There doesn’t seem to be a good reason that the auction was stopped.
Something smells rotten in the state of Arizona. There was supposed to be an auction of Arizona land in North Phoenix to take place on June 27th and it appeared the sole bidder for that land was Alex Meruelo who has the rights to own a National Hockey League franchise in Phoenix if he can get an arena built in the market. Meruelo was all set to bid for the property but the Arizona State Land Department abruptly canceled the land auction with a flimsy excuse. The land was zoned for a hockey arena but it was a youth hockey facility not a 17,000-seat venue. The timing of the announcement was rather strange. The rug was pulled out from under Meruelo and other bidders, if there were other bidders, at the last second. The arena proposal was not popular with the mayors of Phoenix and nearby Scottsdale. The announcement of the cancellation came on the heels of a story that Meruelo let go of his hockey team’s staff and was panned as a cheapskate by the Phoenix media. Meruelo did not need the staff as he sold his hockey business to the NHL in April. Meruelo had a bad reputation with Glendale elected officials who literally threw him out of the Glendale arena he used more than two years ago.
Phoenix politicians have never been too savvy when it comes to arena building. When the city’s present arena was in the planning stage, local politicians thought having a multi-use building with a basketball design was perfect. When the building opened in 1992, the building was useless for hockey and other events because it had thousands of seats with obstructed views. Someone goofed when reviewing the zoning allowed on the state property that was up for bid. Was it Meruelo’s lawyers or another mistake by Phoenix politicians?
Meruelo sold the team to the NHL which moved the team to Salt Lake City.
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