Tickets for Utah Hockey Club’s opening night are among the NHL’s most expensive

When Utah Hockey Club opens its inaugural season Tuesday night, the seats at Delta Center will be full.

Fans’ wallets? A little less so.

Tickets on the top row of the arena’s upper bowl were being sold for $85 on resale sites, making Utah’s home opener one of the NHL’s most expensive this season.

Only the Toronto Maple Leafs in hockey-crazed Canada, the New York Rangers (who coincidentally play their first home game next week against Utah HC) and the reigning Stanley Cup champions in Florida will cost fans more to get in the door on opening night.

But that’s not stopping fans in Utah.

Spencer Wixom, of Sandy, paid $400 for an opening-night ticket as soon as they went on sale. The prices have since dropped significantly, but Wixom’s enthusiasm has not.

“That was a gamble,” he said. “But it’s a price I’m willing to pay and be there for the first Utah Hockey game.”

The Hockey Club has sold out Delta Center’s 11,131 full-view seats for opening night. (The team will announce an official attendance number that includes single-goal view seats on Tuesday night.) A spokesperson said UHC also sold out of season tickets and has started taking deposits for next season when more seats will open up as part of arena renovations.

Team owner Ryan Smith pointed to tickets that were included for fans who subscribed to the team’s streaming service and the reduced cost of some concessions as some of the ways Smith Entertainment Group is trying to make the experience more affordable. He also said that, as part of the $900 million agreement with Salt Lake City, there will be more work to make it a “community asset.”

“Especially with hockey right now … we want as many people as we can to get in,” he said. “We’re kind of [limited] with the views and the way that the stadium is … but we’ll open it up a lot more. So it’s a constant goal. We want everyone to be able to experience it.”

As of Monday morning, fans could buy lower-bowl tickets starting at about $200. Center ice tickets on the third row were listed for $500. Some resellers, meanwhile, were listing tickets as high as $3,000.

For Jordyn Hancock of South Salt Lake, a $150 ticket in the middle of the upper bowl will do just fine.

“I really value experiences and I’m not just trying to get into the door most of the time,” she said. “And this being such a historic event, I was not upset to pay that.”

But Hancock hopes to see prices drop as the season goes on.

“It’s unfortunate to eliminate a certain group of people because the prices are so high,” she said. “... And immersing yourself in the atmosphere of games is one way to really connect with the team.

Wixom has seen that in his own family already.

“I took my 4-year-old son to the first preseason game the other day and he hasn’t stopped talking about it,” he said.

Wixom, a lifelong Jazz fan, said the basketball team’s struggles in recent years left him disillusioned. So when Utah landed an NHL franchise last summer, he became immediately interested.

“There are a lot of positives in the NHL for small market teams,” he said. “As I started to learn about the team and see how exciting they are, it spiraled into full fandom.”

The NHL’s arrival in Utah has helped win over local hockey fans who have been rooting for other teams, too.

Mitch Henline, of Millcreek, drove to Las Vegas to watch the Edmonton Oilers play last season. And when the Oilers made the Stanley Cup Finals, Henline drove to Canada to watch the game in a packed plaza outside the arena.

“The whole city kind of shut down,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever reach those levels, but I would love to see it get more and more popular.”

Henline now calls Utah Hockey Club his favorite team, which is why he didn’t hesitate to buy tickets when he saw unobstructed upper-bowl seats available for $110.

“Not exactly great,” he said of his tickets, “but I’ll be there for the first one.”

It’ll be the first of many for Wixom.

But that first is worth paying a little extra.

“I’ll take a picture with my brother-in-law and having that picture will be enough for me,” he said. “I’ll be able to say that I was there and that’s really what I’m paying for.”