The Arizona Coyotes may be gone, but the team’s ex-owner remains and — oh, what a surprise — he will deliver us another team if only he can tax the fans to help pay for his $3 billion hockey-entertainment development.
Fresh off negotiating away our hockey team to Salt Lake City for a cool $1 billion, Alex Meruelo is now hot on the trail to bring us a new expansion team and a glitzy new development on 110 acres of prime state land at Loop 101 west of Scottsdale Road.
“This doesn’t happen without city cooperation,” he told The Arizona Republic’s Corina Vanek.
Whenever you hear those six words from the owner of a sports team — or in this case, the owner of a team that doesn’t actually exist — hold up and hold onto your wallet.
Meruelo touts his plan to build “the first ever privately funded sports arena and entertainment district in the history of Arizona.” But then he uses three magic words that make the hearts of sports team owners the world over — or at least in Arizona — got pitty pat:
Theme Park District.
Meruelo told reporter Vanek that he will be asking the city of Phoenix for help with creating a theme park district.
For those who don’t follow billionaire team owners and their constant maneuvering to reach into your pocket, the Arizona Legislature in 2021 expanded the definition of a theme park district to cover sports facilities.
The law was updated specifically for the Arizona Diamondbacks, giving the team the authority to tax fans to pay for improvements to the ballpark we already were taxed to build.
Under the law, a developer who manages to snag theme park status can create a special taxing district.
He then can borrow the city’s credit rating to finance his development with low-interest government bonds and levy a sales tax of up to 9% on anything sold within the district, which in this case would presumably apply not just to hockey tickets and T-shirts but anything sold in the 400,000 square feet of stores, offices, restaurants, hotel and theater inside the 110-acre development.
That up to 9% levy would be on top of the 8.6% sales tax collected to fund government operations.
Oh, and then there’s this:
“The property acquired, leased or constructed by the district, the activities of the district in maintaining and caring for the property and the monies derived by the district from operating the property are exempt from state and local income and property taxation,” the law says.
Put another way, if Meruelo wins the right to buy to the land when it goes up for auction on June 27 and the city agrees to the theme park scam, he could take a pass on paying state income taxes and city, county and state property taxes.
By my read of the law, only his hotel would be subject to taxation.
Coyotes are leaving:Because we're unworthy
Given that the bidding for that primo piece of land starts at $68.5 million and Meruelo wants to build a $3 billion sports-entertainment district, that’s a fair chunk of taxes that we would forgo.
How is that not a public subsidy?
It’s one thing, of course, if it’s a piece of land that would otherwise remain vacant — something no other developer would want and thus from which no taxes would be forthcoming anyway.
Anybody think that’s the case with a prime swath of state land located along the freeway on the pricey north Phoenix-Scottsdale border?
Anybody?
Oddly, Meruelo doesn’t mention any of that in his sales pitch about what it'll take to bring hockey back to the Valley. Instead we get this:
“My family and I are committed to winning this land auction and building a transformative entertainment district that will not require taxpayer funding for the first time in Arizona history,” Meruelo said in announcing his plan earlier this month.
Back when we still had a hockey team.
At this point, is anybody buying what he’s selling?
Anybody?
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRoberts.
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Coyotes ex-owner wants to soak us for his hockey dream
9
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20.04.2024
The Arizona Coyotes may be gone, but the team’s ex-owner remains and — oh, what a surprise — he will deliver us another team if only he can tax the fans to help pay for his $3 billion hockey-entertainment development.
Fresh off negotiating away our hockey team to Salt Lake City for a cool $1 billion, Alex Meruelo is now hot on the trail to bring us a new expansion team and a glitzy new development on 110 acres of prime state land at Loop 101 west of Scottsdale Road.
“This doesn’t happen without city cooperation,” he told The Arizona Republic’s Corina Vanek.
Whenever you hear those six words from the owner of a sports team — or in this case, the owner of a team that doesn’t actually exist — hold up and hold onto your wallet.
Meruelo touts his plan to build “the first ever privately funded sports arena and entertainment district in the history of Arizona.” But then he uses three magic words that make the hearts of sports team owners the world over — or at least in Arizona — got pitty........
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