For the third season in a row, the NHL broke its attendance records. The league reached the 23 million mark for the first time ever, with a grand total of 23,014,458 tickets sold across 1,312 games.
Nearly 97% of tickets went to paying customers this year.
The Utah Hockey Club pulled its own weight by selling out all 41 home games. The official seating capacity for hockey at the Delta Center is only 11,131 (compared to the 18,000 found at a typical NHL arena), but an additional 4,889 obstructed-view seats, which don’t count toward official seating capacity numbers, allow them to pack the building further.
Selling obstructed-view seats for $10 a pop (with a hot dog and a bottled water included) may have been the best “take-a-hit-to-make-a-play” move in hockey history. Many non-hockey fans would never even consider buying a three-figure ticket — but if they can get them cheaper than a night at the movies or dinner at a restaurant, why not give it a shot?
Of course, the game of hockey markets itself once the fans are in the building. It often takes just one game to hook them for life.
Utah HC super fan Ashley Brewer caught that bug early. Previous to the 2024-25 season, she didn’t know much about hockey. Her only real sports fandom was for University of Utah football, but even that was from a distance.
When she bought a ticket to see Utah HC take on the Carolina Hurricanes in November — the game where UHC killed 11 penalty minutes in the third period and Karel Vejmelka made 49 saves — she knew she’d found something special.
She started attending as many games as she could — often several per week — and it was made possible by those $10 tickets.
“Just having something to look forward to meant a lot,” she said. “There were a lot of days I felt like I was struggling personally, but knowing there was a game to watch or go to really helped.”
Mere months after attending her first NHL game, Brewer is now on the waiting list for season tickets.
Merchandise and concession sales are up, too
Excluding off-site games, Utah HC set the second-highest single-day team store sales in NHL history when jerseys first became available. The only more successful day was when the Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup on home ice in 2023, according to a press release.
All previous Delta Center concession records went out the window this year, too. Utah HC’s food and beverage sales alone were 27% higher than the Jazz’ average numbers during their time in Utah. The Hockey Club also sold twice as much beer as the Jazz this season.
SEG hired 852 new employees this season (241 full-time and 611 part-time), many of whom run the various concession stands and team store locations.
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