Ok, last week was one heck of a roller coaster ride. Hands up if you had the Coyotes moving to Salt Lake City AND soon-to-be former Owner Alex Meruelo retaining the rights to the team’s brand, trademarks, and logos on your bingo card. 

Put your hands down. Nobody had both parts of the above, it’s just too crazy of a situation. 

It’s one thing for the team to relocate to another city and state. That part of the equation was obvious once the Coyotes lost the vote to build a new arena in Tempe and were forced to play at a College rink. Meruelo can talk all he wants about how he’s going to win the land auction in June to build a new arena and entertainment district, but with how often he and the team have failed, it would be foolhardy to believe in him now. 

The part of this unofficial move – there are still details each of the parties needs to work out – that is perplexing is how Meruelo gets to retain the team’s brand, trademark, and logo rights. Sure, it’s supposedly only for a five-year term, but still. 

Let’s say Meruelo doesn’t manage to build a new arena in the allotted time frame. What then? Does he attempt to negotiate an extension? What do the Coyotes do? They almost certainly have to change their name, logo, trademarks, etc. when they arrive in Utah. What happens to those trademarks, logos, and branding if/when Meruelo fails?

Let’s be honest, he’s not going to willingly give up the billion dollars he’s supposedly receiving for selling the team. He had problems while at Gila River Arena, which is why the team was unceremoniously kicked out of the building. He’s not forking over a billion dollars so easily. Heck, allegedly, he’s having issues this season paying the team’s hotel bills. Does that sound like somebody who The League should put any faith in? 

Meanwhile, on the Salt Lake City side of things, it’s not like The Delta Center – home of The NBA’s Utah Jazz – is an ideal home for the soon-to-be nameless Coyotes. The arena wasn’t built with hockey in mind so the sight lines will be understandably troublesome. The potential new Owner of the Coyotes, Ryan Smith is planning on getting a new arena built for the NHL team that he’s on the brink of acquiring, but it won’t be so easy. Rumor has it that the local government isn’t going to make things easy on him. If that turns out to be the case, you could argue the Coyotes – or whatever they’ll be known as – will be right back to square one, just in a different city. 

Surely The League doesn’t want that. They’re not brokering a deal of this magnitude only to watch the same issues crop up. 

According to one league source, “The NHLPA is fed up with nearly zero revenues and honestly, that little room – Mullet Arena – makes The League look bush.” Those are some strong words and it just serves to highlight how bad the situation in Arizona has gotten. 

The hope is that Utah, specifically, Salt Lake City, will bring better days for the Coyotes team, or, at least, for the hockey side. The business side is supposedly being left behind in Arizona. But that’s just one more piece of the craziness pie that is the Coyotes-to-Utah plan. 

Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of our system, it’s time to look forward to the playoffs, which start on Saturday, April 20th. This year’s tournament has the potential to be as thrilling as any we’ve seen. Plus, with the spectator of the Coyotes moving to Utah hanging overhead, there should be no shortage of storylines to address in the coming weeks. And Blittner’s Blue Line will have you covered every step of the way.