What? Make no mistake...Climate Pleadge is a completely new stadium. The only thing they kept was the roof because it was considered such a local treasure to the community. They literally cut the roof off, lifted it up, demolished everything underneath, dug deep into the earth and then built a completely new stadium that was designed to allow the old roof to sit on top. This actually significantly increased the cost of the project but was done as a commitment to the community.
Now, I'm not saying that SLC's final project will be as good because it's not a complete gut, but I will say that there is the potential for this to really be considered a completely different arena once completed.
I'm actually willing to give Ryan Smith the benefit of the doubt that I would never have extended to Shenkarow, Gluckstern & Burke, Ellman, Moyes, the NHL, IceArizona, Barroway, or Meruelo. Think about the difference in finances and competence between Smith and all these others. My biggest beef with Ryan is that I want to default spelling his last name as Smyth.