True to type, Alex Meruelo was defiant.
Whether or not in a gathering with Arizona Coyotes staff final Thursday or throughout a neighborhood radio interview later that afternoon or as he was sitting subsequent to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at a lodge in Phoenix the next day, Meruelo, the proprietor of the Coyotes since 2019, reacted to being compelled to promote the franchise by the league by insisting he hadn’t misplaced it in any respect.
Certain, the Arizona Coyotes had been transferring to Salt Lake Metropolis. Certain, gamers and hockey operations staff had been already assembly with a brand new proprietor and planning to go to their services in Utah, and, positive, season ticket holders in Arizona had been questioning after they could be refunded the deposits they’d put down for subsequent season, however Meruelo’s relationship with that actuality was, at greatest, informal.
On the “Burns and Gambo” radio present, he corrected one of many present’s hosts, insisting he was nonetheless the proprietor of the workforce, which was now merely “inactive.” He mentioned he merely despatched “gamers and hockey operations to Utah.” Within the assembly with workers the subsequent day, he informed staff, who had been fearful about their jobs, that he refused to go down because the man who misplaced the Coyotes. In a information convention with Bettman on Friday, the commissioner interjected on a number of events, leaping in to “translate” when Meruelo blurted out “I don’t just like the media.” At one level, Bettman grabbed Meruelo’s arm to cease him from speaking.
A thriving NHL franchise in Arizona has lengthy been an oasis the league toiled towards. It’s a vibrant market with a strong youth hockey scene, and it has lengthy introduced a chance to diversify hockey’s fanbase. However for the reason that membership’s inception in 1996 (the membership moved from Winnipeg the place it beforehand performed because the Winnipeg Jets), the league and Coyotes followers have endured a lot in pursuit of that dream. There was a failed try to construct in Scottsdale in 2001 and a transfer to Glendale in 2003. Six years later, in 2009, the NHL needed to take management of the franchise after the workforce’s third proprietor put the workforce out of business. The previous two seasons, the Coyotes performed out of a 4,500-seat faculty facility after getting kicked out of their former enviornment following a battle over unpaid enviornment prices and greater than $1.3 million in delinquent tax payments.
In forcing the sale of the Coyotes to Ryan Smith, proprietor of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, the league lastly pulled the plug on its Arizona dream — no less than for now. On the middle of that failure is Meruelo. He was seen as a possible savior of the franchise when he purchased the workforce 5 years in the past however turned the ultimate nail in its coffin, failing and defiant to the tip.
Tact and beauty had been by no means Meruelo’s most popular approaches.
He made his wealth in actual property growth and building and likewise owns media corporations and casinos. He was the primary Hispanic proprietor to carry a majority stake in an NHL membership — one situated in a market that was, on the time he bought the workforce, 42 % Hispanic or Latino. Xavier Gutierrez, his high lieutenant and a longtime Meruelo confidant, turned the league’s first Latino CEO and workforce president. Each had been emphatic about their need to attach with the fan base and rolled out quite a few community-oriented initiatives to realize the objective. Regardless of the very fact Meruelo had a deal fall by means of for an NBA franchise years earlier (in accordance with one report, the league felt the deal was too extremely leveraged), the NHL hoped his deep pockets and fame for revitalizing distressed property would lastly raise the franchise to stability.
It took simply over a yr for that optimism to crack. In August 2020, studies surfaced that he did not pay gamers signing bonuses. Gutierrez blamed it on their lack of expertise proudly owning a sports activities franchise. As extra distributors and staff started cropping up with complaints about unpaid invoices and strongarm techniques, it turned clear that it was a function of Meruelo’s enterprise practices, not a bug.
Discovering a long-term dwelling for the Coyotes beneath Meruelo’s possession shortly developed into his most vexing downside. In his first information convention, he addressed the necessity for a “financially sustainable” resolution to the workforce’s enviornment woes. Given his actual property and building background, there was optimism he’d be capable of construct a state-of-the-art enviornment as a part of that plan. However as phrase of his enterprise techniques made the rounds, mistrust throughout the enterprise and political communities grew. As a substitute of attempting to forge inroads with energy brokers and rebuild his fame amongst native leaders, he was brash and boastful. Former Tempe metropolis councilmember Lauren Kuby recalled an interplay by which Meruelo remarked: “I wager you’ve by no means met a billionaire earlier than.”
In February 2021, The Athletic revealed a report that Meruelo’s first 18 months of possession was marred by a revolving door of executives, strained relationships with company companions, and a litany of economic points, some made worse by the pandemic. The story, which drew from interviews with greater than 50 folks, detailed a sample of unpaid payments and jilted distributors, a disastrous draft decide that earned them common scorn and staff complaining a couple of poisonous surroundings.
At an organization draft occasion in the summertime of 2021, he unexpectedly took the microphone, telling the gang the workforce would depart Glendale and construct a brand new facility in Tempe. Executives in attendance, together with Gutierrez, grew visibly uncomfortable at his bombastic speech given the workforce’s fragile relationship with Glendale and the company companions within the viewers.
“That was one of many first indicators I had that we had been actually in hassle,” mentioned a former worker. “He had no self-awareness by any means.”
Later that summer time, the Coyotes had been informed they had been being kicked out of their Glendale enviornment after the 2021-22 season, with the town supervisor describing the scenario because the “level of no return.” Meruelo had performed hardball in lease negotiations, sure the Metropolis of Glendale would by no means boot him from the constructing. For a person who owns casinos, he was an ineffectual bluffer.
It was an enormous misstep. It meant the franchise had no appropriate place to play whereas Meruelo tried to get politicians, unions and voters behind a $2 billion growth plan in Tempe that included a brand new enviornment. As he labored to safe that challenge, Meruelo’s years of hubris got here again to chew him. Grassroots organizers pounded his observe file and credit standing, citing a monetary evaluation commissioned by the Tempe Metropolis Council. Marketing campaign supplies characterised him as “corrupt,” “scandal-plagued” and a “deadbeat billionaire.” Native commerce and employee unions lobbied in opposition to the plan. And Meruelo didn’t dive deep into his coffers to counteract that destructive messaging. He mentioned final week he poured $7 million into the referendum; marketing campaign finance information present that he spent simply over $1 million.
In Could 2023, voters rejected the proposal, leaving the workforce once more with no clear path to an acceptable enviornment.
“I feel the narrative in Tempe … is that they botched this marketing campaign,” mentioned Randy Keating, a Tempe Metropolis council member who supported the event proposal. “And so they did.”
The clock on relocation started ticking as soon as the proposal was voted down, but Meruelo remained undeterred. In early March 2024, information broke that the workforce was eyeing state land in north Phoenix. The workforce was initially contemplating a 200-acre parcel in that space however that plan was “pared again” due to excessive infrastructure prices, Gutierrez later informed The Arizona Republic. However bidding on the land required months of public discover; by the point the workforce secured a spot on the agenda with the Arizona State Land Division in mid-March, the timeline turned too “stretched,” in accordance with Bettman.
In January, Ryan Smith publicly said his intention to carry a workforce to Salt Lake Metropolis. In February 2023, NHLPA government director Marty Walsh blasted the Coyotes and made it clear that the scenario was untenable. He careworn the urgency of addressing the matter and utilized strain on the league to take motion.
On March 6, Bettman and deputy commissioner Invoice Daly met with Meruelo and requested whether or not he might look his gamers within the eyes and provides them an trustworthy reply of after they’d have an NHL-caliber dwelling. He informed them he couldn’t. Over the subsequent 5 weeks, a deal got here collectively to ship them to Utah for the 2024-25 season.
In a information convention on Friday, Bettman mentioned the league determined it wasn’t honest for gamers to proceed enjoying in a facility constructed to accommodate ASU’s hockey workforce and one-third the scale of a lot of the league’s arenas. Meruelo referred to as promoting the franchise probably the most “painful determination in his life” — although it was arguably not his determination.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (proper) speaks alongside Coyotes proprietor Alex Meruelo throughout a information convention in Phoenix final week. (Christian Petersen / Getty Photographs)
As a part of the sale, Meruelo shall be given the unique proper to carry a workforce again to the market, an effort that begins with the state land public sale on June 27. Bettman mentioned the league wants 18 months discover previous to reactivation and PHNX Sports activities reported that any enviornment have to be 50 % full with the intention to set off reactivation discover. In response to Sportsnet, the “revival rights are non-transferable” and the $1 billion price ticket to carry the Coyotes again is locked in. It’s a path again into the NHL for Meruelo, however few folks consider the league would enable that to occur.
“I’ve not witnessed a gaggle extra dedicated to doing issues the unsuitable means and failing to develop any form of significant assist within the political neighborhood, enterprise neighborhood and with the influential stakeholders they should make this occur,” mentioned David Leibowitz, a former communications advisor for the Coyotes who labored with three totally different house owners, together with Meruelo.
Stated Keating: “I’ve zero religion they may be capable of pull that off. The truth that he couldn’t construct an enviornment when he had a workforce. Who’s going to construct it now?” He added: “Nobody needs to do enterprise with this man. Why would you?”
Meruelo nonetheless exits with a golden parachute. Ryan and Ashley Smith of Smith Leisure Group (SEG) bought the workforce for $1.2 billion, $200 million of which can reportedly be divvied up amongst different NHL house owners. Meruelo bought the workforce for near $450 million, in accordance with two folks accustomed to the workforce’s funds. Even taking into account the franchise’s present money owed and yearly working losses — which ranged from $50 to $70 million, these sources mentioned — Meruelo is more likely to web a number of hundred million {dollars}. One former worker, made conscious of that reality, likened Meruelo’s tenure to that of a youngster who wrecks a automotive after which will get compensated with a Ferrari.
Staff throughout the franchise’s enterprise aspect have been informed their jobs are protected till the June 27 land public sale. Meruelo mentioned on Friday that these jobs shall be evaluated over the subsequent 60 days however that his intent “is to maintain all the things intact.” Those that stay behind have been informed to focus efforts on the Tucson Roadrunners, the Coyote’s AHL affiliate that Meruelo nonetheless owns.
Final week, a lot of these staff and others from the previous had been on the anger stage of grieving. On social media, one former worker described a stint working for the group because the worst 4 months of her life. A former in-game host revealed on X that the workforce tried to keep away from paying the complete quantity of what she was contractually owed. Many staff attended the workforce’s closing sport in Arizona final Wednesday. Meruelo was conspicuously absent. He later claimed he didn’t attend as a result of he was hammering out the ultimate particulars of the sale of the workforce. In his absence, the temper was extra Irish wake than funeral. Diehard followers caught round for the ultimate buzzer and lengthy afterward. Gamers stayed on the ice of their gear and signed autographs. Staff congregated on the ice till their ft grew chilly.
One younger fan held up an indication that featured a border of Coyotes participant photographs. “THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME FALL IN LOVE WITH HOCKEY,” he wrote. Within the middle of the signal was an image of Meruelo. Beneath that image, in crimson, had been the phrases:
“NOT YOU.”
— The Athletic’s Chris Johnston contributed to this report.
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic. Pictures: Norm Corridor, Scott Taetsch / Getty)