Just A Bit Outside
Playoffs??!
- Mar 6, 2010
- 16,772
- 15,875
They found a temporary one at Mullett Arena, a 5,000-seat college facility on the ASU campus in Tempe. The Coyotes spent more than $20 million to upgrade the building to NHL standards, including a two-story annex as well as professional-level dressing room and training room facilities.
"The first year was sick," one NHL player told ESPN. "We were all excited to check it out and honestly it was a cool place to play. Crowd was great, it got loud. But it was a novelty. When we went back this year, nobody was looking forward to the experience outside of a trip to Arizona. It's like, 'We have to do this s--- again?' I don't know how their players put up with it for so long."
The team's creative accounting was a constant source of concern around the league. There were incidents over the years of the Coyotes skimping on money. The Coyotes would try to stay at lesser hotels than the collective bargaining agreement stipulates. Ownership tried cutting corners when they could, like removing the printer and copying machine from the coaches' room.
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.
Doan worked for the Coyotes after his retirement as chief hockey development officer but had higher aspirations, eventually seeking to become their president of hockey operations in 2023. According to a source, he was told he "wasn't ready" for the position, a verdict handed down by the owner's son Alex Meruelo Jr., the team's chief brand officer who had taken a more active interest in the hockey operations department.
Meruelo said Bettman and Daly laid out the average career for an NHL player and compared that to the amount of years the Coyotes would have played in Mullett. They argued that it was possible, based on the new timeline, for a Coyotes player to never have a chance to call an actual NHL arena home.
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."
Satisfying Meruelo was the NHL's most challenging task in the transaction. Multiple sources told ESPN at the All-Star Game that there was concern Meruelo could get litigious if the league attempted to emancipate the franchise from him and force a relocation.
Meruelo will remain an "observer" at the board of governors, as the owner of a deactivated team.
One key aspect of the compromise: Meruelo would not need NHL board of governors' approval to restart the franchise, according to Daly. "He's already been approved as an NHL owner," he told ESPN.
According to sources, the Coyotes players who are signed through next season have "genuine excitement" about the move to Utah from a hockey perspective. They know that, as was the case with the Golden Knights and Kraken, the novelty of playing in a new market will immediately put them in the spotlight. Expect Utah's first home game to be on national television, for example. They anticipate Utah will be able to attract better free agents because they won't be concerned about the stability of the franchise.
Meruelo is a scumbag and made out like a bandit.
