The NHL is coming to Utah.
Following Thursday’s announcement that the league’s board of governors approved a new franchise in Utah, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and owners Ryan and Ashley Smith of Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) met the media to discuss the new team and what they’re getting from the Arizona Coyotes.
Here are some highlights from Friday’s press conference:
On the lead-up to approving a franchise in Utah
Gary Bettman: “We had an issue, and we needed on very short order, under difficult circumstances, to have the Coyotes become inactive. We wanted to take the players and hockey operations and put them as part of a new franchise in a place where we thought we could be successful immediately.
“We know getting a team up and running under normal circumstances, getting an expansion team up and running with years to plan, is hard enough. But what Ryan and Ashley are doing with their organization is extraordinary because the combination of how we had to structure these transactions and what they have to accomplish between now and next fall when we start playing, is nothing short of incredible.”
On owning NBA and NHL teams
Ashley Smith: “Although the sports are very different, and we get to embrace maybe somewhat of a different audience, the pillars are the same for us, which are: we want to bring a championship. We want to bring a Stanley Cup to Utah, obviously. We want to continue creating the greatest fan experience in all of sports.”
On the process of Utah getting an NHL team
Ryan Smith: “I think it’s a big bet on us. I’m so incredibly amazed, but not surprised, by how we show up. I think that throughout the whole process, from our state legislature — I’ve never seen so many Republicans and Democrats and religious leaders and education leaders all on the same page before. It is incredible.”
On growing youth hockey in Utah
Ryan Smith: “I’m super excited about having a different flavor within our community. We have 70,000 kids with Jr. Jazz, that play (basketball), and we ordered 70,000 jerseys. Think about that. We have a chance to educate and to help develop an entirely new movement here that already has an incredible start, I mean, 5,000 registered hockey players.”
On starting play in the Delta Center with only 12,000 seats with unobstructed views for hockey
Ryan Smith: “When we originally started looking at this process, the idea was, to be honest, to build a new arena. (Utah senate president J. Stuart) Adams, (Utah house of representatives speaker Mike) Schultz, governor, mayors, we all came together and just said, ‘What would it take to be downtown and to stay downtown?’ We needed downtown.
“And really, I think we’ve all decided that there’s one moment here to re-imagine what our downtown experience is in Salt Lake. I received last week a plan that gets us to about 17,500 (seats for hockey) here, inside this arena, that does not compromise our incredible basketball experience.”
“We’ve been incredibly creative with how we’ve looked at it. We have one of the best basketball arenas on the planet — nothing should change. But we’re using new technology to figure out specifically on the ends, or behind the hoops, behind the goals, to be able to turn from hockey to basketball and back-and-forth. I’m actually super excited about it, I think it’ll be an improvement on the arena. It’ll be an improvement on fan experience.”
On having 22,000 season ticket deposits and how to accomodate them all
“We want as much demand as we can get, and we’ll figure out how to help. I think our arena will open up with 16,200 (seats). There’ll be 12,000 that have perfect views.”
On how SEG prepared to accept challenge of acquiring hockey assets from Coyotes
Ryan Smith: “I didn’t know for sure that this was going to happen until Tuesday night, I think. I had a hunch — I knew what the commissioner had in his head, but ultimately, you had to have a little bit of a marketplace transaction here. I’ve never spoken with the Coyotes owner, any of that — it was simply going through the league and us working together to come up with a solution.
“From an acquisition standpoint, if you think about it, we acquired the people. That’s all there was. I mean, you hear about in business, in teams, it’s all about the people. In this situation, I walked into a room yesterday, I was like, ‘OK, it’s just the people.’ ”
“It’s hard, I mean, this is a tight, tight turn. But… when these things come along, you don’t blink. You just do it; we’ll figure it out. We got amazing people.”
On status of GM Bill Armstrong and Coach Andre Tourigny
Ryan Smith: “Since we’re only acquiring the people, we need the people. It’s all we’re getting. So there’s the status, like, we need everyone. We had a great conversation with them all yesterday.”
On what the NHL looks for in a new franchise
Gary Bettman: “We look at market, we look at arena, we look at ownership, and we look at, ‘Will a team in a certain place make the league stronger?’ Well, OK, Utah checks all those boxes, and the opportunity came along that, under the fourth piece, ‘Will it make the league stronger?’ Yes, I believe being here in this great market is going to make us stronger. I believe their ownership is going to make us stronger, but it also is making us stronger because we solved an issue in a short term that had to be addressed.”
Check out the articles below for more on the Coyotes transferring their hockey assets to the Utah franchise and what Bettman and Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo told reporters earlier on Friday.
Related: NHL Board Approves Sale of Coyotes’ Hockey Assets to New Franchise in Utah
Related: Gary Bettman on the Coyotes: ‘We’ve Created a Scenario That I Don’t Think Anybody’s Ever Done Before’
News Summary:
- 'It's a Big Bet On Us': Utah Owners, Bettman Discuss Arena Plans and Launching NHL Team in Short Order With Coyotes' Hockey Assets
- Check all news and articles from the latest NHL updates.