Ashley and Ryan Smith, the couple trying to revitalize Salt Lake

SALT LAKE CITY – Ryan and Ashley Smith are Utah’s new power couple. As owners of the Utah Jazz and new NHL team Real Salt Lake, among others, they find themselves in a position of influence.

When the two men bought the Arizona Coyotes to bring an NHL team to Utah, they said they saw an opportunity to expand their vision — to reshape a key area of ​​Salt Lake City.

“This is about the legacy of the state and the legacy of downtown,” said Ryan Smith, president of Smith Entertainment Group. “This is really going to help our downtown prepare for the future and differentiate itself from a lot of the surrounding downtowns that are struggling. So it’s a worthy mission. It’s a worthy cause.”

“We’re not going to let fear or uncertainty hold back growth,” said Ashley Smith, co-owner of Smith Entertainment Group. “I think live entertainment is an opportunity to improve our state, to bring people together, to unite them, despite our differences, and whether it’s sports or the arts, we want to make it work there.”

A similar childhood

The duo said their confidence comes from decades of resilience, which began with difficult childhood years. Ashley Smith’s parents divorced when she was young. She and her siblings lived with her mother.

“We lived in a very small space. She always had two jobs and it was really tough. We all brought everything we had, which is a real blessing today,” she said.

Ashley Smith credits her childhood for who she is today and the defining characteristics she has that she is proud of.

“I’m really grateful for my childhood, and I’m grateful for the freak experiences and not having a manual or looking at my friends and trying to do what they were doing,” Ashley Smith said.

Ryan Smith’s parents are also divorced. He said his father was not the type to “come to your rescue” if you failed.

“He has a lot more patience and foresight to let his kids fail,” he said. “And you know, I was one of those people who was failing a lot, especially in high school at that time, and I dropped out, and here you have two parents, who are academics and PhDs, who are saying, ‘OK, I’m going to let my kid learn the hard way.’ It’s really hard, but for me, that’s what was necessary.”

Ryan Smith, 17, had to learn the hard way about living alone in South Korea after plans to move in with friends fell through. He said his friends eventually let him live in the county after a week, forcing him to figure out how to make money on his own.

“I remember calling my dad and he said, ‘Well, do you know anybody there?’ ‘Well, I met a guy in that room.’ ‘Well, go see if you can crash at his place. Well, I’m not going to let you off the hook,’” Ryan Smith said.

Ryan Smith said his father’s resilience and patience in the face of his failures helped him figure things out for himself when he needed to.

“I think his philosophy was, ‘Well, this is only going to go so far. We’ll see how far it can go,'” Ryan Smith said. “And you know, I don’t think anyone anticipated that I’d be there for 15 to 18 months at the age of 17.”

He said his time in South Korea shaped his life.

“I ended up meeting a bunch of people. I ended up living with four random people from Utah for three months of my trip—after sleeping on floors and couches and not seeing anyone who spoke English for a really long time.

“These people that I ended up living with impacted me and our future forever,” he said. “When I came back from Korea, I decided to serve a mission with the Latter-day Saints, went to Mexico City, came back and really started my life at 21.”

An accounting course at BYU

Ryan and Ashley Smith met in an accounting class at Brigham Young University. She said the two hit it off quickly.

“We were very intrigued by each other and interested in each other from the moment we met,” she said. “I think we were both not convinced about the whole institution of marriage, maybe because of our childhoods.”

She said both were highly motivated individually and wanted to grow through their own work. She believes their similar childhoods and upbringings contributed to their mutual attraction.

“I’ve thought a lot about whether or not it has anything to do with the way we were raised, and we have very hard-working parents, both of them exceptionally hard-working,” she said.

“I think we saw those things in each other, and we dated for a long time, five years, especially in that culture. It’s abnormal, but it was incredibly perfect for us and it was definitely part of the springboard for what we’re doing today. So what do you think?” she asked Ryan Smith.

“I’ve been listening to you talk all day,” he said with a smile. “No, I think Ash’s right. We ended up studying together, and I was like, ‘You’re super smart, way smarter than me!’ We ended up going through the process and becoming really good friends. I think we both wanted to get to know each other as much as possible.”

Building personal goals and supporting each other

Building their partnership began with separate goals in two basements — one where Ryan Smith and his father were building Qualtrics, a multibillion-dollar tech company, and the other where Ashley Smith was teaching dance and starting her own business.

Ashley Smith said her love for the arts came from her parents. She developed her own passion for dance and her partner supported her.

“We were raised with a love of the arts. It’s a big passion for both of my parents, and I think I started dancing once we moved to Las Vegas, and it was definitely a safe place for me, a place where I could express my emotions, a place where I knew I was a part of something, and I had teachers and mentors that I trusted,” she said.

Although the dance world wasn’t always a healthy environment, Ashley Smith said, it was a “safe place” for her.

“Whether it’s music or dance, the arts have always been a way for me to feel emotions. So it’s something that I always wanted to incorporate into my life. I didn’t know it would become a career. And I have Ryan to thank for that because he’s the one who encouraged me to pursue my passion,” she said. “When I started having my own children, I realized it was a great way to grow.”

After all that hard work, Ashley Smith became the owner and artistic director of Smash Dance Academy, a studio with 16 employees and 600 students.

Meanwhile, Ryan Smith said Qualtrics was an overnight success that took 17 years, but his wife believed in him.

“There was nothing, nothing for the second, third or fourth year,” Ryan Smith said. “She never asked questions like, ‘You don’t have a job?’ ‘You’re turning down other jobs to do this?’”

Eventually, Qualtrics was sold for $8 billion. The Smiths said neither of them ever took the easy way out — and they still don’t.

“A lot of times the path or step in front of you is the easiest step to take,” Ryan Smith said.

“We saw the important values ​​that are a core part of our family, who we are today and the decisions we make today. I’m not afraid of risks,” Ashley Smith said.

This forward movement has allowed the Smiths to become team owners in the sports world and community leaders who propose an idea to reshape a capital city.

On Tuesday, the couple will discuss how they started this journey to team ownership and the drive to change Utah on KSL TV at 10 p.m.