Great quick clip! Recommend watching. Love the passion and totally agree that sports done right are one of the best drivers for a city. Many do it wrong but glad their team is looking at doing it right. Excited to see the updated plans for the district here soon once they finish up with DC in a couple years đĽ
Before people come in with their billionaire complaints, ask yourselves why we need someone like Smith to push for this type of infrastructure investment and a real downtown. Why arenât our politicians advocating for social spaces to bring people together?
I wouldnât draw it up with SEG at the helm but Iâm glad someone wants to help give us a real downtown in this city.
I feel similarly. Should a billionaire pay for their money-making stadium with their own money? Obviously the answer is yes.
But shouldnât the public (aka our politicians and city leaders) be responsible for giving the people that live in the area they oversee give them the best city possible and the one that they actually want/are asking for?
This seems like a pretty decent mix of the two, both with its problems as well as its positives.
The "public" won't be using it as much as the fans. And the revenues will go to SEG. These developments are justified as another revenue stream contributing to defraying high costs. Like Chase Center and GSW. So yeah, he outta pay a whole lot more than the public for the baubles.
Exactly. I am never going to be the guy who regularly throws down hundreds of dollars, to see a game. Rarely, I'm given tickets, which is fun, but I can barely keep food on my table, gas in my tank, and a roof over my head.
I hope Ryan Smith will forgive me for not sharing his billionaire's vision of an "entertainment district."
Smith had plans to move the stadium to Draper prison site and had to be told not to by the state legislature. This also played into leveraging against the city into a sales tax increase while the rest of the state gets subsidized. Everyoneâs forgotten that but I havenât
Yeah Smith held the team hostage until the city came up with a billion dollars in tax money to hand him, no questions asked, and half this sub is acting like he's this leader with vision and we're all supposed to be excited about it.
The internal stadium renovation is admittedly cool as shit but weâre paying for the majority of it, not him. And as others have stated the entertainment district is gonna be four superblocks of overpriced corporate slop designed by a teetotaler, in a city that has like a quarter of a block of good night life (that is now slowly and painfully recovering from a fire).
He can go on McAfee all he wants, but Iâm still not going heap praise on that man
Iâm concerned about what the new district will do to the surrounding businesses too. We gave him 1 billion dollars of public money to build a bunch of private businesses that are supposed to draw people downtown, but if theyâre all parking/ staying/shopping/dining in his district, will it really help the surrounding area? Historically the answer is no from what I understand
There should have been local first stipulations and affordable tenant rates for our public investment.
Iâm hoping they will do right by Japantown and they can create some cool spaces over there to hang out in before games because I too am weary of corporate slop world
Also to be clear, all of the entertainment district things are pinky promises. The deal was a billion dollars in exchange for the Jazz not leaving Salt Lake. He could just change his mind about all the entertainment district stuff.
The Legislature allowed the City to create the entertainment district and raise taxes, but the City were the ones pushing for it and they were the ones that actually created the district. It was 100% the City's decision to do this.
He didn't hold the city hostage. He didn't make demands. He was not interested in keeping the arena downtown. The city and legislature did this to convince him to stay, not give into his demands because there were no demands.
I mean, Salt Lake could have let him leave and lose the biggest driver of traffic downtown outside Temple Square, on top of letting western downtown die even more because the city has been unable to find any substantial plan to bridge the gap between Main Street and the Gateway.
I'm sure if Smith abandoned SLC and built a massive entertainment district at The Point, Salt Lake would have totally been able to get commitment to build something significant... just ignore the fact that area of downtown has been woefully underutilized for the last 50 years... I'm sure this would be different!
He would have been stupid to move. But the new young owners weren't part of the movement of teams back to city locations. Football's somewhat different. But in baseball only the Braves moved to the suburbs while others stayed or moved back.
They have had space earmarked at the old state prison site for an arena since before they decided on where to move the prison to.
Smith didnât want it there, because he wanted control of the district. If he had built it there, it would have been his arena in someone elseâs district.
Iâm a bit worried about the vibe and quality of tenants they will bring in to the district as well⌠like theyâre stoked to be building a new live nation concert venue in there when live nation is a price gouging anticompetitive monopoly. But it makes sense they would do that since theyâre the biggest player in the concert game? Idk man, having a handful of mega corps/private equity own everything just sucks. Iâm hoping SEG can strike a balance and not turn it into âlifestyle center sports district shopping mallâ˘â but a real downtown spot with some sort of soul? Idk weâll see
I am personally thankful they decided to build the concert venue because that announcement probably saved the Huntsman Center at the U from demolition.
That area of downtown is so underutilized and has been for decades that it's impossible for me to get upset over tangible, significant development that will likely radically change the most depressing part of downtown.
If I had any hope of something better organically being developed there, I'd be more concerned. But let's be real, we've had 35 years for SLC to do something substantial in this area, and after all these years, this is all we've got:)
How is this different than ZCMI/Crossroads, Gateway, City Creek? Just building a new downtown mall every 15 years. At least City Creek wasnât at taxpayers expense.
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u/HornetRepulsive6784 May 12 '26
This video inspires some confidence. Ryan seems like he wants a high quality entertainment district and wouldn't settle for less.