The 32-team NHL could be growing yet again if Smith Entertainment Group, owners of the Utah Jazz, have their way. The parent company that houses virtually all of pro sports in the state of Utah released a statement on Wednesday requesting that the league “initiate a formal expansion process” that would see a team brought to Salt Lake City.
The expansion club would play at the Delta Center, the current home of the Jazz. In the statement, SEG chairman Ryan Smith touts Utah’s ready-made ability to house an NHL team in the arena, which the group owns, on an interim basis. Delta Center has housed NHL games in the past. The Los Angeles Kings have held preseason games inside the venue for the past few years.
Plans, outlined in the request, include the future construction of a brand-new arena in conjunction with the 2034 Winter Olympics which is expected to take place in Salt Lake City. In response, the NHL put together a very open-ended statement about future collaboration.
NHL Statement on the Smith Entertainment Group: https://t.co/q5dzjaAhws pic.twitter.com/MLick3gxX3
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 24, 2024
The NHL has added both the Vegas Golden Knights (2017) and the Seattle Kraken (2021) in recent years, and commissioner Gary Bettman has been reluctant to talk about expanding further anytime soon. “We’re not in an expansion mode right now,” Bettman said last March. “It’s not really something, at least right now, that’s anywhere close to the front burner for us.”
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has sung a little bit of a different tune though, indicating that the league is not closed off to the possibility of future additions. “Particularly with the success of the Vegas and Seattle expansions, there are more people who want to own professional hockey teams,” Daly told ESPN in September. “There are potential markets that may be suitable for NHL hockey, so our policy is really an open-door policy.
“If you are interested and have a plan, come see us, and certainly we’ll evaluate it from there. If it becomes something our owners are interested in, we can pursue it. Nothing has risen to that level currently, but that could change.”
As Daly states, the next step for the Utah plan would be to start talks with owners at the NHL Board of Governors level. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported Wednesday that those talks have not yet commenced.
Salt Lake City isn’t the only major North American metropolis seeking an NHL team. Atlanta, Houston, and Quebec City have all maintained interest in an expansion squad. In September, Atlanta’s project moved forward with steps to build a $2 billion “arena and entertainment district” that would be ready for the city’s third attempt at a franchise.
There might be a way for one of those four cities to grab an NHL team without needing to go the expansion route. At the most recent Board of Governors meetings in early December, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman reportedly set a January 2024 deadline for the Arizona Coyotes to produce a concrete, arena-building plan. It’s now January 25 and the Coyotes have come up with no such thing.
“The clock is ticking on Arizona, in my opinion,” NHLPA head Marty Walsh told The Athletic’s Joe Smith. “I’m hoping within the next couple weeks, we will have some concrete information on what’s going on again. I’m surprised by the Coyotes. I met the owner. I don’t know the president that well, but we have connections from Boston and the fact I haven’t gotten a call is surprising.”
The Coyotes have a deal to continue playing at Arizona State’s Mullett Arena next season if needed but the hope was for the franchise to have already found a new home by the start of that year’s schedule. Daly confirmed to Smith that the league “will be prepared for any contingency” if urgent relocation is needed.
Given the clear intent of the Salt Lake City bid and the NHL’s immediate response, Utah could be that backup plan for the Coyotes.
