A new NHL team marks a coming-of-age moment for Salt Lake City as a pro sports hub

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For casual sports fans and people outside of northern Utah, it may seem like… NHL The team fell into Salt Lake City’s lap within two weeks.

But local organizers say Arizona coyotes “moving in To Utah It is the product of a years-long effort to attract professional hockey and other elite sports to the fast-growing capital.

The move announced Thursday marks a coming-of-age moment Salt Lake City As the Mountain West’s professional sports hub, giving the mid-sized market its second major professional sports franchise in the 45 years since it welcomed the NBA. Utah Jazz.

Now it remains to be seen whether the city can generate the same enthusiasm for hockey as it does for basketball — and whether it can provide the stability needed for a team that has moved from place to place over the past few years, observers say.

Utah State already has plans for a new hockey-specific stadium that could also serve as a main venue when it opens. It will host the 2034 Winter Olympics, which the International Olympic Committee is expected to make official this summer. Meanwhile, the team will share the Delta Center with the Jazz.

Salt Lake City is also aggressively pursuing a goal MLB An expansion team — which would make it home to three of the “Big Four” American leagues — with advanced plans calling for a new baseball stadium. Utah billionaire Ryan Smithwhich owns the men’s and women’s jazz and professional soccer teams The real salt lake And the Utah RoyalsNow, the new hockey team has applied to work with the city to transform part of downtown into a sports and entertainment district.

Together, these efforts expand Salt Lake City’s footprint in the world of sports and give the popular winter sports destination an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to support multiple professional teams year-round.

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall called the coyotes’ move a “defining moment” in the city’s trajectory that she said opens up new potential for growth. State and municipal leaders have been outspoken about leveraging local love of sports to move the city forward. This strategy has proven successful in other medium-sized cities, including… Las vigaswhich is home to NFL And NHL teams and he has an MLB team on the way.

When it has had opportunities to host major sporting events, from the 2002 Winter Olympics to last year NBA All-Star GameJeff Robbins, president and CEO of the Utah Sports Commission, said Salt Lake City did not fail to meet the goals. He said that while the NHL move may seem surprising, it was made possible by the trust Utah has instilled in industry leaders over several decades.

“It didn’t fall into our laps,” Robbins said. “What you’re seeing is a lot of momentum around what we’ve been working toward for a long time.”

While several other American and Canadian cities were vying for an NHL team, Salt Lake City was quick to offer the Coyotes a “soft landing spot” afterward. Years of turmoilsaid David Carter, a sports business professor at the University of Southern California.

The Wolves have bounced between venues, most recently playing in a 5,000-seat arena. Plans for a new hockey arena may have helped lure them to Utah, but Carter warned they could again end up without a permanent home if that doesn’t work out, or if Smith’s company can’t generate enough media revenue, ticket sales and sponsorships to secure The longevity of the team.

NHL commissioner Gary Bateman He said he wants to put the Coyotes with reliable owners in a place where they can have “immediate success.”

“We’ve focused on the fact that these are the types of owners we want, and this is the type of community we want to be a part of,” Pittman said Friday.

Hockey fans outside the Beehive State also wondered whether the temperate city — with a population of just over 200,000 — could sustain a professional team.

Including suburbs, the greater Salt Lake Valley area has a population of about 1.26 million people, and has a light rail system that can drop suburbanites’ steps from their downtown playground. Jazz fans have packed the Delta Center for decades, even in losing years, but time will tell if the basketball bandwagon will translate into hype similar to hockey.

Early data Looks promising For Smith, who said Friday the team has already reached 22,700 season tickets — more than four times the seats at the Coyotes’ current arena and nearly double the current capacity of the Delta Hockey Center.

Robbins said the sport has been taking off locally since Salt Lake City began hosting the Frozen Fury, an exhibition game before the NHL season, in 2021. The Valley is now home to 17 rinks, a youth hockey program and a minor league team that set a new record in Average attendance this season.

For former NHL player Ken Sabourin, who spent part of his career playing on the junior team in Salt Lake City, it was a “great place to play” with good crowds. While he believes the local infrastructure is in place, he is concerned that the Coyotes — ranked second to last in their division — are not a strong enough team to attract their new community.

“It’s a good market for hockey; “It’s a good sports market,” the player-turned-analyst said. “I think they have the fans. It’s a matter of whether they come out or not.”