The Arizona Coyotes seem deader than ever.
Late Monday night, noted local journalist Craig Morgan reported that the owner of this franchise temporarily deactivated by the NHL, Alex Meruelo, has thrown in the towel and will no longer attempt to find a home for the Coyotes.
This news comes on the heels of the cancellation of the auction of 95 acres of land that would have been used to build a new amphitheater for the Coyotes.
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Alex Meruelo sold his team to Utah in April, under the condition of being able to resurrect the Coyotes within a five-year window.
But he has apparently abandoned all hope of doing so with the recent decision of the Arizona State Department, which canceled the June 27 auction, a critical step in Meruelo’s plan to revive the Coyotes. Obviously, the organization did not hesitate to express its dissatisfaction through a press release published on NHL team in Arizona.
Before the sale to businessman Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz in the NBA, the team played at Mullett Arena, a building with around 5,000 seats where the Arizona Sun Devils also played. State University. Gary Bettman also made no secret of the fact that this situation could not last for ages.
“It’s not fair to the Coyotes players,” he said at a news conference on April 19. “It’s not fair to the players from other teams who come. It’s not a major league arena and the possibility of seeing playoff games there, or even the Stanley Cup Final, it just didn’t work, so I decided we had to find a solution.”
