As soon as the ball was rolling for Utah’s NHL franchise, the folks at Smith Entertainment Group started thinking about the possibility for an outdoor game in the NHL’s newest state.
“When (NHL commissioner Gary Bettman) was in town one of these times, we basically made their team come up here to the U,” said Utah Mammoth owner Ryan Smith. “And we said, ‘Hey, we want to do this at Rice-Eccles and go check it out.’
“At that point, they weren’t searching, they weren’t in the process, they weren’t there. But we felt like if we could get them up here, and do the work early, and see it ... if they could see the visual, they could take it in. It would probably speed things up. We had talked to the U and said we’re working on this, and one thing led to another.”
He called it “showing the art of the possible.”
“It should be here on a rotation. It’s like Pebble Beach and the U.S. Open. It’s every couple years. That’s where it’s got to be.”
Smith is a BYU alum and Cougars supporter.
LaVell Edwards Stadium holds about 12,000 more people than Rice-Eccles Stadium, so there could have been a natural fit there. But it was important to Smith that the game be played in Salt Lake City.
“I wanted it here in Salt Lake. It’s right,” he said. “I mean, I do enough down there (in Provo). This is my NIL donation here. It’s a good one.”
He said it also checks a number of other boxes — some of which he’s still realizing.
“It’s actually going to be really cool because there’s not going to be that much space around the sides and the end zone, which is what people love about this stadium. It’s like you’re on top of each other — and I think that’s really special."
The Mammoth will take on the Colorado Avalanche in the 2027 Winter Classic, an annual outdoor game put on by the NHL. The date is not yet confirmed, though the NHL’s recent intent has been to hold the event on Jan. 2. Being a Saturday, it would make even more sense for that to be the date.
