[CalgaryTiger]

The NHL has recently been to the rink and Smith is apparently making changes. I assume they'll be staggered over the next few years, like a good city of Calgary Main Streets project.

 

[Surrealplaces]

The big challenge is that the other team in SLC is really well established and plays at the exact same time as the hockey team. In the non-traditional and new hockey markets, there's:

• 4+ team cities - Los Angeles, Dallas, SF Bay Area (if you count the Sharks as a Bay Area team), Miami. These are all much larger than Salt Lake; really they are even substantially larger than Phoenix. Miami's the smallest, and the Panthers have really struggled at times.
• 3 team cities - Tampa, Seattle. Both of them have NFL/MLB teams, so there's limited overlap with the NHL season.
• 2 team cities - Nashville, Vegas, San Jose (if you separate it out from San Francisco/Oakland). All of them have NFL teams, again limited overlap. Vegas was hockey-first, and the NFL only played one game in Nashville before the Preds began to play.
• 1 team cities - Raleigh, Columbus. Both do have big-draw college teams; the football season (Columbus) doesn't really overlap with the NHL (and neither does the MLS season); the college basketball season overlaps with the NHL, but finishes well before the NHL playoffs, and college teams have shorter seasons; UNC, Duke and NC State combined played 50 regular season home games this year (and nobody is a fan of and attends all three teams).

Anytime a team is based in the US (outside of a few northern states) it'll always be a challenge, but I think the biggest challenge will be the arena. Even in Canada in cities like Ottawa have struggled to put fans in the building. Winnipeg has a great team and they still can't sell out their small arena. Bringing fans in will always be a challenge for smaller market cities, but SLC will probably do as good or better than a city like Ottawa. Time will tell, but those are my guesses.

 

[artvandelay]

Mormons are also huge into basketball but less interested in hockey in my experience.

 

[Mountain Man]

The NHL has recently been to the rink and Smith is apparently making changes. I assume they'll be staggered over the next few years, like a good city of Calgary Main Streets project.

Isn't the plan to build a new building to house both teams? insofar as there is a plan currently... lol

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Isn't the plan to build a new building to house both teams? insofar as there is a plan currently... lol

There's a plan and even funding from the state but it is based on the Olympics being awarded to SLC in either 2030 or 2034. It is all but guaranteed they'll get one of those, ironically after France (much like the upcoming summer games in Paris and then LA). That news should come before the opening of the Paris games this summer so I assume what's that comes out it will be full steam ahead.

Until that's built the Yeti will play out of the Delta Center. It will get some improvements but awkwardly the ice plant seems to be centered under the basketball court and not towards one end or the other. Meaning if you're in that end of the rink you cannot see the net at your end of the rink. Maybe if you standup you can? This is from Twitter:

 

[Mountain Man]

Hockey in Arizona is done, bring on the Salt Lake Sister Wives!! lol

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Hockey in Arizona is done, bring on the Salt Lake Sister Wives!! lol

Better Trip?

Utah and Colorado (Boarding/Skiing)
LA and Anaheim (Cool City Culture (except transit) and Weather)
Tampa and Florida (Weather and cheaper tickets)
New York and New York (Cool City Culture)

 

[Mountain Man]

It's official, Coyotes sold for $1.2B, will get an expansion team if an arena is built within 5 years. If The Coyotes do come back, then we will need another team in the east to balance things out, wonder who it would be.

 

[Rollerstud98]

It's official, Coyotes sold for $1.2B, will get an expansion team if an arena is built within 5 years. If The Coyotes do come back, then we will need another team in the east to balance things out, wonder who it would be.

All signs point to Atlanta 3.0

Also no name for the team until year 2. Utah HC for the time being it seems.

 

[Duck Lightning]

LOL looks like they might be planning to go into their first season without a team name

https://twitter.com/x/status/1781052684243443751

 

[Mountain Man]

Not a solid start. I'm sure they can do a fan poll like Seattle did, come up with a name and a logo before preseason.

 

[Mountain Man]

Entertaining final game for the Flames last night, Klapka looks like a beast! Really happy with Sharangovich and I think we fleeced the Canucks getting Kuzmenko, I bet he outscores Lindholm every season. Conny did OK, despite my skepticism at the start of the year. Think the team has some good fundamentals to work from next year, excited for a couple years of draft picks to steer the direction of the franchise.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Not a solid start. I'm sure they can do a fan poll like Seattle did, come up with a name and a logo before preseason.

From my understanding what the owner specializes in is experience management. Someone like that knows you have to get it right. You can design some cool jerseys that just say Utah.

 

[Rollerstud98]

So close to getting Wolf the shutout last night! Too bad.