PHOENIX -- NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman strongly reaffirmed the League's commitment to returning to the Phoenix market, saying Friday the Arizona Coyotes franchise can be reactivated in less than five years if there is steady progress toward building a new arena.
Before flying to Salt Lake City to formally introduce Utah to NHL hockey, Bettman promised that the NHL will be back in Arizona as quickly as a new arena is constructed.
"I'd like to say as Gen. (Douglas) MacArthur did, we shall return," Bettman said.
The NHL Board of Governors voted Thursday to establish an NHL team in Utah, a process that wasn't finalized until 2 a.m. that day, according to Commissioner Bettman and Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo. The team purchased the contracts of Coyotes executives, coaches and players, and the Arizona franchise became inactive.
The Coyotes played the past two seasons in 4,600-seat Mullett Arena on the Arizona State University campus.
The Commissioner said he understands the disappointment, heartbreak and anger than longtime Coyotes fans feel at losing their team, perhaps temporarily, but emphasized the League and Meruelo agreed it wasn't feasible to continue to play in what the commissioner said "was not a major league facility" for another three to five seasons.
The timetable for a new Arizona arena was pushed back last year when voters did not approve a proposed Tempe Sports and Entertainment district, which would have been privately funded.
"Days like today are difficult," Commissioner Bettman said. "They're sad, and I sympathize with and understand and feel sorry about what the fans are the Coyotes are going through. And I respect that. And I feel badly about that. But I think if you look back from a League perspective over the last almost three decades, the NHL support for hockey in the desert has been unwavering, to say the least. … This is a place where we believe hockey works.
"The League hasn't abandoned this market or the fans.
Meruelo said deactivating the franchise "was the most painful decision in my life, in my 40 years of business.
"My family and I are devastated, as are our fans. We share your disappointment and your heartbreak," he said. "But it simply wasn't fair to continue to have our players and coaches spend several more years playing in an arena that is not an NHL facility."
In the first step toward bringing the NHL back to Arizona, Meruelo will bid June 27 on a nearly 100-acre plot of land in north Phoenix near Scottsdale on which he intends to build a 17,000-seat arena and entertainment district.
If Meruelo wins the auction and is able to start construction, Commissioner Bettman said the NHL could return sooner than the five-year window the Board of Governors gave Meruelo to reactivate the Coyotes.
"We believe this is the right way to proceed so that we can ultimately have hockey in the desert where I believe it can not just survive, but thrive," the Commissioner said.
The NHL needs 18 months' notice that the arena will be completed in order to begin the process of returning the Coyotes to an active franchise, Bettman said.
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