What are the odds Meruelo will get the arena built and still the billion needed to buy an expansion team in the five years?
What are the odds that if he gets the arena built he then tries to go back to the NHL and renegotiate down the $1 billion since he will know at that point he is the only option for the NHL to return to the market? He will absolutely know that the lead can't make it work anywhere else and that nobody in the region is going to build another arena after his, so he has League checkmated if they actually want to return to the area.
I feel like a lot of people are dumping on him right now (rightfully so) but they're also not giving him credit for his acquisition of a distressed asset and how is playing out for him well personally with his finances, and potentially how he has wiggled himself into a position of power over the NHL with regards to the market. Everybody's assuming he can't get the building built so that those exclusive rides can transfer to anybody, what if he actually does it? I don't know if people have really considered the type of envious position that puts him in when dealing with the league for the future of the market.
It's a little scary actually.
I'm can't imagine the NHL--or any major professional league--would agree to make the size of an arena subject to collective bargaining with their player union. The leagues themselves can establish their own standards if they wish without using a CBA.
Can they? I don't know if they really can within the board of governors, but maybe they can. They've negotiated components of an arena with the PA. If the governors decide to further establish minimum standards I wonder what that mechanism looks like if it's not included in a cba. Furthermore, I really can't believe after this fiasco that the PA isn't going to push for some sort of formal definition