NHL hockey is making its mark on Utah, poll shows

The Utah Hockey Club has a winning record and sits just outside the NHL playoff picture nearly three months into its first season.

And the exciting young team has captured the attention of a fair share of Utahns. The team has sold out every home game (though it doesn’t always make the limited view seats available). Merchandise has flown off the shelves and Utah HC gear can be seen all over town. There’s still buzz about what the permanent name of the team will be.

By all accounts, NHL hockey is making its mark in the Beehive State.

Building a Utah Hockey Club fan base

A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found a quarter of Utah residents are very or somewhat closely following the club since it started regular season play in October. The survey also found 30% are not following closely and 45% not at all.

HarrisX conducted the survey of 854 Utah adults from Nov. 26 to Dec. 5. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Regardless of what the numbers show, it takes a while to build a fan base.

“The hockey team just arrived. It is going to take some time for fans to become addicted. My guess is that right now there are many fans of the Utah Jazz, the University of Utah, and BYU who probably think about their rooting interest most every day of their lives,” said David Berri, a Southern Utah University professor who specializes in sports economics.

“It will be some time before the hockey team gets this level of addiction. Right now the fans are just learning about the team. It will take some time before those fans get to a point where they start to feel every win and every loss.”

Watching on television or listening on the radio or checking scores online is one thing, buying tickets to games at the Delta Center is another.

The poll found none who said they would go to 20 or more games in person, while 2% say they would attend 11 to 20 games during the season. Another 5% would be in the stands for five to 10 games, 30% less than five and 62% no games.

The numbers were comparable to a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute poll in June, just two months after the team arrived in Utah.

In that survey, 4% say they would buy season tickets, while 5% plan to attend more than 10 games a year. Another 13% would be in the stands for five to 10 games. Four in 10 would go to fewer than five games and nearly the same number wouldn’t attend any games at all.

Utah HC game tickets

The initial demand for season tickets was high. The team received more than 30,000 season-ticket deposits in short order.

Utah HC sold out of season tickets for the first year, totaling about 8,500 full-season equivalents between half- and full-season packages. Official capacity for the 2024-25 season is 11,131. On weekends and for games with high demand, the team can make up to 5,000 single-goal view seats available for sale.

Single-game ticket prices vary widely per game based on a number of factors, including when the tickets are purchased, the opponent and the date and time of the game. The average price of an NHL ticket is around $90 to $130.

“Going to games is increasingly something wealthier people do,” Berri said.

Utah Hockey Club owner Ryan Smith earlier this year acknowledged the high prices, saying the trend in sports is for player salaries and ticket costs to go up. “We’re trying everything we can on that front,” he said in October.

On Friday, the team said it will announce in coming days additional low-cost ticket programs to provide single-goal view seats for remaining home games to more fans this season.

Utah HC has already teamed up with Nomi Health on a multi-year agreement aimed at making NHL games more accessible to nonprofits, schools, community groups and charitable organizations in the state. The Nomi Health Cares Community Ticket Program provides 100 partial-ice-view upper-bowl tickets to community members for each home game, along with a hot dog and non-alcoholic drink.

Utah hockey fans: Who are they?

The poll results provided some insight into the demographics of Utah Hockey Club fans.

Utahns in the 18 to 35 age group had the highest percentage of those who follow the team closely at 31%, according to the poll. The number drops to about 25% for those older than 35.

A January 2024 nationwide survey posted on Statista showed that over half of NHL fans who attended or watched games were between the ages of 35 and 64, while just 4% of NHL fans were aged between 13 and 17. The average age of NHL viewers is 49, making it the oldest among the four major North American professional sports leagues, including the NBA, MLB and NFL.

More men than women follow the Utah team at 30% and 21%, respectively. According to NHL research, 37% of hockey fans are female, including an incredible 26% growth in that demographic since 2016, per a 2022 Associated Press story.

Interest in the club is higher among urban residents than those in the suburbs and rural areas, the poll showed. It’s also higher among people who make more than $100,000 a year than those who make less than that. Those with larger incomes indicated a desire to attend games more often than those who make less money.

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