Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Season tickets for the first season of Utah's NHL team will go on sale Friday; however, it might be challenging for fans to get their hands on them.
Call it a case of supply and demand.
The organization has received 34,000 deposits for season tickets (with only 8% of those being current Utah Jazz season ticket holders) and there won't be nearly that many tickets available.
The Delta Center will have a capacity of up to 16,000 fans in the first NHL season. The "up to" part is important considering the organization will only sell the full allotment for "select games" next season.
It's a math problem — how will the Smith Entertainment Group solve it? By the tried and true option of first come, first serve.
Beginning Friday, deposit holders will be given a designated window to purchase tickets depending on when the deposit was placed.
Ahead of the purchase window, fans who placed a season-ticket deposit can look around the arena and decide where they'd like to sit in an open house event at the Delta Center from June 4-6 between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Those fans can see the ice set up and view sight lines from seat locations. Even with the demand over max capacity, the team is still accepting new deposits.
Season-ticket plans will begin at $44 per game per seat — more than double the cheapest Jazz offering. Half-season and mini-plan packages will also be available, along with single-game tickets.
Here are the ticket pricing details: pic.twitter.com/FqCW5Qpqw0
— Ryan Miller (@millerjryan) June 4, 2024
Single-game tickets will go on sale after the NHL schedule release later this summer. Prices for obstructed or partial-ice view seats will start at $19. Fans on the deposit list who don't get season tickets will have priority to buy mini-plans and single-game tickets.
So how many season tickets will actually be available? The organzation is still figuring that out. In its hockey configuration, the Delta Center will only have 10,000 unobstructed-view seats — and SEG is being wary about the other 6,000.
"We're really trying to be very smart with partial ice-view seats," Barney said.
That means they won't be available for every game.
The Smith Entertainment Group has worked with the NHL and has spoken with the New York Islanders about their experience in Barclays Center, which also provides some hockey headaches, to figure out the best path forward.
"We're trying to provide the best experience possible for fans," Barney said. "When you see the overall plan for those partial ice view seats, it'll resonate just a little bit more of what we're trying to do."
Barney didn't give a capacity number for the normal setup, but it will fall somewhere between 10,000-16,000. He said the organization is trying to add more seats in "every nook and cranny we can" to get more fans in the building.
As for the select games, Barney said that also is a to-be-determined situation.
"We're just waiting for the schedule to be finalized before we know exactly how we'll roll those seats out," he said.
The NHL usually releases the schedule sometime between late June and early July.
"Once we see how many weekend games we have and all those sorts of things, there's a whole bunch of different levers we will pull to ultimately decide how many full seasons, half seasons, mini-plans and single-game tickets," Barney said. "But some of that will be schedule dependent."
