News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 9.6K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 41K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5.4K     0 

The arena would be awkward for sure, we saw that with Barclays in Brooklyn. This would be temporary until they get a new arena that could house both NHL & NBA. I also expected Houston to be the first choice, Utah is about as strange a location for hockey as Arizona. Houston would at least have a rival in the Stars...
 
I too think Houston would make the most sense, but I also think SLC would do better than people think. The arena isn't ideal, but I think the team would get good support. It only has one other pro sport franchise, and the city has good demographics for a hockey market. By good demographics, I mean a large Caucasian middle to upper class population, which is what is usually the demographic for American markets. It's also a far less transient city than Phoenix.
 
Interesting, I guess we'll see how they do there. I think Houston would have been better, but SLC will surprise people I think. If it does well, it might end up staying there permanently.
 
C'mon Utah Yeti! It is too perfect and think of the merch!

SLC will be huge success. In Houston, you're the 4th or 5th best ticket in town while in SLC there isn't a lot of competition, you're automatically the second best ticket in town (third if you count the choir haha). I'll also call SLC what it is; a decent size metro area of upper and middle-class white people with disposable income to spend. That's the NHL's demo. the TV numbers won't be crazy and you won't get the out of town fans that Phoenix got, but that's a feature, not a bug. Vegas has been successful by tapping into the people who live there really well.

Could still be a fun trip as a fan, go down for a ski and to watch the Flames play the Yeti.
 
You could easily do a driving trip down to SLC / Vegas and catch a game in both cities. I've driven to Vegas, Nevada, California etc.. a few times. Depending on the schedule, you could drive down to SLC (around 13-14 hrs weather depending) and catch a game the next day. Drive to Vegas (~8hrs) and catch a game. LA is 4-5 hours from Vegas. Lots of options for a driving trip.
 
Look at these headlines and tell me Salt Lake City isn't already primed to be a big hockey market:
1713205500360.png

How Utah drove the Stanley cup craze​


Erin Alberty

~3 minutes

Stanley cup mania has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks — nothing new in Utah, but now we're getting credit for helping to spark the wildfire.


1713205589169.png

They don't have a hockey team yet, the playoffs haven't even started, and they've already gone crazy for the Stanley Cup!
 

Attachments

  • 1713205460240.png
    1713205460240.png
    42.5 KB · Views: 35
It's already been mentioned, but SLC has the demographic for this. If the team is even half decently competitive, they'll get plenty of support.
 
ByeByeBaby said:
Look at these headlines and tell me Salt Lake City isn't already primed to be a big hockey market:
View attachment 556538

How Utah drove the Stanley cup craze​


Erin Alberty

~3 minutes

Stanley cup mania has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks — nothing new in Utah, but now we're getting credit for helping to spark the wildfire.


View attachment 556539

They don't have a hockey team yet, the playoffs haven't even started, and they've already gone crazy for the Stanley Cup!
Click to expand...
Sorry if I'm missing the joke but you realize the stanley cups they're mentioning are made by Stanley and are cups.
 
What’s shady in this deal from the sounds of it though is the current owner of the coyotes gets a new team but keep the coyotes history if he gets an arena within 5 years. Also sounds like he’s being over payed by about 100% of current valuation for the team by the nhl who will turn around and sell it for more to SLC guy. So basically SLC is actually an expansion team with the Coyotes taking a little break from existing. Fuck you Bettman.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
SLC will be huge success. In Houston, you're the 4th or 5th best ticket in town while in SLC there isn't a lot of competition, you're automatically the second best ticket in town (third if you count the choir haha). I'll also call SLC what it is; a decent size metro area of upper and middle-class white people with disposable income to spend. That's the NHL's demo. the TV numbers won't be crazy and you won't get the out of town fans that Phoenix got, but that's a feature, not a bug. Vegas has been successful by tapping into the people who live there really well.
Click to expand...

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).
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top