Gary Bettman on hockey in Arizona: ‘We shall return’

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo met with the media on Friday to discuss how the Coyotes’ franchise wound up being purchased by Ryan Smith and relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah.

‘This is a place we believe hockey works’

The commissioner opened the press conference by saying he sympathizes with Coyotes fans are going through.

“From a league perspective over the last three decades, the NHL’s support for hockey in the desert has been unwavering, to say the least,” Bettman said. “There have been countless times that we could have made another decision, but we didn’t. I hope everybody understands that this is a place we believe where hockey works.”

Bettman went on to say that the Coyotes playing in Mullett Arena, which they’ve done for the past two seasons, was planned on only lasting for three seasons, and that the league would have been comfortable with a fourth season if shovels were in the ground and a new arena in Arizona was being built.

But with an auction on potential land for a new arena not being auctioned until June 27, Bettman said the league was facing a “best-case scenario of anywhere between three-to-five more years at Mullett Arena,” saying that it wasn’t a major-league facility.

“It’s not fair to the players on the Coyotes, it’s not fair to the players on the other teams that come in,” Bettman said. “The prospect of playing playoff games there or a Stanley Cup Final just didn’t work. I decided we needed to look for a solution that dealt with that, and at the same time kept hockey alive in the desert for the long-term.”

Bettman first brought up relocation on March 6

Bettman said the first time he raised the possibility of relocating the team from Arizona to Utah with Meruelo was on March 6, in which Meruelo’s reaction was, “No, I don’t want to do that.” The commissioner then spent the next few weeks discussing why he felt it was appropriate for the franchise to go “inactive.”

“It became clear to me that Alex was never going to agree to this if he didn’t have an opportunity to re-activate the franchise,” Bettman said. “That’s where the concept of building a building in five years and we will reactivate the Coyotes.”

On Thursday, the NHL’s Board of Governors formally rubber stamped the sale and relocation of the Arizona Coyotes franchise to Salt Lake City, Utah, in an unscheduled meeting conducted virtually on Thursday, sources confirmed to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.

Bettman said Meruelo is free to attend board meetings and can stay involved, but the Coyotes don’t get a vote.

“From a league standpoint and a player standpoint, what we’re doing is in my mind, and teh minds of the governors who approved this yesterday, the right way to proceed so we can, ultimately, bring hockey back in the desert.”

Bettman closed the press conference a paraphrased quote from U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur from the Second World War.

“We shall return.”