Fans Aren't Happy About The Sightlines For NHL Games In Utah

The Utah Name TBDs will hit the ice in just a few months, and the typical preseason preparations are underway. This includes season ticket sales, and while there has been no shortage of people willing to throw down a deposit, fans aren't exactly pumped about the number of seats that have obstructed views.

Season tickets will officially go on sale this week, with DeseretNews reporting that 34,000 season ticket deposits have been made since it was announced in April that the parts of the Arizona Coyotes hockey operations had been sold to Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith.

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That's impressive. Especially when you consider that the arena the team will begin play in — the Delta Center — has a capacity for hockey in the neighborhood of 16,000 seats.

Speaking of which, the team has unveiled its season ticket pricing chart for its inaugural season and it had some fans bumming pretty hard (even though, for reasons we'll discuss, there's nothing all that surprising).

There's no shortage of seat options, but the problem a lot of people have with them are the prices — which range from $44 to $290 per seat on a full season package according to the graphic — as well as the fact that some seats come with partially obstructed views of the ice.

I can understand a lot of those critiques, but a lot of this stuff isn't a surprise. 

The Delta Center will host Utah's new NHL team. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)

Obstructed View Seats Suck, But It's A Necessary Evil Of Some Arenas

The obstructed views aren't ideal, but the NHL knew that going in. The Hockey News reports that there are 10,000 unobstructed seats for hockey, which is about double the capacity of Mullett Arena, which is where the Coyotes spent the last two seasons.

Plus, the Delta Center was built for basketball, and you'll find this problem at every arena built primarily for hoops.

Think about it. A basketball court is 94 feet long. A hockey rink is 200 feet long. The sight lines will vary a great deal.

Delta Center has this problem, which the Barclays Center had too.

I went to a minor league game a couple of months ago at the Kia Center — home to the Orlando Magic — and it had the same problem. I couldn't see one corner of the ice from where I was sitting, and while it was annoying those giant screens around the arena sure came in handy.

Also, Utah is aware of all of this. The Hockey News reported that some of these "partial ice view" seats will be sold for as low as $19. That's not a bad deal if you don't mind using the Jumbotron when necessary.

These problems won't last forever. A new arena in Downtown Salt Lake City was approved earlier this year that will be home to the Utah Jazz, the NHL team, and possibly some Olympic events.