“The fact has become very clear to us this year that, economically, hockey just does not work in this market,” Larry H Miller told a press conference in March 1994, announcing that he’d sold the minor league Salt Lake Golden Eagles to a group in Detroit headed by the then-owner of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons. The Golden Eagles needed 7,000 people a game in the Delta Center, Miller told reporters that day, and “if you look at the paid attendance, we’re not quite halfway there.” The fact was, Miller said, “the natural, homegrown fanbase just isn’t here.”
A couple of days later, some members of that small fanbase grumbled to the Salt Lake Tribune that, despite the financial picture, things could have turned around. “Now is the time for hockey,” Pat Kremers, president of the Screamin’ Eagles Booster Club, told the paper, noting that the “explosion in roller hockey and street hockey is just beginning.” Others were more concerned about what would – or more specifically, wouldn’t – come next. “Now that there isn’t any hockey in Salt Lake, how will there be any interest generated?” Darren Wack, the owner of Hockey Haven, a sports store, asked the paper’s reporter.
It’s not as if there’s been no hockey to watch since then in Salt Lake City. The IHL’s Utah Grizzlies moved into the Delta Center a year after the Golden Eagles left and won the league’s championship the following season. But that win remains a high point for the team. The Grizzlies, who after 2005 became part of the American Hockey League, have never won another title. And as for interest in hockey, the Grizzlies’ attendance figures appeared to back up Miller’s comments in 1994 – since 2005-06, the Grizzlies have averaged around 4,500 fans a game. Indeed, hockey ranked “super low” in the Utah sports pecking order, Cole Bagley, who grew up in Utah – playing hockey – told the Guardian. Bagley, now a Utah Hockey Club beat reporter with KSL Sports conceded that Utah is more of a college football or basketball kind of place, with established teams like BYU and the other Delta Center occupants, the NBA’s Utah Jazz, grabbing most of the attention. Before this past spring, Bagley said, the most popular NHL team in the area was probably the Vegas Golden Knights.
But like the city of Las Vegas, which wholeheartedly embraced the Golden Knights from their arrival, Salt Lake City has taken an instant liking to its hockey club, hastily transplanted from Arizona in April after the team repeatedly failed to find a new home arena. The capacity crowd that filled the Delta Center to welcome the former Coyote players a few days later looks set to stay. The Delta Center’s typical hockey capacity is just over 11,000, but that’s been stretched to fit more than 16,000, including seats where only one goal is visible – and others that, thanks to the odd arrangement, might just offer the best vantage point in the league. At the home opener, which Utah won 5-2 over the Chicago Black Hawks, Delta Center fans set an arena beer sales record, putting back $120,000 worth of it during the game.
On the ice, the Utah HC’s first month was not as great as the beer sales. After winning three straight to start the inaugural season, Utah dropped six of their next eight, finishing the month with a 5-4-2 record, still good enough for middle of the pack in the Central Division. Key defenceman Sean Durzi was injured and will sit four to five months, compounding troubles for a d-line already missing John Marino indefinitely. This has all meant that, only a month into its existence, Utah HC may already be looking for trades and pushing a must-win mindset similar to that of, well, the Vegas Golden Knights. But through the first few weeks, support hasn’t wavered, even as fans navigate the new relationship, including still apparently grappling with the limited ways of working “Utah” into a chant. And there are still no Utah HC retail jerseys – those won’t be on sale until 2025.
But even outside the arena, Utah HC is getting early love. “I’m noticing more people wearing apparel around the state, whether that’s college kids at universities or people at the grocery stores [or] y’know, people at the gym,” Bagley said, and brand new Utah HC stickers now adorn cars alongside more established Jazz decals. “People are really embracing the team.”
Is it sustainable? Back when the Golden Eagles were packing their bags, Wack, the owner of the sports store, told the Tribune that he worried about generational impact on hockey without a local team for kids to support. “The first taste of any sport is important,” Wack told the newspaper then, recalling a toddler in his store, fresh from a Golden Eagles game, hoping for a pair of skates.
Near the end of October, the Utah HC announced it would begin supporting youth hockey programs in the state. Anecdotally, Bagley, a father of two young boys – both now into hockey – says he’s already noted a bump in youth hockey interest. And while USA Hockey couldn’t yet offer firm registration numbers for this fall, the organization says “there is certainly interest in the sport … and we have no doubt numbers will increase.” Bagley’s own love of hockey was sparked during the 2002 Winter Olympics, after seeing USA play Russia with his dad, who’s now a Utah HC fan. “What’s been the most fun for me personally is the relationship with my dad has really flourished during this time,” Bagley said. “I talk to my dad every day about hockey because, y’know, we just love the game.”
Utah HC will hope the Bagley and his dad are part of a new start for hockey in the state.
