The Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo is stepping away from the National Hockey League. It is being reported that Meruelo is no longer interested in resurrecting the Arizona Coyotes. He is reportedly no longer seeking to build an arena in Arizona and is going to give up the rights to the Arizona Coyotes name, branding, and market. This is being reported only days after the Arizona public land auction that Meruelo was going to buy to build a whole new arena district was cancelled. Coyotes fans are happy about this. However there have been no official statements from the National Hockey League, Arizona Coyotes, or Alex Meruelo.
This is another big setback for the Arizona Coyotes return. Weather people like Alex Meruelo or not, having an owner is better than not having an owner. Now the Arizona Coyotes will have to go through the process of finding new ownership before they can restart the process of building a new arena. A new ownership group could open the door for the Arizona Coyotes to return to the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. However the city of Glendale will likely not want to work with the Arizona Coyotes even with a new ownership group. A new ownership group will likely try to build a new arena. That has proven difficult in Arizona. It is also unlikely that a new ownership will not want to wait for an arena to be built. A new ownership group will want to have the Coyotes operating as soon as possible. That means that they will likely play in an already existing arena at least temporarily. Even if they announced a new ownership group this offseason, the soonest they would likely play would be the 2025-26 season or 2026-27 season.
What does this mean for the planned expansion to the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada? Alex Meruelo also owns the Grand Sierra Resort. In September of 2023 the Grand Sierra Resort announced an expansion. The expansion is huge. It includes expansion on their lake, additional hotel and casino space, a 10,000 plus capacity arena, an ice rink, and additional housing. As far as I am aware the planed expansion is moving forward. The additional funds that Alex Meruelo received for his sale of the Arizona Coyotes to the NHL may go towards guaranteeing this project happens. Since day one I have been skeptical of the planned expansion to the Grand Sierra Resort. Projects fail to get past the announcement in Reno all the time. This is not the first planned expansion to the GSR either. Previous expansions never happened. Investing a lot of money in Arizona could have stopped or delayed this project. Since the announcement nothing has happened. An area of the property has been closed down and set aside for construction. Since the announcement nine months ago there has been zero construction. There have been almost no updates in that time either. The GSR project has been an “I’ll believe it when I see it” thing since the beginning for a lot of people including myself.
Zac Electrifly 
Leave a comment