Utah News Dispatch
Smith Entertainment Group plans to build new music venue near Delta Center
Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation; Ryan and Ashley Smith, owners of Smith Entertainment Group pose with Utah and Salt Lake City elected officials at the announcement of a new indoor music venue in downtown Salt Lake City (Alixel Cabrera/Utah News Dispatch)
This story has been updated with details from Smith Entertainment Group’s news conference.
In addition to a remodeled Delta Center and a reimagined convention center, Salt Lake City’s downtown sports and entertainment district will have another landmark — a brand new 6,000-seat indoor music venue.
Smith Entertainment Group, the owner of Utah’s NBA and NHL franchises announced on Tuesday a partnership with Live Nation Entertainment to build the new venue, the first of many major announcements for the heart of the state-created downtown sports, entertainment, culture, and convention center district.
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“Once the transformation of Delta Center was underway, partnering with Live Nation on what a world-class concert venue could look like in downtown became a top priority. Not only will it bring the best artists in the world to Utah, but it will also bring a million people downtown to experience Salt Lake City every year,” Ryan Smith, chair and CEO of Smith Entertainment Group said in a statement.
Both Smith Entertainment Group and Live Nation will commit “considerable financial investment” for the project, Smith said.
The announcement comes after Salt Lake City’s approval of a 0.5% sales tax increase to gather $900 million mostly to renovate the Delta Center to equip it to host hockey games, but also to redevelop three downtown blocks. That was part of a plan drawn by a 2024 law that allowed Salt Lake City to help fund renovations to the Delta Center and an enhanced downtown.
The new development is considerably smaller than its neighboring Delta Center, which is able to accommodate 12,000 to 19,000 attendees in Salt Lake City and will continue hosting concerts and other entertainment events “while the new venue will serve artists seeking a best-in-class, mid-size indoor option,” according to a news release.
Smith Entertainment Group expects to host 200 events a year, including 100 concerts and other corporate, conference and community events.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall described the project as “a perfect fit for downtown,” bringing new entertainment opportunities to Utah’s capital and providing people in and out of state a chance to see artists’ performances.
Mendenhall hasn’t heard directly about whether Smith Entertainment Group will tap into the $375 million of taxpayer dollars the company is allowed to use for the downtown district for this venue. But, she said, she assumes some of those funds will be used for the deal.
“It’s worth noting that there isn’t a venue like this in Salt Lake City, so this is additional to the industry and the atmosphere of entertainment in the city. It’s not duplicative. And Live Nation is the best in the United States at doing these kinds of shows,” Mendenhall said.
For Smith, this means that many artists that usually fly over Utah during their tours will actually stop and bring their shows to Salt Lake City. And for Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation, it opens up opportunities for musicians.
“Six thousand is a new sweet spot in music,” Rapino said in a news conference Tuesday. “Lots of artists can play arenas. Some can play 200 seats, but there’s a big middle ground where they can’t quite solo the arena at 15,000 so they want to find that venue of 5,000, 6,000.”
There isn’t a rendering of the development available yet, and plans for the building are still under development, Mike Maughan, a Smith Entertainment Group executive said. However, the company knows the venue will be on the 6.5 acres in between the Delta Center and the Salt Palace Convention Center. Demolition in the area will likely begin in early 2027.
Smith Entertainment Group is currently identifying an architect for that mid block to determine a phasing plan.
The project is a joint venture, Smith said, with Live Nation acting as operator of the venue and “controlling the experience, which is probably what’s way more important than who the landlord is.”
The venue is also part of a Live Nation national expansion in sports and entertainment districts, adding to the MGM Music Hall at Boston’s Fenway Park and other similar projects in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Atlanta.
