SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — It’s been several months since Ryan Smith made an offer to donate up to $500,000 to cities and entrepreneurs to help them build more hockey rinks in Utah.
Back in March, Smith posted on X, “We think every municipality in Utah should have an ice rink.”
Some people are trying to make that thought a reality.
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Trevor Hawkins started a petition to try and get another rink in Utah County.
“One of the biggest issues that we are seeing is there is not enough ice time,” Hawkins told 2News in November. “Right now, there’s a very high demand for getting on the ice, and right now there’s not enough infrastructure in Utah County.”
Getting a whole new rink built and set up isn’t the easiest thing to do, but to make things simpler for cities and entrepreneurs, Smith initially offered up to $500,000 per rink, up to 20 rinks earlier this year.
2News asked nearly 30 Utah cities if they had discussed or considered Smith’s offer to help build rinks. We got a variety of answers.
Now, months later, Smith said several communities are looking to build rinks.
“[They] have engaged and are trying to figure out some part of the process,” Smith said. “They’ve got to get the land; they’ve got to build.”
They didn’t have an exact number of communities or say which ones, but Smith said it’s a process.
“As people see ours activate, they’re going to say, ‘Okay, this is what I need, it’s special,’” Smith said.
As the Utah Mammoth get more time in Utah under their belt and interest in hockey and other skating activities grows, we could see more rinks pop up around Utah.
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