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Coyotes officially relocating to Utah

bustaheims said:
L K said:
I guess my only question is why even bother with it.  Merulo has been yet another in a sequential line of terrible owners in Arizona.  He was clearly not pulling his weight in terms of making the franchise viable.  Fans outside Arizona were sick of his nonsense.  Fans of Arizona hate him.  Why even make a token story.  It seems reasonable to just say "the NHL will be back" and leave it at that.
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My guess is that it was to appease Merulo and help expedite and help ensure a relatively smooth transition with the relocation. Throw him an essentially meaningless bone to keep any potential nonsense he could have tried to a minimum.
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$1B trumped his ego in the end.
 
I think it just comes down to there not being enough support from the public for NHL hockey in the Phoenix area. 

The constant road blocks in even buying land to construct a new arena has even the stupidest people getting the hint eventually. 
 
bustaheims said:
L K said:
I guess my only question is why even bother with it.  Merulo has been yet another in a sequential line of terrible owners in Arizona.  He was clearly not pulling his weight in terms of making the franchise viable.  Fans outside Arizona were sick of his nonsense.  Fans of Arizona hate him.  Why even make a token story.  It seems reasonable to just say "the NHL will be back" and leave it at that.
Click to expand...

My guess is that it was to appease Merulo and help expedite and help ensure a relatively smooth transition with the relocation. Throw him an essentially meaningless bone to keep any potential nonsense he could have tried to a minimum.
Click to expand...

Also the league can now credibly say something to the effect of "We wanted to come back to Arizona but it was Merulo who walked away". I don't think it would appease many people in Arizona but if you ever had any sort of legal issues with fans/local politicians it's a reasonable way to pass the buck.
 
I strongly suspect the NHL will be back.
I think they want and need AZ's media market. It's roughly #11, growing more than twice as quickly as the US average and I think it affects their various national 'broadcasting' deals.
I've sensed for years that has been a key footing in the foundation of all their efforts in AZ
 
Just announced, the city is taken the 110 acre parcel off the auction block, so Merulo is out.  If hockey returns to AZ it won't be with him (thank God).  And the parcel offered at the 101 Loop and Scottsdale Rd is the place any arena should be.
 
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