The franchise's relocation was somehow both lightning fast and painfully slow. Here's how it all fell apart in Arizona, and what lies ahead.
"It's hard to think about that without hockey, right?" said Smith, a tech billionaire with a growing portfolio of sports franchises that includes the NBA's Utah Jazz.
Bettman believed that change in timeline made the Coyotes' situation untenable. It was time for the NHL to leave Arizona -- for now. So how ready was Utah to take the team in, starting next season?Smith unequivocally said yes. By 2009, the Coyotes were hemorrhaging money and getting financially propped up by the NHL. Owner Jerry Moyes, who purchased the team from Ellman in 2005, put it into bankruptcy with the intention of having Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie, former CEO of BlackBerry creator Research In Motion, relocate the Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario.
While the team played at Mullett, Meruelo began pursuing a Tempe-owned landfill on which he could build a $2.1 billion entertainment complex that would include the Coyotes' new arena. They founded Smith Entertainment Group. Their foray into professional sports began in 2020, when they bought the Utah Jazz -- as well as their arena in downtown Salt Lake City -- for $1.66 billion. Two years later, they partnered with investor David Blitzer to purchase the MLS club Real Salt Lake City. The Smiths are passionate about injecting energy into Utah as the state goes through a growth spurt.
Bettman heard from other suitors too. Atlanta has two ownership contingents interested in bringing a team back. The league has met with Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta about the possibility of another team in Texas. At least a half-dozen other cities, from Quebec City to Kansas City to Cincinnati, also have reached out.
But behind the scenes, things were moving fast. Smith knew he could get a team in place by next season because he already had business infrastructure, such as a ticketing office and game presentation experts, working for the Jazz. The Delta Center has hosted NHL preseason games five times, but it's still not an ideal hockey venue.
But back in Arizona, players and coaches were still in the dark. For all they knew, there was a plan in motion that would keep them in Phoenix. What they didn't know was how little faith the NHL had in it being executed by this ownership group, and how badly it wanted the Coyotes out of Mullett Arena.vote failed, the Coyotes claimed they had several other local options for a potential arena -- none of them requiring a public vote.
Multiple sources said the players' dissatisfaction with playing at Mullett had grown considerably since the Tempe vote failed. They also felt pessimism with the new arena project, with one player saying he"never felt" that relocation could be successfully avoided."The atmosphere was unbelievable. The people who've been in Mullett understand what I'm saying right now and the people who haven't think I'm full of it.
Multiple sources told ESPN that the Coyotes were either late paying their hotel bills or sometimes just crossed out the total and paid a different amount. Other sources indicated local businesses would come to the team seeking payments, would be offered a fraction of what was owed and then would be negotiated down to take less than what was actually owed.
"I don't make it a practice of contradicting owners unless I have hard facts to the contrary," Bettman said."I'm both hopeful and reasonably confident that he's going to do what he says.""The next deadline for me is tomorrow. I mean, it's right now," said Walsh, the former mayor of Boston who was named executive director of the NHLPA in 2023.
Smith said he never personally negotiated with Meruelo Sr. The NHL brokered all the details of the transaction, from the fees paid by the parties to which parts of the team SEG would acquire and which ones would stay with Meruelo, as well as the conditions through which Meruelo could reactivate the franchise within the next five years.
"Can you look your players in the eyes and tell them when there's going to be an arena built?" they asked."It's not fair to the players, to their families and to hockey operations to not know how long it will take to build this arena," was the response. Bettman said it became clear to him that"there was no way Alex Meruelo was going to agree to this if he wasn't going to have an opportunity to reactivate the franchise."
There are many reasons to believe the NHL entered into this agreement with Mereulo with a healthy skepticism about the project ever being completed. But the land auction itself might now become a problem. One source familiar with the process heard from some potential bidders that"didn't want to be the ones that chased the Coyotes" out of the market.
The Coyotes were in Vancouver on April 10 and skated to a 4-3 win over the Canucks before leaving for Edmonton. After the deal was announced, Smith met with Coyotes players in Arizona, taking the entire team on an outing to Scottsdale National Golf Club. He golfed with different groups, asking a lot of questions about what they needed from the new franchise and doing a lot of listening.Tourigny met the new owners for the first time when they visited Phoenix to introduce themselves to the players.
"I think we have a lot of good pieces in place," said Tourigny."The young players are coming. They're not necessarily on our team yet, but they're coming. There's a lot to be excited about. Talent needs time to develop. How far away are we? Time will tell. I hate when you start to say when it's happening. Our play has to do the talking, and our play will do the talking.
Smith Entertainment Group has hired Doubleday & Cartwright, a firm that has handled branding for numerous pro teams, to work on the name and logo for the team. It could be fast-tracked; Smith recently told ESPN's"The Pat McAfee Show" that he'd like to get it down to eight possibilities and then have fans vote on a winner, while assuring McAfee that he'd prevent A.I. bots from creating a"Boaty McBoatface" online voting situation.
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