When the mission calls for a big sports upgrade, Utah enlists a billionaire

SALT LAKE CITY -- Dwyane Wade and his wife, Gabrielle Union, tried to mix in at the back of a crowd outside Salt Lake City's Delta Center in early October as thousands waited for a procession of stars to celebrate the opening night of the Utah Hockey Club's inaugural season.

Wade, the retired Basketball Hall of Fame guard who starred for the Miami Heat and is now a limited partner of the Utah Jazz and the Hockey Club, turned to Ryan Smith, his billionaire partner and the man who sold him on the idea of Utah as the next big thing in basketball, soccer and hockey. "I took a plane to watch hockey!" Wade told Smith over the crowd noise. "Never thought I'd do that in my life."

It was one of those "wow" moments that seems to accompany Smith wherever he gets involved these days. He purchased the Arizona Coyotes earlier this year and moved the team to Salt Lake City, rebranding it as the Utah Hockey Club. He is the majority shareholder in the Utah Jazz, with Wade and others as minority partners. He also holds limited-partner stakes in MLS' Real Salt Lake and the NWSL's Utah Royals. He helped bring the 2034 Winter Olympics to Utah. Smith also is behind a big redevelopment plan for downtown Salt Lake City.

Last week, there was another "wow" moment: A.J. Dybantsa, the nation's No. 1 high school basketball prospect, announced his decision to play for Brigham Young University. The 17-year-old secured an NIL financial package reportedly worth $4 million to $7 million. Dybantsa's representatives and Smith said the billionaire had no financial role in the blockbuster deal even though he met with the principals.

Either way, his fingerprints show up in the Dybantsa deal, along with many other recent big developments in Utah sports.

Smith is co-founder of Qualtrics, a tech firm that processes customer survey data to help businesses improve.

Smith's desire for Dybantsa to choose BYU is evident. He met twice with the teen's father, Ace Dybantsa, and financial adviser, Leonard Armato. Armato said one meeting, at Smith's office in Provo, Utah, lasted about an hour -- a significant amount of time for someone as busy as Smith, who has developed an image as the transformational engineer upgrading the state's sports profile.

And if there's one place where Smith is unabashed about making his mark, it's at BYU.

"If they need my help, I'm going to help them," Smith told ESPN months before Dybantsa committed to the Cougars. "I owe everything to BYU and I'm not going to say no. And they know that."

Ace Dybantsa told ESPN it was BYU's basketball program that drove his son's decision and that every school in contention offered the same amount of money. Armato said the interactions with Smith didn't influence the decision.

Smith told ESPN by email Monday: "As a fan, I love that AJ Dybantsa chose to play hoops in Utah. It shows the momentum of the state, but credit where credit is due, and it's not to me. Outside of buying tickets to BYU games, I didn't give any money to bring AJ to BYU, and BYU never asked me to anyway."

He acknowledged meeting with Armato "early in the process." Smith said the discussion focused on life in Utah and the business class he teaches at BYU.

Smith, 46, seems determined to extend his influence without drawing focus to his wealth. Those who have worked with him describe a mix of charisma, competitiveness, love of sports and unrelenting persistence as the ingredients behind his success.

Smith's willingness to mingle with crowds on the streets is part of the allure driving his popularity.

"It's been surreal to be able to have three sports teams [four professional clubs] here now in Utah owned by someone who will come hang out with the fans," said Gentry Anderson, a 32-year-old Salt Lake City resident who spoke with Smith while he and Wade mingled with the crowd.

Smith has long embraced a mission of doing what he could to elevate Utah's national profile. It's part of what drew him to sports ownership after he co-founded Qualtrics, then sold the company for $8 billion to German software giant SAP. The deal made billionaires of not only Smith but also his father, Scott, and brother, Jared.

After Smith and Wade worked the crowd ahead of the Hockey Club's Oct. 8 premiere, the two attended a Shaboozey outdoor concert where the performer played three renditions of his hit "A Bar Song (Tipsy)." The crowd went wild, presenting a juxtaposition of boozy celebration with Salt Lake's towering Mormon temple spires in the distance two blocks away.

IT'S JUST BEFORE 6 a.m. when Ryan Smith pulls into the parking lot of the Marriott Center, BYU's basketball arena. It's early, but this is the same morning ritual Smith has followed for years when his schedule allows: a pickup basketball game with friends from BYU and a handful of Qualtrics employees. These court sessions are full of intensity.

Over the years, the games have morphed into high-level pickup games with former pros and college stars, including coaches, former all-time NCAA steals leader John Linehan and BYU's all-time leading scorer, Tyler Haws. Smith can dunk and handle the ball as a point guard, demonstrating that he can still compete.

Here, he's not the tech billionaire or professional sports franchise owner or one of Utah's most well-known residents, but a man in Utah Jazz gear playing pickup ball in a place he loves; a man who shows no sign of flinching after a hard foul or being the target of some trash talk. Or having to sit out when his team loses.

This, for Smith, is home, and he is determined to see it flourish.

BYU DEPUTY ATHLETIC director Brian Santiago made a call one day in 2016, when Smith was still running Qualtrics. He said that conversations between him and Smith ranged from morning basketball games to ideas about the university. They became close friends, he added, bonding over sports, their families and life in Provo.

Smith told Santiago he wanted to help BYU, given the university's stated interest in joining a Power 5 league. Presentation time was at hand. Smith immediately said he was in. The phone call cascaded into a group of high-level influential people in the business and sports world brainstorming plans for a vision of what BYU could look like in a power conference and what the presentation would need to be.

"He's a great idea guy, and that's where we use him so much," BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said. "Just to be able to hit the right ideas, and you're talking about strategy. Sometimes, people just want to go to the default of money. ... That's far from where we are with Ryan."

Not to say Smith doesn't donate to BYU. He does. But the relationship goes far deeper than cash. He co-teaches a class at BYU's business school and met his wife, Ashley, when they were students there.

"I'm not a donor or involved with BYU because I went to school there," Smith said. "I'm there because I owe them a lot. It would be crazy for me to be in this situation and not remember where I came from."

Smith said the group's Power 5 planning process was similar to preparing an Olympic bid, going back and forth with Santiago, Holmoe and others to figure out "who we are." He downplayed his role, insisting he wasn't the architect but just a group contributor.

BYU didn't get into a Power 5 conference on that attempt, but Holmoe said the 2016 plan mapped out the strategies that eventually yielded successes. BYU got into the Big 12 starting in 2023 and has been landing big recruits such as Dybantsa.

IT'S AN AUGUST morning, and the cameras are on Smith outside what will become the Hockey Club's practice facility in Sandy, Utah. He sits in the front row, shakes hands and gives a short speech. He chats with architects, construction groups and politicians.

Then, he heads inside the Southtown Mall, where the team's practice facility will be built, and starts asking questions. Where will the hot tubs be? Where are the locker rooms and waiting room?

Smith is the face people see, the team's decision-maker. But collaboration is the focus of his pronouncements and the history behind Qualtrics' growth.

"I want everyone to be all-in on whatever we're doing. And if people don't speak, they can't be all-in," Smith said. "I want everything out there. And it doesn't mean people agree with me every time. It doesn't mean we agree with them."

The "we" includes Ashley, who played a large role in Smith's decisions to acquire the Jazz, the hockey team and all the challenges that came with them. The best thing, Ashley said, is when she and Ryan disagree. The quality of conversation in the midst of disagreement, she said, is what leads to a decision.

"We were thankful for the two of our brains combined and our different strengths," Ashley said. "... I also think he values my opinion, and so I have confidence in my opinion and so I'm not scared to share it."

With the profits from the sale of Qualtrics, Ryan Smith bought the Jazz for $1.66 billion in 2020 and built Utah Hockey for $1.22 billion, including purchasing the Coyotes' assets, less than four years later. His company, Smith Entertainment Group, is working to revitalize a major sector of downtown Salt Lake City near the Delta Center. That project has led to some public criticism because of an increased sales tax and the potential move of some landmark Salt Lake buildings. The approval process is still pending.

The redevelopment is geared toward boosting downtown's appeal for visitors, especially with the 2034 Olympics down the road. Smith was part of the bid-acceptance delegation in Paris this summer.

He said he hopes to change the perspective across the board of how the outside world sees Utah. "It's the same conversation I've had for 20 years with Utah and tech," Smith said. "I've been answering it forever. Every single reporter or journalist comes in and is like: Why Utah? Don't you need to be in Silicon Valley?"

Smith said he didn't think he'd end up owning the Utah Jazz. Flush with money and time after the Qualtrics sale, he began wondering what to do next. Basketball had been such a passion that the entrance to the Qualtrics building has a regulation basketball hoop. It's where he and then-SAP chief executive Bill McDermott had part of their first meeting -- shooting baskets.

At a 2019 conference in Salt Lake City, Smith pulled aside NBA commissioner Adam Silver for a private chat. Smith said he told him, "My dream is to become an NBA owner."

Purchasing the Jazz wasn't an option at the time. Smith had other franchise possibilities, in particular the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ashley weighed in with concerns about all the time it would entail being away from home, and far too many trips to the Twin Cities. They passed.

Then, Jazz owner Gail Miller said she wanted to sell the team and approached the Smiths. Silver told ESPN the deal was negotiated so quietly, "I didn't even know they were talking."

Smith said the decision didn't come easily. He and his wife were raising young kids. Ownership meant being in the public eye.

"We were signing up for another service, a long service, and that's a lot to think about," Smith said. "Not to mention, I don't care what anybody says, these are not great investments. We're not in this for the money."

WHEN THE SMITHS bought the Jazz and created Smith Entertainment Group, the learning curve was steep. He had grown up rooting for the team, but now he had to engage with and learn the franchise's inner workings. And he had to make it competitive.

Part of his initial meetings with employees was changing their small-market mindset. It meant securing bigger sponsorships, negotiating better television deals, introducing innovations.

He started making inroads with other owners. He said then-Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban "was awesome" helping integrate Smith into the league. Cuban told ESPN by email that he advised Smith to "have fun. To be himself. Not to be shy and to realize that the best teams communicate often with their fans." He talks a lot with Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who shared Smith's background in tech.

Smith landed a spot on the NBA's media committee, which helped negotiate the new national media rights deal and allowed him to innovate with over-the-air and streaming broadcast options for the Jazz's home audience.

Silver said Smith told him to "use me as a laboratory for the future of NBA broadcasts."

Smith also asked Danny Ainge, a longtime friend and fellow BYU alum, to help redevelop the franchise. Ainge, at first, resisted but found Smith's persistence tough to shake.

"He has these moments where he just kind of focuses [on one thing,]" Ainge said. "And when you're that focused, yeah, he can be annoying. [The guy] just won't stop and keeps going and going and going."

The two traveled to the Bahamas to watch one of Smith's friends, pro golfer Tony Finau play in a tournament. On the way back, Smith started pressing again. Even before Ainge agreed to join -- he said he would consider it -- Smith started brainstorming yet another idea: bringing hockey to Salt Lake.

With no franchises available at the time, he said he reached out to Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner. Over dinner in New York, with Ainge joining them, Smith and Bettman discussed what a Utah hockey franchise would look like.

In January, Smith submitted a formal request for an expansion franchise. Two months later, with trouble brewing for the Arizona Coyotes, Bettman told ESPN he began exploring ways to move the team to Utah and rebrand it.

Looking back at the process, which compressed what normally would be two years of preparations and negotiations into a matter of months, Bettman called what the Smiths did to get the team ready, from nothing to opening night, as "Herculean."

Bettman described Smith as "extraordinarily skilled at bringing people together. ... He not only has vision but the ability to execute."

Smith flew to Arizona to meet the team and answer questions. They played a round of golf. Then he flew the team to Utah for a public introduction. That's how the Utah Hockey Club was born.

SMITH IS INSIDE the Delta Center on opening night. The newly renovated arena is sold out. The crowd cheers for two men doing "shoeys": pouring beer into a shoe and chugging it. Wade said the atmosphere was like a "college tailgate."

Ryan and Ashley Smith dropped the ceremonial pregame pucks. Their months of intensive work were finally paying off. Fans, much to Ryan Smith's obvious delight, weren't holding back with their expressions of gratitude.

Smith insists that what he's doing isn't about empire-building. Selling Qualtrics in 2018 gave him the means to explore, think bigger, find more.

"No one's really given me anything in life," he said. Being self-driven, with a wife who shares that drive, has given him the focus to make Utah a contender.

The lesson is simple, he said. "If you wanted something, you have to go get it. It just doesn't happen any other way."