Utah Jazz, airline renames Salt Lake Arena in July 2023

Vivint Arena will be officially renamed on July 1st.

Many residents haven’t stopped calling Salt Lake City’s downtown square as the Delta Center—even though the building officially changed its name all the way back in 2006.

Soon they will be right again.

The Utah Jazz announced Saturday that it has entered into a long-term naming rights deal with Delta Air Lines, the Atlanta-based airline. Hub at Salt Lake City International Airport. The arena will continue to be referred to as Vivint Arena until July 1, when the changeover is made official.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Jazz owner Ryan Smith told The Salt Lake Tribune that the intent was to keep the Delta Center name for decades to come. Last week, the Tribune reported that Delta I signed a lease extension With Salt Lake City to maintain Utah’s carrier status until at least mid-2044, with an option for another 10 years after that. Sports Business Publication Sportico spoke to the experts Which estimated the value of the deal between 6 and 8 million dollars a year.

“Our commitment to this community is clear. It is the fourth largest airport in the world. It operates 250 flights a day and growing,” said Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines. “There are billions of dollars that we trust in the city and the community, but there has always been a Something is missing.”

Come July 1, the Delta Center logo will be back on the building’s exterior. The team’s Delta Clubhouse in the stadium’s basement will also get an update. One of the first events in the renamed arena would be the Salt Lake City Summer League, later that week.

Saturday’s press conference at 1 p.m. featured a number of big names: Bastien, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Irene Mendenhall and Salt Lake County Sheriff Jenny Wilson. From the Jazz side, Smith and his wife Ashley, former owner Jill Miller, head coach Will Hardy, CEO Danny Ange, and even All-Stars Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur and Leonard “Truck” Robinson all appeared.

The arena was first called the Delta Center when it opened in 1991. Delta filed for bankruptcy in 2005, citing rising fuel costs and faced more low-cost competition, and did not renew its sponsorship agreement with the team in 2006. The airline emerged from bankruptcy 19 months later. .

“We had a hard time in the aftermath of 9/11, the whole airline industry went through. We had to make some tough decisions to get costs down quickly. I was the one who sat in a chair, made the decision to take the name out of the arena, and 16 years later it still is.” It haunts me.” “It is a real honor to be back. It’s nice coming home, after 16 years, it’s really special.”

Meanwhile, the Jazz sold the stadium’s naming rights to a low-level nuclear waste processing company energy solutions. Vivint Smart Home He bought the stadium’s 10-year naming rights in 2015. (In 2020, the “smart home” part of the arena’s name was dropped).

Vivint’s deal was not set to expire until 2025. However, in conjunction with the Delta arrangement, Vivint agreed to a new sponsorship agreement with Smith Entertainment Group, the company that owns Jazz and the Arena. Under the renegotiated deal, which runs through the 2030 season, Vivint will retain the rights to its stand on the field, along with in-game promotions, advertising packages, and digital ads placed on the field during team telecasts.

“No company is a bigger fan of Jazz than Vivint and we look forward to continuing our partnership,” Todd Santiago, chief revenue officer of Vivint Smart Home, said in a statement.

“They’re big fans of jazz, and everybody knows what that means,” said Smith. “I think this is probably the only naming rights deal where Vivint will work with us to do that.”

As for the deal with Delta, it came together after Smith and Bastian attended a game in Atlanta together in 2021. Discussion of the old Delta Center name came up, and Bastian told Smith he wanted to pursue reviving the naming rights deal.

“If there is an opportunity to do something that rectifies that, I would be very interested in looking into that,” Bastien told Smith.

And Bastian had wanted to keep Delta in Salt Lake City, the name of the Delta Center, for a long time. “This is much deeper than just a name on a building or a sponsorship deal,” Bastian said. “There are real roots here, and we want to continue to bring Utah to the world and the world to Utah. The fact that we’re coming back here, putting a real great brand with 5,000 employees behind it here — we’ll never leave.”

Both Bastian and Smith know that reviving the Delta Center name would be a nostalgia for Utah.

“It’s not even the name, it’s the memories, like going to the yard as a kid with my grandpa,” said Smith. “I see Mohammed there and the other ex-players — when we say ‘Once a jazzman, always a jazzman,’ this is your home.”