An arena by 2029: What the Coyotes owner must do to keep his franchise

For Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo, buying 100 acres of northeast Phoenix land he’s been eyeing will kick off a series of critical steps for him to earn back the reactivation of his hockey franchise.

Meruelo was given a five-year deadline to complete a state-of-the-art hockey arena, up to National Hockey League standards, to be granted a new team.

If he doesn’t?

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said he wouldn’t speculate, repeating that Meruelo has five years to get the deal done.

“The league hasn’t abandoned this market,” he told reporters in a news conference in Phoenix Friday.

Arena must be ready in 2029

The deadline gives Meruelo until mid-2029 to have an arena ready for puck drop.

It’s a heavy lift, and one Meruelo might have to do mostly on his own.

“Under the agreement, the rights to reactivate are personal to Alex,” Bettman said, adding that the deal only allows Meruelo to bring in partners for up to 20%, he must retain the lion’s share of the ownership himself.

On Thursday, Meruelo told The Arizona Republic he anticipates construction on the arena would take about 30 months but will need the cooperation of the city of Phoenix. Realistically, to meet the NHL’s deadline, construction on the site must begin by mid-2026 at the latest.

Not only will he need the city to issue the necessary permits, which can take months, but the team is also seeking a “theme park district” to help fund ongoing operations of the development.

Bettman said Friday the league will need about 18 months’ notice to reactivate the franchise, and said the league will be keeping an eye on milestones the project hits, especially progress on the physical buildings.

The Coyotes have been eyeing a piece of land under the control of the Arizona State Land Department for months. It became the team’s Plan B after losing an election in Tempe over the construction of an arena there. The land, located at Loop 101 west of Scottsdale Road, will be sold at a public auction June 27, with the bidding starting at $68.5 million. Meruelo said he is committed to winning the auction.

The team has released renderings of the arena and mixed-use district surrounding the new facility, which would include restaurants and retail, a hotel, office space, a 3,500-person theater and 1,900 residential units.

Bettman said he was disappointed in the outcome of the Tempe vote, which effectively killed the Coyotes' plans in that city, but said he was more optimistic for a future in Phoenix.

However, he acknowledged that "if there is outright hostility to another arena," the plan could still face problems.

Questions about the handling of the election left Meruelo on the defensive at the news conference.

"I did everything I possibly and humanly could do," Meruelo said, adding he had spent millions of dollars on the campaign and personally knocked on doors.

Meruelo offered reporters myriad reasons the Coyotes had not seen a successful arena agreement, blaming the driving distance to get to Glendale, Tempe's failed vote and Mullett Arena's small capacity, along with the time it will take to build a new one.

Bettman cut in while Mereulo listed past struggles, saying there was no need to rehash history, but that the "journey has been littered with potholes.

Auction timing forced NHL's hand

But the auction comes a little too late for the NHL’s liking.

Bettman said Friday, after seeing that the auction would not even occur until June, the league’s leadership approached Meruelo in early March, pointing out the team would be playing in Arizona State University’s Mullett Arena for too long.

“As a college rink it’s a good facility, but it is not a major league facility,” Bettman said.

The average length of an NHL player’s career is between four and five years, Bettman said. Without an arena deal, some Coyotes players could have gone their entire career playing in an arena that was not up to standards for the highest level of play, Bettman said.

With the prospect of the auction not happening until June, and the need to make a schedule for the upcoming season with so much up in the air, Bettman said he told Meruelo the issue “needed to be corrected sooner rather than later.”

“It’s a highly complex transaction, and one he didn’t ask for,” Bettman said of the deal to move the hockey operations to Utah but give Meruelo another shot at having a team.

Bettman said the deal is a first of its kind for a sports franchise and was in the works until about 2 a.m. Thursday. When asked about why Meruelo and the Coyotes appeared not to be forthcoming about the deal in the works, Bettman said it would have been premature to tell team staff and fans about a deal that wasn’t final.

Fans in Utah flood with requests for tickets

The speed of the deal also means the new team in Utah likely won’t have a formal name for its first season. There isn’t enough time to pick one, trademark it and create the material, Bettman said. The upcoming season begins in October.

Ryan Smith, the owner of the Utah Jazz and owner of the hockey team in Salt Lake City, first expressed his interest in owning a hockey team about two years ago, Bettman said. The team is expected to play its games in the Delta Center, home of the Jazz, which has 12,000 unobstructed seats for hockey, with plans to reach 17,000 in the upcoming years.

Bettman said ideally Smith probably would have preferred getting an expansion team, which would have given him more time to prepare, but said he has stepped up and will work hard over the summer to be ready on time.

When the news of the team going to Utah broke, thousands of people immediately expressed interest in season tickets. Bettman said Friday the number of requests had been over 20,000, giving him confidence in Smith.

“I think we made a good decision with the owner in Salt Lake City,” he said.

Reach the reporter at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @CorinaVanek.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hockey heads to Utah, Coyotes owner has five years to bring it back