The Kings' visit to Salt Lake City without financial support from the city or state of Utah is simply due to the good relationship between the Utah Jazz organization and Kings President Luc Robitaille.
• Also read: Kings in Salt Lake City without subsidies: Girard should apologize, says PLQ
The Jazz is the NBA club that operates the Delta Center, an arena in Salt Lake City that will host the Sept. 23 preseason game between the Kings and Golden Knights.
Unlike Quebec, no politician felt the need to ensure the royals' presence by spending millions to cover their expenses.
“Our senior vice president of events, Mark Powell, simply called Luc Robitaille and pitched him the idea of bringing the Kings to our arena.
“Over the months they developed a great friendship, then Luc expressed his interest and they finally agreed. Salt Lake City is known for its ability to host large-scale events, and the city had the necessary infrastructure. “We got the Frozen Fury the same way we have other sporting events or concerts in the past,” concluded Cassie Batinich, director of corporate communications and public relations for the Utah Jazz, in an exchange with the newspaper.
- Listen to the interview with Frédéric Beauchemin, Liberal MP for Marguerite-Bourgeoys and official opposition finance spokesperson QUB :
A market that needs to be developed
This won't be Salt Lake City's first experience with the NHL.
This will be the Kings' third consecutive year playing at the Delta Center and will be the sixth NHL exhibition game at the venue. This new agreement should be valid for “several years”.
Jazz owner Ryan Smith has repeatedly expressed a desire to one day get an NHL team and in recent weeks has even formally asked the league to begin an expansion process.
Luc Robitaille, for his part, believes it is necessary to further develop the Salt Lake City market, as he said in the press release announcing the agreement.
“The Kings greatly value their relationship with Delta Center and we always look forward to our annual preseason game.
“Salt Lake City is a great hockey market. This agreement allows us to bring National League hockey to a beautiful region and to fans who are passionate about our sport.”
A modest contribution
However, as La Presse reported, there will be no help from local governments.
Only the Utah Sports Commission, a nonprofit organization funded by the state of Utah, will be involved as with other sporting events.
It was not possible to know how much, but according to La Presse, the total amount of sponsorship for all sporting events in the region is only between 2 and 5.5 million per year.
We can therefore easily deduce that the implication is clearly not on the same scale as the support offered by the Quebec Finance Minister.