On Saturday, January 14, Utah Jazz Owner Ryan Smith alongside with Delta CEO Ed Bastian, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson met in a press conference to announce that the Delta Center is coming back July 2023 for Utah Jazz's 50th anniversary and years to come.
Even though the arena had gone through several names after Delta's departure in 2006, many Utahns still called the arena the Delta Center, and according to Delta CEO Ed Bastion, who has a home in Park City, said, "Every time somebody called it the Delta Center, it would bother me. I felt guilty just one more time, and when you add on top of the fact that we have 5,000 hard working women and men here in this community, in the city, in the state and the pride they take in the state and serving the community and having that arena, that was kind of taken away from them."
When Bastian attended a Jazz game in Atlanta with Ryan Smith, Bastian said that if there were an opportunity for the Delta Center to return, he would be interested. When Vivint agreed to give up naming rights to the arena, Bastian immediately took the opportunity.
Watch the full press release here:
