from Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune,

It’s clear: Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith is pushing for hockey in Utah — and is confident that he’ll be able to bring a team to the state.

That’s after Smith revealed more about his plans on a podcast produced by Canadian sports channel SportsNet. On “32 Thoughts: The Podcast,” Smith spent about 45 minutes with hosts Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman talking about his background, why he was interested in hockey, and more.

Why hockey?

First, Smith said that he sees the opportunity to build a “broader business” with bringing the NHL to Utah.

“From our standpoint with our group, we kind of had to ask the question, ‘Are we into basketball? Or are we actually coming into sports?’,” Smith said.

Hockey, Smith feels, is “really kind of mesmerizing a lot of people right now.” And he feels that “we just see hockey fitting in perfectly, we think the market is going to be as receptive as what you’ve seen in Seattle or Las Vegas.”

“We have what I would call the winter sports capital of the world,” Smith said. “The Olympics are coming back here,” he said — though the International Olympic Committee has not yet made that decision on Salt Lake City’s 2030 Olympic bid. “And with 7 million people coming in every year for winter sports, almost every single winter sports is headquartered right here within 20 minutes of Salt Lake City one way or another.”

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