SALT LAKE CITY -- Dwyane Wade and his wife, Gabrielle Union, tried to mix in at the back of a crowd outside Salt Lake City's Delta Center in early October as thousands waited for a procession of stars to celebrate the opening night of the Utah Hockey Club's inaugural season.

Wade, the retired Basketball Hall of Fame guard who starred for the Miami Heat and is now a limited partner of the Utah Jazz and the Hockey Club, turned to Ryan Smith, his billionaire partner and the man who sold him on the idea of Utah as the next big thing in basketball, soccer and hockey. "I took a plane to watch hockey!" Wade told Smith over the crowd noise. "Never thought I'd do that in my life."

It was one of those "wow" moments that seems to accompany Smith wherever he gets involved these days. He purchased the Arizona Coyotes earlier this year and moved the team to Salt Lake City, rebranding it as the Utah Hockey Club. He is the majority shareholder in the Utah Jazz, with Wade and others as minority partners. He also holds limited-partner stakes in MLS' Real Salt Lake and the NWSL's Utah Royals. He helped bring the 2034 Winter Olympics to Utah. Smith also is behind a big redevelopment plan for downtown Salt Lake City.

Last week, there was another "wow" moment: A.J. Dybantsa, the nation's No. 1 high school basketball prospect, announced his decision to play for Brigham Young University. The 17-year-old secured an NIL financial package reportedly worth $4 million to $7 million. Dybantsa's representatives and Smith said the billionaire had no financial role in the blockbuster deal even though he met with the principals.

Either way, his fingerprints show up in the Dybantsa deal, along with many other recent big developments in Utah sports.

Smith is co-founder of Qualtrics, a tech firm that processes customer survey data to help businesses improve.

Smith's desire for Dybantsa to choose BYU is evident. He met twice with the teen's father, Ace Dybantsa, and financial adviser, Leonard Armato. Armato said one meeting, at Smith's office in Provo, Utah, lasted about an hour -- a significant amount of time for someone as busy as Smith, who has developed an image as the transformational engineer upgrading the state's sports profile.

And if there's one place where Smith is unabashed about making his mark, it's at BYU.

"If they need my help, I'm going to help them," Smith told ESPN months before Dybantsa committed to the Cougars. "I owe everything to BYU and I'm not going to say no. And they know that."

Ace Dybantsa told ESPN it was BYU's basketball program that drove his son's decision and that every school in contention offered the same amount of money. Armato said the interactions with Smith didn't influence the decision.

Smith told ESPN by email Monday: "As a fan, I love that AJ Dybantsa chose to play hoops in Utah. It shows the momentum of the state, but credit where credit is due, and it's not to me. Outside of buying tickets to BYU games, I didn't give any money to bring AJ to BYU, and BYU never asked me to anyway."

He acknowledged meeting with Armato "early in the process." Smith said the discussion focused on life in Utah and the business class he teaches at BYU.

Smith, 46, seems determined to extend his influence without drawing focus to his wealth. Those who have worked with him describe a mix of charisma, competitiveness, love of sports and unrelenting persistence as the ingredients behind his success.

Smith's willingness to mingle with crowds on the streets is part of the allure driving his popularity.

"It's been surreal to be able to have three sports teams [four professional clubs] here now in Utah owned by someone who will come hang out with the fans," said Gentry Anderson, a 32-year-old Salt Lake City resident who spoke with Smith while he and Wade mingled with the crowd.

Smith has long embraced a mission of doing what he could to elevate Utah's national profile. It's part of what drew him to sports ownership after he co-founded Qualtrics, then sold the company for $8 billion to German software giant SAP. The deal made billionaires of not only Smith but also his father, Scott, and brother, Jared.

After Smith and Wade worked the crowd ahead of the Hockey Club's Oct. 8 premiere, the two attended a Shaboozey outdoor concert where the performer played three renditions of his hit "A Bar Song (Tipsy)." The crowd went wild, presenting a juxtaposition of boozy celebration with Salt Lake's towering Mormon temple spires in the distance two blocks away.

IT'S JUST BEFORE 6 a.m. when Ryan Smith pulls into the parking lot of the Marriott Center, BYU's basketball arena. It's early, but this is the same morning ritual Smith has followed for years when his schedule allows: a pickup basketball game with friends from BYU and a handful of Qualtrics employees. These court sessions are full of intensity.

Over the years, the games have morphed into high-level pickup games with former pros and college stars, including coaches, former all-time NCAA steals leader John Linehan and BYU's all-time leading scorer, Tyler Haws. Smith can dunk and handle the ball as a point guard, demonstrating that he can still compete.

Here, he's not the tech billionaire or professional sports franchise owner or one of Utah's most well-known residents, but a man in Utah Jazz gear playing pickup ball in a place he loves; a man who shows no sign of flinching after a hard foul or being the target of some trash talk. Or having to sit out when his team loses.

This, for Smith, is home, and he is determined to see it flourish.

BYU DEPUTY ATHLETIC director Brian Santiago made a call one day in 2016, when Smith was still running Qualtrics. He said that conversations between him and Smith ranged from morning basketball games to ideas about the university. They became close friends, he added, bonding over sports, their families and life in Provo.

Smith told Santiago he wanted to help BYU, given the university's stated interest in joining a Power 5 league. Presentation time was at hand. Smith immediately said he was in. The phone call cascaded into a group of high-level influential people in the business and sports world brainstorming plans for a vision of what BYU could look like in a power conference and what the presentation would need to be.

"He's a great idea guy, and that's where we use him so much," BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said. "Just to be able to hit the right ideas, and you're talking about strategy. Sometimes, people just want to go to the default of money. ... That's far from where we are with Ryan."

Not to say Smith doesn't donate to BYU. He does. But the relationship goes far deeper than cash. He co-teaches a class at BYU's business school and met his wife, Ashley, when they were students there.

"I'm not a donor or involved with BYU because I went to school there," Smith said. "I'm there because I owe them a lot. It would be crazy for me to be in this situation and not remember where I came from."

Smith said the group's Power 5 planning process was similar to preparing an Olympic bid, going back and forth with Santiago, Holmoe and others to figure out "who we are." He downplayed his role, insisting he wasn't the architect but just a group contributor.

BYU didn't get into a Power 5 conference on that attempt, but Holmoe said the 2016 plan mapped out the strategies that eventually yielded successes. BYU got into the Big 12 starting in 2023 and has been landing big recruits such as Dybantsa.

IT'S AN AUGUST morning, and the cameras are on Smith outside what will become the Hockey Club's practice facility in Sandy, Utah. He sits in the front row, shakes hands and gives a short speech. He chats with architects, construction groups and politicians.

Then, he heads inside the Southtown Mall, where the team's practice facility will be built, and starts asking questions. Where will the hot tubs be? Where are the locker rooms and waiting room?

Smith is the face people see, the team's decision-maker. But collaboration is the focus of his pronouncements and the history behind Qualtrics' growth.

"I want everyone to be all-in on whatever we're doing. And if people don't speak, they can't be all-in," Smith said. "I want everything out there. And it doesn't mean people agree with me every time. It doesn't mean we agree with them."

The "we" includes Ashley, who played a large role in Smith's decisions to acquire the Jazz, the hockey team and all the challenges that came with them. The best thing, Ashley said, is when she and Ryan disagree. The quality of conversation in the midst of disagreement, she said, is what leads to a decision.

"We were thankful for the two of our brains combined and our different strengths," Ashley said. "... I also think he values my opinion, and so I have confidence in my opinion and so I'm not scared to share it."

With the profits from the sale of Qualtrics, Ryan Smith bought the Jazz for $1.66 billion in 2020 and built Utah Hockey for $1.22 billion, including purchasing the Coyotes' assets, less than four years later. His company, Smith Entertainment Group, is working to revitalize a major sector of downtown Salt Lake City near the Delta Center. That project has led to some public criticism because of an increased sales tax and the potential move of some landmark Salt Lake buildings. The approval process is still pending.

The redevelopment is geared toward boosting downtown's appeal for visitors, especially with the 2034 Olympics down the road. Smith was part of the bid-acceptance delegation in Paris this summer.

He said he hopes to change the perspective across the board of how the outside world sees Utah. "It's the same conversation I've had for 20 years with Utah and tech," Smith said. "I've been answering it forever. Every single reporter or journalist comes in and is like: Why Utah? Don't you need to be in Silicon Valley?"

Smith said he didn't think he'd end up owning the Utah Jazz. Flush with money and time after the Qualtrics sale, he began wondering what to do next. Basketball had been such a passion that the entrance to the Qualtrics building has a regulation basketball hoop. It's where he and then-SAP chief executive Bill McDermott had part of their first meeting -- shooting baskets.

At a 2019 conference in Salt Lake City, Smith pulled aside NBA commissioner Adam Silver for a private chat. Smith said he told him, "My dream is to become an NBA owner."

Purchasing the Jazz wasn't an option at the time. Smith had other franchise possibilities, in particular the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ashley weighed in with concerns about all the time it would entail being away from home, and far too many trips to the Twin Cities. They passed.

Then, Jazz owner Gail Miller said she wanted to sell the team and approached the Smiths. Silver told ESPN the deal was negotiated so quietly, "I didn't even know they were talking."

Smith said the decision didn't come easily. He and his wife were raising young kids. Ownership meant being in the public eye.

"We were signing up for another service, a long service, and that's a lot to think about," Smith said. "Not to mention, I don't care what anybody says, these are not great investments. We're not in this for the money."

WHEN THE SMITHS bought the Jazz and created Smith Entertainment Group, the learning curve was steep. He had grown up rooting for the team, but now he had to engage with and learn the franchise's inner workings. And he had to make it competitive.

Part of his initial meetings with employees was changing their small-market mindset. It meant securing bigger sponsorships, negotiating better television deals, introducing innovations.

He started making inroads with other owners. He said then-Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban "was awesome" helping integrate Smith into the league. Cuban told ESPN by email that he advised Smith to "have fun. To be himself. Not to be shy and to realize that the best teams communicate often with their fans." He talks a lot with Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who shared Smith's background in tech.

Smith landed a spot on the NBA's media committee, which helped negotiate the new national media rights deal and allowed him to innovate with over-the-air and streaming broadcast options for the Jazz's home audience.

Silver said Smith told him to "use me as a laboratory for the future of NBA broadcasts."

Smith also asked Danny Ainge, a longtime friend and fellow BYU alum, to help redevelop the franchise. Ainge, at first, resisted but found Smith's persistence tough to shake.

"He has these moments where he just kind of focuses [on one thing,]" Ainge said. "And when you're that focused, yeah, he can be annoying. [The guy] just won't stop and keeps going and going and going."

The two traveled to the Bahamas to watch one of Smith's friends, pro golfer Tony Finau play in a tournament. On the way back, Smith started pressing again. Even before Ainge agreed to join -- he said he would consider it -- Smith started brainstorming yet another idea: bringing hockey to Salt Lake.

With no franchises available at the time, he said he reached out to Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner. Over dinner in New York, with Ainge joining them, Smith and Bettman discussed what a Utah hockey franchise would look like.

In January, Smith submitted a formal request for an expansion franchise. Two months later, with trouble brewing for the Arizona Coyotes, Bettman told ESPN he began exploring ways to move the team to Utah and rebrand it.

Looking back at the process, which compressed what normally would be two years of preparations and negotiations into a matter of months, Bettman called what the Smiths did to get the team ready, from nothing to opening night, as "Herculean."

Bettman described Smith as "extraordinarily skilled at bringing people together. ... He not only has vision but the ability to execute."

Smith flew to Arizona to meet the team and answer questions. They played a round of golf. Then he flew the team to Utah for a public introduction. That's how the Utah Hockey Club was born.

SMITH IS INSIDE the Delta Center on opening night. The newly renovated arena is sold out. The crowd cheers for two men doing "shoeys": pouring beer into a shoe and chugging it. Wade said the atmosphere was like a "college tailgate."

Ryan and Ashley Smith dropped the ceremonial pregame pucks. Their months of intensive work were finally paying off. Fans, much to Ryan Smith's obvious delight, weren't holding back with their expressions of gratitude.

Smith insists that what he's doing isn't about empire-building. Selling Qualtrics in 2018 gave him the means to explore, think bigger, find more.

"No one's really given me anything in life," he said. Being self-driven, with a wife who shares that drive, has given him the focus to make Utah a contender.

The lesson is simple, he said. "If you wanted something, you have to go get it. It just doesn't happen any other way."

Manchester United are in advanced negotiations to renew Amad Diallo's contract, a source confirmed to ESPN.

The young Ivory Coast winger's contract expires on June 30, 2025 but United have an option to extend it for a further season. However, the two sides have been in talks for weeks to try to reach a long-term deal and the source told ESPN that negotiations are on track with only minor details remaining.

The source adds that United's intention is to make the renewal official before the end of 2024.

The 22-year-old made headlines at the weekend after scoring the winning goal in his side's victory over Manchester City.

United see him as a player for the future as well as the present and his renewal was one of the first topics discussed with Ruben Amorim when he took over from Erik ten Hag in November.

Amad, who has two goals and six assists to his name this season, started out in the youth ranks at Atalanta and was signed by Manchester United in 2021.

United decided to loan him out to Rangers and Sunderland to continue his progress, but brought him back last season to become a first-team player.

Agent Jorge Mendes has said Lamine Yamal will sign a new contract with Barcelona as the forward targets winning the World Cup and the Champions League over the Ballon d'Or.

The 17-year-old's current deal with Barça expires in 2026 but sources explained to ESPN when he signed those terms there was a rough agreement for him to eventually extend until 2030.

At the time he renewed, he could not sign a long-term deal as he was still just 16. He can commit to a longer contract when he turns 18 next July.

"Of course he will renew his deal with Barça," Mendes, who represents Yamal, told reporters on Monday. "Lamine is a Barça fan and he's going to sign a new contract."

Yamal's contract, signed last October, includes a 1 billion release clause. Barça president Joan Laporta claimed in the summer the club rejected an offer worth 250 million for the Spain international.

Mendes was speaking after Yamal won the Golden Boy award, a prize given to the best male player under the age of 21 by Italian newspaper Tuttosport each year.

Upon accepting the accolade, Yamal reiterated his desire to commit his future to Barça and suggested he is targeting team success over individual awards, such as the Ballon d'Or, in the coming years.

"In five years I imagine myself at Barça still," he said. "This is has been my club for my entire life and I want to win every possible trophy here.

"By the age of 21, my objective is to win a World Cup with Spain and a Champions League and two more LaLiga titles with Barça."

Yamal is currently sidelined with an ankle injury. Barça revealed on Monday he will be out for up to four weeks, ruling him out of Saturday's top of the table clash against Atlético Madrid in LaLiga.

It represents a major loss to Barça, who have won just one of their last six league games. In 21 appearances in all competitions, Yamal has scored six goals and set up 11 more.

Barcelona are smack bang in the middle of the type of crisis that 99% of Europe's football clubs wish they had, too: Top of LaLiga, second in the Champions League, powered by 17-year-old Lamine Yamal (a genius who's already on his way to Ballon d'Or status and is out-achieving Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the same stages of their respective careers), they won the Clásico handsomely, plus they're pretty much assured of hauling in 40 million simply for qualifying directly for the knockout phase of the revamped Champions League.

Throw in the fact -- a much-ignored one when people come to evaluate a team's worth -- that Hansi Flick's side has regularly played some of the most enjoyable, uplifting football anywhere in the world these last few months and the vast majority of clubs in the Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga or Serie A would be entitled to stare incredulously at you and demand: "Crisis! What crisis?"

Some of you might be raising an eyebrow, Carlo Ancelotti-style, to see me using such a dramatic and emotive word as "crisis." I tend to be on the less hysterical side of the modern journalistic spectrum, though, so I looked up the definition for you. Merriam-Webster defines it as: "an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending, especially: one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome."

With that context, let me set the table for you.

Yes, Barça were utterly thrilling when they put four goals past Real Madrid, four past Bayern Munich, five past Mallorca and downright entertaining -- if defensively flawed -- when they should have scored six and conceded just as many in their 3-2 away win at Borussia Dortmund last week (incidentally that was the first time Dortmund have lost at home in the Champions league since 2021).

But there's a great word in the Spanish football vocabulary and it's a denigratory, derisory one -- "resultadista." Meaning someone who judges a team -- their progress, their worth, their desirability -- on results alone, not how they're actually playing, not how consistent or clear-cut their ideas and decisions are.

If you're accused of being a resultadista by someone who speaks Spanish, then have no doubt about it: you're being sneered at ... insulted even. And if you're against the lazy, surface-level analysis of a resultadista, then the cracks in the Barcelona facade are all too easy to identify and are mounting towards the critical level which begins to define "crisis."

Sunday's 1-0 defeat at home to Leganés was embarrassing, hapless, avoidable -- and grim.

The list of consequences was: Barcelona failing to take advantage of Madrid dropping two points in a 3-3 draw at Rayo Vallecano and failing to give themselves a three-point cushion on Atlético Madrid before Diego Simeone's Colchoneros come to play at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium this Saturday (stream LIVE at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN+ in the U.S.).

Moreover, that was Barcelona's second consecutive home defeat (following the shock 2-1 defeat to Las Palmas) and their fourth defeat of the LaLiga season. Just FYI: Madrid only lost once en route to becoming champions last term.

Another consequence was that every time Barcelona have fallen behind on the scoreboard since late-August they've gone on to lose -- no counter-punch, not enough character or energy to wrench a bad situation back under some kind of control. No evidence that they understand that every single point dropped, in November and December just as much as in April and May, can be vital to your chances of being champions.

And, don't forget, that now means Barça, who some people were treating like champions-elect in early November when they beat Espanyol to put a nine-point lead on Madrid and a 10-point gap on Atlético, have now taken just five points out of a possible last 18.

It rubs even more salt in the open Blaugrana wounds that in the two draws which helped earn those measly five points, at Celta and at Betis, Barcelona were leading but conceded, respectively, goals in the 84th, 86th and 94th minutes to fritter away four points by turning wins into draws.

There are a few things which, beyond the dramatic turnaround at the top of the title chase which scream: "Crisis!"

Firstly, teams in LaLiga have totally figured out how to play against Barcelona's daring, high-risk defensive line which was such a muscular point of their early-season identity. Secondly, the vast majority of Flick's players look like ghostly, pale versions of their best selves. Tired, lacking in sharpness .... going through the motions. Thirdly, the coach himself has most certainly added to the ongoing malaise by failing to rotate the team sufficiently often or sufficiently well.

Finally, when the team is flying and dominating high up the pitch, Robert Lewandowski has been effective in his finishing. That's hidden the continuing fact that when he's not being supplied with glaring, gilt-edged goal opportunities by teammates in brilliant form, he's a passenger. Slow, dreadfully prone to neither controlling the ball nor passing it well, and a zero-impact asset who's leaving his team feeling like they are 10 vs. 11. When he throws in the Keystone Cops finishing which he showed against Leganés on Sunday, you could be left wondering: should he even be starting the matches right now?

If you want an icon for the image Barcelona are giving out in LaLiga right now then you could choose their lowest attendance of the season, the slumped shoulders at full-time, Yamal limping around in the second half, kept on when he was clearly injured -- or you could choose Antonio Rüdiger at an event in Munich laughing gleefully, maliciously at the final score 'Barcelona 0-1 Leganés.'

It's not hard to understand his sentiments. The Champions were behind at Rayo, looked like getting a rinsing, equalised, then led but finally conceded to Isi Palazón to drop two points in Vallecas. But they still cut the gap on Barcelona.

All of this makes the visit of Atlético Madrid on Saturday look absolutely volcanic. Flick will still be absent from the touchline through suspension and the fact that Yamal is out injured, depending on medical examinations, might already determine the result days ahead of kick off (Barcelona have been unable to win a single match in LaLiga when he's not been in the starting XI).

For all the things which the eccentric, idiosyncratic but undeniably mighty Simeone has achieved whilst in charge of Atléti over these last 13 years, winning away to Barcelona in LaLiga isn't one. In fact, Atléti haven't done so for nearly 19 years.

Even though we're talking about the team which has thrashed Bayern and Madrid and which has occasionally played with scintillating, arrogant vivacity over the last few months, that's a record which could easily change this weekend and leave Los Colchoneros out on top of La Liga for the Christmas break, heading into a tumultuous 2025 as Spain's outright league leaders. Make a date with your TV, don't miss it.

Super League promoter A22 Sports said on Tuesday that it had submitted a proposal to UEFA and FIFA, asking football's governing bodies to formally recognise its right to organise a new European competition.

The move follows a ruling by the European Court of Justice in December 2023 -- after the Super League sought protection for its plans under EU law -- which held that UEFA and FIFA had been "abusing a dominant position," calling their rules governing new formats "arbitrary."

UEFA then said it believed rules brought in since the Super League's attempted launch in April 2021 had ensured it now complied with EU law.

On Tuesday, A22 said it had applied to UEFA and FIFA for "official recognition for its new cross-border European club football competitions," arguing that the ECJ ruling meant that "any competition where qualification is inclusive and meritocratic, and which complies with the overall match calendar can be officially established."

A22 said its latest proposal included changes to its model -- which was most recently set out hours after the December 2023 ruling -- after consulting with football clubs, leagues and other groups.

ESPN has approached UEFA for comment.

"A key feature is a revised qualification system in which club participation is based on annual, domestic league performance," the A22 statement said.

"Our extensive engagement with key stakeholders revealed a number of pressing challenges facing the sport including increasing subscription costs for fans, an overloaded player calendar, insufficient investment in women's football, and dissatisfaction with the format and governance of the current pan-European competitions," A22 CEO Bernd Reichart said. "Our proposal is designed to directly address these challenges."

A22 has said Super League matches would be broadcast on a new streaming service, Unify, which would offer a free-to-air model supported by advertising.

On Tuesday, the firm said the Super League would now be known as "Unify League" to reflect that.

In December 2023, Reichart said the new format would involve a three-league, 64-club men's competition and a two-league, 32-club women's competition -- with promotion and relegation between leagues -- to replace the UEFA Champions League and Women's Champions League.

On Tuesday, A22 said the latest plans for the Unify League would see 96 clubs take part in the men's competition in four leagues. The top two leagues, "Star" and "Gold," would each include 16 clubs, divided into groups of eight. The "Blue" and "Union" leagues would host 32 clubs each, also in groups of eight.

In the league stage, teams would face the others in their group, home and away, before qualifiers progress to the knockout stage. The semifinals and final would be one-off matches, played at neutral venues. Clubs would qualify based on annual domestic performance, with matches taking place in midweek.

The Super League project was initially backed by 12 member clubs: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, AC Milan, Arsenal, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

However, the Premier League clubs soon distanced themselves from the plans under pressure from fans and the U.K. government.

After the December 2023 ruling, the Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga and Serie A -- as well as a number of top clubs and the European Club Association -- all reiterated their opposition to the Super League, and their support for competitions organized by UEFA.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas said in a post on X on Tuesday: "Those from @A22Sports are back with a new idea: they produce formats as if they were churros, without analyzing or studying the economic and sporting effects on the competitions. The television model they propose only favors the big clubs, (and they know it...) while endangering the economic stability of the national leagues and their clubs."

Pollock first joined Saints' academy at Under-13s level, and by the time he was 17 he had already featured for the senior side in the Premiership Rugby Cup.

He has played nine games for Northampton this season and scored a try against Castres in his European debut for the club earlier in December.

Pollock says his emergence at Northampton, having come through the club's junior ranks, has "been a really special experience".

"I'm very grateful to be able to sign on again here at my boyhood club, I'm loving how things are going at the minute," he said.