WEST VALLEY CITY -- Utah's double-Z sports family expanded to six Wednesday as the state's new indoor soccer team unveiled its new moniker, the Utah Freezz.
The Freezz join the Jazz, Grizzlies, Buzz, Starzz and the Zion Pioneerzz, the recently added Southern Utah baseball team, as Utah's conglomerate of sports team names ending in double-Z. The Utah Catzz, the Orem-based indoor football team, was originally the sixth team but has ceased operations.Team officials conducted a write-in contest to name the World Indoor Soccer League club with a pair of season tickets as the prize.
"About five or six suggested (Freezz) so we went with it," said Gaylen Jorgensen, the team's general manager and part owner.
While the team was waiting for its naming, officials have been hard at work to fill its 20-man roster. Tryouts have been held at the E Center the past two weeks, with participants coming from Idaho, Colorado and across Utah.
"We had 200 (people) try out," Jorgensen said, "and we've cut down to 25 right now."
More hopefuls from out of state still plan to try out for the team, he added, with the roster to include at least 10 Utah players.
The Freezz, whose ownership group includes Grizzlies' co-owners David Elmore and Donna Tuttle, will play their 14-game home schedule at the E Center beginning August 6.
"We have a beautiful arena," Jorgensen said. "The E Center was built for hockey, and it has the same sight lines for soccer. Every seat is a good seat."
The E Center will be perfect for the WISL game because the field dimensions are the same as a hockey rink, 200 feet by 85 feet, and it will use the same dasher boards and plexi-glass hockey uses.
Jorgensen and the rest of the ownership group is hoping to draw more interest in the team to avoid the fate of the two previous soccer teams in Salt Lake and appear to be doing so.
"We haven't done any real advertising or anything yet and we've already sold a couple of hundred season tickets," he said.
Ticket prices range from eight dollars to $25, with a majority of them falling between $10 and $12.
The league will include teams from Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Portland and Monterrey, Mexico; Anaheim and St. Louis are expected to field teams next year. Four teams from England will complete the 10-team league and will make a visit to Salt Lake. The Freezz, however, will not make the hop across the pond.