Meruelo has lied about the team staying in Arizona and that the auction is the last resort. Show me proof. The timeline looks clear. He was approached on March 6th and turned the NHL away. After a few weeks he realized he had very little choice and had to accept the NHL's offer, yet he still made sure to keep the Coyotes brand intact and make it possible for AZ to get their NHL team back. Why would he bother? He's still adamant about going through with the auction. The negative voices on this board claim he never intended to build an arena and keep the "team staying in Arizona". Every indication I've seen says completely the opposite. Is he bluffing about the auction? Please tell me your opinion? Seriously.
Was the Tempe plan and all the money and time spent just a frivolous billionaire having fun at our expense? Do you think it was all a facade and AM never had any intention of going through with it?
He's lied about spending 7 million on the Tempe vote. Please back this up with hard evidence.
When you have the chance email me a copy of AM's books and please reference the page numbers for the Tempe expenditures so I won't have difficulty finding them. You just can't go by what some "click whore" reporter says unless he can back it up with something other than hearsay.
He's lied about there being unpaid bills. Not sure what this references.
What else has he lied about?
I wouldn't trust him with my pet, alone an NHL franchise. With all due respect, you should probably find another team to support at this point. He is the last and only option.
No AM, no NHL franchise in Arizona.
We all get emotional about our teams and when things don't go our way we get frustrated.
I understand your pain and I know it comes from your passionate support of the Coyotes, but you need to let this thing play out and give AM the benefit of the doubt. He's a first time sports team owner and he stepped into a real mess when he purchassed the team. Probably not an ideal situation if you've never had any prior experience owning a team. There may have been other parties out there, saw what they were getting into and passed. This was not going to be an overnight fix even for someone with previous ownership experience. I'm sure he made plenty of mistakes along the way and there had to be a bit of a learning curve, and hopefully we're past that. I believe he's sincere and until I'm proven wrong, I'll continue to trust him.
Xavier Guttierez said live in April a few weeks ago that the team would not be moving until after the land auction at minimum. That they were dedicated to keeping the team in Arizona, that Meruelo was going to show up and win the auction and build an arena.
Also this. Now, let's check- do the Coyotes still have a team in the AHL before the land auction?
By this point we know the rough timeline of events - March 6th Gary says "hey Meruelo, time to sell" and Meruelo says no. At some point "several weeks later" Meruelo decides he's right and they start working on the deal to move the team to SLC by the end of the season.
Is that a lie? Well, you're free to not think so, and be happy with this response. I'm not.
RE: Tempe Vote
Craig Morgan and co. have said this multiple times, but the documents submitted to the state only talk about 1.1 million for the campaign. Is it possible that AM spent money that isn't on that form somehow? Well, sure it is. But if he somehow spent 6m more in funds and more than tripled the amount Tempe No spent and still lost, well, that speaks to some other things I have a problem with.
In regards to unpaid bills, I'm sure if you've been following the franchise long enough you've seen the multiple times Katie Strang has written about them. The City of Glendale very publicly said that the Coyotes owed money. Katie Strang went into the tax registry (or whatever it's called) and quoted specific numbers that were unpaid, which eventually went on a payment plan and were paid back.
I believe it was Seravelli who said that AM didn't pay hotels around the league and that the hotels banded together and told him he had to prepay with a cheque or they wouldn't allow him use of the hotel.
If you don't want to believe the "click whore" reporters who well...were apparently right this entire time? Well, hey, fair enough.
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Now, if you wanna believe Meruelo after everyone else but him and Gary Bettman have said some of these things are untrue, be my guest. It doesn't affect me at all that you do so.
But really? I should find a new team to follow? I'm sorry, what team do we have in Arizona that's in the NHL right now? Did I miss something? Did Alex "Big Dick" Meruelo come swaggering out to the podium and announce that he's won the land auction, hired construction crews, and that an arena will be built in 3 years somewhere I'm not aware of? Did Meruelo go back in time 3 weeks and decide not to sell the Coyotes and that the NHL could fight him in court about it? Did Ishbia's music suddenly start playing and Meruelo announce that he was partnering/selling/whatevering the team to him and that they would renovate Footprint or build another arena?
Or do you just think I should accept everything Meruelo has said as fact?
Should I thank Meruelo Sr. and Jr. for handpicking Josh Doan, Logan Cooley, and Dylan Guenther along with GMBA at the draft? Because he claimed he and his son did that too.
Should I be
*GRATEFUL* to Mr. Meruelo, that he sold our team, sold the last 10 years of my life, watching these players develop, draft, and play in the NHL, only to be ripped away at their ripest point before breaking out to go play for a state and team that has absolutely no connection to this one?
See, I really couldn't care less if Meruelo brings the team back in 5 years, 10 years, or whatever. It won't be the same team that left, will it? It won't have the history, it won't have the players, and it won't have the staff.
Some of you do and will care about that. Great! I hope that you enjoy the games, maybe AM really is a miracle worker and we'll win the cup immediately after we have our expansion draft. Shit, maybe the team will come back in 3 years too. Maybe, if and when Meruelo proves he can do more than just talk, I'll come back to the team too. I certainly won't be upset if the SLC team does well, or if the players I watched for years make something of themselves.
It's great that you can believe in Meruelo. It really is. I hope that he lives up to all of your expectations and I get to eat crow. I really do.
But this forum, and this team, is as much mine as it is anyone else's, and I sure as shit won't be leaving here until they drag me away. I've been an Arizona Coyotes fan for the last 10+ years, and I won't be stopping any time soon. If AM wants to bring a team back here, great. He doesn't get my fandom just because he did that. And I'm not going to ignore all the things he's done in the meantime. Nor will Gary Bettman. You can say that I'm wrong, that I should give him the benefit of the doubt, that he's the last chance for hockey in the desert, all you want. That may even all be true! But what you don't get to say is what I spend my time doing and what my emotions and feelings are or should be. Period.
