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Thousands of seats with obstructed view for Utah hockey fans

 Jessica Williams
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Thousands of seats with obstructed view for Utah hockey fans
Credit: Getty Images
Utah is about to experience its first regular-season hockey games in the NHL. Since the confirmation of the sale of the PhoenixCoyotes , Glendale, uh Arizona, HC Utah has been hard at work getting ready for the 2024-25 season. In fact, Salt Lake City fans have been very enthusiastic about the arrival of a second professional team in the city that already boasts the Jazz in the NBA.

In particular, the team received over 20,000 deposits for season tickets in the days following the announcement of the Arizona team’s move. However, many of them got a nasty surprise when they realized their seats had a partially obstructed view, preventing them from seeing some of the action.

As you can see from this video, spectators can no longer see the action at the bottom of the face-off zone, i.e. more or less half of the offensive (or defensive, depending on the period) zone. In other words, pretty much everything that happens near the net… the interesting part of a hockeygame.

View at the Utah arena blocks one side of the ice
byu/Duffleman0609inhockey

The problem is that the home of HC Utah, the Delta Center, which has also been home to the Jazz since it was built in 1991, was not designed with hockey in mind. As a result, over 6,000 seats, mostly in the upper sections, are marked “partial ice view” and sold at a discount.

Incidentally, this is not unlike the situation of the New York Islanders from 2015 to 2021, who had to play at Barclays Center, the home of the Brooklyn Nets, which had also been built solely for basketball.

 

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However, note that team owner Ryan Smith has had to pull out all the stops since acquiring the team in order to be ready for the season by quickly building player locker rooms, a coaches’ room and offices for the coaching staff.

HC Utah also designated a jersey (which looks great in my opinion) in just a few months, a process that normally takes 18 to 24 months.

What’s more, the team’s owner recognizes the situation, which is intended to be temporary, and is planning renovations to correct the problem. These are scheduled to begin at the end of this season and run until 2027. Some HC Utah fans will have to be patient until then.

And is it just me, or after all the Coyotes’ arena woes, you’d almost think this team was destined to play in a hay-pinarena ?

 


Overtime

– This will delay his development…

– Backstrom in a class of his own.

– See you next year!

– Pay $500, pass go and don’t go to jail.

– Nice visit.

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