Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
Seravalli speculates the NHL is looking at buying out Meruelo (keeping him whole on deficit incurred to date) and extracting relo fee from Smith in SLC. All in time for next year.
Just my view, but this auction is not really the make or break event. Buying some land is a far cry from getting an arena development financed and built. Meruelo can still go try and develop this land if he is so inclined.
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That's been my guess for how this will play out too. Dangle the carrot for Meruelo to be front-of-the-line for expansion when/if he gets the arena built and expect to never hear from him again.
Realistically, at this point, even if he wins the land auction in June, the arena won't be ready until 2028 at the earliest. I doubt anyone wants them to play at ASU for another 4 seasons and 2028 is likely when the next round of expansion happens, so it would work out perfectly for them.