The New Barclays Center?

The newest barn on the NHL circuit can be found in the northwestern area of Salt Lake City. The Delta Center nowhere near Barclays Center in New York City in terms of its location, but the two arenas share a common trait: they were not built for hockey. Just as Barclays Center was built for its primary tenant in the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, the NBA's Utah Jazz have had all the luxuries afforded to them in the Delta Center as Utah's lone major professional sports franchise. In building and renovating arenas for basketball, though, it has become apparent that adding a second tenant - the New York Islanders in Barclays Center and the Arizona franchise in the Delta Center - is something these facilities weren't ready to do. Allow me to explain.

Barclays Center was meant to accomodate the Nets in a way that made viewing a basketball game better. There was a scoreboard that hung over the midcourt line for basketball that allowed fans to see the action on the court, but it hung over one of the blue lines when the Islanders took the ice. The west side of the entire arena had what was described as a "limited view", but the truth was that an entire zone was missing for some seats as it was blocked by the balcony's overhang. In short, it wasn't great as described by Joe DeLessio in his New York Magazine's Intelligencer piece from September 23, 2013.

Many complaints from folks about Barclays Center's less-than-ideal views for hockey was one of the reasons the Islanders ended their arrangement with Barclays Center, but it seems that both sides weren't all that thrilled about having hockey at that arena when the end finally came. The good news is that the fans of the Islanders returned to cheer on their team when they returned to their old venue, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in 2020, and the team has since moved into the lavish UBS Arena in Elmont.

So why am I bringing up Barclays Center and its seating arrangement faults when this article is about the Delta Center?

The Utah NHL franchise released its seating chart today. Look closely.

Click to enlarge.

If you're reading the seating chart correctly, sections 107-107, 117-127, and 137-140 all have "partial ice view" on them in the upper bowl of the Delta Center while sections 1-3, 11-14, and 22 all have partial views in the lower bowl. In short, you may be paying NHL prices for tickets, but you're getting Barclays Center views of the ice in the NHL's newest home arena. That can't be ideal for anyone, and we'll have to see what the views are like once games get going inside the the Delta Center in both the preseason and regular season.

You might be thinking, "Ok, Teebz, but they'll just discount those seats for the less optimal view," right? Think again.

They may have identified the partial ice view seating, but they certainly didn't include it into the pricing matrix. If you're trying to match colours up on the seating chart to the price matrix, there's a better link here for that, but it appears that it will cost fans somewhere between $44 and $94 to sit in the upper deck's "partial ice view" seats. That's an expensive seat to watch two-thirds of a hockey game when you could have bought a ticket in section 109 and seen the whole game, not just part of it, for $66.

I know Utah is pushing for a new arena with the prospect of the 2034 Winter Olympics coming back to Salt Lake City, but having large swaths of seats with an obstructed view of the action is madness in this day and age. If hockey didn't work in Barclays Center with the same problem, why would anyone expect fans in Salt Lake City to have a more subtle approach to not being able to see part of the action on the ice? Fans use their hard-earned money to purchase tickets to see every inch of the ice surface. Anything less will certainly prompt outrage because no one pays to watch NHL hockey on two-thirds of the ice surface.

Keep your eyes on this one as we get closer to the season, folks. There may be more than 20,000 people in Utah who put down deposits for season tickets, but it appears that a large section of those fans haven't been told they'll miss parts of every game.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!