There were tears, messages scribbled on the ice and heartbreak.

That was the scene on April 12 when the minor league Utah Grizzlies played their last game ever at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. Off they go, now, to Trenton, New Jersey, leaving the Utah Mammoth as the Beehive State’s lone professional hockey team.

Since then, officials with the arena’s management company and West Valley City — which owns the building — have been scheduling more diverse events and charting the venue’s course toward the 2034 Olympics, when it’s set to hold the short-track speedskating and figure skating competitions.

In fact, Andy Carroll, a city administrator who works on maximizing the Maverik Center’s potential, believes the future is bright.

“We expect [the Grizzlies’ departure] to be a net positive for West Valley City,” he said.

Carroll said the team’s exit opens up more days, particularly in the winter, for concerts that can sell out the roughly 12,000-seat arena. That’s especially exciting, he said, because touring artists are less likely to be able to book Delta Center now that the Utah Jazz and the Mammoth play at least 82 games combined there each year.

“There is an opportunity for us to be able to grow our revenue as well as create great solutions for our community,” he said, “because of the fact that if we were booked and the Delta Center was booked, shows would skip the market.”

The arena also holds monster truck shows and corporate events. It remains the home court of the Salt Lake City Stars, the Utah Jazz’s development team, too. Over 21,500 fans came to watch 18 Stars home games last season; almost 167,000 saw the Grizzlies’ 36 home dates.

Off the bat, Centennial Management Group, which operates the Maverik Center, has been eyeing longer-running programs.

“With the schedule opening up, we have flexibility to focus on many multi-day events, such as the upcoming U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January,” Centennial General Manager Jeff Davis said, “that may have previously been more difficult to host around team schedules and home stands.”

Brigham Young University-Idaho sports management professor Hayden Coombs said keeping the arena busy with diverse events is the key to success after the Grizzlies’ departure.

“My main thought about it is that people sometimes think a sports team is the only thing that makes an arena successful, but that’s really not the case anymore,” he wrote in an email. “The best venues operate as year-round entertainment facilities. Sports are incredibly valuable because they provide predictable dates, but a healthy venue also hosts concerts, family shows, conventions, community events and tournaments.”

Carroll said the city is considering minor renovations to the building to boost both artists’ and concertgoers’ experiences there. A permanent merchandise space and beverage area near the entrance are possibilities, as are a new club and backstage upgrades. Carroll wants to have those changes wrapped up by the end of the year.

More major renovations will be necessary for the venue to serve its new Olympic purpose in 2034.

In 2002, it hosted hockey — including the Wayne Gretzky-led Canadian men’s team’s gold-medal win over the United States — but the layout will be different for skating. In 2034, hockey will land at the retrofitted Delta Center and Peaks Arena in Provo.

West Valley City has not discussed the major Maverik Center renovations in depth yet, Carroll said, and they remain a long way off.