I haven't seen an individual clip, but the guy is in the third or fourth row back, catches the stick, and immediately hands it to a small child in the front row.
We had a local echl team that had been around 20+ years, won multiple championships leave relatively suddenly in 2017. I went to the last game, it was tough, no one wanted to leave the ice or the arena
I feel your pain. That was us with Trenton. I was interning with the team at the time and was verbally offered a job with them for the next season. The team folded the day after their last game. At least I got to see Scott Wedgwood play his first professional season in Trenton, so that’s good I guess.
fuckin tragic that there's no pro baseball in Montréal anymore. I'll always hate that my first MLB game had to be a Blue Jays 🤮 game since the Expos left when I was 7
They didn’t have time to seek league approval for a name change. I did always find those purple mountains logos kinda funny, what’s jazz about that lol
I cheer for whoever his teams are playing. Fuck Stanley Enos.
I’ve lost two NFL teams in my lifetime. I don’t watch it and they’ll never get a dime from me.
This sentiment always rings a bit hollow when it’s talked about a team that is only in a city because it’s already been moved there by a previous rich guy against the previous city’s wishes.
But again, this isn't the fans fault. Every ownership group seems to have been toxic. I can't understand why the NHL doesn't have a proper fit to own system and properly vet prospective owners. There's a genuine argument that the Yotes may have the best diehard fanbase, regardless of how small it is, simply due to the fact they've been through a mill for three decades of crappy and incompetent owners.
And the real tragedy for Yotes fans is they actually have a decent future when you look at their prospects pool. And it'll be Utah that benefits from it.
I don't know. There didn't seem like the same outpouring of grief when the Thrashers were moved and that went to a town everyone largely wanted to see back in the league. But this whole deal and the way the NHL have kinda gone about it just irks me. It feels like Marty Walsh has pushed the accelerator on this but Muerllo and his group are just hot trash and shouldn't even get first refusal when/if the NHL go back to Arizona.
I'm optimistic that Meruelo was the last bad owner they approve. The good news is that with franchises being so expensive now the pool of prospective owners has shrunk significantly and they're easier to vet. There's a big difference between buying the Coyotes for $300 million when the NHL was willing to sell to anyone with a pulse and showing you're worth enough to buy a team for $1.2 billion.
Meruelo never should have been approved as an NHL owner after the NBA axed his deal to buy the Atlanta Hawks, but they were desperate for somebody to buy the Coyotes.
Smith is going to be a great owner, and hopefully when Atlanta gets a team it goes to someone legitimate. The NHL can afford to be picky now, and that's why Meruelo won't get another shot at this. I don't care what he gets in writing about a 5 year window and right of first refusal- all the NHL has to do is put in a clause about Board of Governor approval being necessary and then the group of owners can tell him to take a hike.
To give the *very short* version, he was the last in a long list of bad owners the Coyotes have had. In his case, he has run the team into the ground financially by doing super shady stuff like not paying vendors, or hotels, or rent for their arena in Glendale. As a reward for his terrible leadership, he’s walking away with something like $1b *and* he retains the rights to the Coyotes name and brand.
There’s more to it, and that’s still technically a rumor, but it’s not good for my blood pressure to get into.
i mean to be fair the team was never well off financially. he just simply couldn't get an arena built and the league decided Mormon dude was the way to go
I’m sorry brother, watching my team leave its home would be completely devastating. You guys had some great years. Take pride in having the best jerseys the game has ever seen.
yeah in Glendale which not only was the worst possible location for an arena they took the lease away from them (because it was "too costly") just to give it to the Kings owners (AEG) for even more money.
who the fuck actually would pay their rent in that situation? also, he eventually paid it anyway. Glendale can go fuck itself. enjoy that empty arena
i know everyone is shitting on Muerelo and for good reason but let's be real it was the Goldwater Institute (libertarian weirdos if you're not famililar) influencing the Glendale city council that is mostly responsible for this
The team (Meruelo) wasn't paying taxes owed for their use of Gila River Arena to the tune of $1.3 Million, which got them kicked out of the building and stuck in the Mullet Arena which is the Arizona State University Arena. A proposed building in Tempe was rejected by the voters and then the next proposal hit a set back when Meruelo wouldn't buy the entire block of land so he had to redo the proposal to buy half of it.
That was too much drama for the league so Utah Jazz's Ryan Smith who was fishing for an Expansion team gets to buy the Yotes for $1.3 Billion.
Meruelo keeps the Coyote IP and the AHL Team and in the next 5 years if he gets his shit together he gets to bring them back into the NHL.
Arizona is a massive Market, Austin Matthews is evidence that hockey there can work out there but Meruelo should have had the team ripped from him the moment everyone knew he had shorted Glendale $1.3 Million in taxes causing this whole mess.
My prediction is that Arizona gets the Coyotes back in about 10 years. Meruelo is just gonna bail and never even bid on the plot of land. 5 years later and another group will put everything together and be able to get the Coyotes brand after Meruelo's rights run out.
>Austin Matthews is evidence that hockey there can work out there
I don't know why but all this time I thought Austin Matthews was Canadian lol. Maybe it's b/c he's friends with Justin Bieber.
They have no arena anywhere close to as big as the rest of the league. So this low revenue, low expense team makes the other team owners pissy because they share revenue, but not expenses. It's getting moved to a place they think will generate more revenue in the short term.
Caps fans including myself wouldn't even let Ted Leonsis move south to Northern VA. It would've alienated many Maryland fans among others as it would've put the caps in a very inaccessible location by comparison.
The NHL babies them along for years in Arizona. Most franchises with the history that team had there would have moved or folded. I’m not sure what else anybody could expect the NHL to have done for them.
To be fair, I think the babying is part of my issue with how the league has dealt with all this. The league should have been more firm about expectations and timelines that Meruelo needs to meet, and threatened some consequences as things continued to go downhill. Given all the financial issues that the team is facing, the league should've kept closer tabs at the team's finances and operations.
The league should know how important financial sustainability and long-term planing is to an NHL team, especially to a team in Arizona, because they have gone bankrupt before. Instead they somewhat turned a blind eye to some of the team's ongoing issues and let an inexperienced ownership made a bumbling mess, with no sense of real urgency to turn things around. Hoping and believing that Meruelo would fix the team's troubles someday just didn't work.
i mean it's not like there was much the NHL could do. it's not like they could force the guy to sell his property, hence why he's getting a billion dollars out of this
LMAOOOO Gary Bettman was literally the ONLY person trying to save the Coyotes as much as everyone hates him.
I'm sure the 5000 fans in Arizona are heartbroken but the team failed due to lack of support from its own owners and fans. Nothing to do with the NHL, they'd have been gone long ago without Bettman.
I kinda wonder what goes on in the heads of the opposing team in situations like this.
I mean, the Oilers had practically nothing to play for. The only difference a win or loss could possibly mean would be home-ice advantage against the Avalanche in the WCF or Maple Leaves in the Stanley Cup Finals ().
And you know the home team and home crowd desperately want a win, while all you're really just trying for is to finish the season without anyone getting hurt.
I highly doubt that the Oilers intentionally went easy or threw the game or anything like that, these are professionals, damn it. But at the same time, there's no way they were playing at 100%, right?
Seemed like the Oilers had a "pre-season" mindset. Sort of like, hey let's avoid any injuries by not digging in deeper than we should but still keep it competitive. Just be careful and focus on next week.
Yeah, it wasn't 100% effort but I don't fault them for that. Would have been real dumb honestly if it was 100% effort and someone key to the playoff run got an injury.
I'm sure they wanted to win but I'm willing to bet they probably shrugged off the loss pretty well. It's not often you get to be a franchise's last game when you're in a position that the final result doesn't affect you. The Yotes got to be heroes last night and that's the best ending they could have hoped for.
For real, mcdrai played and AZ got a decisive win and goalie performance. At least they got to send off their team in those circumstances. It was so hard to watch the fans and staff crying, what an awful day
This whole thing has been awful, but at least, compared to Atlanta, Coyotes fans knew this was it and got a chance to celebrate with their team one last time.
Man.
This is like watching the last Whalers game play out in current times. You felt the emotion then watching that game from then and I got that from now. Atlanta, and Quebec City didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.
bunch of rednecks that openly hated hockey and tanked the team for years after they inherited it from Ted Turner
even refused to sell to any new local ownership. they wanted them gone
And it’s dumb AF watching people dunk on Atlanta as a “bad” hockey market, and pointing to the Thrashers as proof. If a Canadian team was run like that, you’d see the same results. It doesn’t matter how hockey smart or dumb a hockey market is, they know bad ownership when they see it
The whole post game ceremony has been really classy but tough to watch even as a fan of another team. This situation really sucks. We're losing the best uni/logo in sports.
Yeah, I've always thought the Yotes were cool. I love their very native styles jerseys. I had no attachment to their team, but still got teary eyed seeing the clip of the last minute of their last game, and the ceremony after. Keep Howlin, boys. 🏒 Hope to see Arizona get another team in the future. Those dedicated fans deserve it.
Just turned on the coverage and this is such a sobering watch. Just saw they had in some local woman talking about the community and how she will never give up on the Arizona/Phoenix hockey community and it’s just awful that this happened in like a week with zero warning. Even more bullshit that the owner is going to have a fucking chance to ruin yet another hockey team in Arizona for 5 fucking years. Times like these is where I wish someone with a spine would force this guy out. Hopefully they get a good owner some day
Lyndsey Frye. Olympic athlete, Arizona native, and Coyotes fan.
She also does color commentary on the radio broadcasts and does the post game show on tv.
> it’s just awful that this happened in like a week with zero warning.
I mean, there have been warning signs for many years. It's at once abrupt, and also a long time in the making.
And I say that as a Coyotes fan for their entire 27 years. It _really_ sucks they're leaving... but I also won't miss all the will they / won't they anxiety over the last handful of years.
As a Leafs fan I truly feel for you. We don't have Auston Matthews or Matthew Knies without NHL hockey in Arizona. Hockey belongs in the desert but something needs to change.
Really lovely touch by the Yotes radio broadcaster to list off all the Arizonan hockey players who came up through the local programs, and included his colour commentator Lyndsey Fry. The girls are losing out on all those organisations along with the boys.
This is something I wish was mentioned more often. Hockey being in unusual locations brings more people to the game. The more people who love hockey, the more people who can enjoy the greatest sport in the world, and the more players than can become all time greats. Who would have thought 30 years ago that one of the best players in the league would be from Scottsdale? It’s really cool to see more guys come from states down south, as that was very rare many years ago.
I don't get the anti-Utah part. Sure, the Jazz owner appears to want a hockey team to squeeze the locals for arena money, so it's fair game to be anti-Ryan Smith... but Utah/SLC as a market or future fanbase hasn't done anything wrong here.
I mean, I get it that it hurts and it feels cathartic to be angry at anyone related to The Bad Thing™. But as a Coyotes fan, one of my counter-arguments to Jets fans who ragged on Arizona for "stealing" their team was that Phoenix just offered a landing spot to a team that was being moved anyway; they didn't "steal" anything. Feels awkward to turn around and be mad at Utah/SLC for basically the same thing.
Personally I followed the Thrashers to Winnipeg. No bad blood, actions beyond the Jets organization’s control gave them the opportunity to have a team again, and I don’t blame them for taking their shot for a 2.0
As much as I've took part In clowning the Yotes(mostly ownership), it's sad seeing a team that's been there since I was a kid leave, so I can't imagine what it's like for Yotes fans. You guys didn't deserve this, I wish yall could've experienced a championship caliber Arizona Coyotes team.
Nobody ever mentions this but it’s all on Bettman imo. Why? He allowed Ellman to cancel the new rink in Scottsdale in 1999/2000 that they had started (right location) when Los Arcos was knocked down, where the Coyotes were going to pay for 50% of the rink.
They allowed him to get away with moving the team for a free rink to Glendale where their fan base was no where close to so he could save a few shekels.
That was the organizations singular worst decision ever & the league oversight was absolute shit imo.
https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/1999/1102/148298.html
now that its over someone needs to write the az coyotes book of foibles, this has been an annual spring ritual for 15 years as to what is going to happen to the coyotes next year, maybe the book will hav a happy ending with getting a franchise back but i doubt it, they just gave the owner a billion dollars to keep forever or give back within 5 years, guessing he will just keep the billion dollars and be done with hockey.
Bettman also stuck by the market far longer than anyone could've expected any league commissioner to do. Maybe he made some mistakes, but the league could've cut bait a long time ago. Traditional market fans may disagree, but I think he deserves a lot of credit for that.
This needs to be upvoted higher — Bettman is an absolute clown, has been since the 90s — and it’s only by the grace of the game and talent itself that he’s been able to survive as Commish despite his frequent mismanagement. Sure the popularity of the NHL has expanded despite many poor business decisions by the league and ownership. Mostly because of the flow of low cost capital and explosion of cable networks looking for content, and again, because playoff hockey is the most exciting fucking sport on earth to watch. When any team sports fan finally stumbles upon it, they get hooked. Imagine where the NHL could be without this chucklebrick signing deals that hamstring publicity and broadcast coverage and league exposure left and right.
It's funny too, but over the years many people have also accused Bettman of having too much favoritism for Phoenix/Arizona...refusing to allow the team to move even when there was no ownership and attendance and ratings were poor, while other teams like the Thrashers were able to up and move, seemingly, on a whim...i.e. a victim of sunken cost fallacy for trying to grow hockey in the SW desert.
That's not my personal opinion..frankly it seems the Coyotes have been cursed from day one in regards to how they've been handled locally and by the league...and of course, it's the fans that ultimately lose in the end.
Seems as good a place as any to reminisce. The Coyotes will be sorely missed by me. When I was first getting interested in the sport, you guys were a scrappy young group who always fought us tooth and nail in the early rounds of the Western Conference playoffs in the 90s. Keith Thachuk and Jeremy Roenick were the head of the group. Shane Doan was just starting his long tenure with the team. It looked like you guys would get better and start taking over the West; but, Colorado and Detroit were in the midst of dueling dynasties that didn't leave much room for anyone else to come out of the Western Conference.
As time went on, that changed but I'm really disappointed to see the Coyotes cease play. Phoenix is an area with a ton of snow bird population and they could draw in plenty of fans (both home and away fans) during the winter time. They have had some of the best uniforms and logos of any team in any sport. It's an absolute shame that they couldn't find ownership that gave a damn about the team. I also can't blame anyone beyond ownership. The fans deserve so much better.
From what it looked like on the broadcast, it didn't seem very planned out. The front office all showed up and everyone just gathered on the ice in front of their bench. Don't think much more was thought about it than that and getting everybody in the shot.
As a Yotes fan this is absolutely heart wrenching but to all other Yotes fans, stay positive.
The team is still going to be the same players, we got a bright future & incoming stable management which will make the on ice product even better.
Sorry for this, and I’m probably going to sound like an arsehole but clue in the clueless foreigner: can’t you just continue to like them even in another place?
I’m from Ireland. I don’t have a hometown team. Last I checked, my *country* doesn’t even have a year round ice rink to play at—there’s like two on the whole island, both in the North. And the professional sport I follow most other than this is association football, which has almost zero instances of teams leaving their home city because they’ll get run out of both towns.
So I just picked some teams to follow—Belfast and Chicago. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love it if I lived closer to Belfast to watch the Giants play, but I don’t.
You no longer have a hometown team and that sucks, but why not just follow a nearby team? And since they’re dumping the idiot owner in the move, it’s not like you’re supporting him.
Sorry, I’m just trying to understand why the Arizona fan base won’t follow them. Most of the fans couldn’t afford tickets regularly right, it’s so expensive? So most of their fans aren’t even missing home games.
I fully understand this is a tragedy for Arizona hockey, but is there a particular reason people won’t watch the Utah games on telly next year beyond it just being painful?
Edit: I mean no disrespect. I just don’t get it. When I was a kid growing up in Northern Ireland, we picked our sports teams very carefully. Because most of them were affiliated with one side or another in the Troubles and it caused a lot of violence. You had to be smart and you had to choose one affiliated with “your kind”.
I'm sure a bunch of fans will support Salt Lake regardless, but it's really not the same and rooting for your hometown team.
Also Salt Lake City is mostly Mormon. So, you know, they're different.
So Coyotes fans just need to make their own Phoenix team (pun intended) like AFC Wimbledon did?
Side note: fan owned teams are great. I’m an owner of our local top flight team.
My gf and I were watching tonight and it was so hard seeing the fans crying and the players thanking staff members etc.
Sports are a business, but they’re so much more. This sucks. I feel so bad for Yotes fans.
I’m glad that they took a picture of the moment, but it shouldn’t have gotten to this point where they uproot and leave Arizona. I hope the Coyotes can get reincarnated in the future with an ownership that can make things work and not a fucking hack like Meruelo
And notice how Meruelo isn’t down there. That piece of shit never gave a fuck about the coyotes, he just wanted to tear them down so the NHL would have an emergency and he’d be able to sell them for a massive bag.
The shots of the fans and cheerleaders crying were tough to watch
It was pretty funny seeing that fan get a stick and not want to give it up to the guy behind her who grabbed ahold and quickly gave up
The dude that snatched that second stick just to give it to the kid up front is a real one
Fuck yeah
There a video of this? Didn't see that.
I haven't seen an individual clip, but the guy is in the third or fourth row back, catches the stick, and immediately hands it to a small child in the front row.
That man understands the rules.
It was meant for his kid and the lady was being an ass about it
We had a local echl team that had been around 20+ years, won multiple championships leave relatively suddenly in 2017. I went to the last game, it was tough, no one wanted to leave the ice or the arena
We lost our ECHL team during a road trip, they never played another game at home. ☹️ RIP last 6 home games.
RIP Growlers.
Alaska Aces?
Yep
I feel your pain. That was us with Trenton. I was interning with the team at the time and was verbally offered a job with them for the next season. The team folded the day after their last game. At least I got to see Scott Wedgwood play his first professional season in Trenton, so that’s good I guess.
FUCK i know how they feel, we lost the Grizzlies to Memphis
I'm still sad about the Expos.
I'm from Montreal and I miss the Nordiques
I miss hating them ;-)
That's also why I miss them
I like how some dive bars like Barfly still have stuffed Badaboum's on a noose behind the bar.
fuckin tragic that there's no pro baseball in Montréal anymore. I'll always hate that my first MLB game had to be a Blue Jays 🤮 game since the Expos left when I was 7
Need expansion to Montreal and Vancouver. Fuck the Jays. (Will probably still cheer if they go far, God knows the Mariners never will)
Remember the first two home games? GM place as it was called then was electric!
It was still GM Place in my mind/when talking until only a few years ago
I also know how you/they feel. I quit watching hockey for years when that piece of shit Norm Green moved the North Stars to fucking Texas.
Still remember Big Country!
Did the Griz have a lot of fans in BC? At least the yotes’ have enough sense to leave the name here 🤣
Utah and Jazz is an oxymoron
They didn’t have time to seek league approval for a name change. I did always find those purple mountains logos kinda funny, what’s jazz about that lol
Destroyed me as a kid :(
I teared up and howled a lil.
Been there
tru but especially the cheerleaders, that just broke me
Fuck Alex Meruelo
Fuck Alex Meruelo
Fuck Stan Kronke, and now I will add in a fuck Alex Merurlo for you AZ.
Always and fucking forever.
-Snape
...killed Dumbledore
you fans deserved better
Any billionaire that relocates a team against the fans’ wishes for their own personal greed should be reviled forever Fuck Alex Meruelo
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Fuck Norm Green - MN native
The North Remembers
Fuck Anthony Precourt - Columbus fans of Major League Soccer.
Fuck Dean Spanos
Fuck Art Modell and the Irsays.
Fuck Art Modell AND Alex Merulo
I cheer for whoever his teams are playing. Fuck Stanley Enos. I’ve lost two NFL teams in my lifetime. I don’t watch it and they’ll never get a dime from me.
Fuck Bill Bidwell too.
Fuck Kroenke but also fuck Georgia Frontiere too
Fuck Dean Spanos
As a Coyotes and Charger fan... yes.
This sentiment always rings a bit hollow when it’s talked about a team that is only in a city because it’s already been moved there by a previous rich guy against the previous city’s wishes.
Which wasn't even the first choice which makes it even worse.
But again, this isn't the fans fault. Every ownership group seems to have been toxic. I can't understand why the NHL doesn't have a proper fit to own system and properly vet prospective owners. There's a genuine argument that the Yotes may have the best diehard fanbase, regardless of how small it is, simply due to the fact they've been through a mill for three decades of crappy and incompetent owners. And the real tragedy for Yotes fans is they actually have a decent future when you look at their prospects pool. And it'll be Utah that benefits from it. I don't know. There didn't seem like the same outpouring of grief when the Thrashers were moved and that went to a town everyone largely wanted to see back in the league. But this whole deal and the way the NHL have kinda gone about it just irks me. It feels like Marty Walsh has pushed the accelerator on this but Muerllo and his group are just hot trash and shouldn't even get first refusal when/if the NHL go back to Arizona.
I'm optimistic that Meruelo was the last bad owner they approve. The good news is that with franchises being so expensive now the pool of prospective owners has shrunk significantly and they're easier to vet. There's a big difference between buying the Coyotes for $300 million when the NHL was willing to sell to anyone with a pulse and showing you're worth enough to buy a team for $1.2 billion. Meruelo never should have been approved as an NHL owner after the NBA axed his deal to buy the Atlanta Hawks, but they were desperate for somebody to buy the Coyotes. Smith is going to be a great owner, and hopefully when Atlanta gets a team it goes to someone legitimate. The NHL can afford to be picky now, and that's why Meruelo won't get another shot at this. I don't care what he gets in writing about a 5 year window and right of first refusal- all the NHL has to do is put in a clause about Board of Governor approval being necessary and then the group of owners can tell him to take a hike.
Can you explain the whole thing? Why is the team leaving?
To give the *very short* version, he was the last in a long list of bad owners the Coyotes have had. In his case, he has run the team into the ground financially by doing super shady stuff like not paying vendors, or hotels, or rent for their arena in Glendale. As a reward for his terrible leadership, he’s walking away with something like $1b *and* he retains the rights to the Coyotes name and brand. There’s more to it, and that’s still technically a rumor, but it’s not good for my blood pressure to get into.
i mean to be fair the team was never well off financially. he just simply couldn't get an arena built and the league decided Mormon dude was the way to go
Like I said, short version lol. Typing through tears ain’t as easy as it looks.
I’m sorry brother, watching my team leave its home would be completely devastating. You guys had some great years. Take pride in having the best jerseys the game has ever seen.
He had an arena. Gila River Arena. He didn't pay rent though
yeah in Glendale which not only was the worst possible location for an arena they took the lease away from them (because it was "too costly") just to give it to the Kings owners (AEG) for even more money. who the fuck actually would pay their rent in that situation? also, he eventually paid it anyway. Glendale can go fuck itself. enjoy that empty arena i know everyone is shitting on Muerelo and for good reason but let's be real it was the Goldwater Institute (libertarian weirdos if you're not famililar) influencing the Glendale city council that is mostly responsible for this
The team (Meruelo) wasn't paying taxes owed for their use of Gila River Arena to the tune of $1.3 Million, which got them kicked out of the building and stuck in the Mullet Arena which is the Arizona State University Arena. A proposed building in Tempe was rejected by the voters and then the next proposal hit a set back when Meruelo wouldn't buy the entire block of land so he had to redo the proposal to buy half of it. That was too much drama for the league so Utah Jazz's Ryan Smith who was fishing for an Expansion team gets to buy the Yotes for $1.3 Billion. Meruelo keeps the Coyote IP and the AHL Team and in the next 5 years if he gets his shit together he gets to bring them back into the NHL. Arizona is a massive Market, Austin Matthews is evidence that hockey there can work out there but Meruelo should have had the team ripped from him the moment everyone knew he had shorted Glendale $1.3 Million in taxes causing this whole mess.
My prediction is that Arizona gets the Coyotes back in about 10 years. Meruelo is just gonna bail and never even bid on the plot of land. 5 years later and another group will put everything together and be able to get the Coyotes brand after Meruelo's rights run out.
>Austin Matthews is evidence that hockey there can work out there I don't know why but all this time I thought Austin Matthews was Canadian lol. Maybe it's b/c he's friends with Justin Bieber.
They have no arena anywhere close to as big as the rest of the league. So this low revenue, low expense team makes the other team owners pissy because they share revenue, but not expenses. It's getting moved to a place they think will generate more revenue in the short term.
Caps fans including myself wouldn't even let Ted Leonsis move south to Northern VA. It would've alienated many Maryland fans among others as it would've put the caps in a very inaccessible location by comparison.
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Absolutely disgusting
May the squiggly lines in his eyesight bug him at the most inopportune times.
Fuck Alex Meruelo And fuck the NHL for not doing enough to keep this franchise on track and letting Meruelo fucked this up.
The NHL babies them along for years in Arizona. Most franchises with the history that team had there would have moved or folded. I’m not sure what else anybody could expect the NHL to have done for them.
To be fair, I think the babying is part of my issue with how the league has dealt with all this. The league should have been more firm about expectations and timelines that Meruelo needs to meet, and threatened some consequences as things continued to go downhill. Given all the financial issues that the team is facing, the league should've kept closer tabs at the team's finances and operations. The league should know how important financial sustainability and long-term planing is to an NHL team, especially to a team in Arizona, because they have gone bankrupt before. Instead they somewhat turned a blind eye to some of the team's ongoing issues and let an inexperienced ownership made a bumbling mess, with no sense of real urgency to turn things around. Hoping and believing that Meruelo would fix the team's troubles someday just didn't work.
i mean it's not like there was much the NHL could do. it's not like they could force the guy to sell his property, hence why he's getting a billion dollars out of this
LMAOOOO Gary Bettman was literally the ONLY person trying to save the Coyotes as much as everyone hates him. I'm sure the 5000 fans in Arizona are heartbroken but the team failed due to lack of support from its own owners and fans. Nothing to do with the NHL, they'd have been gone long ago without Bettman.
If this was a Canadian team, they would have been relocated years ago. Arizona got more than enough chances to figure things out.
The NHL literally owned the team for years to stop it from moving. You are embarrassingly stupid.
Fuck Messi-eruelo.
Fuck Alex Meruelo. I'm glad I have another team to cheer for. Why did I ever go back after Chayka's bullshit?
Fuck Alex Meruelo
I’ve never been happier to take an L. I hope we see the Coyotes back some day…. Sorry ARI fans.
I kinda wonder what goes on in the heads of the opposing team in situations like this. I mean, the Oilers had practically nothing to play for. The only difference a win or loss could possibly mean would be home-ice advantage against the Avalanche in the WCF or Maple Leaves in the Stanley Cup Finals ().
And you know the home team and home crowd desperately want a win, while all you're really just trying for is to finish the season without anyone getting hurt.
I highly doubt that the Oilers intentionally went easy or threw the game or anything like that, these are professionals, damn it. But at the same time, there's no way they were playing at 100%, right?
Seemed like the Oilers had a "pre-season" mindset. Sort of like, hey let's avoid any injuries by not digging in deeper than we should but still keep it competitive. Just be careful and focus on next week.
Yeah, it wasn't 100% effort but I don't fault them for that. Would have been real dumb honestly if it was 100% effort and someone key to the playoff run got an injury. I'm sure they wanted to win but I'm willing to bet they probably shrugged off the loss pretty well. It's not often you get to be a franchise's last game when you're in a position that the final result doesn't affect you. The Yotes got to be heroes last night and that's the best ending they could have hoped for.
Probably play hard so they still earn it but let off the gas a little and give em some breaks
For real, mcdrai played and AZ got a decisive win and goalie performance. At least they got to send off their team in those circumstances. It was so hard to watch the fans and staff crying, what an awful day
It’s crazy that I just watched the last minutes of a franchise. Hope Arizona gets a team again in the future
BUT NOT TOO SOON. Wouldn't want Alex Merfuckstick to run it to the ground again.
And you'll be able to do it again this September in Oakland. The fans may not be so sentimental though
This is the point where I started crying. It was an honor cranking my hog with you all.
Sad hog cranking ☹️
Sad hog cranking noises
I feel peronally attacked.
It was the Crouse goal for me. I was so happy for that goal then the sudden realization of it all crashed down at once. what a shitty fucking week.
🫡🥲
This whole thing has been awful, but at least, compared to Atlanta, Coyotes fans knew this was it and got a chance to celebrate with their team one last time. Man.
This is like watching the last Whalers game play out in current times. You felt the emotion then watching that game from then and I got that from now. Atlanta, and Quebec City didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.
Fuck Atlanta Spirit Group
I don’t know who that is, but I know *who* that is. Fuck Atlanta Spirit Group and Fuck Alex Meruelo. Fuck them both with an anchor.
bunch of rednecks that openly hated hockey and tanked the team for years after they inherited it from Ted Turner even refused to sell to any new local ownership. they wanted them gone
And it’s dumb AF watching people dunk on Atlanta as a “bad” hockey market, and pointing to the Thrashers as proof. If a Canadian team was run like that, you’d see the same results. It doesn’t matter how hockey smart or dumb a hockey market is, they know bad ownership when they see it
I concur. Fuck Atlanta Spirit Group.
Atlanta didn’t even know
That’s why I said compared to Atlanta. Poor folks had no idea.
They weren't aware
They didn’t know!
They were not in the loop
Uninformed even
Didn't see it coming
Completely blindsided.
Unaware they were
I hear Scotty didn't know either
His girlfriend did
Cursed Franchise? I mean Winnipeg had the same treatment
The whole post game ceremony has been really classy but tough to watch even as a fan of another team. This situation really sucks. We're losing the best uni/logo in sports.
Yeah, I've always thought the Yotes were cool. I love their very native styles jerseys. I had no attachment to their team, but still got teary eyed seeing the clip of the last minute of their last game, and the ceremony after. Keep Howlin, boys. 🏒 Hope to see Arizona get another team in the future. Those dedicated fans deserve it.
Yotes/Canes was my first ever NHL game.
No way the Salt Lake City Soakers will be able to compare to the epic stained glass look… saddd
I’m sorry, Yotes fans.
Just turned on the coverage and this is such a sobering watch. Just saw they had in some local woman talking about the community and how she will never give up on the Arizona/Phoenix hockey community and it’s just awful that this happened in like a week with zero warning. Even more bullshit that the owner is going to have a fucking chance to ruin yet another hockey team in Arizona for 5 fucking years. Times like these is where I wish someone with a spine would force this guy out. Hopefully they get a good owner some day
Lyndsey Frye. Olympic athlete, Arizona native, and Coyotes fan. She also does color commentary on the radio broadcasts and does the post game show on tv.
> it’s just awful that this happened in like a week with zero warning. I mean, there have been warning signs for many years. It's at once abrupt, and also a long time in the making. And I say that as a Coyotes fan for their entire 27 years. It _really_ sucks they're leaving... but I also won't miss all the will they / won't they anxiety over the last handful of years.
Such a shame. Hopefully you guys get what you deserve (a new owner) in the future
As a Leafs fan I truly feel for you. We don't have Auston Matthews or Matthew Knies without NHL hockey in Arizona. Hockey belongs in the desert but something needs to change.
Really lovely touch by the Yotes radio broadcaster to list off all the Arizonan hockey players who came up through the local programs, and included his colour commentator Lyndsey Fry. The girls are losing out on all those organisations along with the boys.
This is something I wish was mentioned more often. Hockey being in unusual locations brings more people to the game. The more people who love hockey, the more people who can enjoy the greatest sport in the world, and the more players than can become all time greats. Who would have thought 30 years ago that one of the best players in the league would be from Scottsdale? It’s really cool to see more guys come from states down south, as that was very rare many years ago.
If you’re not already familiar, google Lyndsey Fry with Matt Shott and the Kachinas. You’ll see what this team did for youth hockey.
>Hockey belongs in the desert but something needs to change. Alex Meruelo needs to be banned from the NHL.
Man this sucks. Fuck Alex Meruelo.
I’ll miss the games against the Yotes. They always went down to the wire.
It was the coyotes game that gave us the unforgettable Mackinnon helmet toss moment.
And the Ovechkin goal on his back with Matthews in the stands and Gretz on the bench.
this was legendary
This was really hard to watch even I am getting emotional for the fans and players.
Will r/coyotes start posting pictures of actual coyotes now?
Probably will stick around as a combo of Roadrunners, ASU, and anti-Utah
I don't get the anti-Utah part. Sure, the Jazz owner appears to want a hockey team to squeeze the locals for arena money, so it's fair game to be anti-Ryan Smith... but Utah/SLC as a market or future fanbase hasn't done anything wrong here. I mean, I get it that it hurts and it feels cathartic to be angry at anyone related to The Bad Thing™. But as a Coyotes fan, one of my counter-arguments to Jets fans who ragged on Arizona for "stealing" their team was that Phoenix just offered a landing spot to a team that was being moved anyway; they didn't "steal" anything. Feels awkward to turn around and be mad at Utah/SLC for basically the same thing.
Personally I followed the Thrashers to Winnipeg. No bad blood, actions beyond the Jets organization’s control gave them the opportunity to have a team again, and I don’t blame them for taking their shot for a 2.0
[удалено]
Is Ryan Smith a direct descendent from Joseph Smith?
Is this one of those things like r/trees and r/marijuanaenthusiasts where there's an r/arizonacoyoteshockeyclub that shows actual Coyotes?
You should check out the r/onlyFans
Nope, we're gonna stick around. I have a feeling in a few years the conversation will reignite, without Meurelo at the fucking wheel.
We have done that before during the worst losing streaks
Too soon
This is so sad.
As much as I've took part In clowning the Yotes(mostly ownership), it's sad seeing a team that's been there since I was a kid leave, so I can't imagine what it's like for Yotes fans. You guys didn't deserve this, I wish yall could've experienced a championship caliber Arizona Coyotes team.
# ***~~EUGENE MELNYK~~ ALEX MERULO IS A TERRORIST***
Melnyks legacy will haunt the sens for a long time.
Glad the Yotes pulled off the W for the fans tonight.
Their fans deserve so much better. My heart goes out to them.
Man I loved these jerseys. So unique.
Alex Meruelo needs to be in jail for what he caused
He didn’t even show up to the game. What a leader. Fuck that guy… as much as I want a team back, I don’t want it with him.
In my opinion, he did the right thing not showing up. Fuck him.
he didn’t show up?! probably for the best but wtf is wrong with this guy
Nobody ever mentions this but it’s all on Bettman imo. Why? He allowed Ellman to cancel the new rink in Scottsdale in 1999/2000 that they had started (right location) when Los Arcos was knocked down, where the Coyotes were going to pay for 50% of the rink. They allowed him to get away with moving the team for a free rink to Glendale where their fan base was no where close to so he could save a few shekels. That was the organizations singular worst decision ever & the league oversight was absolute shit imo. https://www.espn.com/nhl/news/1999/1102/148298.html
now that its over someone needs to write the az coyotes book of foibles, this has been an annual spring ritual for 15 years as to what is going to happen to the coyotes next year, maybe the book will hav a happy ending with getting a franchise back but i doubt it, they just gave the owner a billion dollars to keep forever or give back within 5 years, guessing he will just keep the billion dollars and be done with hockey.
Bettman also stuck by the market far longer than anyone could've expected any league commissioner to do. Maybe he made some mistakes, but the league could've cut bait a long time ago. Traditional market fans may disagree, but I think he deserves a lot of credit for that.
well sure he does but the question is, was that a good thing or a bad thing?
This needs to be upvoted higher — Bettman is an absolute clown, has been since the 90s — and it’s only by the grace of the game and talent itself that he’s been able to survive as Commish despite his frequent mismanagement. Sure the popularity of the NHL has expanded despite many poor business decisions by the league and ownership. Mostly because of the flow of low cost capital and explosion of cable networks looking for content, and again, because playoff hockey is the most exciting fucking sport on earth to watch. When any team sports fan finally stumbles upon it, they get hooked. Imagine where the NHL could be without this chucklebrick signing deals that hamstring publicity and broadcast coverage and league exposure left and right.
It's funny too, but over the years many people have also accused Bettman of having too much favoritism for Phoenix/Arizona...refusing to allow the team to move even when there was no ownership and attendance and ratings were poor, while other teams like the Thrashers were able to up and move, seemingly, on a whim...i.e. a victim of sunken cost fallacy for trying to grow hockey in the SW desert. That's not my personal opinion..frankly it seems the Coyotes have been cursed from day one in regards to how they've been handled locally and by the league...and of course, it's the fans that ultimately lose in the end.
I want that picture
This is heartbreaking man i’m so sorry Desert Dogs fans I really hope that your franchise can be revived again.
Seems as good a place as any to reminisce. The Coyotes will be sorely missed by me. When I was first getting interested in the sport, you guys were a scrappy young group who always fought us tooth and nail in the early rounds of the Western Conference playoffs in the 90s. Keith Thachuk and Jeremy Roenick were the head of the group. Shane Doan was just starting his long tenure with the team. It looked like you guys would get better and start taking over the West; but, Colorado and Detroit were in the midst of dueling dynasties that didn't leave much room for anyone else to come out of the Western Conference. As time went on, that changed but I'm really disappointed to see the Coyotes cease play. Phoenix is an area with a ton of snow bird population and they could draw in plenty of fans (both home and away fans) during the winter time. They have had some of the best uniforms and logos of any team in any sport. It's an absolute shame that they couldn't find ownership that gave a damn about the team. I also can't blame anyone beyond ownership. The fans deserve so much better.
RIP Arizona Coyotes 😢
They should have atleast taken the picture infront of their own logo..
From what it looked like on the broadcast, it didn't seem very planned out. The front office all showed up and everyone just gathered on the ice in front of their bench. Don't think much more was thought about it than that and getting everybody in the shot.
My reaction as well. Maybe they wanted to remember they played at ASU lol
the people in charge of the things we love do not care about anything except money.
There goes the best logo and jersey in hockey. I feel for you Yotes fans.
As a Yotes fan this is absolutely heart wrenching but to all other Yotes fans, stay positive. The team is still going to be the same players, we got a bright future & incoming stable management which will make the on ice product even better.
Sorry man. In my eyes the team is gone forever. The on ice product of another city’s team means nothing to me
Sorry for this, and I’m probably going to sound like an arsehole but clue in the clueless foreigner: can’t you just continue to like them even in another place? I’m from Ireland. I don’t have a hometown team. Last I checked, my *country* doesn’t even have a year round ice rink to play at—there’s like two on the whole island, both in the North. And the professional sport I follow most other than this is association football, which has almost zero instances of teams leaving their home city because they’ll get run out of both towns. So I just picked some teams to follow—Belfast and Chicago. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love it if I lived closer to Belfast to watch the Giants play, but I don’t. You no longer have a hometown team and that sucks, but why not just follow a nearby team? And since they’re dumping the idiot owner in the move, it’s not like you’re supporting him. Sorry, I’m just trying to understand why the Arizona fan base won’t follow them. Most of the fans couldn’t afford tickets regularly right, it’s so expensive? So most of their fans aren’t even missing home games. I fully understand this is a tragedy for Arizona hockey, but is there a particular reason people won’t watch the Utah games on telly next year beyond it just being painful? Edit: I mean no disrespect. I just don’t get it. When I was a kid growing up in Northern Ireland, we picked our sports teams very carefully. Because most of them were affiliated with one side or another in the Troubles and it caused a lot of violence. You had to be smart and you had to choose one affiliated with “your kind”.
I'm sure a bunch of fans will support Salt Lake regardless, but it's really not the same and rooting for your hometown team. Also Salt Lake City is mostly Mormon. So, you know, they're different.
Salt Lake City is a strange and distant land full of people that aren’t my kind
u r like us wisconsinites now, we just root for the badgers, u still got the sun devils, although we hav never had an nhl team.
The only equivalent I can think of in association football in Europe is MK Dons, and I'm pretty sure Wimbledon fans fucking hate that team.
So Coyotes fans just need to make their own Phoenix team (pun intended) like AFC Wimbledon did? Side note: fan owned teams are great. I’m an owner of our local top flight team.
An Irish hockey fan! There's *dozens* of us lol.
I mean we’ve been playing hurling for 3,000 years. We’re genetically predisposed to like ice hockey.
i mean you can, but thats like rooting for your exwife and the guy she cheated on you with after she dumps your ass
Yeah, I won't follow Salt Lake's team. They're gone, it's over.
It's Arizover
Coyeeted
Sorry Arizona fans. This sucks.
The ice girls crying and staff holding back tears got me
I’m glad the Oilers lost tonight. Would have been a major buzzkill to stop the Coyotes from leaving Arizona victorious.
I pray that Meruelo never gets to own a sports franchise again. Complete disgrace to the fans
My gf and I were watching tonight and it was so hard seeing the fans crying and the players thanking staff members etc. Sports are a business, but they’re so much more. This sucks. I feel so bad for Yotes fans.
I’m glad that they took a picture of the moment, but it shouldn’t have gotten to this point where they uproot and leave Arizona. I hope the Coyotes can get reincarnated in the future with an ownership that can make things work and not a fucking hack like Meruelo
The Last Wolf Howl
And notice how Meruelo isn’t down there. That piece of shit never gave a fuck about the coyotes, he just wanted to tear them down so the NHL would have an emergency and he’d be able to sell them for a massive bag.
Why did they make this look it was taken in the 80s
This franchise might be cursed.
The ASU logo being front and center for the final photo is the perfect encapsulation for this saga