Salt Lake City, what does it eat in winter?

Do you know anyone who has ever visited Salt Lake City? If you answer Ben Cahoon because he signed your Alouettes jersey in 2006, that doesn’t count. We joke, but the city of saints, as it is nicknamed, comes far behind New York, Boston, Chicago, Buffalo and Miami among the popular destinations for Quebecers. Composite portrait of the NHL’s newest addition.

Population

Salt Lake City itself has only 200,000 residents, but its metropolitan area has 1.2 million (Census Bureau estimate as of 1^er July 2023). This makes him 47^e rank in the United States, according to a compilation by Statista. Buffalo, Hartford and New Orleans have similar populations, while closer to home, the Quebec metropolitan region has 800,000 souls. Salt Lake, however, is located in a growing state. In this same estimate for 2023, we learned that with an increase of 1.1% compared to 2022, Utah came in 9^e ranks among the 50 U.S. states for population growth. It’s been a white state for a long time; the Census Bureau estimates the proportion of the population that identifies as white at 76%, compared to 15.1% of Hispanics, 2.8% of Asians and 1.6% of African Americans.

Hockey players

“Yes, but Mr. Journalist, how many people like hockey in Utah? » Good question, little rascal. The Utah Grizzlies, who play in the suburbs, are one of the good teams in the ECHL at the box office every year. This season, they attracted 6,003 spectators per match. Totals for each team in the league have not yet been released by HockeyDB, but last season the Grizzlies came in at 9^e rank in the ECHL with 5,334 spectators on average. As for participation, Utah had 4,041 officially registered hockey players in 2022-23, according to USA Hockey. It is a basin comparable to those of Vermont, Idaho and Iowa. With a population of 3.4 million inhabitants, this means that one in a thousand inhabitants is registered for hockey. In Quebec, the proportion is ten times higher, with roughly one in a hundred Quebecers registered.

Very good hockey players

It will come as no surprise that Utah has never been a player factory for the NHL. Officially, the circuit lists five players native to this state in its history. The best known are Trevor Lewis and Steve Konowalchuk. They both grew up and played a good portion of their minor hockey in the state, as did Daniel Brickley. The other two, Richard Bachman and Dylan Olsen, were born in Utah but raised elsewhere.

Professional sports

The future team will have to share the winter with the Utah Jazz of the NBA. The MLS is also present in the city with Real Salt Lake, while the professional women’s soccer circuit, the NWSL, has just arrived there with the arrival of the Utah Royals as an expansion team. The Royals played their first-ever home game in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,370.

Economy

It is in a robust economy that the NHL arrives. The unemployment rate in Utah, and the Salt Lake City area, stood at 3.3% last February, according to the Bureau of Labor. This is below the 4.2% nationally. Financial services and transportation are the state’s primary economic drivers. Despite Utah’s beautiful national parks and ski resorts, tourism accounts for less than 1% of jobs, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune. However, this sector generates 3% of the state’s GDP.

New neighbor in the West

The Avalanche finally have company! Nathan MacKinnon’s team was indeed alone in its neck of the woods, but will now have a rival nearby, since Salt Lake City is an hour and a half from Denver by plane, to the west. Las Vegas is also located 90 minutes by plane, southwest of Salt Lake. Players better not suffer from aerophobia, as these are the shortest journeys the team will make.