Owner of the Utah Jazz Ryan Smith is a creative mind.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Smith chose to name his new NHL team located in Utah in an unusual way.
Smith revealed that he intends to let the fans choose the moniker of their new professional sports team during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday.
Smith said, “We’re doing a bracket actually.” “Why is that not a positive thing? We’ve used Qualtrics, and I’m skilled with AI bots. I believe we can win this from eight [names] down, and the fans will choose the winner. It ought to be satisfactory.
Smith requested input from his fans earlier this month on what the moniker should be for a prospective new NHL franchise, should Utah be granted one by the league. More than 660 people responded to his post, offering a variety of name ideas in addition to some imaginative mockups of jerseys and logos.
In order to better fit an NHL-sized crowd, Smith also revealed to McAfee his plans to remodel the Jazz’s home, the Delta Center.
He stated that although he has already received deposits for season tickets from 27,000 people, his target capacity is roughly 17,300. Smith also noted that only 400 of the initial 6,000 inquiries for season tickets came from Jazz fans.
The Arizona Coyotes are owned by Alex Meruelo, who plans to bring the team back to life after the arena dispute is resolved. However, Smith did acquire an NHL team that is full of young, talented players, including Clayton Keller, Matias Maccelli, Logan Cooley, Lawson Crouse, Sean Durzi, and Dylan Guenther, all of whom are 26 years of age or younger.
The Athletic reports that Smith’s unidentified Utah franchise has the ninth-best NHL farm system in addition to a total of 33 picks over the next three drafts, including 10 second-round and 7 third-round selections.