SALT LAKE CITY – For 41 days during the NHL’s regular season, T-Mobile Arena transforms into a fortress for the Vegas Golden Knights. In addition to 60 minutes of elite hockey with some of the biggest stars in the league repping the gold, steel gray and black, the arena becomes an absolute spectacle of all things Vegas.

As Delta Center and the Utah Hockey Club continue to acclimate to the culture of the NHL, there’s a few things they could learn from one of the best arena experiences in the league.

The Golden Knights embrace the city of Las Vegas

Everything about the Golden Knights in-game experience is so Vegas. From showgirls to casino games, lasers, celebrities, a nightclub atmosphere and a nightly pre-game show that could rival some of the best that the strip has to offer, Vegas does it right.

Yeah, ok.

Vegas is SICK. What a production. #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/2div9vkCqi

— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) November 3, 2024

With the use of lasers and projections, the Vegas Golden Knights produce a pre-game show every night that is incredibly entertaining and fun to watch. Featuring a knight in shining golden armor, he skated onto the ice and bravely fought a monster to engage the crowd. After defeating the beast, the knight then bashed his shield with his sword and the crowd responded with, “Let’s Go Knights!”

Before the knight exited the ice, a giant helmet descended near the Vegas bench for the players to skate through. The ice then turned gold, and a drumline began playing to welcome the home team onto the playing surface.

Is it a little over the top and cheesy? Maybe. But it’s also very entertaining, gets the crowd going and is enough to set your heart on fire for the home team.

The in-game atmosphere was fun and engaging

Throughout the entirety of the hockey game, the production team made it fun and engaging for the entire 60 minutes.

Here come the boys.#UtahHC pic.twitter.com/yQcaEH9uiY

— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) November 3, 2024

During every timeout there was either a song, game, chant, music or activity that kept the fans entertained and the atmosphere deafening.

Using a collection of videos from movies, tv shows, video games and more, Vegas created short segments on the jumbotron which resulted in an uproar of cheers and a continuous, “Let’s Go Knights!”

They also hosted a techno music party with lasers and lights in between one of the periods from the upper deck, played an over or under game with a fan for a prize and chanted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” whenever Utah went to the penalty box. Silly, but fun and unique.

What can Utah Hockey Club learn from Vegas Golden Knights?

Now, it’s important to recognize a few things before jumping into this.

First off, the Utah Hockey Club is only seven months old. The production team is learning every day how to improve the atmosphere and according to President of Hockey Operations Chris Armstrong, they are actively working on it every game.

“That’s what we are striving for is continuous improvement. We’ve got a lot of people from a game presentation standpoint who are doing hockey for the first time. Whether those people have come over from the Jazz or other aspects of sports and entertainment. Refining that experience, engaging with our fans, listening to what they want and helping to create and curate an experience alongside them,” Armstrong said.

Second, an improved atmosphere will come with time. As a team that suddenly appeared in Salt Lake City overnight this past spring, there is still work to be done. The greatest remaining task? More of an identity and a mascot. Once those are established, a lot more improvements can and will be made.

But between now and then, here are a few things Utah can learn from Vegas:

1.  Embrace everything that is Utah. What makes our city and state unique? Our towering mountains, beautiful different landscapes, stunning National Parks, the greatest snow on earth and “Life Elevated.”
2.  If the team’s name is headed the direction everyone thinks it is, fully embrace that. Create a stunning pre-game show with the mythical creature using the ice, lasers, projections in a mountain setting. Also, the “Ice Den” or “Ice Cave” would be an incredible nickname for the Delta Center.
3.  There needs to be more engagement with the crowd. Like Vegas, there needs to be something during every stoppage. A video, a different chant, a game, or something to keep it loud. In between periods, play games with fans on the ice or get a party started. Allow youth teams to play short hockey games, lets fans race or shoot pucks the entire length of the ice for prizes.
4. Also, the music party during the second intermission in Vegas was a lot of fun, no reason Utah couldn’t do something similar.
5.  While the team’s identity is somewhat on hold until they decide on a new name, they’re still things that can be done now to create a Utah identity.

For starters, there needs to be more chants which the team is currently working on. But for now, “Let’s Go Utah” just isn’t cutting it and fans have disengaged. Why not try splitting up the sections and chanting, “U-T-A-H” throughout Delta Center? Or, “Go Utah Go!” like many other fanbases do with their teams?

Something else Vegas did during the National Anthem was collectively yell the word “Knight” during the, “Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,” line. What if Utah emphasized “U” during the “O say can you see,” line at the beginning?

The Utah Hockey Club is now the newest franchise in the NHL and so all of these improvements will come with time. So far, they’ve done a remarkable job at transitioning the team to Salt Lake City. Now, they can begin working on improving the atmosphere and making Utah one of the premier arena destinations in the NHL.

Utah Hockey Schedule

The Utah Hockey Club will now continue their road trip against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday. The game can be viewed on SEG+. Fans can also tune in on air on the KSL Sports APP or on 97.5 and 1280 The Zone. Click here for the full schedule. 

Cole Bagley is the Utah Hockey Club insider for KSL Sports. Keep up with him on X here. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.

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