The Top 10 Sports Businesses in Utah
Although even a knucklehead will “know” that the Utah Jazz organization is the No. 1 sports business in Utah, ranking the other nine top sports businesses in the state is another matter.
Utah may only have two major league sports franchises to support its 3.3 million residents, but don’t let anyone fool you — sports is big business in the State of Deseret.
Since the Utah Jazz announced last Friday that future NBA Hall of Fame player Dwyane Wade had purchased an ownership stake in the franchise, I felt it was appropriate to look at the state of sports businesses within the state this week.
As such, I’ve now created a ranking of what I believe are the Top 10 Sports Businesses in Utah in 2021.
To be clear, I suspect some of my rankings are not going to go over well with certain fans. Nevertheless, whether you agree or disagree with my rankings, I hope you’ll at least let me know and tell me why you think I’m wrong (or right). So here goes.
No. 10 Sports Business in Utah: Weber State University Wildcats
The Weber State Wildcats come in at No. 10 on my list of Top 10 Sports Businesses in Utah for two primary reasons:
Wildcat Football, and
Damian Lillard (aka, Dame).
Starting with Dame … the former Wildcat superstar hoopster is essentially carrying the Portland Trail Blazers on his back during this truncated 2020-21 NBA season, doing all he can to get Rip City into the Top Six in the NBA Western Conference so they can avoid the play-in tourney for the Conference Playoffs. A six-time NBA All-Star, Dame is having his 2nd best season in the Association based upon points (28.7) and assists (7.7) per game.
Conversely, for the second year in a row, the Weber State Wildcats are not only back in the FCS post-season playoffs, they also won their fourth straight Big Sky Conference Title. As a result, the Wildcats are hosting their first Football Championship Series playoff game this Saturday.
No. 9 Sports Business in Utah: The Salt Lake Bees
Although I may be a 90-minute flight away from catching an in-person game of my favorite San Francisco Giants, if I really have a hankering for some serious baseball, I can always head on downtown to watch the Salt Lake Bees play. And generally, they’re quite good.
As a Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, it’s a fairly common occurrence to see a former major leaguer (or an up-and-comer who is destined to play in The Show), at Smith’s Ballpark on any given evening. So although the Bees haven’t sniffed a conference title since the 2017 season, they still make my list as the No. 9 most important sports business in Utah.
No. 8 Sports Business in Utah: Utah State University Aggies
Straight-up, 2020 was not kind to Utah State University, football-wise
They had to fire their head football coach,
USU President, Noelle Crockett, was accused of making discriminatory comments during a video meeting with members of the football team last fall, and
They finished a woeful 1—5 (with two games cancelled due to Covid-19), but lost those five games by a combined score of 52—184. Ouch!
But … the Aggies won their conference championship in men’s basketball this March and (as a result), made it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010, even though the team qualified for the 2020 tourney before Covid cancelled it.
Hence, football challenges notwithstanding and as the 3rd largest collegiate athletics program in the state, the USU Aggies come in as the No. 8 most important sports business in the State of Deseret.
No. 7 Sports Business in Utah: Real Salt Lake
As challenging as USU’s football year may have been in 2020, it was nothing compared to the mess suffered by Real Salt Lake, unfortunately a mess caused by the front office.
In summary, late last summer multiple reports were published by leading sports journalists at The Athletic and the Salt Lake Tribune that Real owner, Dell Loy Hansen, had a history of making racist remarks, both in public and private.
Such comments eventually led Dell Loy to decide to sell all of his soccer holdings, including
Major League Soccer team, Real Salt Lake,
National Women’s Soccer League team, Utah Royals FC,
United Soccer League Championship team, Real Monarchs,
Rio Tinto Stadium,
A soccer training complex and associated academy, and
A high school on-site at the complex.
Although different parties have expressed interest in purchasing RSL and the related assets, the sale has not been consummated yet, with MLS taking the lead in selling Real Salt Lake.
No. 6 Sports Business in Utah: Locked-On Podcast Network
In the sports world, Salt Lake-City-based Locked-On Podcast Network is a big deal: even if you’ve never heard of it before. Case in point, before it was acquired in late January by multibillion-dollar media company, Tegna, the Locked-on Podcast Network
Produced over 600 episodes weekly via 160 podcasts,
Covered every major league sports team in America and
Most major college sports teams in the U.S.,
Generated over 8 million listens/month.
The brainchild of owner and Utah Jazz radio announcer, David Locke, Locked-on Podcast Network is a sports junkie’s dream.
No. 5 Sports Business in Utah (tie): Utah Utes & BYU Cougars
Although I can make a fairly reasoned argument that Brigham Young University had a better athletics year in 2020 than the University of Utah Utes (especially in men’s basketball and in football, both on the field and in media coverage), the reality is that both programs are quite equal in impact and importance in the state.
Although both athletics programs were hit by Covid-19, the reality is that decisions made inside the corporate offices of the PAC-12 Conference exacerbated government restrictions on the ground in California, Oregon and Washington. This led to fewer games, decreased visibility, and lowered revenue for the Utes through its primary money generator: the Running Utes football team.
Let’s also recall that such restrictions wiped-out five PAC-12 contests for the Gridiron Cougs, leading to yeoman efforts by BYU’s Athletics Director, Tom Holmoe, and his crew in rebuilding an 11-game regular season schedule on-the-fly. It’s also why Tom recently won AD of the Year honors for such efforts.
To be clear, both athletics programs initially projected major revenue reductions tied to Covid — $50 million and $25 million, respectively, for the Utes and the Cougs. Based upon the most recently available data, both will probably lose money for the 2020—2021 school year, with BYU a bit closer to breakeven due to significant donor contributions.
Presuming that the Covid mess is mostly eliminated by this fall, however, I expect both BYU and Utah to return to their winning ways on the figurative field of battle and in their athletics departments. That is why I show the Utah Utes and the BYU Cougars as tied for the No. 5 most important sports businesses in the Utah.
No. 3 Sports Business in Utah: Golf in Utah
Do you golf? Me — not very often, especially not with a torn labrum. But a lot of my friends do … a lot.
But according to the now decade-old research from the Utah Golf Association (Utah Golf Economic and Environmental Impact Report), Utah’s golf industry produces over $800 million in economic impact in the state annually, all while employing over 9,500 people. And that’s for a state that has a solid 5+ months a year where golf isn’t possible.
And remember, Utah has zero PGA Tour events during the year, which are major revenue generators (although the state will host both developmental PGA and LPGA events in 2021). But at $800 million in annual revenue, the business of golf qualifies for the No. 3 ranking for the most important sports business in Utah.
No. 2 Sports Business in Utah: 15 Ski Resorts in Utah
So far I’ve had a tough time coming up with any industry that wasn’t slammed in one way or another by Covid-19, including the ski industry.
Obviously, skiing and snowboarding are highly dependent upon snowfall for successful seasons. So a lower than average precipitation year coupled with Covid was not a good combination for Utah’s 2020 ski season.
However, with 15 total resorts in the state (see below), clearly ski and snowboarding (and the related activities) make for a major business for Utah.
How major? The latest data from Ski Utah (which is for the 2019—2020 season), places the annual revenue at over $1.5 billion (even with the season chopped off in March). This was the second-highest revenue season for Utah’s ski industry ever.
So … does it make sense that the collective 15 Ski Resorts in the State of Deseret come with the No. 2 ranking for the most important sports business in Utah? Absolutely.
No. 1 Sports Business in Utah: The Utah Jazz
Besides Donovan Mitchell’s right ankle sprain, what’s not to like about the Utah Jazz right now?
The team currently
Has a 43—15 record, tops in the Association (and a better record at this time in a season than any other Jazz team);
Is the No. 3 best offensive team in the NBA at 116.9 points per game;
Gives up only 107.7 points/game, the 4th best defensive team in the NBA;
Is the No. 2 rebounding team in the Association; and the Utah Jazz is also
Taking an astounding 43.2 three-point shots per game (No. 1 in the NBA), and it’s making 39% of those attempts.
On top of these facts, it appears that the Ryan Smith-led ownership group has invigorated the players, coaches, staff, and community with such bold moves as
Acquiring the Jazz for $1.6 billion last fall;
Instituting a breakthrough full-ride four-year college scholarship program designed to assist underrepresented students of color; and then last week
Shocking the sports world with the announcement that —
Three-time NBA world champion and future Hall of Fame Player, Dwyane Wade, was purchasing a minority stake in the Utah Jazz.
ESPN’s Senior NBA Insider, Adrian Wojnarowski, broke the Dwyane news last Friday morning as I was driving eastbound on Interstate 80 somewhere between Evanston and Green River, Wyoming, news that made 1280 the Zone’sScotty G and Hans Olsen go crazy over the airwaves.
Dwyane is also a
3X NBA Champion (2006, 2012, 2013),
NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (2006),
13X NBA All-Star (2005—2016, 2019),
Gold Medal Winner, Team USA, Beijing Summer Olympics (2008),
Retired after 2019 NBA season,
Seasoned entrepreneur and investor; and apparently
Opted to not accept an offer to join the ownership group of the Miami Heat.
To be clear, the NBA now requires minority team owners to hold at least a 1% stake in any franchise, which means Dwyane would have put up at least $20 million to become a Utah Jazz owner.
Bottom line, is there any doubt that the Utah Jazz are worthy of the No. 1 ranking for the most important sports business in Utah? Of course not.
So there you have it — my 2021 ranking of the Top 10 Sports Businesses in Utah.
ICYMI: If you haven’t read last Friday’s Week-in-Review report from Deseret Business Watch — Daybreak Sold, Amazon-Utah Employee Growth, and More (The Week-in-Review, April 10—16, 2021)— I hope you’ll do so now.
This particular issue looks at seven separate news stories from the business community of Utah, and I think you’ll find the entire edition of DBW worth your time. Thanks.
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About the Author
David Politis is a Marketing Mercenary, which is a fancy way of saying that organizations and individuals hire him to solve their marketing problems. To learn more, please feel free to visit David’s LinkedIn Profile or the website for his business: The David Politis Company. Additionally, if you have a story idea for him (or would just like to connect), you can reach him at me@davidpolitis.com.