PHOTOS: Taking A Tour Of New Ken Garff Red Zone At Rice-Eccles Stadium

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The University of Utah cut the ribbon to officially open the new Ken Garff Red Zone at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Utah held a private ribbon cutting event on Thursday where boosters, administration, alumni and media attended. After the ribbon was cut, the media was taken on a tour of the new facility.

Here is a tour with photos attached that explain each room of the Ken Garff Red Zone.

*All photos courtesy of Trevor Allen, KSLSports.com

Below are photos from the visiting locker room. We were told that the design for the visiting locker room is to make it hard for the opposing team to congregate as a team as a whole. You will notice how difficult that will be.

Before the visiting teams enter their locker room, they will see a sign that says “Welcome to 5,000 feet.”

This hallway is for premium ticket holders to eat and mingle but when the Utes are ready to run out onto the field for the game, this hallway will clear out for the players to take the field.

Here is a side view of that premium ticket holder room that will have food and drink available.

This next photo is for the media but still really cool. As you head down the hallway towards the Utah locker room on the east side of the Ken Garff Red Zone, is the press conference room for head coach Kyle Whittingham and players after the game.

This is another premium seating area for Utah football. This will be a place that the coaching staff can host a recruit but once the game starts, the recruit will have to leave this room due to NCAA rules.

Those prospects can go into this room that will have a wall that closes off the only view of the field that this room provides.

Next to the Utah players locker room is Kyle Whittingham’s locker room. It starts in this room that has two televisions to get last second film in before a game or watch some practice film after a session at the stadium.

In the next room to the west is Whittingham’s office.

Then you get to the last room of this area that features the head coach’s locker.

If Kyle Whittingham gets his own locker room, his assistants get one as a group. This first photo is for the offensive assistant coaches.

The next photo is for the defensive assistant coaches.

Now let’s get to the main attraction, the players’ locker room. Here are two wide views of how big the new locker room is.

We were able to get a look at what is all included in a locker. The seat can fold up and provides storage for personal belongings of the players.

Above the seat in the locker has more storage space.

Below the cupboard is some hooks that will hold the players’ pads.

Now, let’s head back outside and find out the new spot for the marching band will be. That is in this section on the south east corner of Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Just for fun, here is a view of the Ken Garff Red Zone from the marching band spot.

I know that fans have had issues with the size of the concourse and it being a tight squeeze. That won’t be the case anymore. Here is the south east corner concourse.

As you head west from that point, you will see a more spacious concourse area.

Now let’s go to the second level where the Premium Terrance is located. During the week and non-gamedays this area will have tables set up for club members to come and enjoy a meal at lunch or dinner time. But on gameday, this is the look it will have but with way more people.

This is not a bad view at all of the field from the Premium Terrance concourse level.

Here is the restaurant/club that will be open for members throughout the week and for Premium ticket holders to enjoy during the game. As you can tell, it’s not finished yet.

As you head west from the Terrance, you will see this spacious concourse area as you go around the curve to the west side of the stadium.

We stop our tour at the Olympic Cauldron where it was moved from the south east side of the Olympic building to the west side of the stadium.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.