I wanted to make a video on this after the news broke that the Coyotes owner had apparently given up on building a new arena in Arizona.
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40 Comments
I do blame him. I think him taking the money and running is absolutely despicable. Im not even a yotes fan but I hate this guy. Scumbag.
Too bad it can’t be the Utah Coyotes now.
I heard somewhere today Maruelo is moving the road runners to Reno. Guy littlerly took all pro hockey away from Arizona
Poor guy, made close to a billion in profit on flipping the Coyotes… However will he live?
Too far down the road to pivot and use the name Coyotes at this point, but Utah fans were really wanting that name. The old Wiley coyote and roadrunner cartoons is exactly what half of Utah looks like. The name just made sense but it’s too late now.
I live in Phoenix, and I have to tell you the NHL is not going to work here. There are numerous reasons, very poor ownership groups who walked away with huge profits, the anemic enthusiasm of fans, and the general media in the market was pathetic. Sure they gave the score and who scored but that's it. They hardly ever promote upcoming games, unlike the Cardinals and the Suns, where they will discuss in detail what makes the next game so exciting to watch, the media lacked keeping tabs on Meruelo's progress for a new arena, asleep at the switch taking for granted the Coyotes are here to stay, hiding and covering up the toxic workplace as reported a few years ago and on and on. The media here should share the blame, for its lack of passion for the NHL in Phoenix. Don't forget that Government entities in Arizona were instrumental in blocking any efforts or attempts to welcome the Coyotes with open arms. It's not just Meruelo's fault folks, we are all to blame, the fans' lack of enthusiasm, the Government roadblocks, the Phoenix Suns former owner rejecting the proposal to share the arena in downtown Phoenix in 2022, the Phoenix media, and Meruelo. I now believe AZ does not deserve an NHL team!
The problem with Arizona is, there may not be water there in 30 years. That entire area may become uninhabitable.
He was a great businessman. People are so damn stupid when it comes to businessmen. They are great at making money and SCREWING everyone else over in the process. That is what GREAT businessmen do. They spit in your face and don't give a flying F about YOU! People treat them like gods when they are most likely amongst the most despicable humans on earth…
NHL hockey will be back in Arizona. Phoenix is too big of a market to not have all four professional sports teams Houston and Atlanta will also get teams for this exact reason
This is all Bettman’s fault for putting a beloved franchise in a place it was doomed to fail; he may as well have moved the original NHL Jets to Tehran. 😠
As an Oakland A’s fan I feel a bit of a kindred spirit connection with coyotes fans. I hope you guys can still watch and enjoy the great game of hockey, unlike how I feel about baseball now. Although I wouldn’t blame you if you checked out entirely.
RENO Roadrunners soon.
He made himself an extra $700,000,000 in five years. Pretty Good.
Terrible owner.
The worst sports owner in Arizona history
To put the cherry on top: Merulo's next move is to move the AHL Roadrunners to Reno….which means he'll be in direct competition with the new ECHL team that's starting up 45 minutes away in Tahoe, and will have at least one season's head start.
Coyote fans, you are loved, you are appreciated, you will not be forgotten
What a disgrace that the first Latino owner in NHL history ends up being this shyster.
Just because someone is worth $2B, doesn’t mean he has $2B in cash, most likely less than $1M in cash and rest in his businesses and stocks
I'm sorry Coyotes fans, it is in fact Arizover, hope y'all can find a team to rally around
So the guy walks away with 700 mil dollar profit? Smart dude
If they go back to Arizona they have to change the name of the team. There's way too much baggage associated with the name "Coyotes" at this point. If we get the Coyotes 2.0 I give that team slim odds of weathering the storm. I believe that hockey can succeed in the desert if they get good ownership and management, but they need to do a hard reset on the branding when they return
How does the timeline go from December 9th 2021 to August 19th 2021. Did you mean for the second to be 2022?
Since the mid 90s, Phoenix area voters have been very suspicious of all stadium deals. The Diamondbacks owner struck at shady backroom deal with some politicians and got a TON of free public money. A council member was shot over it
Meruelo still owns Coyotes (now Utah's) AHL team the Roadrunners, who are very well supported and loved in Tucson, but it looks very likely now he will be moving them to Reno where he's building a new arena so he then will have well and truly destroyed all hockey in Arizona
Relocate the remnance of the Coyotes to Atlanta and call them the Atlanta Phoenix. It plays off both teams they previously lost and takes a dig at Arizona at the same time. 😂
It's crazy how quickly he folded. The first speedbump in getting an arena after selling the team to Utah and he throws in the towel. Did he think there wouldn't be any obstacles to overcome to build a huge arena and surrounding district? It makes one question if he was ever serious about getting it done in the first place.
This is a great reminder that being wealthy doesn't mean you're intelligent.
I know it's been easy to dunk on the Coyotes and Coyotes fans, but having bad ownership just tanks teams' chances.
Meruelo bailing is both good (this guy is incompetence personified), and bad (no certainty on any future with a new ownership group). Would any Coyotes fans be encouraged by having a new team led by a moron?
90% of blame goes to ownership, but local governments of Phoenix (Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale, etc) don't seem to be the easiest to work with either. There's a lot of animosity there.
I don't know where competent ownership would come from. Pro hockey just might be done in AZ for the forseeable future.
Also slimey how Meruelo had his eyes on a Reno development, which is where the Tucson Roadrunners will end up.
Keep the faith, even Winnipeg got a team back. It just might take 10-15 years.
Utah will be a fine hockey city.
A city like like Metro Phoenix is sprawled out and car dependent. It is usually wiser to build any sports stadium/arena with access to rail transit, or pedestrian-orientated downtowns. The Coyotes wanted to build on empty land near a freeway, requiring driving to the rink. I'm surprised the NBA team and Coyotes couldn't partner with a downtown arena, that is what killed hockey in the desert, so many NBA/NHL arena work well together. Oh, and Quebec City has passionate fans and close to one million people, they just need a business plan that works with the Videotron Centre. Marcel Aubut didn't do a good job, the fans were fine
He bought Coyotes for 300M and sold it for 1B….. according to a Google search source Statista, they have lost no more than a fragment with an Operate Income 2019/2020 to 2022/2023 of negative10M. Sportico recently valued the team at $675 million. So IB is good for Meruelo…. I mean he went out with a good investment.
Rumor has it, he's eventually moving the Roadrunners. So, he may not be done destroying professional hockey in Arizona.
Thank you the hockey guy for following the coyotes story. I am gutted my favorite team is done but you did a wonderful job.
It's gonna be a long time before AZ gets another team, if ever.
I doubt we will see a NHL team based in Arizona for a very long time. The Coyotes whole existance has been problematic, the laundry list of issues is huge. People can talk about the ownership(s) all they want, but these were the only interested parties here in Arizona and NHL went along hoping for change, it never happened. Other than the huge expansion fees from adding teams is there really a market in the US/CAN that is a "we need to be there" place, I don't. Atlanta has failed twice, Houston's demos are worse than Phoenix, etc.
Mereulo is building a new casino with an arena in Reno and lots of talk that's where the Roadrunners will land likely in 2026, I don't see that either. My guess is that Mereulo sells them to Smith and relocate to either the SLC outer burbs(Odgen or Provo) or to St. George which is only 100 miles from Vegas to expand the "Utah" brand.
Meruelo is currently building a minor league arena in Reno, NV. He may try to brea
k his lease in Tucson. Watch out!
So… he's basically taken 1 Billion and ran off!
Feels like a Hartford situation – in 25 years or so the Utah team will get to use the Coyotes logo!
Lessons learned here
Dont be a snake oil salesman
Always have a plan B
Don't put all your eggs in one basket
Dot your I's and cross your T's
Pay your bills and employees
Never double cross Gary Bettman
a new team in Arizona under a Different name and from Scratch
On the bright side at least John Spano no longer wears the title of worst owner in NHL history.