Alex Meruelo the new owner of the Arizona Coyotes

[The Feckless Puck]

Now billionaire bought the team? Staying in Glendale? Haven't drawn over 14k a game since 2007-2008 season? Haven't finished higher than 29th in attendance since the 2006-2007 season? All the talk of stable ownership would result in improvements in attendance never occurred?

A bit of clarifying here:

Billionaire bought the team? Yes. Staying in Glendale? No, unless some miracle occurs between Glendale and Meruelo that involves Star Trek transporter technology that will beam all of the petulant Scottsdale folks across town for games. RE: attendance, no, the average annual attendance has not broken 14,000 since the bankruptcy, but phrasing it the way you did a) presents an erroneous image that no games drew more than 14K fans and b) simplifies an extremely large body of contextual information over that time period. But you should be aware that last season's average attendance of 13,989 was the highest average since the 2008-2009 season (14,875), and that preseason ticket sales thanks to the Meruelo purchase and the Phil Kessel signing are tracking well above previous seasons' trends.

The final sentence is just ridiculous, because Meruelo has owned the team for barely a month, and I wouldn't characterize any of the ownership prior to him as "stable."

 

[DowntownBooster]

In this specific case, just having the guy come back and say, "I don't loathe the Coyotes" would be plenty.

Have fun on your vacation, and maybe if you're lucky, by the time you get back I'll be gone!

Don't leave TFP. I always enjoy reading your posts and especially those related to the Coyotes.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Don't leave TFP. I always enjoy reading your posts and especially those related to the Coyotes.

Thanks, I appreciate that. It may not be up to me. But I'll stick around as long as I can.

 

[Summer Rose]

If we’re going to be fair..... Those direct payments included the management costs of the arena. That’s a set cost of no matter who uses the building. IIRC.... the NHL did submit a summary to where it spent what they received.

Or are people going to play the semantics game and claim that paying AEG is still subsiding the Coyotes??

Still doesn’t amount to “tons” of money...... unless of course it’s all in dollar bills.

$50 million in quarters would weigh 2.5 million pounds though.

 

[Tommy Hawk]

A bit of clarifying here:

Billionaire bought the team? Yes. Staying in Glendale? No, unless some miracle occurs between Glendale and Meruelo that involves Star Trek transporter technology that will beam all of the petulant Scottsdale folks across town for games. RE: attendance, no, the average annual attendance has not broken 14,000 since the bankruptcy, but phrasing it the way you did a) presents an erroneous image that no games drew more than 14K fans and b) simplifies an extremely large body of contextual information over that time period. But you should be aware that last season's average attendance of 13,989 was the highest average since the 2008-2009 season (14,875), and that preseason ticket sales thanks to the Meruelo purchase and the Phil Kessel signing are tracking well above previous seasons' trends.

The final sentence is just ridiculous, because Meruelo has owned the team for barely a month, and I wouldn't characterize any of the ownership prior to him as "stable."

I have no idea how stating the average attendance could in any way cause someone to believe that the team never drew more than 14,000 people.

And yes their attendance of almost 14k last season is their best in quite a while, they were still only 29th in average attendance. That is compared to the other teams average attendance as well. When each of the previous owners groups after the NHL sold the team, a lot of the AZ fans were saying now that the team had "real" owners that everything would be a lot better. It does not appear that is the case.

So, in the last several years, nothing has really changed.

 

[powerstuck]

$50 million in quarters would weigh 2.5 million pounds though.

Make it in pennies...12 500 tons.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

So, in the last several years, nothing has really changed.

Stupendous oversimplification of the situation, and an incorrect conclusion.

 

[TheLegend]

Make it in pennies...12 500 tons.

Imagine that payoff at a penny slot in Vegas.

 

[aqib]

So is anything happening with Westgate? I remember seeing mockups of the original vision (which looked really cool) and I remember a Tanger outlet being added a few years ago but is there any more development going on there or in Glendale generally?

 

[TheLegend]

So is anything happening with Westgate? I remember seeing mockups of the original vision (which looked really cool) and I remember a Tanger outlet being added a few years ago but is there any more development going on there or in Glendale generally?

Newest building on the site is ALoft Glendale at Westgate. Part of Marriott.

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/phxaw-aloft-glendale-at-westgate/

Recall a few months ago Joyce Clark put something out on her Facebook page in regards to some zoning proposals for insideWestgate but nothing about it since. Believe it was for another hotel/housing unit.

Some infill going on with empty patches of land around the city. Mostly new homes but also some apartment complexes. Phoenix Metro is on another small boom right now.

 

[PredsHead]

So is anything happening with Westgate? I remember seeing mockups of the original vision (which looked really cool) and I remember a Tanger outlet being added a few years ago but is there any more development going on there or in Glendale generally?

Not that I am aware of but when Parsons bought it last year it was mentioned that he was going to take his time and try to get a better idea of what will work best there before expanding it. According to the linked story there are still 33 undeveloped acres which is nearly half of the site. I would think we should start hearing something about what Parsons' vision for the place is before too much longer. If Parsons wants his changes at Westgate to be ready for the Super Bowl and to possibly help keep the Super Bowl festivities in Glendale next time, he would need to get started on them pretty soon as they host another Super Bowl in 2023.

GoDaddy founder, who 'doesn't do anything small,' buys Westgate district in Glendale

 

[powerstuck]

So, in the last several years, nothing has really changed.

Depends how you look at this.

Has the team moved ? To a new country ? New state ? New city ? New area of the valley ? No, so nothing has changed.

Has the team changed hands ? Got someone serious and willing to work to make it work ? Yes, so in a way, everything has changed.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

So is anything happening with Westgate? I remember seeing mockups of the original vision (which looked really cool) and I remember a Tanger outlet being added a few years ago but is there any more development going on there or in Glendale generally?

The biggest action of late has been franchise swapping in the existing retail spaces. I guess you could look at that as a positive, since at least most, if not all, of the retail space is still in action rather than sitting empty. But I haven't seen any evidence of new development or, indeed, any intent to start any, so I think Parsons is at station-keeping right now.

 

[Ernie]

Heh. There would seem to be some financial advantage for Parsons to see the Coyotes remain in Glendale. I wonder if he'll come into play.

Meruelo is big into real estate.. and gambling. Some combination of the two would likely factor into his arena plans moving forward.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Heh. There would seem to be some financial advantage for Parsons to see the Coyotes remain in Glendale. I wonder if he'll come into play.

Doubtful. I don't think Parsons cares much about the Coyotes - in fact, the sense I get from him is that he doesn't incorporate either GRA or State Farm Stadium into his thinking about Westgate and its development much. I suspect - but have very little more than a gut feeling about it - that he's more interested in how the nearby casino might affect business there than the sports teams, because the casino traffic is steadier and more inclined to spend money at a regular rate.

Meruelo is big into real estate.. and gambling. Some combination of the two would likely factor into his arena plans moving forward.

That's definitely the conventional wisdom around here right now. Locals would have to be in Ostrich Mode not to understand how gun-shy the whole IceArizona subsidy-collection-without-deliverables thing made other Valley cities about putting public money toward any new sports venue. But the thinking goes that, on tribal land, a lot of typical roadblocks won't exist (although a whole different set might crop up because of how the Indian Authority operates).

Looking at Meruelo's portfolio, it almost seems like a tailor-made situation for a tribal deal. He's got real estate, construction, restaurant, and gambling infrastructure already sussed out, and I suspect that part of his pitch to a tribal group would be that he could offer a turn-key solution for an arena or even an arena complex that incorporates casino/restaurant ops, and all the tribe would have to do is help finance it.

Lots of supposition right now, though - we have a river of water still to pass under the bridge before we find out how plausible any of this is.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

Looking at Meruelo's portfolio, it almost seems like a tailor-made situation for a tribal deal. He's got real estate, construction, restaurant, and gambling infrastructure already sussed out, and I suspect that part of his pitch to a tribal group would be that he could offer a turn-key solution for an arena or even an arena complex that incorporates casino/restaurant ops, and all the tribe would have to do is help finance it.

That made me check to see if the Ak-Chin casino (for the outsiders, near the town of Maricopa, some 25 miles south of the southern edge of development of greater Phoenix) is still branded as a Harrah's, and it is. 25 years ago, that was the first 'nice' casino in the area, despite being as remote as it is, and has watched as the facilities of the Gila River tribe and SRP-MIC have gotten better and better... what a strange competition that all is: the two tribes immediately adjacent to Phoenix, plus the Ak-Chin tribe, plus the even more distant Tohono O'odham nation (whose Desert Diamond casino location is the one a mile north of GRA), *plus* the Fort McDowell (Yavapai) tribe at the far NE corner of the valley...so that's 5 tribes in that market.

 

[Tommy Hawk]

Depends how you look at this.

Has the team moved ? To a new country ? New state ? New city ? New area of the valley ? No, so nothing has changed.

Has the team changed hands ? Got someone serious and willing to work to make it work ? Yes, so in a way, everything has changed.

But hasn't the someone serious and willing to work to make it work been the mantra since the NHL sold the club? That was said about each of the owners when they bought the team. i read it in the threads so this is the 3rd (4th?) owner serious and willing to make it work?

I hope it's true but history shows a different story.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

I will say this about this guy. He didn’t become rich by being a fool. And he’s Arizona native.

 

[aqib]

Newest building on the site is ALoft Glendale at Westgate. Part of Marriott.

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/phxaw-aloft-glendale-at-westgate/

Recall a few months ago Joyce Clark put something out on her Facebook page in regards to some zoning proposals for insideWestgate but nothing about it since. Believe it was for another hotel/housing unit.

Some infill going on with empty patches of land around the city. Mostly new homes but also some apartment complexes. Phoenix Metro is on another small boom right now.

So is the statement by Reinsdorf that with further growth on that side of the valley, Glendale will eventually be the geographic center of the the Region accurate or a pipe dream?

 

[TheLegend]

So is the statement by Reinsdorf that with further growth on that side of the valley, Glendale will eventually be the geographic center of the the Region accurate or a pipe dream?

Somewhat accurate if everything builds out. But right now there's growth in all directions.

 

[powerstuck]

But hasn't the someone serious and willing to work to make it work been the mantra since the NHL sold the club? That was said about each of the owners when they bought the team. i read it in the threads so this is the 3rd (4th?) owner serious and willing to make it work?

I hope it's true but history shows a different story.

But that's on NHL's sales pitch. Of course they will say the same thing about every owner (no matter what city/team). They aren't blaming Melnyk for liquidating day by day the Ottawa Senators.

The real fact tho, is that half of previous owners/investors/partners we didn't even have any information to check their background. The other half didn't really have a glourious past to shine on.

But this time, honestly, I feel like they do have someone good, someone legit. Time will tell if it will be truth or not, but as for someone living almost 3000 miles away, as for someone dreaming of one day having an NHL team, I feel like the fans of Coyotes have a good owner behind their team, for the first time in 20 some years.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

I will say this about this guy. He didn’t become rich by being a fool. And he’s Arizona native.

Meruelo's not from Arizona. He's of Cuban descent, originally from New York, and now lives in Los Angeles.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

Meruelo's not from Arizona. He's of Cuban descent, originally from New York, and now lives in Los Angeles.

Musta gotten confused with Auston Matthews - easy to do: Hispanic, same initials, etc.

 

[royals119]

But hasn't the someone serious and willing to work to make it work been the mantra since the NHL sold the club? That was said about each of the owners when they bought the team. i read it in the threads so this is the 3rd (4th?) owner serious and willing to make it work?

I hope it's true but history shows a different story.

As an outsider also, that's not how I remember it. My impression is the local folks (and some not local folks) have said "IF the Coyotes had an owner who actually did those things, the team could do well. There was hope that would happen with some of the previous owners, and others everyone saw as charlatans immediately. The difference with Meruelo is that most people actually believe he might be able to do what everyone else hasn't. I don't think anyone has asserted that he will definitely do everything necessary to succeed, but he is at least capable of doing those things. He has the money, resources, experience, background, etc to make it work that other owners lacked. Many people, even local Arizona folks, recognized immediately that previous owners didn't appear capable of doing what needed to be done.

 

[TheLegend]

Phil Kessel would not be a Coyote right now without Alex Meruelo. It’s that simple.