Four hours before the first regular season face-off at the new-and-improved Delta Center, Smith Entertainment Group governor Ryan Smith stood in front of the Utah Mammoth sign outside the arena, with a dozen reporters huddled around him.
“We’ve really threaded a needle to make it a great experience for both hockey and basketball,” he said of the Delta Center. “It was a feat that we didn’t think we could do, but we’re excited for what we’ve done so far.”
Since April 2024, when it was officially announced that the Arizona Coyotes were moving to Salt Lake City, SEG has:
- Implemented and named an NHL team, which has played an entire season.
- Retrofitted a basketball arena for a hockey arena to account for the vastly different sizes in playing surfaces.
- Constructed a two-sheet practice facility.
They’re also in the process of renovating downtown Salt Lake, with the intention of making it a more vibrant place where people from across the state will want to go.
“If you build it, they will come,” Smith said. “I feel like it’s a marketplace of people, of the team, of the community and everyone coming together. ... It’s cool that Utah shows up, and we know that’s happening.”
He pointed to the reach of the Mammoth and the Jazz: Their reach expands several hours’ worth of driving distance in each direction, with Smith including states like Idaho and Wyoming in that.
“That’s what’s cool about our state and our city, is kind of, we meet in Salt Lake and everyone comes from all over,” Smith said.
Smith also addressed those who disagree with the sales tax increase that’s funding much of the downtown revamping.
“This is a partnership. SEG doesn’t benefit a lot from what’s going to happen in this area. We just don’t,” Smith said. “There’s a time where, obviously, we need to pay for stuff, but as we build out, I think everyone will see, and look back and say, ‘That was our generation’s turn to actually invest in the downtown.’”
He pointed to the local business owners as key beneficiaries of the changes.
“When there’s a convention downtown, you feel it. It’s a palatable feeling. When there’s a game downtown, you feel it. Every business owner feels it. The amount of business owners around that I interact with that say, ‘When it is hockey night, it’s just revenue that we didn’t think we could ever do downtown.’
“We just want to get into the phase where this becomes the number-one spot for businesses. We want it to be the number-one spot for families to come. We’re not there yet, but that willingness from the public, private partnerships, what the church is doing, what the city and county (are doing) — it’s going to take all of us, and I think we can defy what’s happening to most major cities in America right now, kind of growing and making it better, when a lot of them are going the other direction."
Smith continued, “I think we’re all going to look back 10 or 15 years from now and be like, ‘Look at what we have because of hockey and other things.’”
Would playoff hockey interfere with the ongoing Delta Center renovations?
Although Smith doesn’t want to put unnecessary pressure on his players to perform, he wouldn’t be upset if phases two and three of the arena renovations needed to be pushed back to accommodate for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“We all know what it’ll mean (to have playoff hockey in Utah). As much renovation as we have to do, the playoffs definitely trumps all of that,” Smith said. “I think everyone knows that the team is definitely capable of where we are. We’ve got some new pieces, (now) we’ve got to put it all together.”
The Delta Center renovations are scheduled to continue over the next two summers with the intent of expanding the view of hockey fans in the upper bowl. While much of that area does offer full-ice views, there are somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 seats where fans can only see one net.
The team offers those tickets at significantly discounted rates ($10 last year, $15 this year). While many fans appreciate the opportunity it provides to attend more NHL games than they’d otherwise be able to, the reasons why SEG would want to expand the views are obvious.
Playoff hockey is far from guaranteed for the Mammoth, who have started the season 1-2-0, but it’s not out of the question, either.
What has surprised Ryan Smith since April 2024?
The thing that Smith said has surprised him the most in the last year and a half is that Utah was able to get the team in the first place, given the high demand for NHL teams at this point in time.
“There’s a lot of states that want to go (get NHL teams). There was a moment of time when they chose us and we were in the right spot,” Smith said. “I think we’ve seen that with expansion in every sport. It’s very, very difficult to do. We were ready to catch it, and I think we were fortunate.”
He said now is the time where it starts to get fun, with the NHL and NBA seasons beginning and the people of Utah having franchises for both leagues in their backyard.
“It’s a little ‘pinch us’ moment,” Smith said. “Like, do we realize what just happened, and how it was really, kind of, almost given to us? That’s pretty special.”
The Mammoth take on the Calgary Flames in their home opener on Wednesday, starting at 7:30 p.m. MT.
