Terrible news confirmed for NHL expansion in Arizona

The Arizona Coyotes have struggled for years to find a permanent home for their team. Multiple plans for a new arena fell through and the team eventually resorted to playing in an NCAA arena. After months of failed plans the NHL forced the Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo to sell his team to Ryan Smith who then relocated them to Utah.

As part of the deal for the relocation NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly put a clause in place to allow the Coyotes to get an expansion franchise if they build an arena. Immediately Alex Meruelo went and found another land auction to try and win. However, today those plans were once again foiled.

Today reports have come in that the land auction that Alex Meruelo and his ownership group were planning to bid on has been canceled.

The cancellation comes from the State Land Department and was not the fault of Alex Meruelo. It has not been announced as of now why the land auction was shut down or if there will be a new date when it will be auctioned again.

If this auction is not rescheduled then the Arizona Coyotes and Alex Meruelo will once again need to find a new plan. Many were hoping that taking the pressure of running a team off of this ownership group would provide time and resources to secure a new stadium but to this point that has not been the case.

Once more news is released regarding this land deal and its cancelation we will pass it along to you. For now the Arizona Coyotes expansion is on hold.