Delta Center shakes up concessions and merchandise as Utah Hockey Club drops the puck on its inaugural season. 

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• Connor Sanders
• Parker Bushnell shows off some of the new Utah Hockey Club merchandise for sale at the Delta Center on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024.

A tasty array of new snacks and a price drop on classic bites is coming to the Delta Center this season. Staff unveiled hockey-themed nachos and burgers alongside freshly printed Utah Hockey Club merchandise on Oct. 1 in what is an important moment of transition for Smith Entertainment Group (SEG).

With the inaugural season of the NHL club officially underway, there are more than 80 nights of events scheduled at the Delta Center between hockey and Utah Jazz basketball.

During the offseason, SEG expanded the main team store to nearly twice its previous size, added scores of dining, retail and operations staff, and built a new sports brand from scratch in less than six months.

“Inserting fan-friendly items, thinking about how hockey fans might differ a little bit from an NBA fan, that's really what was most important to us,” said Rich Waters, a vice president of Salted Honey Hospitality.

Also on Oct. 1, the Salt Lake City Council voted to move forward with a proposal to increase sales taxes by 0.5% to fund a massive Sports, Entertainment, Culture, and Convention District that SEG envisions for downtown.

The announcement that the National Hockey League’s Arizona Coyotes would relocate to Salt Lake City in April marked a new era of sports in Utah and set in motion a massive proposal to rework the area surrounding the Delta Center.

In Hot Dogs We Trust
Sports fans visiting the Delta Center are likely to notice cheaper concessions prices. Dasani water bottles are $2 this season, and fans can now get hot dogs, popcorn, nachos and Farr ice cream for $3 per item.

This change comes as an effort to give back to families in the community, Waters said, and came straight from the top.

“Ryan Smith and the executive team with the Smith Entertainment Group are just really close to the community, like we are,” he said. “It started with an idea from them to say, ‘What do we do to give back?’”

According to a report from bookies.com, the average price of a hot dog at an NBA arena was just over $6 in 2022.

The timing of the announcement that the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes franchise would be moving north to Utah posed a serious challenge for SEG’s retail team, said Parker Bushnell, director of retail, rank & rally.

“I think that we got the word [about hockey] nine days after the Jazz season ended. And so it was like, ‘Oh, we’re in our off season. Never mind,’” Bushnell said.

Bushnell and his team had six months from the announcement in April until the start of the season, but it took another three months to finalize the branding materials before they could start creating merchandise for the new club.

“Our guiding principle was ‘Be nimble’,” Bushnell said.

Priority one was expanding the main Team Store, located on the Delta Center’s northwest corner. Construction crews moved the doors to add 1,500 square feet of space, officials said. The doors where the cash registers used to be were moved about 80 feet toward the ticketing office.

The expansion of the store will, Bushnell hopes, alleviate congestion at the entrance of the store. The cash registers will be placed near the entrance at the main concourse, effectively creating a U-shape where fans can filter into the store, grab what they want and flow directly back onto the concourse. Crews added four ticketed entry points that lead directly into the store as well.

On top of the expansion to the store on the main concourse, Bushnell showed off a team store specific to the new hockey club, still in the final stages of construction, on level 5.

Putting all of the merchandise together came with hiccups, from designing, to approval from the NHL, to actually creating the materials, he said. This required hiring more staff at every level, from part-time employees in the arena to the warehouse, alongside plenty of late nights from Bushnell and his team.

“We take a lot of pride [in our work] because the only thing that you can grab now to tangibly have a memory is merch,” Bushnell said. “You don’t have tickets anymore. You eat the food at the game. The only thing you take home with you is a puck.”

The other guiding principle Bushnell has relied on, he said, is listening. The fans have a lot of power over the future branding of the franchise, given that Utah Hockey Club (UHC) is so fresh.

“We’re going to rely a lot on our fans rather than historical Coyotes data or anything like that to put us in a spot where they can dictate what logos they like, what colors they want,” Bushnell said.

In that same spirit, the retail team has purchased the exact same quantities of jerseys for each player on the team. That way fans can say, “‘Hey, Liam O’Brien’s our favorite player' or 'Dylan Guenther’s our favorite,' or whoever it’s gonna be,” Bushnell said.

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• Connor Sanders
• Concession prices for standard items at the Delta Center were lowered this season, while new menu items are planned to coincide with a new NHL franchise and the cities of visiting opponents.

Deluxe Cuisine
Delta Center staff also presented new goodies for Utahns with a sweet tooth and an updated menu for members of the Toyota Premium Club. During each game, Travis Taylor—executive chef at the Delta Center—and his team of culinarians will cook a dinner themed around the opponent city for premium club members.

The first item on the menu? Chicago style hot dogs as UHC faces off against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Taylor said he’s worked closely with the other chefs to research the food stories of each city that’s coming into the Delta Center. Fans can look forward to Texas smoked brisket platters when the Dallas Mavericks and Stars come to town, New England clam chowder for the Boston Celtics and Bruins, and french dip sandwiches for teams from Los Angeles (Taylor said he and the chefs were surprised to learn the french dip was invented in LA).

The “VS Menu” will present an opportunity for Taylor’s expanded staff to express themselves with new dishes, he said.

“What better way to do that than feature something from the visiting team, city or state that would help our fans understand maybe a little bit more about that city?” Taylor said.

Other food changes include local restaurant Mozz Pizza replacing Maxwell’s Pizza & Steaks, Frazil and hot chocolate will be available at Summit Snacks and Tenders, and a diverse smattering of desserts from cookie dough to rainbow cakes.

The Delta Center will also debut a new, enormous souvenir bowl of nachos served inside of a hockey helmet. Waters estimated it will cost around $25 and is designed to be shared.

“I think we recognize that coming to an event here, it's special,” Waters said. “We're glad that a lot of folks can watch it locally nowadays. But when you come to the arena, we want it to be a great experience.”