Start thinking of some more double-Z ending nicknamezz -- another professional sportzz team izz coming to town.
Pro soccer -- this time of the indoor variety -- will make a return to Salt Lake beginning this summer.A group of investors and local businessmen, including Utah Grizzlies' owners David Elmore and Donna Tuttle, officially announced Wednesday morning that the yet-to-be-named Utah Professional Indoor Soccer Club will join the World Indoor Soccer League.
Utah's third pro soccer team -- the last one was the ill-fated Salt Lake Sting in the early '90s -- will play its home games at the E Center. The No-Namezz will start their season July with a home schedule of about 14 games through November.
The WISL has six other teams in it now: the Arizona Thunder, the Dallas Sidekicks, the Houston Hotshots, the Sacramento Knights, the Portland Pythons and a Mexican addition, La Raza de Monterrey. Part of the schedule will include games against other international teams from Brazil, Italy and England.
Expansion is more than likely to happen again even before this summer. A group in Anaheim is close to securing a deal with The Pond, and St. Louis is building a new facility that will probably be ready in 2000.
The Utah owners will conduct a write-in contest to select the name of the new soccer team. And if local tradition continues, the moniker will include a 'ZZ' in it, a la the Jazz, Buzz, Grizzlies, Starzz, Catzz and the Zion Pioneerzz (the new minor league baseball team in St. George).
"Some people say it has to end with double Zs, and some people say it better not," said Gaylen Jorgensen, a part owner and the club's general manager. "We'll just take the best one."
Of course, more important than ZZs are $$.
The Sting went belly up after only a year-and-a-half, and the Pioneers/Golden Spikes pro volleyball teams didn't stick around very long, either.
"We're going to be begging all over for support," Jorgensen said. "We've seen pro soccer fail here two times before, so let's make soccer stay this time.
"I'm hoping anyone who loves soccer and wants to see it stay will support it."
The sports-savvy ownership group is banking on Utahns' high interest in soccer, low ticket prices and the E Center's ideal sightlines for pro soccer to parlay into bustling turnstiles.
Soccer in the Beehive State has skyrocketed in popularity in the past decade -- as a participation sport, at least.
Jorgensen estimates that 40,000 youths and adults play organized soccer in the Salt Lake Valley, which has the highest per capita soccer playing rate in the nation. In fact, Jorgensen said, more kids play soccer than football and baseball combined in Salt Lake.
He has played a huge role in the rapidly growing popularity of recreational indoor soccer here. Eight years ago, he converted a warehouse into an indoor playing facility in Murray, and it has burst from the seams with rec leagues. He now owns three popular indoor fields in Utah (another one in the Salt Lake area and one in Ogden).
Jorgensen said about 10,000 people play or watch indoor soccer at his three Wasatch Front facilities each week.
That's a big reason why he and the other owners feel this is an ideal time to jump aboard the WISL bandwagon. Last season, the league -- then known as the Premier Soccer Alliance -- drew 200,000-plus fans for 28 games.
"We've thought about it (bringing a franchise in) for years," Jorgensen said.
Tim Mouser, who is president of the Grizzlies, said the team will draw from the local talent pool in putting together a roster.
Other members of the Utah ownership group include indoor soccer enthusiasts Dr. Phillip Roberts and Michael Silva.