David Elmore

David Gant Elmore made his fortune in life insurance business, real estate and tourism, followed by the creation of Elmore Sports Group. He and his wife Donna Tuttle owned many minor league baseball and hockey franchises.

The franchises included his longest operating hockey team, the Utah Grizzlies. The team started as an IHL franchise in Denver, Colorado, but it moved to West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah, making way for the Québec Nordiques that became the Colorado Avalanche. After the IHL ceased operations, the franchise moved to the AHL.

Elmore also owned two ECHL franchises. He bought the Richmond Renegades from Allan Harvie on June 30, 1993. He sold the franchise to CCF Sports Group, an investor group consisting of investment bankers Joe Carney, Brian Cohn and Harry Feuerstein, on July 9, 1994.

He bought another ECHL franchise, the Huntsville Blast from Larry Revo on May 25, 1994 and relocated it to Tallahassee, Florida. This franchise was relocated a number of times, operating as the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks, the Macon Whoopee and the Lexington Men O'War. It became the Utah Grizzlies after he decided to move his team from the AHL to the ECHL. He sold the dormant AHL franchise to Dan Gilbert on May 17, 2006. The ECHL franchise was sold to Pro Hockey Partners, LLC, led by Joe Eng and Bob Ohrablo on September 9, 2025.

Elmore also acquired two CHL franchises, the Fort Worth Fire and the San Antonio Iguanas, from Horn Chen in September 1998. He folded the Fire only after one season, citing poor attendance. He folded the Iguanas three seasons later after the San Antonio Spurs and the Florida Panthers teamed up to acquire a dormant AHL franchise, the Adirondack Red Wings, and bring it to the city as the San Antonio Rampage.

His last investment in hockey was a junior hockey franchise, the Idaho Falls Spud Kings. He died on June 7, 2023.