Appearing on a Canadian sports podcast, UtahJazz owner Ryan Smith had a lot to say about the possibility of bringing an NHL team to Utah, the Jazz's next local TV deal and more. TakeNote
Smith cited a “14,000 or 13,500″ capacity figure for possible NHL games at Vivint Arena, though capacity for the last NHL preseason game was 10,400 as the result of ongoing construction in the upper bowl.
Smith doesn’t anticipate having trouble finding a location for his new arena: “But the good news is, with some of the land struggles that you see in other places, I think we’re a little more set up for that for whatever reason,” he said. “It doesn’t mean there’s a whole bunch of empty land. It’s just more of this structure of our city and state, there’s a little bit more opportunity in the way that it’s kind of grown out.
“But it’s hard to not look at Seattle and Vegas and go, ‘What an incredible job. ... Holy cow, like that’s the playbook to how to do it.’”Smith said he’s received about 7,000 team name ideas — and that he has a few he likes most. But the Smith Entertainment Group hasn’t yet trademarked or decided on anything.. “The Kraken, they’ve done a phenomenal job, and I like the way they branded it. I mean, you see their stuff everywhere, and that color scheme. Boy, it would be fun.
But while he’ll go to established personnel for on-ice decisions, he says the sport shouldn’t be afraid to innovate — and that he’d be a leader in that in ownership meetings. “Right now, we’re producing jazz games to 40% of our market,” Smith said — a figure far below what Jazz have publicly acknowledged. “Well, I’ve stood up publicly and said, ‘That’s not gonna fly this next year.’ Like, we’re going wall to wall in the state. Three million people, everyone’s gonna have access. If you’ve got rabbit ears on your television, you’re gonna be able to watch the games. That’s super important to me.
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