The Arizona State Land Commission may have wiped out what’s left of the Arizona Coyotes on Friday, canceling a land auction where the team’s former owners planned to build a $3 billion arena and entertainment complex in anticipation. to a reborn franchise.
The auction for 95 acres of land in north Phoenix, bordering north Scottsdale, was scheduled for Thursday, with a starting price of $68.5 million. The commission said it has determined that owner Alex Meruelo must now seek a Special Use Permit to build an arena on that property, which is already zoned for that purpose.
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“This unprecedented action seriously jeopardizes the future of NHL hockey’s return to the desert,” the Coyotes, who were surprised by the decision, said in a statement.
That’s an understatement. The hockey operations and players were sold to Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith for $1.2 billion per day after the end of the 2023-24 season and moved to Salt Lake City in a deal reached on June 13. Club, for now, and will open play at the Delta Center in October.
Meruelo received $1 billion but kept the trademarks, team name and rights to an expansion franchise if he manages to build a new arena that would be completed within five years. In that case, he would return $1 billion to the NHL and start from scratch.
In the statement, the Coyotes threatened to explore “all of our legal options given this short-sighted decision by the State.”
But in reality, Meruelo’s options are very limited. He can’t sell his option to anyone else, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said at a local news conference in April, the day after the Coyotes played their final home game in Arizona. And if a series of dates pass without the arena being built, Meruelo would lose those rights, and Arizona would be just another city in line for an expansion team.
In the meantime, since all of this happened, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego has told Meruelo that she is not in favor of giving him any tax breaks to build a new facility. In particular, it is not interested in another arena that competes with the city-owned Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix, where the Suns and Mercury basketball teams play.
A source with knowledge of the situation said he is now unsure what Meruelo and the NHL will do.
But the reality is this: the decision will cause another considerable delay that could completely nullify the deal.
“We understand that the delay in an auction is a disappointment for our candidate and the public, but the change in the calendar is a prudent decision,” said the commission in making its decision.
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