How realistic is it that hockey will return to the desert in the future after the Arizona Coyotes are set to make the move to Utah next season?
It’s a tall task, but one current team owner Alex Meruelo is determined to get done.
On the “The Burns & Gambo Show” on Thursday, Meruelo said that watching the Coyotes’ last game in Arizona was “gut-wrenching” and “confirms what I already know: that hockey belongs in the desert,” he said. “That’s what we plan on doing in the future, in the near future.”
Meruelo said his intent is “to use the full five years” given to him to build the Coyotes a new hockey arena in Arizona.
The Coyotes spent the past two seasons playing at the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena at Arizona State University, playing its final game there Wednesday in front of a sold-out crowd. What led to the team’s downfall was the inability of ownership to secure an NHL-caliber arena, with voters in Tempe turning down three propositions last year to build a $2.1 billion entertainment district that would have included a new facility for the Coyotes.
The Coyotes officially head to Salt Lake City starting next season, league sources told The Athletic, after the NHL’s Board of Governors unanimously voted in favor of the sale and relocation of the team’s hockey assets on Thursday.
Ryan and Ashley Smith, the billionaire owners of the NBA’s Utah Jazz and MLS’s Real Salt Lake, paid $1.2 billion to acquire the Coyotes’ existing hockey assets — including its full reserve list, roster of players, draft picks and hockey operations department.
But Meruelo kept the rights to reactivate the Coyotes franchise in Arizona, meaning the Coyotes are now inactive, and the team moving to Utah will have to create its own logos, marks and branding. The NHL’s Board of Governors approved Meruelo to bring the team back if he has “fully constructed a new, state-of-the-art facility appropriate for an NHL team within five years.”
Again, a tall task, as only Meurelo can exercise the right to that reactivation, meaning it’s not something he has the ability to sell or transfer to another prospective owner down the road.
Meruelo will also retain the logos, marks and branding associated with the Coyotes.
“The only thing I’ve really done, is I’ve sent the players and hockey operations to Utah, everything will stay the same with the Coyote logo, all the IP, all that comes with it will stay in tact,” he said.
So if the Coyotes resurface in five years, they will do so as an expansion team.
The road there officially starts June 27, Meruelo said, when he was planning to purchase state land at an auction on which to build a new arena.
“I am fully focused and committed to buying that land June 27,” he said.
“My goal is to do what has to be done from Day 1 is to build the Coyotes a facility, an arena that they can call their house, their home. That is what I want to do, what I’ve been thinking from Day 1. That’s what I think is the most important part of the Coyotes future and for the fans.”
Required reading
(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)