Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

I feel badly for Coyotes fans. They have been treated horribly by Alex Meruelo and crew. It appears the owner knew he was working on a deal to sell long before it occurred. To drop that bombshell at the last minute, eroded fan loyalty and trust.

Now, I was never a rabid fan, but I was a fan. I enjoyed watching the Coyotes play until things went south. Steve Ellman seemed to be the only owner that seemingly cared about the Coyotes until he let Jerry Moyes buy his interest in the team. That was the beginning of the end. Moyes wanted to declare bankruptcy and the NHL took over the team to the tune of Glendale paying $50 million to keep the team in the Valley. Don’t ever tell me Glendale was the problem.

According to renowned economist Elliot Pollack Glendale will be the geographic center of the Valley. We are seeing that come to pass with all the new residents and development in cities like Buckeye, Surprise and Peoria. A whole new crop of hockey fans is descending upon the West Valley.

The NHL, seemingly desperate, sold the team to a series of apparently sleezy owners. I won’t go through the list. We all know who they were. Which brings us to the latest and least great owner of them all.

I no longer have any insider knowledge but just as the fans are speculating, so shall I. If fans are counting on Meruelo winning a bid for state land their hopes may very well be misplaced. Meruelo announced what he was willing to pay for the property, but he is willing to go higher? How much higher? I would bet there are developers just waiting to outbid Meruelo on this piece of land. If he is unsuccessful in acquiring this land, there is no backup plan.

Where is Xavier Gutierrez? He just announced his own sports consultancy and marketing firm. Has anyone heard from him or seen him in his Coyotes role since the sale?

Fans have hoped that Wayne Gretzky can put together a consortium of investors to resurrect the team. The costs would be enormous. Meruelo will command a sky-high price. Then there is land acquisition, navigating through layers of local government regulation and the investment required for building a facility. It may be more than anyone is willing to take on.

In essence, the Coyotes have vanished.

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