Why doesn't Utah have a hockey team?

[Suburbia]

Utah has the demographics for a hockey team. White, upper middle class, Republican. It has those demographics more than the Utah Jazz basketball team.

Plus the climate would be good too. Cold and mountainous.

Salt Lake City or Provo would be good spots for a hockey team.

[Illiniwek]

I'm sure its on the list of next cities the NHL would consider expanding to. But Salt Lake City is just too small to make it an overly attractive option. Especially for a league like the NHL that isn't as financially strong, its going to go to cities with larger TV markets because that is where the guaranteed money is, even if the support for the sport is not that strong. If you look at the two recent expansion teams, they are in much larger metro areas (Seattle 4M; Las Vegas 2.2M) than SLC (1.2M).

If the league were to expand to 36 teams, which I doubt they will, what they would probably do is: 1) put a team back in Quebec City; 2) put a team in Houston, San Antonio, or maybe even Austin; 3) maybe a city like Kansas City that is a bit bigger than SLC and has shown it can passionately support its teams all the way down to the MLS level; and 4) probably go ahead and try again with a team in Atlanta. Now Houston or Atlanta seem like much poorer fits to support hockey culturally, but those cities are where the TVs are, so that is where the teams will go. I'd also throw Milwaukee and Portland as more likely selections.

And to be honest, I have previously thought that there is a great case for going to an even further extreme and putting a team in a hockey obsessed community like Fargo. You just know the state would go all in for having their own team and would sell out every single night. But the truth is that there just aren't enough hypothetical tv eyeballs there, so they would never go for it.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Norfolk should be second after Quebec City. (Long live the Rhinos!) They have nothing as a sizeable metro and should have an appetite for something to get them through the winter thanks to little else going on.

Salt Lake is actually an underrated option, but not for the racial reasons that bronz mentioned lol. Utah is a basketball state through and through. But it's a more cohesive city where city fandom is part of the community experience than Phoenix. Kids will still dream more of playing basketball there, but the hockey vibe could be just a step below Vegas and Nashville with diehard locals and good winter tourism filling the gaps. Not as neat, since the tourism is less urban, but there is potential.

Arizona is out of place in their divisional alignment. They either need to move to a 9 team Pacific to regain Vegas as a rival with expansion teams in Salt Lake and Kansas City taking their place, or just be the team that moves to themselves. Salt Lake positions itself as a neat rival to Colorado.

No Texas teams please. Especially not Houston. Hockey will be dreadful there. I'm not ready to try Atlanta again. I don't think people care about number of tv's when no one has cable, and no one is going to actively stream those games. Atlanta is beyond saturated from football and baseball.

Salt Lake - Kansas City - Norfolk - Quebec City are perfect for the current divisions.

Portland, Houston, Atlanta lack hockey vibes. Milwaukee has too much overlap but could be long-term plan. If Milwaukee gets a team, you can throw an AHL team in Omaha and/or Fargo.

[Suburbia]

Norfolk should be second after Quebec City. (Long live the Rhinos!) They have nothing as a sizeable metro and should have an appetite for something to get them through the winter thanks to little else going on.

Salt Lake is actually an underrated option, but not for the racial reasons that bronz mentioned lol. Utah is a basketball state through and through. But it's a more cohesive city where city fandom is part of the community experience than Phoenix. Kids will still dream more of playing basketball there, but the hockey vibe could be just a step below Vegas and Nashville with diehard locals and good winter tourism filling the gaps. Not as neat, since the tourism is less urban, but there is potential.

Arizona is out of place in their divisional alignment. They either need to move to a 9 team Pacific to regain Vegas as a rival with expansion teams in Salt Lake and Kansas City taking their place, or just be the team that moves to themselves. Salt Lake positions itself as a neat rival to Colorado.

No Texas teams please. Especially not Houston. Hockey will be dreadful there. I'm not ready to try Atlanta again. I don't think people care about number of tv's when no one has cable, and no one is going to actively stream those games. Atlanta is beyond saturated from football and baseball.

Salt Lake - Kansas City - Norfolk - Quebec City are perfect for the current divisions.

Portland, Houston, Atlanta lack hockey vibes. Milwaukee has too much overlap but could be long-term plan. If Milwaukee gets a team, you can throw an AHL team in Omaha and/or Fargo.

It's the truth. Utah has the perfect demo for a hockey team. It's a white sport in a white state.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Norfolk should be second after Quebec City. (Long live the Rhinos!) They have nothing as a sizeable metro and should have an appetite for something to get them through the winter thanks to little else going on.

Salt Lake is actually an underrated option, but not for the racial reasons that bronz mentioned lol. Utah is a basketball state through and through. But it's a more cohesive city where city fandom is part of the community experience than Phoenix. Kids will still dream more of playing basketball there, but the hockey vibe could be just a step below Vegas and Nashville with diehard locals and good winter tourism filling the gaps. Not as neat, since the tourism is less urban, but there is potential.

Arizona is out of place in their divisional alignment. They either need to move to a 9 team Pacific to regain Vegas as a rival with expansion teams in Salt Lake and Kansas City taking their place, or just be the team that moves to themselves. Salt Lake positions itself as a neat rival to Colorado.

No Texas teams please. Especially not Houston. Hockey will be dreadful there. I'm not ready to try Atlanta again. I don't think people care about number of tv's when no one has cable, and no one is going to actively stream those games. Atlanta is beyond saturated from football and baseball.

Salt Lake - Kansas City - Norfolk - Quebec City are perfect for the current divisions.

Portland, Houston, Atlanta lack hockey vibes. Milwaukee has too much overlap but could be long-term plan. If Milwaukee gets a team, you can throw an AHL team in Omaha and/or Fargo.

It's the truth. Utah has the perfect demo for a hockey team. It's a white sport in a white state.

Not all white people are the same, bronz. You know this. White Utahns love their Jazz. Some poorly behaved middle-aged ones "love" basketball so much, they treat the players like their own personal entertainment - in a look down upon sort of way rather than the typical way people look up to athletes - though the slight majority are probably decent wealthy people who just love national celebrities bringing pride to their town in a way no hockey player ever could.

These are not ethnic whites who idolize Russian brawlers missing teeth. These are pure bred whites, often with a bit of money, and whose children can be in lockstep with mainstream pop culture and crave hyped up sportswear with brands centered on NBA All-Pros as much as they crave modern prep-wear. They may love harassing an opponent verbally from above the stage but wouldn't last two minutes in a fight.

I've already conceded that it wouldn't be a bad place for a team, but it would not be as much of a slam-dunk (empty netter?) as prior expansion selections.

[Suburbia]

Norfolk should be second after Quebec City. (Long live the Rhinos!) They have nothing as a sizeable metro and should have an appetite for something to get them through the winter thanks to little else going on.

Salt Lake is actually an underrated option, but not for the racial reasons that bronz mentioned lol. Utah is a basketball state through and through. But it's a more cohesive city where city fandom is part of the community experience than Phoenix. Kids will still dream more of playing basketball there, but the hockey vibe could be just a step below Vegas and Nashville with diehard locals and good winter tourism filling the gaps. Not as neat, since the tourism is less urban, but there is potential.

Arizona is out of place in their divisional alignment. They either need to move to a 9 team Pacific to regain Vegas as a rival with expansion teams in Salt Lake and Kansas City taking their place, or just be the team that moves to themselves. Salt Lake positions itself as a neat rival to Colorado.

No Texas teams please. Especially not Houston. Hockey will be dreadful there. I'm not ready to try Atlanta again. I don't think people care about number of tv's when no one has cable, and no one is going to actively stream those games. Atlanta is beyond saturated from football and baseball.

Salt Lake - Kansas City - Norfolk - Quebec City are perfect for the current divisions.

Portland, Houston, Atlanta lack hockey vibes. Milwaukee has too much overlap but could be long-term plan. If Milwaukee gets a team, you can throw an AHL team in Omaha and/or Fargo.

It's the truth. Utah has the perfect demo for a hockey team. It's a white sport in a white state.

Not all white people are the same, bronz. You know this. White Utahns love their Jazz. Some poorly behaved middle-aged ones "love" basketball so much, they treat the players like their own personal entertainment - in a look down upon sort of way rather than the typical way people look up to athletes - though the slight majority are probably decent wealthy people who just love national celebrities bringing pride to their town in a way no hockey player ever could.

These are not ethnic whites who idolize Russian brawlers missing teeth. These are pure bred whites, often with a bit of money, and whose children can be in lockstep with mainstream pop culture and crave hyped up sportswear with brands centered on NBA All-Pros as much as they crave modern prep-wear. They may love harassing an opponent verbally from above the stage but wouldn't last two minutes in a fight.

I've already conceded that it wouldn't be a bad place for a team, but it would not be as much of a slam-dunk (empty netter?) as prior expansion selections.

I know man, a lot of those White Utahans are steeped in mainstream culture, a lot of the white Utah boys wear fresh sneakers and they are cultured in the NBA, but hockey would be good for the state as well.