How Utah sports culture embraced NHL hockey and it took off
At a press conference on April 18 announcing the arrival of the NHL in Utah, Ryan Smith, sitting between his wife, Ashley, and league commissioner Gary Bettman, thanked those on his team for the work they had done — and the work they were about to do — “because it’s about to get pretty gnarly.”
When Smith Entertainment Group bought the Arizona Coyotes for $1.2 billion in one of the most unusual transactions in sports, the sale consisted of 70 players, coaches and staff but no material assets, apparently not even skate sharpeners.
The to-do list over the past six months to put the temporarily named Utah Hockey Club on the ice for Tuesday’s 2024-25 season opener was daunting: finding practice ice, Delta Center modifications for fans and players, ticketing, uniforms, staffing, sponsorships, broadcasting. It goes on and on. There’s no manual for putting a hockey team together in a matter of months.
“It’s hard. I mean, this is a tight, tight turn. But … when these things come along, you don’t blink. You just do it. We’ll figure it out,” Ryan Smith said in April.
Having an organizational structure in place with the Utah Jazz certainly was an advantage. Ryan Smith said there wasn’t a lot of clarity around the organization about how it was going to shake out, but everyone was willing to work longer hours.
What they have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. This whole process was unique. The transaction itself, the time frame, what they needed to get everything up and running. They deserve every kudo for it. It wasn’t an expansion, it wasn’t a relocation, it was a hybrid transaction put together in weeks … really unheard of.”
NHL in Utah: ‘In motion’
In March 2023, Sportsnet reported the Smith-Bettman relationship as “one to watch.”
“When Fenway bought the Penguins, Smith was rumored as another potential purchaser. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but I was told to keep his name on my radar, because he’s interested in the NHL — and the NHL is very interested in him,” Canadian hockey writer Elliotte Friedman wrote on Sportsnet at the time.
On the heels of those reports, KSL sports anchor Sam Farnsworth tweeted at Smith, writing, “Stanley Cup Playoffs always delivers! PLEAAAAAASE bring this to Utah, @RyanQualtrics!” Just 12 minutes later, Smith replied to Farnsworth, writing, “In motion.”
Smith’s tweet appeared to indicate it would either be an expansion franchise or an existing one that he would relocate to Utah as opposed to owning it and keeping it in its current location.
No one knew at the time how much that motion would be accelerated.
In May 2023, Salt Lake City first came up as a potential landing spot for the Coyotes after Arizona voters turned down a ballot proposition that would have paved the way for the team to build a new arena in Tempe. Both Coyotes ownership and Bettman issued statements saying the future of the team would be evaluated.
Several months passed before the prospects of the NHL in Utah became top of mind again.
In January 2024, Smith went public with his aspirations, announcing a formal request for the league to open the process for an expansion franchise in Utah, though the NHL wasn’t looking to grow. Bettman said that’s when his head started “percolating” about a plan.
Re-enter the Arizona Coyotes.
The team was playing in 5,000-seat Mullett Arena at Arizona State University because the city of Glendale declined to renew its lease at Gila River Arena in 2021 due to issues over payments, threats of relocations and contract disputes. Attempts to build a new NHL arena and entertainment district failed, though ownership again assured the league new plans were moving forward. Those plans never materialized.
Meantime, the Utah Legislature jumped on the hockey bandwagon. Lawmakers passed a bill in early March that led to Salt Lake City approving a sales tax increase last week that will divert $900 million for bonds to renovate the Delta Center to accommodate Smith’s NHL and NBA teams as part of a multi-billion dollar makeover of downtown.
Bettman took notice.
“It’s fair to say the Utah expression of interest has been the most aggressive and has carried a lot of energy with it, including from the governor and leaders of the legislature,” he said ahead of the 2024 NHL All-Star game in Toronto.
Things moved quickly when it became clear the Coyotes weren’t getting a new arena in Arizona. Bettman’s first conversation with Coyotes’ owner Alex Meruelo about his plan for the league to broker the sale of the team to Smith took place on March 6. A short time later, the commissioner called Ryan and Ashley Smith with a proposal. Smith, who never talked to Meruelo, said he didn’t know the deal was going to materialize until two days before it happened.
“We look at four things, whether it’s expansion or relocation: ownership, market, arena and whether or not it will make the league stronger. And this entire transaction checks every box. Utah is a great market of great sports fans . . . and one of the most dynamic markets in terms of growth and the economy,” Bettman said.
On April 18, the Smiths and Bettman held a press conference at the Delta Center announcing the acquisition and relocation of the Coyotes. The following week, 12,400 enthusiastic fans packed the arena to welcome the players and coaches. Head coach André Tourigny called it “my best day in the NHL so far.” That enthusiasm also translated into more than 34,000 people putting down a deposit for season tickets — more than double the arena capacity for hockey.
The team opened its first training camp in Utah on Sept. 19, practicing at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns. Smith Entertainment Group bought The Shops at South Town in Sandy where it plans to build a permanent practice facility and team headquarters in time for the 2025-26 season.
The players were also involved as SEG assembled the organization.
“When we were starting this process, one thing we did is just sat down with the players and said, ‘Hey, look, we’re going to make a thousand moves in the next five months. Will you please just tell us which ones are important to you so we’re not guessing.’ And they did,” Ryan Smith said. “One of the things they really cared about was they wanted to fly Delta. Well, guess what? That was an easy phone call. And have wifi on the plane.”
Utah’s team name and hockey jerseys
Among the myriad organizational details to work out, among the most forward-facing — often defining a sports franchise — are the name, colors and logo. The team punted on a permanent name, settling on Utah Hockey Club for this year. Online voting narrowed 20 possibilities to six finalists: Blizzard, Mammoth, Outlaws, Venom, Yeti and Utah Hockey Club. Yeti or Yetis seems to be the odds-on favorites. The team colors for this year are rock black, salt white and mountain blue. Other than U-T-A-H diagonally down the front, the jerseys are plain.
The development and production of a jersey is a complex process that usually takes 18 months, including design, trademark clearance, procurement of raw materials, and finally production of game and retail versions. Given the time crunch, the team decided to go with a temporary brand identity this season, while developing a permanent one for 2025-26.
Lacking the time to make a prototype jersey, everything was done on computers, per NHL.com. Team representatives, the NHL, gear producer Fanatics and creative studio Doubleday & Cartwright met in a boardroom at the league offices in New York on May 6. They held swatches and tried different combinations, using safety pins to attach them to a blank black jersey. Utah approved the full home and away jersey designs May 14, while having to coordinate them with helmets, gloves, pants and socks as well.
When Chris Armstrong, president of hockey operations, received the finished jersey just before training camp started, he called team executives together and sent pictures to Ryan Smith.
“Opening it out of the box, I had no idea how it was actually going to look physically,” Armstrong told NHL.com “I had only ever seen it on (the computer). Very pleased at how it translated into the physical world. … It was one of those signature moments where it all started to become very real.”
It has only gotten more real as the club opens its first season in Salt Lake City — perhaps fittingly — against one of the NHL’s “Original Six,” the Chicago Blackhawks.
Welcome to the NHL, Utah.
