Interpretation: "More events downtown are good!" "I want a team... but at a discount, and definitely won't pay exorbitant expansion fees"
SLC has 200k people and Utah has 3m and some change. Granted, it's a cold-weather sport state, and I don't doubt they could fill it up, but are the corporate dollars there? From a financial perspective, Houston and Atlanta make much more sense.
They're super well organized and ready to pounce. Reminds me a little of the way McNair and Houston were when everyone expected LA to get the NFL expansion team in 2002...but they just weren't ready, and Houston had a good answer for every question. I think it's going to have to be an expansion team if we ever get one here.
Good points but again, I'll point to the corporate dollars. On the other hand, the NHL seems to have it's head up it's ass a lot of times. Agreed; I think the most sensible market outside of Houston is Austin, which would pull San Antonio fans as well.
I don't think the Moody Center is big enough to host a hockey team. The floor was built for basketball and concerts and its capacity is 15,000 which would make it the smallest arena in the league behind Winnipeg. I also don't think UT would sign on for 41 on-campus games a year. All of these are also reasons why I don't think the Spurs would ever relocate to Austin. I know some folks in San Antonio are worried about that given the I-35 Series, but I think the Spurs want to build a new arena in downtown San Antonio and are using the games in Austin to build up their fanbase and scare the city leaders a little bit.
Why in the world would the NHL move to a town and not get a new arena? I can see them playing in a temporary spot for a year, but they would certainly want a new arena...and Austin corporate dollars are big.
Good point. I don't think there's space for an arena in central Austin so they might have to choose the suburban route for a building.
Southwest would be best, would put it within easier driving distance of SA. Maybe where the Austin-American Statesman is, because we all know that newspapers aren't growing, and that would put it on the CO river, which would be a nice spot.
That... plus these "smaller" cities have proven they can pack it in for 41 NBA home games/year. The "corporate/season ticket support/television deals" basically will be the same as what they currently have been doing for the Jazz all these decades. NHL much more likely to succeed in SLC vs. Atlanta (that has had 2 opportunities to fail). Baseball is a different animal for 81 home games plus stadiums that are double the size of arenas (both for seats and luxury suites).... which is why you don't see "smaller" cities/markets easily getting those teams (until Vegas eventually gets the A's).
Exactly!!!! Arena sports play well in smaller markets…Utah, San Antonio (which isn’t so small anymore), Orlando, OK City. But doing 81 nights where you need 30k or so, good luck.
Suns owner Mat Ishbia wants to bring NHL back to Phoenix Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia has his sights set on bringing hockey back to Arizona, Sportico reported Wednesday. Arizona is now without an NHL team after the Coyotes relocated to Salt Lake City following the 2023-24 campaign. The franchise will have a new name come the 2025-26 season, but when it plays games this year, it will be known as the Utah Hockey Club. "I'm definitely going to be part of the community, and if I can help bring hockey back, I'll look at that," Ishbia told Sportico. "It's definitely something I'm interested in. It's a four-sport town. I'm disappointed we don't have a hockey team, but I understand what happened, and we're going to try to fix that one day." Ishbia, 44, also owns the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. Footprint Center, home of the Mercury, hosted the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday. There is also a new $100 million women's practice facility, which Ishbia funded, behind the arena. "I think our arena is first-class right now. I love our arena," Ishbia said about Footprint Center. "But at some point we're going to have to get a new arena." The Coyotes played games at 5,000-seat Mullett Arena on Arizona State's campus in Tempe, Arizona, from 2022 to 2024. According to Sportico's report, Ishbia did not reveal if he was in talks with the NHL, and the league also stayed quiet. Should hockey end up coming back to Arizona, Ishbia would have the new arena built in downtown Phoenix. Former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo sold the club for $1.2 billion.
