For the 47th time, let the Coyotes die [UPDATED]

There is a Sliding doors scenario, where the NHL simply leaves Jim Balsillie buys Arizona Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario, over ten years ago. Would it have worked? Difficult to know. Balsillie’s BlackBerry fell shortly after the proposed purchase date, and could have caused a host of problems north of the border, just as there were in Arizona. The Leafs certainly should have been at ease with the idea of ​​a team moving just 42 miles away. And maybe having the smaller arena in the league, like Copps Coliseum (now FirstOntario Center) was then, would have caused more complications.

Still, the NHL would have had an owner with deep pockets (at the time) in a fiery hockey market. And none of it could have been worse than what the Arizona Coyotes have been, are, and will go forward.

In the last episode of “While the coyotes burn” The Athletic’s Katie Strang takes a deep dive into the latest jester-laden property group that has promised the NHL to save the Yotes once and for all, but has turned out to be just another clown float in the constant parade of quacks and pudwhacks. who have acquired the franchise. This time, it’s Alex Meruelo and the uber-mottes who accompanied him. One would think that the NHL might have noticed that the The NBA didn’t think he was capable buy the Atlanta Hawks, thanks to finances that didn’t line up. But the NHL is always happy to pick up NBA trash. That’s how they got Gary Bettman, after all.

It’s masterful work, as always by Strang, but a lot of stuff you’ve probably read about someone else in sports before. An owner who doesn’t have as much money as he told the league who accepted him as a buyer / owner. Widespread employee abuse, justified for himself and his pals by having a lot of money, but not as much as he wants the world to believe. Nickel and obscure everyone in sight to give the appearance of rationalization, but in fact with nothing in their pockets, including the greatest means of waiting for these people for less money. Disconcerting hires and internal organization. Employees of the last ownership group feel utterly helpless and those who are no longer there have to go to court to get the money they are owed.

Oh, and to complete the set, because it wouldn’t be without it, the owner’s kid screwed everything up in a department he doesn’t know anything about. You could probably write a lot of things from memory, and you’ve probably seen it all. Every owner should be considered a Bob Nutting until they prove they are not.

The entire play is certainly worth your time, if only to clearly illustrate just how desperate the NHL has been to keep the Coyotes in Arizona to hand over the keys to any jerk who raises their hand. Including jackasses who tried to intimidate Strang, one of hockey’s most accomplished writers who is respected in all circles, unlike those nincompoops.

Alex Meruelo is the fourth owner of the Coyotes since the league took control of the team in Balsillie and anchored the team in the wilderness. It’s been clear for over a decade that the team won’t be working with their arena in Glendale, if it can work at all in the market, but no new arena plan has ever come out of the planning phase. It looked like a second like Tempe’s, but the state of Arizona pulled out of its part of the deal. With the article detailing how Meruelo’s group tried to stiffen various vendors on what they owe, how they’re going to find the money to build a new arena in a more palatable area is a laughable mystery.

Meruelo hasn’t been in charge for so long, but the article does nothing to show how he would pull the Yotes out of this spiral. They’ve been in the lower end of the league in terms of attendance, income, and ranking for so long that they’ve become the very definition of “entrenched”. Meruelo also doesn’t come across as something that looks like a visionary.

At one point, the NHL has to admit that the Coyotes were so tinkered with they are now hopelessly shattered. This is an organization which for the past year has had the fraud of a GM jump ship in such a way that the league banned him for a year, wrote an unrepentant racist they had then waive the rights of thanks to the backlash, and now this story is breaking down. And that’s just normal for an organization that has spent years fight with the city itself it lies in their massive losses.

The NHL gobbled up a possible moving spot by assigning an expansion squad to Seattle. And in a post-pandemic world, assuming we ever get to that world, moving a sports franchise might be next to impossible. Still, you have to think that Quebec City would always be more than willing to fill its sparkling arena every night with an NHL team. Portland and Kansas City still have their buildings. How could any of them be worse than this?

Coyotes cannot be saved. The NHL and various dimwits have spent nearly 15 years trying to prove it. When is it time to declare “victory” and move on?

Update: The Coyotes released a statement, and it’s about as ballooning as you might imagine the organization described in Strang’s article would offer:

Once again, to repeat, Strang is one of the most respected writers in the business. As she stated in the article, the Coyotes and the league have had the opportunity to respond to whatever is there, and they’ve been successful. Attacking Strang’s integrity after the fact is the height of amateur idiocy. It hits all the moron buttons of “IyouIt’s the previous guy’s fault, “” HWe are doing the community a service here ”and“ DDon’t you know this guy is already rich? Just great stuff.