Just saying this…
The current business model of the Coyotes being a tenant in an arena they don’t control or own doesn’t work. Anywhere.
That began back when Steve Ellman and Jerry Moyes dissolved their partnership with the result splitting the Coyotes off from Westgate. Moyes didn’t care… but the Coyotes gave him a asset to exploit just to prop up his other businesses.
I’m digressing a bit there, but the result was Moyes’ antics put the Coyotes into a financial chasm that they’ve been trying to crawl out of since.
Since that point there has been multiple ownerships with numerous (and somewhat entertaining) methods to get some sort of additional income that we both can agree the franchise needed. But that’s the problem.
You can’t put the Coyotes and Westgate back under the same tent. That chance was permanently lost when Bob Parsons bought Westgate (for half of what the Coyotes are currently worth) and he’s not going to give it up.
Neither IA nor Barroway had the ability to buy Westgate. Meruelo could have. But he came along too late.
IA had a lease agreement that could have allowed them to stay at GRA but they blew it in regards to how they we’re keeping their financial records (and hiring Glendale’s former city attorney).
You should be aware that in spite of Glendale cancelling that original lease, ever since then the city had been trying to get a new long term lease with the Coyotes. With IA, Barroway and finally Meruelo. Problem with that is (as I stated at the outset) it doesn’t work in this day and age of pro sports.
Now SMG for you might have been a better alternative but it’s been quite clear that GRA was having serious trouble drawing non-sporting events in that era. Glendale went with ASM because they thought it would help keep the Coyotes there.
Even with Meruelo, city manager Phelps admitted that Glendale was still willing to go with a 12-18 lease agreement. Why bother if Meruelo is such a “crook”, deadbeat and all round bad person would the city want to deal with 12-18 more years of him? Especially when they’re taking the position they don’t need him?
What we’re seeing now was going to happen sooner or later. It would have happened a year sooner had the pandemic not come along. Meruelo admitted in a press conference in early 2020 that he was very close to having something in place but the pause and bubble play put it all on hold.
It wasn’t a matter of if…. it was when.
I agree with all of this post EXCEPT the part which assumes that Meruelo's behavior is not a factor here.
More background.
The year is 2013. The league has owned the team outright for 2 seasons, and may have been operating in some capacity for 4 seasons, and they want to sell. There is no lease, because the BK broke the lease.
Ice Arizona arrives, and makes an offer to buy the team, under the condition that there be a 15M/yr AMF associated with the arena.
COG runs an RFP for arena management, and one of the respondents is SMG, who made a presentation under the idea that they would manage either with or without the team present. The information in said response showed that there was lots more money available to the arena without the Coyotes than with them, for the simple reason that the arena gets nothing on game nights, because the team gets everything. At that time, the entertainment industry was in a better place than it is now, and the smart move for the city would have been to say "Good Bye" to the team. However, the city didn't make the smart move. The vote was 4-3, of course. And, that indicates this simple fact: There is more than one person giving input on that council. Some of those 4 votes were obviously based on some emotion involved in 'civic pride' that 'we are big league and host the NHL'. One of the votes might have been a trade for a 'yes' on a different issue facing the City Council. It was a messy business.
3 years later, after suffering 7 years of horrible arena management (the NHL didn't care for 4 years, and IA was incompetent in most things it did), the city hired Global Spectrum, now ASM. The market for events, and the inertia of the arena were completely different by then, and it is not possible to say what would have happened had they chosen differently in 2013.
Now, Glendale's options are:
Try to get the team to sign for 12-18 years. IF THAT WERE TO HAPPEN, I would think that the city would consider that at some point some stability would have to develop in the team. No more complaining about Glendale's location. Perhaps the team becomes a more obvious part of the community. Perhaps, as Westgate continues its development and the West Valley builds out, that the arena becomes a bigger part of the situation. In the minds of some people on the CC, perhaps that outweighs the difficulty of dealing with Meruelo.
However, if he is not going to sign that (And, he shouldn't, for reasons that you detailed very well
@TheLegend ), then the city has the option of continuing short term with the team. Now, however, it becomes apparent that all the city is doing is paving the way out for the team, and that's not so wise. So, in a more difficult situation, Meruelo's behavior becomes more difficult to stomach. And, may become one factor for cutting ties in June of 2022.
If the matter were purely financial, and Glendale had the single purpose of preventing the new arena, then their play would be to not renew the lease, and, if the Tempe project is signed off, to form a short term deal with the Yotes at higher rent yet. Such an agreement would clearly be in the financial best interests of both parties (if we work on the assumption here that the games bring more tax money to the city than anything else they could do the arena during hockey season). Glendale would get maybe 4-5M/yr more out the team before they left, and Meruelo would lose far less than he will in any other situation. However, I am very sure that such a short term lease will NOT happen. Which shows that the messiness of the divorce has something to do with the actions of the players.
Concerning 'arenas' in general, it is exactly true that the NHL cannot survive in North America without something besides the team bringing in extra cash. The Yotes are the only team with no arena management rights. That is very telling. That such a thing is true simply points out, again, that one of the big problems with this league is that Toronto, Montreal, New York Rangers (mainly, but a few others) can print money on their ticket printing machine, and there are not enough markets who can come close to that. There is no easy fix to that situation.
