Utah NHL Team Name Voting Narrows Down to Six | SLC Puck Ep. 14

Utah NHL Team Name Voting Narrows Down to Six | SLC Puck Ep. 14

what’s up everybody Welcome to SLC Puck I’m your host Austin Pacer it’s uh it’s a pleasure to be with you I am now 32 years old as of yesterday and if you’ve been following the show for a little bit you know that I’m trying to do this on it a bit of a regular schedule uh giving you episodes on Wednesdays and Sundays uh today the episode is dropping on Thursday July not July excuse me I’m getting ahead of myself June 6th um I had every intention of recording a podcast episode for you yesterday uh it was my birthday but I still thought I’m going to give the people what they want what they need and they’re going to see what a hardworking dedicated podcaster I am to be doing it on my birthday I had a party hat ready to go I had a little this thing whatever that’s called uh I had a cake with candles that I was going to blow out at the start of the show um but it turned out to be the recording session from hell and my computer crashed about halfway through and my gracious studio audience um gracious in the sense that they sit here and deal with me uh you might also know her as my sister uh she got to hear me uh Scream the FW really loud when that happen so again it was a terrifically uh fun episode uh up until that time it was going to be really good but it ended up being uh a blessing in the skies because uh some news broke today on the 6 that I think is going to be better to talk about you know funny how things work out that way right but uh regardless still yesterday is my birthday I mentioned that on Twitter and I got some nice birthday love from you guys so really appreciate it you guys have been great uh I I have no problem doing a show on my birthday cuz I’m having fun doing this and you guys are making it cool um if you want to if if you’re liking the show please like comment subscribe on YouTube Apple Spotify wherever you find this thing uh making making it for you guys but I’m also having a lot of fun so I think we’re all we’re all winning there and hey yeah I had a bad recording session big deal you know life goes on and now we got a lot to talk about you can see this week the Stanley Cup Final between uh the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers is going on so uh in the background here I’ve got a little game a little simulation this is from 2001 though so none of these players are still in the NHL uh maybe we’ll talk about that a little bit later this week I believe game one is going to be on Saturday so we’ll talk about that later but we got some other stuff to talk about today because it was revealed by Smith Entertainment Group that the second round of name vote bracket challenge they called it a bracket challenge that’s that’s what they said it was going to be at the start and I don’t think that ever materialized into a bracket maybe it will later who knows but anyway the second round of voting has commenced and it’s going to go go through the 21st I believe and we’re down to six names and I this I’ll just note this it’s funny how like numbers kind of change with Ryan Smith uh every time he talks because he said last week or the week before whenever it was on the Pat McAfee show that they were down to four names apparently it’s six now um which I think is funny and he also said you know the capacity in the arena was going to be different than what it’s actually going to be that’s just funny to note I don’t know I I think he kind of goes off script a little bit and maybe gets excited about things not blame him if I owned a hockey team I’d be pretty excited about how things are going as well but to the point uh we’re down to the I guess maybe the final six or the this smaller group who knows maybe there’s going to be a final matchup uh in the naming process but the six names that remain according to Smith Entertainment Group and again we just have to take them out their word we have no idea if these were the six most popular names I uh there’s one in this list that just absolutely bewilders me I have no idea how this name ended up in this group um I’ll get into that you’ll you’ll you’ll know what I’m talking about here in a minute but um the six names that remain are the yeti which is going to be the name I’m calling it right now Outlaws which should be the name that’s what I wish was the name uh Mammoth which is actually pretty good blizzard don’t love that Utah Hockey Club which is what the team’s going to be called next year or Utah HC but that that’s still in the voting um round I guess right for now uh and then here’s the one that I I have literally no clue how this one made it past a few of the others Venom to me like the fact that Venom is in this group it’s kind of like the equivalent of like a big upset in the NCA tournament you know how every maybe every once every year every couple years you’ll see like a 15 seed beat a two seed in the NCA tournament I think that’s the kind of thing that must have happened to get venom into this group or the voting just is meaningless and it doesn’t matter apparently over half a million people have submitted names on this vote no idea if those are all geolock to people in Utah or if it was just worldwide who knows one one one per email address but it’s it’s easy to make dummy email addresses I’ll tell you this I made two I email I voted twice for outlaws I did with one email and then another just to show my support of the name and to push that one through it doesn’t matter I think this is all theatrics anyway I think Yeti is going to be the name but I’m doing my part to to to give Outlaws a fair shake and who knows maybe maybe some magic can happen but and so these are the six names that remain I really think we’re looking at four because Utah hockey club’s not going to be the winner that’s just the placeholder name for this year and and Venom again I have I have literally no clue how that one made it into this round I don’t I haven’t seen a lot of interest on that I mean I get that like a snake Motif might be cool I mean there’s not really like a snaky team in the NHL right now there’s the Arizona Diamondbacks I don’t know if there’s an issue with having you know copying snake themes from Arizona after taking the coyotes but anyway it doesn’t matter the Venom’s not going to even Venom’s not a serious contender in this to me the the four that are serious are the ones that I talked about were voted upon uh in KSL’s straw pole Yeti Outlaws Mammoth and blizzard and there were some other kind of sports related uh branding news in Utah that I think is somewhat connected and I I I don’t think it’s a stretch to make these connections um yesterday on my birthday the Jazz treated me and the rest of the the fan base to their new look uh a a a much needed rebranding of their horrific rebranding from a couple years ago they dropped highlighter yellow which was great that was uh priority item one on their list uh in addition to making the team better uh but they they they go they reverted to purple and they’re leaning into the mountain imagery um if you haven’t seen the new and yes I do say Mountain like a uton um if you’re not from Utah and that sounds weird to you I know you I know you normal folks say it Mountain but us Utah folk we say Mountain okay that’s how we say it in Centerville Utah that’s right we don’t say artiz in any word but the jazzline into the mountain imagery and they’re going back to the purple uh they’re also implementing black and what they’re calling sky blue into their uh color scheme and the sky blue looks a lot like the blue that was shown in the placeholder logo that we talked about last time um with the uh with the Utah Hockey Club logo I think it’s the same sky blue that you’re going to see and and you know you might think oh what is the NBA re this NBA look have to do with uh what the hockey club’s going to look like I think they’re extremely connected um we I I believe it’s been said by Ryan Smith that he wants his two teams to have some sort of cohesion to have some sort of symmetry in their look I think they can accomplish this in a big Way by having a unified color scheme across multiple Sports this is something we see in multiple us markets you know we see uh the one that comes to mind probably the best example of this is in Pittsburgh where pretty much all the teams have the same color scheme it’s it’s it’s black and yellow as Whiz Khalifa would say and I think that that’s what they want to accomplish here in the in the Utah Market with these two teams I think you’ll see the same colors for the Jazz being used for the hockey team the yeti and I think you’ll see you know this makes a lot of sense in terms of how they can turn the the arena over uh from me because it’s possible they might have a hockey game and a basketball game on the same day sometimes I mean that could happen every once in a while and it’s going to help with getting the whole thing looking nice making it as easy as possible if they don’t have to swap the colors over as much that’s my theory why the Los Angeles Chargers and the Rams sort of look so much alike they kind of have a similar shade of blue and a similar Shady Shady yellow I think that helps them turn the field over between games when they have CU they share a stadium as well they sh Sofi stadium in Los Angeles I think that kind of thing helps from a logistic standpoint so if you haven’t gotten a chance to look at the Jazz’s new uniforms uh I recommend doing so because I I do think there are a lot of Clues there as to how the the Utah Hockey Club or the eventual Utah Yeti are going to look and when you think about those colors when you think about purple you think about sky blue you think about black and you sort of imagine what those colors would look like pressed against the names that remain it reinforce it it it really solidifies my theory and makes me grow even more in confidence that Yeti is going to be the name because I think when you think about applying purple blue and black to names like Outlaws unfortunately you can’t really see how that works you know like I think you would imagine an Outlaws logo having like a little bit of orange in it or maybe some red something that reflects a little rough and tumble you know Wild West sort of look it would be hard to pull off that kind of thing in in in sky blue and purple I think uh you could make the same case for Venom which is another reason that that won’t work it’s another reason why Venom’s not going to be the name blizzard I think is still a little bit of a Dark Horse um I think it can make sense with with uh those colors uh Mammoth I think also could make a kind of sense I think you could make a nice looking Mammoth logo in those colors but again of all the I’ve said it before the reason why I think it’s Yeti is just because it makes the most sense from a marketing a branding standpoint especially when you consider what the we have a good Hunch what the colors are going to be so again rein I’m reinforc I’m doubling tripling down on this Yeti is going to be the name of the team I’m sad to say uh your vot are meaningless just so you know but you should still vote have fun feel invested in it be a part of what’s Happening uh you’re not making an impact I mean really do we know if any of our votes in any circumstance make an impact no it’s kind of an Act of Faith but here your faith is meaningless just I’ll just say it I’ll just say it right now but still have fun enjoy it be a part of the discussion that’s that’s what is wanted that’s why this is happening it’s it’s getting attention on social media it’s getting attention in the news they’re talking about it on National Television they’re talking about Utah and hockey on National Television which I’m certain has never happened and I think this this name is a big reason why and I think that’s pretty cool but the name’s going to be Yeti so in that that was the big news of the week there was another news story though with the hockey team that we need to talk about which was the release of the uh season ticket pricing along with a look at what the Delta Center is going to look like for next season um they they released the pricing they released all the info I believe on Monday or so maybe it was Tuesday and they showed off what the the inside of the arena is going to be they announced the capacity is going to be around 10,000 for most games and maybe for some it could be much as much as 16,000 but when they you know the 10,000 is unobstructed the 16,000 would be heavily obstructed and it’s kind of interesting to see that you know the pricing was released as well for people like myself who put down a season ticket deposit that was really what I put that the deposit for was to see the prices um I me personally uh I did make a birthday request to get season tickets um and then when Santa Claus or whoever asked me how much that was going to be I said uh for for two lowerable seats it’ll be about $10,000 um I got something else for my birthday instead of that I got some socks so some socks and a candy bar so uh yeah the season tickets probably aren’t in the card for me and probably not for a lot of people but still I it was reported they got about 35,000 season ticket deposits so you know assuming you know maybe two-thirds of those people drop out they’re still going to have an easy time selling 10,000 seats for all these games the these will sell this these games will sell out every game of the year but what’s interesting to note and I don’t think this is controversial to say I think it’s objectively true I think even the people in the organization if they were being really honest with you they would tell you it’s true um I’m I’m just going to make a statement right now the Delta Center is going to be the worst arena in the National Hockey League next year and it’s I think it’s for a few reasons um I’m going to switch over to the second screen here to show you what the capacity is going to look like so this is the map this is the season ticket pricing um as you can see this the sections that are colored right here those are the ones that are uh up for grabs for season ticket holders to buy um I I again I put a deposit down for lower bowl I don’t think I’m going to go go in on that so I think I’ll have that refunded to me but I I took the advant I took the time to go to the open house actually went twice just to see it once and then uh the second time to to take a closer look at things um but there I think it’s kind of interesting what what you see here you can see the the the rinkside seats the the seats that are closest to the ice those are going to be set apart for Club level seating those are for businesses for real high rollers those are going to be in in the tens of thousands of dollars for season tickets um expect those to sell out if you can find a season ticket or not excuse me a single game ticket in this section it’s going to cost you quite a bit a few a few hundred maybe you might find someone benevolent and generous who can give you one for free take it and run go enjoy the experience uh but for the Common Man uh sitting close to the to the rink is is probably not going to be a possibility uh for the first year maybe not even the second or the third um you can see here the colored sections are the ones that are up for grabs um I I I what I did today when I went to the open house I I did a whole lap around the uh outside of the upper bowl and the lower bowl just to kind of get a feel for what it’s going to look like and again it’s going to be a little rough um the Delta Center was not meant to house an NHL team the I mean it’s been so famously said that you know that Arena was Arena was built specifically for the Jazz and for the NBA and it really shows in the way the bleachers sort of wrap around the rink um you can see here there’s like big gaps um a lot of these seats are going to be pushed in there’s only going to be a few rows here the map is a little misleading um because I mean this is not all full of seating it’s about pushed in about halfway here uh so it’ll be flat and they’ll have to put some tarps or something around the edges to to sort of clean it up and and make it look a little bit better um I think when you see the rink on on TV it’ll look okay but when you’re in person and these Corners where there’s kind of negative space where it’s open where the bleachers don’t really come in all the way it’s pretty noticeable and it’s it’s again a lot of these issues become uh really obvious when you’re there in person um like for example you look here in section 10 and section 15 this corner right here that’s about as close as you can get to the ice for if you want to buy season tickets right th and I believe those ones are are in this tier right here the Seven Grand right here or almost eight grand and I went to this seat right here in section 10 and if you go to the very corner there is like a wall that cuts off right there and it makes it impossible to see this corner right here so to see the whole ice from this seat that’s going to cost you almost eight grand a year you’re going to have to like literally like crane your head around and like Lean Forward at times to to see what’s going on and because you know I’m a person who’s been on social media I know how people respond on on Twitter and and things when when they’re less than perfect I think you’re going to see a lot of people especially proba probably the person who buys this seat really bitching and moaning about it on social media and I think that’s it’s going to be a story that the Smith Entertainment Group is going to have to deal with um that the first few years before the the arena gets completely uh renovated and I don’t know how this is going to happen they’re going to have to do some really creative stuff to to make the bleachers sit better around the rink so I’ll be interested in seeing how that comes together but again the N there’s going to be a narrative especially when they start playing games when people are taking pictures inside the arena or video from their seat they’re going to be whining and complaining like oh my I I paid this much for these seats are are you kidding me Ryan this is out of control this is ridiculous who knows maybe they’ll take a sledgehammer and try to knock out the wall here so they can see it a little bit better but you know I I think the the good news is and if we’re to believe Ryan Smith we’re to believe his downtown uh revitalization project the whole thing basically the whole arena is going to be redone from the interior and and probably the exterior as well uh over the course of the next three or four Summers when the when the Jazz and the uh Yeti aren’t playing but you know the sidelines are a little tough in certain parts of the Arena but you know looking around I I saw I thought there were some places where it looked really good um I I went to these uh first rows here in the lower Bol in the upper bowl excuse me and I was like wow this actually gets me pretty excited to imagine what it could be like you know that you you can see all the ribbon boards around the jumbotrons right there you can see the whole ice from the front row here looks awesome even like the front row here in the corner looks amazing um the closest you’re going to be able to get before the club level seating starts is about row 17 and things look pretty good from there from what I could tell um it the re it’s very obvious if you go if I believe the open house ends in about 30 minutes so I don’t know if you’ll have the chance to get over there and I think tickets go on sale tomorrow so I’m sure the ticket rep will be reaching out to me um not long into the day tomorrow but or at some point tomorrow but if I went in there and I sort of looked at what things would look like in these partial ice view seats and it’s it’s very obvious why they’re choosing to not sell tickets there you just you miss so much of it uh sitting here like 121 123 and then the equivalent seats on the other side you just you can’t even see a good chunk of the the offensive zone here you would if they could score a rebound goal and you could completely miss it you wouldn’t be able to see anything that’s happening behind the net um it I don’t know which games they would want to expand the seating to 16,000 to I’m assuming the ones that maybe would be a little bit more in demand like when the Avalanche come to town or the Vegas golden knights or you know whoever ends up winning the Stanley Cup Final maybe it’s Edmonton maybe it’s Florida but you know these bigger name teams that I think they’re the plan is to have more tickets available making it very clear to those who buy them that they are partial view or very much obstructed view um but again it’s it’s going to be it’s going to be interesting and I think that’s a story that that this team’s going to see on social media I’m sure the the media in Arizona is going to want to have a field day talking about how they they left mold arena for this this is ridiculous they can’t even you buy this $88,000 seat you can’t even you can’t even see the ice this is ridiculous that that story is going to happen to them I would say listen bro chill you got to chill we are we are giving Ryan Smith a lot of trust here he wants to put his money where his mouth is he wants to put billions of dollars into Salt Lake City and a big part of that going towards renovating the Delta Center to make this work and I believe he seems like he seems a lot more trustworthy than the marulu family in Arizona who had no plan of ever having an arena and it doesn’t seem I know that there’s going to be that land bid going on in Arizona this month who knows if they’re going to win that they might not win that you know the the plans to ever bring the coyotes back might evaporate completely this month but the deal is Ryan Smith told the NHL we’ll get you something better something better for these players to play in and we’ll have it ready to go this year and this is as good it’s going to get this year um I think it’s going to be really interesting to see how this evolves in the next the next few years I was talking to a TP ticket rep there and what they were telling me is that as the arena configuration changes with the renovation and all that that uh some people might lose their seats and have to find another seat to purchase their season tickets in um so I think that’ll be interesting to see like especially which parts of the Arena get built I’m sure the the the ation process will be staggered they’ll work on this part then this part then this part throughout the years so that that’s definitely a story to watch for sure and again expect this story to be in the national news oh the this is this is the worst arena in hockey that’s true that is true that will be true next year but again we are we are willing to take this leap of faith that it’s going to get better and the permanent solution when it gets fully rocking rocking and rolling in a few years is going to be really nice cuz you can kind of feel it when you’re up here you can tell it’s going to there’s going to be some juice in the arena and especially when they get The Branding going they get a they get a better Fan Experience they have the mascot they’re able to build a show around the game it’s going to be that much better too but again it’s it’s a process they just they have to do the best they can right now and I just thought this was interesting I I found this list here of um uh the NHL arenas by capacity Delta Center is still going to be the smallest in the NHL by a pretty considerable margin um the next smallest is going to be Canada Life Center which is where the Winnipeg Jets play their capacity is uh a little over 15,000 so at 10,000 which is what the Delta Center will be for next year it’ll still be ranked 32nd but twice as much as mullet arena in Arizona so there you go that’s that’s just the way it’s going to be and I I think I I think that’s the the story to watch and expect that to to pop up in the news again especially when we get to the end of September uh one thing I did want to note because I thought this was interesting I I said this on this is a plays podcast I said I think the entire hockey community at large is going to benefit from having this team here I think youth hockey is going to blow up I think uh High School hockey is going to be big it wouldn’t be shocking to see High School hockey eventually become sanctioned by the UA uhsaa eventually probably maybe take it’ll take a while it’ll take maybe 10 years but I think eventually you’ll see hockey become a sing anent sport in Utah the other entity that I think is really going to benefit from this sort of explosion in interest in hockey in Utah is the Utah Grizzlies and for those of you who don’t know a ton about Minor League hockey the Utah Grizzlies play in the ECHL which is a clip which is basically like double a version of minor league hockey um but I I think they’re going to benefit a lot from interest and let me show you what I mean here because they also revealed their season ticket prices and they’ve got them right here on their website so uh just remember what I said here so those those really nice seats at the Delta Center those were going to be about seven Grand 7even eight grand right there the not Rink Side but as close as you can possibly get let’s say you have a kid you live on the West Side you live in West Valley you live wherever you live like it doesn’t matter where but let’s say you have a kid who’s like wow hockey getting really big here in Utah people are talking about a lot I got to see what a game is about it might not be about option to go see what the Utah Grizzlies have to offer because you could get ringside season tickets for considerably less you could be right on the glass at a Utah Grizzlies game which I have been it’s a lot of fun you can bang your hands on the on the glass after a goal you can watch them fight you can almost hear what the players are saying to each other and I’m sure it’s just absolutely obscene but you can get season tickets for the Grizzlies for considerably less ringside seats go for about 1,300 bucks you want to sit Center I it’s going to be less than a grand for season tickets 30 six game schedule by the way uh these corner seats which are still pretty nice um less than 600 bucks for season tickets uh and then the party level um is about $500 so I I think the Grizzlies are probably going to see a lot of people get interested in that maybe not season tickets but I think their season their single game tickets will do really well people who are just like all right I want to see what this hockey thing is about I can go to the NHL game for $200 a person you know to get in uh and then I got to buy my jersey my hat my $15 beer at the Delta Center or for considerably less I can have a really nice seat at Utah Grizzlies game and get a feel for hockey that way so I think I think you’ll see that happen um a lot as we uh get more into to hockey here in Utah so anyway that that’s what I wanted to talk about today I am glad the recording session went horribly yesterday it was funny how bad it went um I did make a bit of a scene I I did uh say a curse word quite quite loudly but I was still pretty composed for the most part and I think it’s because I’m just having a good time doing the show um you guys are awesome I love seeing the numbers get up um you know please continue to to like comment subscribe support the show if if you like it um having a lot of fun doing it you know merch is available SLC puck. shop um I put all the episodes together at slc.com with some other stuff um again I’m try trying to get more into written content here’s something cool that I can tell you guys um I was approached by someone who works at the hockey news which is a big hockey magazine and they have hired me to write the season preview for the Utah Hockey Club for their annual season preview issue uh which is coming out later the summer so that’s something I’m working on in my free time so in addition to being a podcaster your boy can write too you heard and so that’ll be fun when that comes out I’ll share it with you guys um you’ll see more of what I’m uh what’s going on on for for me and SLC Puck on social media it’s at SLC Puck on pretty much all the social media platforms Tik Tok Instagram uh Facebook I I haven’t really worked too much on that one yet but it’s all there so go ahead and check it out but uh again I really appreciate you guys for tuning in having a lot of fun I’m 32 years old now holy cow that’s crazy and holy cow we’re getting close to having hockey here in Utah so again thanks guys appreciate you we’ll talk later [Music]

Yeti, Outlaws, Blizzard, Mammoth, Venom and Utah Hockey Club. Those are the choices that remain after the first round of voting to decide the Utah NHL team name. Whatever the name ends up being, they’ll call the Delta Center home, which will unfortunately be the worst arena in the league next year. But that won’t last, will it? Austin discusses all this and more.

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