Radio host and 32 Thoughts host Jeff Marek joins the show to digest the death of the Arizona Coyotes. With relocation likely to be announced later this week, Craig, Leah and Jeff discuss how the NHL arrived at this rare moment, its impact on the Phoenix market, Salt Lake City’s prospects for success, and the wisdom of giving Alex Meruelo another chance in the Valley through expansion.
0:00 Intro
1:35 Jeff Marek from 32 Thoughts joins the show
2:05 National perspective on the Coyotes relocation
3:00 How did we get to this point?
5:15 Is Salt Lake City the right market?
7:45 Who is to blame in all of this?
13:10 The impact on a market losing a franchise
17:05 Who gets the Coyotes history?
18:30 What happens if/when Alex Meruelo brings a team back to Arizona?
23:40 Jeff’s Coyotes memories
32:45 Petey’s thoughts from the last ever Coyotes practice
37:55 Effects of relocation on the Tucson Roadrunners
41:55 Roadrunners relocating to Tempe?
46:45 What to expect at the arena for the last Coyotes game
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27 Comments
Did the NHL choose a landfill over the Arizona Coyotes? I think that's pretty squarely on the shoulders of voters, politicians, and the owner.
I hope Arizona fans get a team. But not without an Arena and an owner Arizona fans can trust. No more cart before the horse. No more pie in the sky promises and weird disputes and failure to pay basic bills, like rent in Glendale and hotel rooms. Get the rink, in a good walkable spot and then the team.
Also, return the Winnipeg Jets 1.0 records to Winnipeg. Now is the opportunity to make that right. And keep the Phoenix/Az Coyotes records for the 2.0 team.
Also, don't let Murello or whatever his name is move the Roadrunners. He's a disaster.
I'm not staying a diehard if you guys are leaving
Before I play this is this the truth as to why they lost the team or spin from people who’s jobs depend on the NHL team
Im glad the NHL likes Ryans smiths mormon ass but why not give him the expansion team instead of taking away another fanbase's team?
Hockey in Utah will absolutely thrive. You should be happy for your players actually getting a real arena, fanbase, and ownership
If the facilities for the players are better in Tucson it's better for the Roadrunners to stay there.
Everyone is grossly misunderstanding how the population in the greater Salt Lake Area works. Its a very sprawling and growing YOUNG FAMILY poplation with incredible transportation to bring lots of people from well boyond the county limits and drops them off right on the doorstep of the Delta Center. The Utah Jazz has had a horrible record and they have sold out around the last 250 times in a row.
How much money was pumped into this franchise by NHL owners over the years in revenue sharing? They must be pi$$ed at Bettman over this, I doubt any of them would agree too or want Meruelo back as an owner again. Hopefully this ends a decades long embarrassment for the NHL.
As a Winnipeger I feel bad for the Yotes fan! I hope the NHL returns as you deserve a a good owner to succeed.
As a native Michigander and a hockey fan since the Dead-Things era, I have seen & know a few things. Denver, SLC, Boise, and a few other western cities know what snow is. As such they have more than a passing acquaintance with winter sports. Phoenix, like most western towns think that ice is something you put in your drink. The ONLY people in most of those places who INTIALLY like hockey are usually retirees from northern areas. Of course, the NHL did not work in Phoenix, but will in SLC. Frankly the only reason basketball works in SLC is they have nothing else until now. If Boise ever gets to a million people it will have more hockey fans than Phoenix HAS now.
it comes down to BAD owners and Glendale location for a arena
I work in a hotel. Heard the Coyotes werent paying for stays months ago. So Sad. If im the league I woudnt put a team back in Arizona until they have a diffent owner
This podcast makes me less and less sympathetic to the fans of the Coyotes. They don't do easy research on the population numbers. They continually say they don't want to say a bad thing about SLC but then go on to say bad things about SLC and its market. The franchise is moving because you couldn't get a quality owner and a new arena. Your owner wasn't even paying the team's hotel bills. So much so that the hotels had to band together and petition the NHL to get the Coyotes to pay their bills. We know Ryan Smith pays his bills. We know there is 900 million dollars in public money(which I don't agree with) to build a dual purpose arena for the Jazz and the new NHL team. We know the Utah Grizzlies get good attendance and aren't even an NHL team.
If you need more information then look at the Jazz. People said Utah wasn't a basketball market, then they got an NBA team. A terrible Jazz team has sold out their tickets as of March 10th, 282 straight games…. To sit there and question how the NHL will work in SLC…. Why didn't it work in Arizona? It certainly didn't by the way. It wasn't just ownership. If fan apathy wasn't a thing then they would've figured out how to get the political pressure to make it happen. Instead they were stuck in an NCAA arena.
Salt Lake City residents sure have a Napoleon complex about their city. Every post is straight from Stuart Smalley. SLC is good enough, smart enough and dogonit people like us.
Craig is such a Utah hater I love it lol
Hey guys one last time on your channel.
I told y’all so… so many times too
I rang the emergency at the all star break bc it was crystal clear at that point to me. Maybe bc you guys are so close to the secret keepers and franchise that it’s harder to imagine the worst of something the closer it is to you guys. But yeah I knew it. I saw fuck boy Alex true intentions pretty much the whole damn season I held my breath in sept Oct and nov. December was when I was worried. Then when the deadline happened…yeah that was trash.
Petey your north stars leaving stories is almost Deja vu for this bc you guys didn’t think they were leaving till the arena blew up lol and lo and behold were blowing up.
Sorry, not sorry because it's funny watching the tears after taking the team from another market to begin with. Flipping residents voted down a building over a landfill and the owner wasn't paying the bills! Need actual community & fans to vote yes and an owner not just in it to take money.
they should have never went to arizona in the first place…
This is unfortunate what’s happening bad ownership’s is what cost Arizona there hockey team I hope they do get a team back some day but I really hope if they do and it’s the same bad owner I hope that they do not go to games but if it is different owner then they go to games I remember what it is to loose a team I live in Vancouver Canada and we lost the Vancouver grizzlies because of bad owners as well so we now how you are feeling
Be glad you didn't have Barry Shenkarow as an owner, killed a deal to keep the Jets here in '95 because he didn't keep control over a team he ran into the dirt.
Moving the Roadrunners up to Phoenix should only be considered if an NHL expansion is well and truly dead. If you move them into the Mullet next year, you kill the prospect of having an AHL team back in Tucson. The TCC is an aging arena, and currently the only ice you have in Tucson. The TCC doesn’t want to host hockey, and with all its other commitments you get virtually none for community skates. You move the Roadrunners then you get the expansion Coyotes back then you have no place to put the Roadrunners. Keep the Roadrunners in Tucson, build the arena and get your expansion team. Then you never have to worry about funding another arena in Tucson just to move them back.
There's that great line from the movie The Social Network, "if you were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook". I think that applies to NHL here. If the NHL can make hockey work in Arizona, it would be working in Arizona.
If hockey is to work in Phoenix, it would have to be under a drastically different set of circumstances than have taken place with this Coyotes franchise. For instance, a hockey friendly building that exist before the team exists, an owner that pays his rent and hotel bills, and a team that can develop good players and compete for the playoffs, maybe even make the playoffs once every 3-5 years. None of that should be an issue for an NHL franchise that takes itself seriously and exists in a viable market. If you fail again on all 3 of those though, well good luck with that.
I really hope that they win the game tomorrow night against the oilers and at the end of the game all the players give there sticks to kids in the crowd and sign them
NHl suck
Bros just searched "Salt Lake City Population" on Google and copied whatever it said on top 💀
We lost the team because of hockey fans living in Phoenix who supported other cities teams, showed up only one or two times a year when they’re favorite team came to town and did not support the team in Phoenix.
The owners are horrible, dishonorable, that is true but the frustrating thing is, the real problem was brought up, the point ridiculed and what was predicted, happened.
The fans living in Phoenix with their Hawks, Pens, Bruins jerseys hanging in their closets, lost us this wonderful team. There was warning.