04/19/24 04:09:00
Printable Page
04/19 16:07 CDT Coyotes' move to Salt Lake City elicits opposing responses in 2
cities
Coyotes' move to Salt Lake City elicits opposing responses in 2 cities
By JOHN MARSHALL
AP Sports Writer
PHOENIX (AP) --- NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman sat next to the former Arizona
Coyotes owner in a downtown Phoenix hotel meeting room, trying to put a
positive spin on the funeral for a franchise.
Late Friday afternoon, Bettman will sit next to the new Coyotes owner in Salt
Lake City to bask in the excitement of the league's newest city and a fan base
that had been itching for another team to join the NBA's Utah Jazz.
One day, two drastically different news conferences for the same hockey team.
"If you look back from the perspective over the last three decades, the NHL
support for hockey in Arizona has been unwavering, to say the least," Bettman
said Friday in Phoenix. "And for anybody who's been on that journey with us,
there have been countless times when we could have made another decision and we
didn't. And so I hope everybody understands that this is a place that we
believe hockey works."
But only under the right circumstances.
Hockey worked in the desert for 27 years, albeit with some major potholes along
the way.
In the Coyotes' 28th year since moving from Winnipeg, those ruts derailed the
franchise and sent it to Utah.
His hand forced by self-inflicted and out-of-his-control circumstances, Alex
Meruelo sold the Coyotes to the Smith Entertainment Group on Thursday, a deal
approved unanimously by the NHL Board of Governors. The $1.2 billion deal gives
SEG owner Ryan Smith control of the franchise's hockey operations, while
Meruelo will keep the name and maintain business operations as he tries to
build a long-awaited new hockey arena in Arizona.
The deal elicited opposite responses in two states.
Utah fans have been expectedly excited, snapping up 11,000 season ticket
deposits in the first few hours after the sale. Bettman said that number had
risen to 20,000 by Friday.
The yet-to-be-named team will already have a solid foundation in place, one
poured by Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong through an aggressive rebuild
started three years ago. The team has a talented core, players like Clayton
Keller, Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther, pushing to get the franchise back to
the playoffs --- outside of the 2020 pandemic bubble --- for the first time
since the 2012 Western Conference Finals.
Arizona fans were decidedly dejected and accusatory, claiming Meruelo and the
rest of the Coyotes' management were deceitful about the team's yearly
proclamations that it will remain in Arizona for the long haul.
The flickering light down at the end of the long tunnel is a promise the
Coyotes franchise will be "reactivated" if a new arena is built within five
years. Meruelo's group has its sights set on a June land auction for a tract of
land in north Phoenix valued at $68.5 million, one they hope to develop into an
entertainment district that will include a new arena.
"You have my commitment to do everything in my power to keep the Coyotes in the
Valley. one of the few communities in the country with four professional sports
teams," Meruelo said. "This is a global sports market."
One without a hockey team for the foreseeable future.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
|