Utah
What kind of NHL owner would Ryan Smith be? What his Utah Jazz ownership tells us
SALT LAKE CITY — Ryan Smith understands that owning multiple professional sports franchises comes with some added pressure.
As part of a recent interview with The Athletic, the owner of the Utah Jazz was asked about the prospect of adding an NHL team to his portfolio. Smith invoked the names of Ted Leonsis and Larry Tanenbaum, who own NBA and NHL franchises in Washington, D.C. and Toronto respectively.
“Sometimes it’s probably easier to only do one. You just have fans yelling at you for part of the year,” laughed Smith.
Smith could be in line to inherit the Arizona Coyotes in the weeks ahead, which would put him at the top of the organizational chart for two franchises playing out of the Delta Center this fall.
GO DEEPER
Why Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith is hellbent on bringing an NHL team to Salt Lake City
Smith’s passion for basketball is well-documented. He’s a lifelong fan who is present with a courtside seat for virtually every Jazz home game. Smith is involved in key decisions for basketball operations, but says he allows his leadership team consisting of Danny Ainge (CEO basketball operations), Justin Zanik (general manager) and Will Hardy (head coach) to have the loudest voices in the room.
“If those three agree on something, I’m probably not going to override them,” said Smith. “I am almost certain that if those three are aligned, I’m going to be aligned.”
The 45-year-old Smith acknowledges he will adopt a very similar approach if he secures an NHL franchise in Salt Lake City.
“When it comes to hockey, I’m going to want to know what’s going on. I’m going to want to be involved with the ins and outs of everything we’re doing. But do I want to micromanage every decision? Absolutely not,” said Smith. “I will be a better leader for everyone if I know what’s going on. But I don’t want to be a leader where every decision comes through me or the organization doesn’t move. Being involved and being in the know is very different than making sure you are the lynchpin in every decision. That is not my style.”
Smith purchased a majority stake in the Jazz from the Miller family for $1.6 billion in the fall of 2020. Since then, he has put his fingerprints on the organization in a myriad of ways.
To help NHL fans understand how Smith operates as a professional sports team owner, Tony Jones — the Jazz beat writer for The Athletic — has provided answers and analysis to a handful of questions. Jones has covered the Jazz for the entirety of Smith’s ownership in Salt Lake City.
What are the biggest changes fans in Utah have noticed since Ryan Smith took over ownership of the team at the end of 2020?
When the Miller family owned the Utah Jazz, they were a team that stayed competitive while typically playing things relatively close to the vest. John Stockton, Karl Malone and Jerry Sloan made the Jazz elite by the late 1990s and the franchise twice played for an NBA title. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer took the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals in 2007. Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert made the Jazz the top seed in the Western Conference in 2021. The philosophy was always a bit safe. The franchise promoted a family atmosphere. The franchise put heavy emphasis on internal development, seeing that the Utah market wasn’t one that typically attracted elite free agents — Boozer notwithstanding.
Spending typically came with a cap.
Smith took control of the franchise in 2020. In his first year as majority owner, he paid the luxury tax. Soon after, he hired Ainge to oversee basketball operations. The changes to the franchise in the last four years have been many — some subtle, some overt. The changes have been aggressive, many that have worked, some that haven’t — like the rebrand to highlighter yellow jerseys.
GO DEEPER
If Salt Lake City gets an NHL team, what will it be called? ‘It’s got to be a momentum builder’
The biggest change, and one that the Smith family was always hesitant to do, has been embracing bottoming out. The Jazz, to be fair, did do this in 2013, and they somewhat did this the year after Malone and Stockton left the organization. But this is the first time the Jazz did this while trading two all-star-level talents in the prime of their respective careers. The Jazz bottomed out last season after the All-Star break. They’ve done the same this season. There isn’t a right or a wrong way to go about winning a title. But Smith has taken some hits on social media this spring while the Jazz went through a period of losing 24 of 27 games. Smith and the front office want a championship. And the way they are going about trying to do so does represent significant change from previous Utah Jazz eras.
If the Arizona Coyotes move to Salt Lake City, they would play at the Delta Center, home to the Utah Jazz. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
How long did it take before Smith put his “stamp” on the team? Did he overhaul the front office right away, or was he a patient owner when he first took over?
It took about a year before major change came about. Some of it was subtle, but then came the substantial change. Front office executive Dennis Lindsey was relieved of duties, with Smith having a central role in that. Quin Snyder resigned as head coach. Ainge was brought on board after leaving the Boston Celtics.
Then came the rebrand. Smith took over the franchise and he waited and took stock of where it was. But when the changes came, they came in droves. What we have is a franchise still very much in transition — at least on the court and in basketball operations. But it’s certainly being modeled after Smith’s liking.
In many ways, Smith is young, brash, not afraid of change, and certainly not reluctant to take chances. It’s how he was able to buy the Jazz from the Miller family, largely without much of a hint. It’s how he was able to relatively swiftly put himself in position to secure an NHL franchise. And it’s how he’s put himself on the potential shortlist for a Major League Baseball franchise, if one were to become available.
How would you describe his approach? Is he a win-at-all-costs guy? A fan-first owner?
Winning is what Smith wants, which is why he brought Ainge on board. To be fair, the two are longtime friends, but Ainge built the Celtics into a champion in 2008, and he was the architect of the current Celtics team that will enter the postseason as title favorites.
Look at the blueprint between the two franchises. Ainge dealt Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, secured a bunch of draft picks, bottomed out the franchise, and built it back to where it was by drafting Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. He’s trying to do the same with the Jazz, with the sole goal of winning a title.
But if you look at Smith, think of a young Mark Cuban. In that sense, Smith wants to have a say in basketball matters. He’s omnipresent courtside at almost every Jazz game. And to his credit, he’s been at almost every Jazz game this spring, when the Jazz haven’t been an easy watch. He’s not all the way Cuban in the sense of making decisions. He leaves that part to Ainge and general manager Justin Zanik. But the overall direction of basketball operations is a conversation he is a part of.
As a younger owner, he keeps the fans in mind and consistently has a presence on social media. He’s been known to give tickets away on X. The highlighter yellow jerseys of the rebrand were scrapped because Smith and his people listened to the fan base, who almost universally hated it. It shows an owner who has a bit of self-awareness, while being as aggressive and maybe even more aggressive as you might expect from a young owner in his first years of running a major franchise.
In addition to owning the Jazz, and his potential acquisition of the Coyotes, Smith owns Real Salt Lake, Utah’s Major League Soccer franchise. This is a person who dropped out of Brigham Young University in order to devote his time to managing Qualtrics, the company that built his fortune.
Smith was aggressive and a guy who took chances to get to where he is. And he’s been aggressive in moving forward since becoming owner of the Jazz.
Smith comes across as a progressive owner, particularly in matters related to social causes. How would you characterize his ownership style in that realm?
Smith has been a champion for social justice, particularly when it comes to matters within the state. When Izzy Tichenor, a 10-year-old bullied Black student from Utah tragically died by suicide, Smith was vocal in support of Tichenor’s family and the need for improved race relations in Utah. In 2021, Smith created the Utah Jazz Scholars Program, which gifted collegiate scholarships to a student of color for every Jazz win that season. The award covered the full undergraduate education for each recipient. It’s obviously one thing to talk about social justice and the need for social justice. It’s another to show action, and Smith has shown action in his time running the Jazz.
(Photo of Ryan Smith: Alex Goodlett / Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah football’s first official visit weekend of the 2027 recruiting cycle has already produced a payoff, as Morgan Scalley has landed the commitment of three-star offensive lineman Sire Stewart.
Stewart, a 6-foot-5, 255-pound offensive tackle out of Chandler High School in Arizona, became one of the key names to watch coming into the weekend.
Utah hosted several offensive line targets as part of its first official visit group, and Stewart leaving Salt Lake City committed gives the Utes a tangible recruiting win at a priority position.
A Fast Win For Utah’s New Recruiting Operation
Utah’s first official visit weekend under Scalley was always going to be about more than hosting prospects. It was the first major chance for the new regime to show recruits and families what the program looks like with Scalley as head coach and D’Orazio helping guide the roster-building operation.
Stewart’s commitment gives Utah an early return from that effort.
The Utes need momentum in the 2027 class, and official visit weekends are where that momentum often starts. Landing an offensive lineman from Arizona also reinforces one of Utah’s most important recruiting priorities: continuing to build regionally while identifying prospects who fit the program’s developmental model.
Stewart had official visits scheduled to Washington State and Boise State but elected to give his pledge to the Utes instead.
Utah Got In Early
Utah’s pursuit of Stewart did not begin this weekend. Offensive line coach Jordan Gross offered Stewart in early February, with the Utes becoming his 10th offer and third Power Four opportunity behind Duke and Arizona. Since then, Stewart has added offers from Oklahoma State, Baylor and Cal, while also making an unofficial visit to Arizona State.
Utah was not late to the evaluation. The Utes identified Stewart early, prioritized him and then got him on campus for the first official visit weekend of the cycle. In modern recruiting, that kind of early relationship-building is important.
Gross may be new to college coaching, but this is a good first recruiting win. He gives Utah a unique offensive line pitch. He played at Utah, became one of the program’s best examples of development translating to the NFL, and now gets to sell that same path to recruits. For a prospect like Stewart, Utah can offer both a developmental plan and a real example of what that plan can become.
Building The Class Up Front
Stewart’s commitment also continues a clear early theme for Utah. The Utes are prioritizing the trenches, particularly from the high school ranks.
Utah has long built its program around line-of-scrimmage play, and that identity is not expected to change under Scalley. If anything, it appears to be one of the first pieces of the roster construction plan being emphasized in the 2027 class.
Stewart gives Utah a developmental offensive line prospect with the frame to grow into a Big 12 lineman. Listed by 247Sports at 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds, he still has room to add strength and mass, but the foundation is there.
This commitment gives Utah momentum, but particularly with the offensive linemen they’re in pursuit of. Utah will continue to push for fellow offensive linemen Lincoln Mageo, Ian Aloisio, Tye Kennedy, Damian Anyasodo, Gecova Doyal, and Amaziah Siale.
Mageo and Doyal were also part of the visit with Stewart, giving Utah an added presence to recruit those two. Kennedy and Anyasodo will officially visit the Salt Lake City this weeend, while Siale has been a big priority for Utah and will visit at the end of the month.
The Bottom Line
Sire Stewart’s commitment is not just another name on Utah’s 2027 board. It is the first real proof point from the Utes’ opening official visit weekend under Scalley.
Utah identified him early, got him to campus and closed. That is what good recruiting operations are supposed to do.
For Stewart, the commitment gives him a clear developmental home in a program that has long valued offensive line play. For Utah, it adds another piece to a 2027 class that needs to reflect the new regime’s roster-building vision.
The Utes have always believed in winning up front. Stewart’s commitment shows that message is still central to how Utah plans to build.
Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.
Take us with you, wherever you go. Download the new & improved KSL Sports app from Utah’s sports leader. You can stream live radio, video and stay up to date on all of your favorite teams.
SALT LAKE CITY — Lucas Horns points over a fence on Main Street toward an empty lot with a blue shipping container on it, tucked between downtown Salt Lake City’s tallest buildings.
That container, he explains, will serve as a makeshift bar on Thursdays and Fridays through the remainder of summer, set up next to a live music stage and a space that will be dedicated to various lawn games for people of all ages. The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art will provide some art as part of an outdoor sculpture and food and drink venue combination aimed to liven up an otherwise dead space.
“Our hope is just to add to the ecosystem,” said Horns, program director for the Blocks, a joint venture between Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County to develop arts and culture programs within the downtown area.
The Blocks is launching what it calls the “Art Garten” in the lot of the old Utah Pantages Theater, 144 S. Main, beginning this week. It’s a free event that blends a beer garden with live music, art and games for all ages.
A DJ will be spinning hits from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, while live music from the steps of the Eccles Theater across the street will fill the air during the same hours on Friday. A rotating list of DJs and live bands will fill in the space during the same hours twice a week for the next few months.
The event will include a rotating food truck lineup, along with cornhole, giant chess and other lawn games for people of all ages. The Blocks didn’t want to compete with bars and restaurants, so the hours hit around happy hour, while also being friendly for people with families, Horns said.
“We were interested in adding something new to downtown,” he told KSL. “There aren’t a lot of spaces where families can go, and the parents can grab a beer and hang out while their kids play lawn games. That’s kind of a rarity in Utah, and especially downtown, so I think we’re filling an important niche.”
At the same time, it livens up a piece of Main Street that’s been lifeless for years.
The Utah Pantages Theater was demolished in 2022, amid a last-second effort to preserve the century-old building. Salt Lake leaders approved a $0 sale of the building to international real estate firm Hines and local developer Joel LaSalle in 2019, setting the stage for a proposed 31-story residential high-rise on Main Street.
However, the project stalled with the market. “Unprecedented market changes,” such as record inflation, emerged at approximately the same time as the theater was demolished, making it difficult to secure financing for the project off the ground, a spokesperson for Hines told KSL in 2024.
The situation hasn’t changed much since then, leaving Main Street with a vacant lot blocked off by a large wooden board for years. Some of the lessons from “Open Streets” and other downtown activation events helped piece together an event to use the space while it remains vacant.
“We’re excited just to be able to do a pop-up park like that in that location on Main Street, with programming unlike anything else we’ve done on Main Street,” said Dee Brewer, director of the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance. “I’m really excited to see how the public responds.”
Hines cleared the space for the event, which will continue on Thursdays and Fridays through the end of September. Horns and Brewer say they expect the venue to return next year and potentially longer, depending on how long the tower project remains on pause.
It may not be the perfect solution to a development holdup, but they believe it’s an upgrade from the current situation.
“A blank, empty wall is never good for walkability or for the urban environment,” Horns said.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
SALT LAKE CITY — A law designed to prevent so-called “dumpster babies” is now 25 years old — and one of the individuals it was designed to save is now close to the same age.
Utah‘s Newborn Safe Haven law was designed to give pregnant moms a safe alternative where they could leave a baby they could not or would not be able to care for. The original sponsors of the bill say they don’t know how many children have been saved over the years, but one of them, Sam Peterson, was on hand to mark Monday’s special anniversary.
He said the law means everything to him.
“It is something that has given me my life! It’s my privilege to be a part of this law,” Sam said.
He stood next to his mother, Heather Peterson, who said she gets emotional talking about the law allowing her and her husband to adopt Sam.
“We feel like a miracle happened. We feel like you came to us in the most amazing way and you have an amazing story and we think it’s important that other people hear it,” she said.
Heather and Sam agreed that the Newborn Safe Haven allowed them to become a family.
It was a bill originally sponsored by former Utah Senator Patrice Arent a quarter century ago. Arent said she felt compelled to act after hearing too many stories about so-called “dumpster babies.”
“Babies that had been left to die in unsafe places like dumpsters or public toilets,” Arent explained, “Or even someone who left their baby in a drawer in their bedroom in Cottonwood Heights. I heard these stories and I just knew I had to try to find a way to provide a safe alternative.”
So Arent, a Democrat, worked with former Republican lawmaker John Valentine to sponsor and help pass Utah’s Newborn Safe Haven law.
Arent said it was a true bipartisan collaboration.
“It allows our birth parents to legally give up custody of an infant. It’s anonymous and it’s in a hospital. There will be no questions asked, and the baby then ends up in a safe, loving home,” she said.
Less than a year after the law went into effect, Sam’s birth mother left him at a Utah hospital. Heather said she and her husband adopted him three days later. Sam is now 24.
“We are living proof that Safe Haven works, because we didn’t know anything about his birth mom… It was like he just dropped out of heaven,” Heather said.
Sam said he is eternally grateful.
“It’s given me a family, it’s given me friends, it’s given me an opportunity to go to college. Day three, I was with my mom, and so she will always be my mother, and I will always cherish that,” he said.
Sam said he will be graduating next year from BYU with an engineering degree.
-
Los Angeles, Ca1 hour agoCalifornia primary election results: governor and L.A. mayor races
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoAnother bribery scandal hits Detroit. It involves the People Mover
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoWhat’s Worth More Than Cash in San Francisco Real Estate? Anthropic Stock
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoDallas weighs $500 million‑plus repair plans as City Hall’s future comes up for debate
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoMiami biotech executive was followed into his condo by man who allegedly threw him from 25th floor
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoWhat a World Cup ‘fan zone’ is and what Boston fans can expect in 2026
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoDefensive lineman Jordan Miller has a tough battle to make the Broncos’ final 53-man roster
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoVIDEO: Mayor Wilson proposes renewing, expanding Seattle Transit Measure by doubling the sales-tax percentage that funds it.
