[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by thefoss1957

The ECHL Utah Grizzlies play at the 12,600 seat Maverick Center in West Valley City, a west side suburb of SLC. I have been to hockey games at the Delta Center back before the E Center (now Maverick Center) was built, and the Grizz were IHL, and the Mav Center for the ECHL version of the Grizz. Mav center is cozy with great sight lines, the DC was about 8000 seats bigger, and not as intimate an experience. You can hear everything, from most seats at the Mav. There is some appetite for hockey in Utah. The ECHL Grizz draw around 5500 per game in non-covid years, I would think NHL level competition would improve on that. Also, more Utah High Schools have added Hockey over the past decade, the sport is growing here.



It is also wrong to call SLC a one team town, MLS' Salt Lake Real draws 18000 to 20000, and if some of that fan base can be captured for top level hockey, it can be a profitable experiment. Unlike Phoenix, SLC's population is, mostly, permanent and home grown.


I live about 180 miles East of SLC, near the Colorado border, and have, for the past 38 years. We usually make the trip through the 2 mountain passes for two weekends of minor league hockey per year, despite minimal marketing, I would think that heavier NHL level marketing would draw from a larger geographic area, including Southern Wyoming and Western Colorado on a more intense basis.

Good to know.

I also think a team in SLC would give the Avalanche a geographic rival, though somewhat contrived to start with. MLS's Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids compete for the Rocky Mountain Cup, for instance.