Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman spoke on Friday in what was one of the most bizarre press conferences. 20240412_MorningSkate_Keller_FTP The sale to send the Coyotes to Salt Lake City was made official on Thursday. However, this was no ordinary deal as despite the Coyotes’ franchise transfering the totality of its existing hockey assets to Salt Lake City including its full Reserve List, roster of Players and draft picks and its Hockey Operations Department, Meruelo still technically owns the team. The franchise is inactive, with a right to reactivation if Meruelo is able to fully construct a new, state-of-the-art facility appropriate for an NHL team within five years. It’s all very confusing since this is unprecedented, so this press conference was a way to clear some of that up. There were some major red flags and signs that Meruelo may not be the right person to bring back the Coyotes in the future. First off, the press conference began with Meruelo walking in the room and nearly tripping which clearly encapsulated how unprepared he was for this moment. Bettman started with an opening statement, acknowledging that moving the Coyotes out of Arizona was sad, but reiterated that the realization of playing at Mullett Arena for multiple more years was not ideal for the NHL. “We find ourselves here today under difficult circumstances because when the Coyotes moved into Mullett and played two seasons there, the belief was that it was going to be temporary, three years…” Bettman said. “As things have now played out with the auction on June 27, it became clear to me that not only had the timeline stretched, we were still dealing with uncertainty because there is still an auction to be had and there is a theme park district that still has to be set up, so we were facing under a best case scenario anywhere under a three or five years more in Mullett. With the potential of five years at Mullett, It’s not fair to the players on the Coyotes, it’s not fair to players on the other team…” Meruelo proceeded to read his rehearsed statement and appeared to be extremely nervous and really did not convey any confidence in the way he spoke. When talking about his plan to win an auction for land in northeast Phoenix on June 27, he mistakenly said June 29 which is a pretty important fact to remember when talking to dozens of media outlets. Meruelo has been making some public appearances to speak on this situation since the deal was officially finalized yesterday, but has been absent from the limelight since taking ownership of the team five years ago. In response to a question asked about why he hasn’t been publicly spoken to the media specifically through the past year, Meruelo had a simple yet very confusing answer. “I don’t like the media,” Meruelo said. “It’s funny, I own two TV stations in Los Angeles, five radio stations in Los Angeles and I have never once been on any radio or any TV. I don’t like the media, I avoid media for many reasons.” Bettman was forced to reiterate Meruelo’s foolish statements, something that seemed to be a common theme. It does not matter if he is not great in front of a camera, Meruelo is the owner of a sports team and it’s his duty and responsibility to speak on behalf of the organization. It’s embarrassing that when asked this question he said he hates the media quite literally in front of other media members. It shows his lack of understanding in this sort of setting and it’s now more clear why he’s continuously made Coyotes president Xavier Gutierrez do all of the talking for him. On multiple occasions during the press conference, Bettman would be forced to reiterate Meruelo’s comments due to the wording or lack of professionalism while jumping in and answering questions directed at him a few times. It’s easy to assume he most likely did this because of the fear of what words might come out of Meruelo’s mouth. A question was asked on why Meruelo hasn’t spoken to his employees about their future with the organization and why multiple meetings to talk about it were just canceled. Bettman gave his reasoning and Meruelo let the commissioner speak, not addressing the issue at hand. The deal to send the Coyotes to Salt Lake City wasn’t resolved until yesterday which is something that Bettman brought up, but the fact that Meruelo didn’t comment is just shameful. Many great, hard working people have been getting mixed messaging on what their future holds and it’s unfair that Meruelo won’t address them directly. Yes, Meruelo repeatedly talked about his commitment to reviving the Coyotes one day, but he had the NHL team and simply lost it due to his inability to find a permanent arena and it's hard to take him by his word. The atmosphere of the press conference was just strange. There were so many things that still needed to be answered but based on the words of Meruelo, there was actually more confusion walking out than there was walking in. Meruelo’s past failures and lack of conviction at this press conference makes the Coyotes’ possible return to Arizona seem unlikely, but actions speak louder than words so time will tell to see what will actually occur.
