Think the Tucson Roadrunners will move to Mullett Arena next season? Not so fast
People will have to wait a little longer for professional hockey in Tempe.
Now that the NHL’s Board of Governors has inactivated the Arizona Coyotes franchise, moving the operation to Salt Lake City to form a new team, there are questions about hockey’s future in the state.
Owner Alex Meruelo will maintain the Coyotes' name, logo and trademark, and the NHL says he will have five years to secure an arena deal in order for the franchise to be reactivated in Arizona. He also retains ownership of the Tucson Roadrunners, the team’s American Hockey League affiliate.
Many believed that the Roadrunners would come to Mullett Arena next season after Meruelo went on the Burns and Gambo Show and said he is moving the Roadrunners to Tempe. However, Meruelo retracted that statement when he spoke to The Arizona Republic on Thursday.
"I think I misspoke when I went on the Gambo Show and I said that they were coming, that's not correct," Meruelo said. "It was a hope that we'd work something out and we can bring them to Mullett and maybe have them play in both locations, but this is all premature."
The Coyotes moved to Mullett Arena for the 2022-23 season and signed a lease to play there for three seasons, including two one-year options that would go through the 2026-27 season. The agreement was created with hopes of an arena being built during that span.
But a failed arena proposal in Tempe made that window tighter and led to the prospect of playing at Mullett, which has a seating capacity of 4,600, for several more years. Staying there while the Coyotes tried again by bidding at a state land auction was a hard sell.
However, this move comes with complications.
Meruelo said he is trying to work with Arizona State University to bring the Roadrunners to Mullett Arena, either "full-time or part time."
"That's all premature, it's happening right now. This deal just got signed a few hours ago," Meruelo said. "The people who work with me have reached out, but I'm not sure, it's still premature. Our intention is to work something that maybe — it's not a guarantee — we can play X amount of times in Tucson and X amount of times in Mullett."
The Roadrunners are in the eighth year of a 10-year lease at Tucson Arena, part of the Tucson Convention Center. As part of the contract signed by the Coyotes in the original deal, the ownership group must provide the city 180 days notice before moving the team. The ownership group would also forfeit a little more than $3 million if it chooses to break the lease, per the agreement.
Tucson, unlike the Phoenix area, has one sheet of ice, and would see a hit in the area’s development for youth hockey programs. The University of Arizona’s club teams, some recreational leagues, and the Junior Roadrunners all use the ice.
The city recently approved the leases for a billion-dollar sports complex that will include an ice complex with three rinks, something the Roadrunners likely boosted. However, the ground has not yet been broken so there's uncertainty there.
Fan support has been good as well with the Roadrunners averaging just shy of 4,000 fans per game across their 32 home games this season.
Meruelo reiterated during Friday's news conference with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman that none of the details have been laid out for the future of hockey in Tucson. Both mentioned how the quick nature of when the deal sending the team to Salt Lake City was done has made it hard to give firm details on the future.
“This is very early in the process so I’m not sure what I’m going to do. We’ve talked about playing maybe half the season in Tucson and half the season in Mullett," Meruelo said. "There’s a lot of discussions going on, there’s no commitment from anybody right now. We don’t have any agreements with ASU and we haven’t even spoken with the people from Tucson. We just want to make sure we continue to have hockey thrive in the desert.”
The original deal with ASU for Mullett Arena only pertains to the “NHL Team known as the Coyotes.”
Meruelo would need the approval of the AHL’s Board of Governors before moving the Roadrunners. The AHL’s schedule is needed by May 31, which gives a tight deadline for Meruelo to work this out with ASU and the TCC.
“Our goal is to really understand where we’re at and also we’ve talked about bringing the Roadrunners to Mullett, but we have not done anything with ASU. We need to make sure we have an agreement and move forward," Meruelo said.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will the Tucson Roadrunners move to Mullett Arena next season?
