How realistic is it for hockey to return to the desert in the future after the Arizona Coyotes are set to move to Utah next season?
It’s a daunting task, but current team owner Alex Meruelo is determined to make it happen.
On the “The Burns & Gambo ShowOn Thursday, Meruelo said watching the Coyotes’ final game in Arizona was “heartbreaking” and “confirms what I already know: that hockey belongs in the desert,” he said. “That’s what we plan to do in the future, in the near future.”
Meruelo said his intention is to “use the full five years” he is given to build a new hockey arena for the Coyotes in Arizona.
The Coyotes have spent the past two seasons playing at Arizona State University’s 4,600-seat Mullett Arena, playing their final game there Wednesday in front of a sold-out crowd. What led to the team’s downfall was the owners’ inability to secure an NHL-caliber arena, with Tempe voters rejecting three proposals last year to build a 2,000-square-foot entertainment district. $1 billion that would have included new facilities for the Coyotes.
The Coyotes will officially head to Salt Lake City starting next season, league sources said. Athleticismafter the NHL Board of Governors voted unanimously 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 their entire reserve roster , their roster, their draft picks and their hockey operations department.
But Meruelo retained 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, brands and branding. The NHL Board of Governors allowed Meruelo to bring the team back if he “completely built a new, state-of-the-art facility suitable for an NHL team within five years.”
Again, a daunting task, as only Meurelo can exercise the right to this reactivation, meaning it is not something he has the option of selling or transferring to another potential owner later.
Meruelo will also retain logos, brands and brands associated with the Coyotes.
“The only thing I really did was I sent the players and the hockey operations to Utah, everything will remain the same with the Coyote logo, all the intellectual property, everything that goes with it, will remain intact “, did he declare. .
So if the Coyotes resurface in five years, they will do so as an expansion team.
The road will officially begin on June 27, Meruelo said, as he plans to buy state land at auction to build a new arena.
“I am fully focused and determined to purchase this land on June 27,” he said.
“My goal is to do what needs to be done from day one, which is to build the Coyotes a facility, an arena that they can call home, their home. This is what I want to do, what I have thought since day one. This is what I think is the most important part for the future of the Coyotes and for the fans.
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(Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)