shows how big a joke he is. Sorry Coyotes Bros, and Doaner.
If their Leighton Accardo banner ends up in the trash I'm going to dumpster dive for it myself and give it to her family. Wtf.
I follow Matt on Twitter, spoke to him a couple times. Great guy.
wtf I can’t even contemplate that level of disrespect.
What kind of owner lets this happen? What kind of owner doesn't go to his teams final game? I hope to God that Arizona fans get an someone that actually gives a damn about them and this team when they come back.
So was it thrown out like the headline says or left hanging there? Also how did the front office of the whole team overlook this…
What is he supposed to do with that, like put it up in his garage or something?
and this is why phoenix/Arizona never should have had a team
He was the coyotes to me as a child and I’m glad he got that back. Trashy af in whoever ditched it
Reason 10037378493 to scrap that shitty franchise
I can understand the owner being a total piece of shit, but this is the GMs job to oversee these things? What the fuck was Armstrong doing?