Salt Lake City is quickly becoming Ryan Smith's playground. The owner of the Utah Jazz recently bought the former Arizona Phoenix NHL team for $1.2 billion and will relocate the team and its employees to Salt Lake City as part of an expansion team. That would give Salt Lake City two major sports teams from the United States "big four" leagues. Those leagues of course are the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the National Football League, and Major League Baseball.
Smith now has two of those four, but those aren't the only two teams he owns, so what other teams does Smith currently own?
Well, obviously he owns the Utah Jazz of the NBA. The Jazz are the pride of Salt Lake and are easily the team most associated with the state. Next up of course is the NHL team formerly known as the Coyotes. They're a rebuilding club with some good young talent that they're hoping can take them to the playoffs.
Beyond that, Smith owns the Jazz's G-League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars. That's not the only minor league team, as part of the ownership purchase of the Jazz, Smith also acquired the Salt Lake City Bees as well. However, the future of the club is in doubt as they're the Oakland A's Triple-A team and it remains to be seen if that partnership will continue once the team moves.
Smith also owns the three biggest soccer teams in the state, Real Salt Lake of the Major League Soccer group, their minor league team, the Real Monarchs of the MLS Next Pro group, and he also owns the Utah Royals. The Royals belong to the National Women's Socer League and for a time were inactive, but were brought back in 2024
if that's not impressive, Smith also owns the home of the Jazz and Salt Lake Hockey Club, with the Delta Center arena, and the home fields for Real Salt Lake and the Monarchs, America First Field, as well as the home for the Real Monarchs, Zions Bank Stadium.
Smith doesn't own every major or minor team in Utah, however, as the Utah Warriors of the Major League Rugby fed, the Utah Archers of the Premier Lacross League, the Utah Grizzlies of the East Coast Hockey League, and the Ogden Raptors of the Pioneer Baseball League all operate beyond Smiths' reach.
For now.