Sell the team but keep the name like Cleveland Browns did. Moved Utah Grizzlies to Colorado Springs or Wyoming. Welcome the new UTAH SWARM. They can a farm team in St. George or Boise to expand their fan base. Tucson Road Runners can be placed on hold too.
Yeah right Frank like Merullo is going to pay another billion plus for an expansion team in 5 years. He's not going to make anywhere near that selling to Smith.
Expansion back to AZ makes the most sense? No mention of the 1Billion expansion fee. If Meruelo sells the team at a loss, then shells out a bill to bring them back, he'd be the worst business man in history. Doesn't the theory that the plan is to win the auction. Plan B, C, and D involve a back-up schedule and potential sale if they lose the auction make the most sense? Considering I've seen 30 videos all claiming "Confirmed! AZ to Utah!!!" today, I'm going to put this in the click-bait, conclusion-jumping, basket for now.
Frank you are missing something here! Why would the NHL accept a "relocation fee" of what $500,000 for example. Merullo would get $600 or 700,000 from Smiths 1.2 billion? Then he's supposed to spend more then twice that in 5 years for an expansion team? That's not going to happen. I think they stay. Unless it's a done deal behind closed doors.
Honestly they’ve tried for 28 years to get Arizonans into hockey. It hasn’t worked. Their attendance has never been great. I don’t see a reason to go back to Arizona in the future.
They HAVE had good attendance. The location of the arena in glendale sucked, they could have had more seat occupied but people didn't want to drive 30 miles in rush hour traffic to get to a game. It was terrible. I have been here in AZ since they arrived, so your information is not correct.
The NHL allowed the move to AZ, despite knowing the Suns arena was not built for hockey! Then to add to the stupidity, there was no plan to build a hockey facility in the Phoenix area when the move was made! Then an arena was finally built, about 5 years after the move, on the opposite side of town where the population and season ticket holders live!! The NHL and the Coyotes, a playbook on how not to move a team! Nothing but clowns
The end of an error. The Coyotes have lost a boat load of money every year since moving to Arizona. The Coyotes having issues selling out their college rink. Beyond humiliating for the NHL. Move them ASAP.
No way the coyotes move. Can’t see it unless the smith groups completes a purchase quickly. The coyotes will stay at mullett since it will be easier to keep them there than to relocate them in a short timespan. Time is on Arizona’s side
Winnipeg had an agreement in principle for the Thrashers hashed out in late May and made their official announcement on the 31st. If the April 18 date being floated around by the media has any legs to it then SLC's owners would have more time to play with than Winnipeg did...
@@tomservo9254 totally fair and a long ways to go until then but a lot of work has to be done in the meantime to reach an official deal by the end of May
@@slavicsoup7762 If multiple people with mainstream clout like Seravalli and Friedman are making the rounds publicly talking about the details of a complex multibranched arrangement, then the overwhelming majority of that 'work' has likely already been hashed out behind the scenes. They're not going to float out the kinds of details they're bringing up without the League okaying it being made public, that's a career-ending kind of flub to conjure up without significant supporting evidence.
