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Ryan Smith of Utah Jazz, Utah Hockey Club launches new sports-tech investment fund
Ryan Smith and Ryan Sweeney have long had a close relationship that goes beyond just their shared name.
Sweeney, a longtime venture capitalist and partner at Accel, was the first to invest in Qualtrics, the tech company that gave Smith success and the wealth to buy the Utah Jazz. When he did that in 2020, Sweeney came in as a minority owner.
Over the last two years, Sweeney has been pushing Smith to join him on their next big idea, a fund devoted exclusively to the intersection of sports and technology. Finally, he got Smith to budge.
On Tuesday, Smith and Sweeney launched Halo Experience Co., a new investment firm that the two have founded together. The two believe that their sports holdings — and specifically the experiential elements of live events — can be a backbone for their investments and help pull tech companies into that space.
“Part of the evolution of this experience movement within sports and entertainment is that we are a microcosm of the entire economy,” Smith said. “We’re a healthcare company. The amount of money we’re spending on healthcare is insane within these sports franchises. We’re a payments company. We’re a security company for events and digital and everything else. We’re a streaming company; we have full over-air media, and we’re selling advertising.
“We are in the music industry because people are making money on live events now, not CDs like they used to. So, concerts are everything. We’re a social media company; I think 10 million followers between our brands. You look at the areas that we touch, it’s easy to be like, OK, would we be a buyer of this? Would this help us? Would it help one of our partners?”
While Smith owns the Jazz and Utah Hockey Club, along with Smith Entertainment Group, the firm will be separate from those properties, and it will not be a part of Accel, although it will operate with some of its support. Initial investors include Smith, Sweeney, Sweeney’s Accel partners investing as individuals and limited partners they declined to disclose.
The new firm, which Smith and Sweeney have nicknamed “HXCO,” plans to raise $750 million to $1 billion, Sweeney said, and already has 5-6 deals in its pipeline. The two intend to find companies that they can bring into the sports and live events ecosystem, or have a role in it and invest in them.
Halo Experience would be another example of how the sports world continues to bring in financial capital that had previously remained out of the sector. Private equity companies have started investing in North American professional sports teams in recent years, from the NBA to the NFL, and some, like Arctos Sports Partners, have even deployed funds centered around sports team ownership.
“There’s two revolutions going on,” Smith said. “One’s definitely in AI, where every venture capital firm is, you know, doing this movement where they’re renaming everything AI, dot ai, which is real and it’s not going away. We’ve also seen this movement in sports. We’ve seen it kind of come from the inverse of what we’re doing. We’re seeing a bunch of funds being created to buy a bunch of sports teams. And I understand why. I think the background of all those people are very different. It’s private equity, it’s everything else.
“We just have a unique background. We come from tech, and we’re still young, and we’re involved. If you look at consumer spending, if you look at where things are going, if you look at what people are prioritizing, everything is around experiences right now, and you know the amount of tech plays that have to tap into that to be successful is enormous. And so we’re bringing this kind of the other way, where, for the first time ever, there’s a tech fund that has the ability to lean into tech, do it with sports on that platform.”
Sweeney believes that the sports investment market is “massive” and growing. The surge in demand for live events since the pandemic has not stopped, Smith said.
They have also seen big tech companies come into the sports world recently and get involved in media, which, Smith believes, has led to media being nationalized and no longer local. Amazon, Netflix and Apple have all grabbed portions or all of significant league media rights packages over the last five years.
The Jazz have been an example of that, as their media distribution deal has morphed in recent years from a cable regional sports network to a combination of an over-the-air channel and a streaming app, Jazz+, both of which have created different needs for technology partnerships.
The two hope that by using their networks and their resources, they can pull companies into their orbit. The fund is going to be evaluating both early-stage and later-stage opportunities.
“This is going to be a fund that harnesses the power of sports, and it’s real, and it’s a real movement,” Sweeney said. “And as we started this conversation, you compare and contrast with a movement like AI, which gets a lot of press within the tech ecosystem right now, the size of this economy is very similar, and I would say, oftentimes less competitive, right?
“You can go disrupt it, and you can go become a player that gains significant market share relatively quickly as an investor, and that’s all you’re looking for. You’re looking for big untapped markets, and this feels like one where disruption from technology is certainly there for the taking.”
(Photo: Alex Goodlett / Getty Images)
Utah
Gusty thunderstorms possible statewide on Memorial Day
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Utah Memorial Day weather statewide starts with partly cloudy skies and pleasant temperatures. As the morning progresses, clouds and light showers will increase across southeast Utah.
Stronger showers and thunderstorms are likely over the south-central mountains from I-70 south from midday through the afternoon.
Storms will produce gusty winds and lightning, but rainfall generally will remain light except over the highest terrain.
Showers will move north through the afternoon across mainly eastern Utah, though a few storms may develop over western Utah.
Once again, gusty winds are possible with these generally dry storms.
Showers are possible over the Uinta Mountains by late evening.
Strong southerly winds are the next weather event in the forecast, beginning Tuesday and continuing through Wednesday across western and southwest Utah.
Critical fire danger remains the main threat as the winds continue drying out already dry vegetation.
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Two Jazz Players Set to Suit Up for Summer League
The Utah Jazz’s summer league roster won’t be as loaded with young talent as it has been across the last couple of offseasons.
With the Jazz’s young names around the team such as Keyonte George, Isaiah Collier, and Brice Sensabaugh having clearly graduated from those reps thanks to their gradual development, it leaves this year’s group in July inevitably slated to look a little different than fans have been accustomed to as of late.
However, according to Chandler Holt of KSL Sports, two players on the Jazz’s roster stick out to have a strong chance of being a part of this year’s summer league group come time for July: second-year wing Ace Bailey and the number-two overall pick, whoever that ends up being.
200 percent chance.
We will see the rookie and Ace Bailey year two first looks in July, https://t.co/Nx4Cx1cvYA
— Chandler Holt (@CHoltSports) May 24, 2026
Ace Bailey, No. 2 Pick Slated to Play in Summer League
It’s not a major surprise that the Jazz’s incoming rookie— even with a draft stock as high as second overall— will at least get some portion of the reps during summer league.
Looking back to last summer, and even as far back as 2023’s stint with Victor Wembanyama taking the floor for just two games, the most highly touted rookies in the class are bound to get some type of run during those live reps that are hard to replicate, regardless of whether the stretch of games played is extremely short.
The Jazz will be no different with their top pick. And perhaps in a bit of a bigger surprise, he’ll more than likely be joined by Utah’s fifth-overall pick from 2025, Ace Bailey, for what will be the first appearance on the floor for his second year as a pro, and his second time ever appearing in the summer league.
Bailey showed a ton of upside and growth during his first season in the fold with the Jazz, especially towards the end of the year when he was able to claim a good chunk of the offensive responsibility while the lineup was depleted.
By just looking at Bailey’s averages in the month of March, he was playing 30 minutes a night to shoot up to 19.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists on 45.3% shooting from the field.
Following that strong end to the season, the Jazz might want to see more of Bailey in a role as the primary scoring option on the floor, albeit in a summer league setting that has stark differences from an NBA regular season contest.
However, with a few months of offseason work under his belt, fans could be in line to get a glimpse of a wildly improved Bailey, which wouldn’t be the most shocking development after how he found his stride and confidence offensively following February’s All-Star break.
Could both Bailey and that top draft selection end up playing a brief two-game stretch before the Jazz put them on the shelf?
It’s very possible, especially considering Utah will want to keep the key fixtures of this roster both healthy and prepared for a bounce-back 2026-27 campaign. The Jazz did something similar with Brice Sensabaugh last year as they decided to rest him midway through their summer league slate after his electric start in Salt Lake City.
But at the very least, those in-game reps can always help out young players in a big way when they’re available, either in the summer league or in a regular-season outing. So expect the Jazz and their fans to take advantage of those with two of their most pivotal pieces for the future.
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NBA Rumors: New lottery rule helps Utah, hurts Grizzlies
The top-five pick rule will date back to 2025. The Utah Jazz picked fifth in 2025 and second in 2026. Under the new rule, they can’t land in the top five in 2027.
But the Jazz traded that pick to the Memphis Grizzlies in February for Jaren Jackson Jr., which means Memphis won’t be able to receive it since streaks will be triggered by the original team, not the team holding the pick. Two issues here.
First, the framework. The NBA explains this rule under a section titled “Pick Restrictions For Repeat Lottery Winners.” Is landing the fifth pick really a winner? One year ago, the Jazz were distraught when their pick landed fifth, because the true franchise-changers that teams want to win are commonly landed with the first or second pick. In the future, if a team ends up fifth one year, then fourth the next, should they really be punished for landing first in the third year? Or even fifth again? I would argue no, that the top-five rule reaches too far.
I am understanding of wanting to prevent a team from picking first in consecutive years. But anything beyond that feels like a massive overreach that could cause more problems than intended when the goal is supposed to be to eliminate tanking.
Second, there’s the reality that the Jazz did trade that pick. Now the Grizzlies have it — through the rights of a pick-swap structure. But if this rule passes, Memphis wouldn’t be able to receive an unprotected pick. Grizzlies fans would obviously be crushed by the news. This pick was the most valuable of the assets Memphis got back for one of its stars, and it happened under a set of rules that didn’t include a three-year streak cap. That Jazz-to-Grizzlies pick is being retroactively devalued because of a league’s arbitrary decision to start the clock in 2025, but it also gives us an example of what could happen in future years to any team.
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