[News] Coyotes relocating to Salt Lake City

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Whether Utah was their first choice or tenth choice, that’s still a billion dollars that could have been split amongst the other teams.

My point is that it was NOT a choice, any more than Winnipeg was.

The billion dollars could not be split among the other teams, because the alternative was to leave Meruelo in charge and the Coyotes in Arizona. This was the only feasible way to make him leave without a lawsuit.

[trackercowe]

Utah Stonecutters!

[thefoss1957]

It has been reported that the team will NOT be "The Salt Lake City...", it WILL be "The Utah...".

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

My point is that it was NOT a choice, any more than Winnipeg was.

The billion dollars could not be split among the other teams, because the alternative was to leave Meruelo in charge and the Coyotes in Arizona. This was the only feasible way to make him leave without a lawsuit.

Going in circles as that is the point I have made repeatedly. This decision is costing the owners a $1 billion they would have otherwise been able to receive. Of course it is a choice, perhaps an obvious one, but absent this choice the Coyotes continue limping along as they have for 28 years. Extricating themselves from Meruelo was worth $1B to the owners.

Smith might even have paid more for an expansion team that he could have marketed and planned for properly. Now maybe they prefer the Houston and Atlanta markets and think they can get more from those potential owners. We’ll see when that happens but Smith had his cheque book open and pen in his hand. He was getting a team.I don’t see any self imposed constraints from the NHL on how many times they can accept 10 figure payments from new owners.

[Funkhouser]

My favorites:

Utah Stingers
Utah Buzz (links with Jazz)

The home barn could be nicknamed the Hive

[thefoss1957]

Originally Posted by Funkhouser

My favorites:

Utah Stingers
Utah Buzz (links with Jazz)

The home barn could be nicknamed the Hive

Buzz was a prior name for the AAA Bees.

[GioforPM]

It's a shame Meruelo is making out so well out of all of this.

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

It's a shame Meruelo is making out so well out of all of this.

I could literally puke, but The NHL are legal geniuses and are protecting themselves.

I almost prefer waiting 5-10 years for the right owner than to see him actually pull off a new rink..

That said he's got a 10% chance to get it done

[cam_calderon]

What exactly are the terms? Does he need an actual rink ready for NHL play within five years, because that seems tremendously unlikely.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jordan!

I could literally puke, but The NHL are legal geniuses and are protecting themselves.

I almost prefer waiting 5-10 years for the right owner than to see him actually pull off a new rink..

That said he's got a 10% chance to get it done

I suspect he takes his money now and then makes more in a few years by selling those retained rights or taking a settlement to give them up.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by thefoss1957

Buzz was a prior name for the AAA Bees.

Not very many original sports teams names out there, unless they go completely off the board with something like Commanders or Guardians.

Recycling a name (especially from a different sport) has been done before.

[getbak]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1781361324749955101

I don't know. Doesn't seem like there's enough interest.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

We already have enough of that nonsense in North American soccer.

That settles it. Real Salt Lake HC.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Utah Roughriders

[Toonage]

Sounding like Yetis is gaining momentum

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by chemgear

https://twitter.com/user/status/1780788336140894431

Sorry…. They what!?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

We already have enough of that nonsense in North American soccer.

My particular pet peeve is teams that call themselves ‘United’ because they think it sounds cool, when they were not actually formed by a union between two clubs. So far as I know, the only professional sports franchise in North America that could legitimately call itself ‘United’ is the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Let the Europeans name their clubs according to their customs, and we can name our clubs according to ours.

I don’t know, I feel like we could use more of that and less “Kraken” and “Venom.”

I’d reject European naming traditions, too, if North American naming traditions over the last couple decades hadn’t skewed toward what 10 year old boys think is cool.

[Reggie Dunlop]

[TheScorpion]

I would support the Utah HC, the Utah Scorpions, or the Utah Stingers. I don't know if I could bring myself to support a team called the Yetis. I think I'd rather punch myself in the face.

[getbak]

It looks like they put the ice into the Delta Center for the press conference today (5:00pm MT)...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1781095363417723322


It appears they lose about 2,400 lower bowl seats in the conversion from the basketball to hockey configurations. If they sold the upper deck obstructed view seats, they could potentially fit 16,000 in the building.

They could put some seating at ice level in the corners (similar to what the Isles did at Barclays) to add a few hundred seats.

Bettman said there's a plan to get 17,000 unobstructed seats into the building, but I don't know how they can pull that off.