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Influenced in part by success at other sports-centered mixed-use developments, Smith Entertainment Group is making another big step to reshape downtown Salt Lake City.
The parent organization of the NBA’s Jazz and NHL’s Mammoth has reached a deal with Live Nation Entertainment to construct an indoor music venue as part of a planned sports, entertainment, culture, and convention center district in the city. The 6,000-seat indoor forum is projected to host about 200 events per year, including 100 concerts and a series of other corporate, conference, and community functions.
The effort mirrors a series of similar projects around the country, including The Battery in Atlanta, operated by MLB’s Braves and featuring the Coca-Cola Roxy, and the growing area around Fenway Park in Boston, which now includes the MGM Music Hall behind the home ballpark of the Red Sox. Live Nation is also involved in both of those music venues, and the Roxy was just the site of the 2025 MLB draft. The company has several other similar projects in development around the country, targeting both rising music stars and legacy acts wanting a more intimate show setting.
“Music was always kind of the stepchild to the sports business, but we’ve only seen music explode over the last five, 10 years into a memory-making machine,” Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino said in response to a Front Office Sports question. “It’s very important to a live [entertainment] consumer, certainly here in Utah. They want it, but you have to make the investment.”
The Salt Lake City deal arrives as SEG has started a multiyear, inside-out overhaul of the Delta Center to make the arena, originally designed for basketball, also work fully for hockey.
“Once the transformation of the Delta Center was underway, partnering with Live Nation on what a world-class concert venue could look like in downtown became a top priority,” SEG chair and CEO Ryan Smith said.
Many other sports-related developments also have mid-sized music venues as part of their current or future plans, including a South Philadelphia sports complex that will be remade.
“It’s very seldom you can build a venue this size right downtown and be part of that revitalization,” Rapino said. “This is going to open up great opportunity.”
Utah Is Booming
SEG said the Live Nation deal was “the first of many announcements as we continue to work at attracting the best and most influential brands in the world to invest in our state.”
Even before that happens, though, Salt Lake City and Utah more broadly continue to assert themselves as a true center for the business of sports. Beyond SEG’s activities, the market will be the host of the 2034 Olympics. After landing an NHL team, Salt Lake City is also strongly eyed as a potential MLB expansion market, one that would play a role in a larger realignment envisioned by league commissioner Rob Manfred.
Last season, the Mammoth also sold out all their home games in their temporary identity as the Utah Hockey Club, and similarly robust totals are expected for 2025–26.
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