Delta Center

• 1. Introduction

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  The Delta Center is an indoor arena in Salt Lake City, and on one night in June 1997 it became a measuring instrument. During Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, a decibel meter sat at floor level, and its readings climbed above 110 decibels. That is close to the roar of a jet taking off.

  Today the building is the home of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association and the Utah Mammoth of the National Hockey League. It opened in 1991, which makes it one of the older arenas in both leagues. Several questions run through its story. How did one Utah businessman manage to finance a major arena himself? Why has the building carried different names over the years, and why did one of them draw such mockery? And what does it take to rebuild a basketball arena so that it also works as a home for hockey?

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• 2. Larry Miller's Arena

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  The plan began with a number: 20,000 seats. That was the size imagined for a new home for the Utah Jazz and the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, who were then playing in the Salt Palace. The Salt Palace held only 12,616 people, and it has since been demolished.

  The man behind the replacement was Larry H. Miller, a Utah businessman who led the project and paid for it with private financing. Ground was broken on the 22nd of May 1990. Construction finished on the 4th of October 1991, just in time for basketball games in late October. The final cost was 93 million dollars.

  The first event to fill the seats was hockey. On the 16th of October 1991, the Golden Eagles hosted the Peoria Rivermen and lost 4-2. The team had a history with openings, because it also played the first game at the Salt Palace on the 10th of October 1969.

  The first concert followed on the 24th of October 1991, with Oingo Boingo as the headliner. The first basketball game was a Jazz pre-season loss to the New York Knicks, 101-95. The Jazz then opened their regular season on the 7th of November 1991, losing 103-95 to the Seattle SuperSonics. The arena's tenants, though, would turn out to be a much longer list than those two teams.

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• 3. Four Names, One Building

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  On the 20th of November 2006, the Jazz hosted the Toronto Raptors, and before the game the arena's old name was physically covered up. Two stickers on the court hid the previous name and showed the new one. The temporary logos stayed until official ones replaced them sometime in December.

  The change came because Delta Air Lines, which had bought the original naming rights and given the building its name, declined to renew in 2006 amid the company's bankruptcy. A Salt Lake City company that disposes of radioactive waste, EnergySolutions, signed a new agreement. The building became EnergySolutions Arena, with those rights set to expire in 2016.

  Fans did not take it kindly. Early reactions were mostly negative, and some people urged the Jazz to rethink the deal. Nicknames poked at the sponsor's line of work, including "the Chernobowl", "the Dump", "the Fallout Shelter", "Half-Life Arena", "JazzMat", "Radium Stadium", and "the Tox Box". Miller defended the arrangement and called the naming rights "a winner".

  Miller died, and on the 15th of April 2010, more than a year after his death, the Jazz court was named in his honor. On the 26th of October 2015, a home security and automation company based in Lehi, Vivint, took over the naming rights under a ten-year contract.

  The final turn came on the 14th of January 2023. Delta announced a ten-year deal, effective the 1st of July, that brought back the Delta Center name.

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• 4. The Decibel Center

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  On the 11th of February 2008, Sports Illustrated polled 240 current NBA players about the most intimidating arena in the league. The Delta Center won, with 20 percent of the vote. The players were describing one of the hardest places for a visiting team to win.

  The noise earned the building its own nickname. Many commentators called it the "Decibel Center". During the 1997 NBA Finals, NBC's Hannah Storm described it as "one of the loudest places in sports".

  The reputation has travelled with the building into hockey. It is also regarded as one of the loudest arenas in the NHL, which matters now that a second major team plays there. Visiting players in either sport face a crowd that has been rattling opponents for decades.

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• 5. Many Tenants

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  The Jazz and the Golden Eagles were only the first residents. The Golden Eagles played in the arena from 1991 to 1994 in the International Hockey League. The Utah Grizzlies, of the same league, followed from 1995 to 1997, and the WNBA's Utah Starzz played there from 1997 to 2002. The Utah Blaze of the Arena Football League played there as well.

  Hockey produced a record crowd on the 8th of June 1996. In game four of the 1996 Turner Cup Finals, 17,381 fans came to watch. At the time, that was the largest crowd in the history of American minor league hockey.

  The building has been tested by weather, too. A tornado struck Salt Lake City on the 11th of August 1999, and severe winds damaged the arena's roof. Repairs cost 3.757 million dollars.

  The seating changes with the event. The arena holds 18,186 for basketball, up to 16,020 for ice hockey and indoor football, and 20,000 for concerts. It has 56 luxury suites and 668 club seats.

  In age, the Delta Center ranks third among NBA arenas, behind Madison Square Garden in New York City and Target Center in Minneapolis. In the NHL it is fourth oldest, behind Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Madison Square Garden and the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary. Another long-serving figure was Dan Roberts, the Jazz's public address announcer from before the arena was built. He retired in April 2025.

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• 6. Beyond the Home Teams

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  For the 2002 Winter Olympics, the arena hosted figure skating and short-track speed skating. Sponsorship rules forced a temporary change, and for the length of the Games it was called the Salt Lake Ice Center.

  Figure skating had visited before. The 1999 U.S. Figure Skating Championships took place there.

  Combat sports arrived in the 2010s. On the 6th of August 2016, the arena held Utah's first UFC event, UFC Fight Night: Rodriguez vs. Caceres. Its first UFC pay-per-view followed on the 20th of August 2022, with UFC 278: Usman vs. Edwards 2. The promotion came back on the 29th of July 2023 for UFC 291: Poirier vs. Gaethje 2, and again on the 5th of October 2024 for UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr.

  Professional Bull Riders held a Bud Light Cup Series event there in 1999 and 2000. The organization returned in 2024 with its Unleash the Beast Series.

  WWE has broadcast Raw and SmackDown from the arena. On the 31st of October 2025, it hosted SmackDown, and on the 1st of November 2025, an edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.

  As Salt Lake City's largest concert venue, the arena has been updated through each renovation, much as the Salt Palace was before it. A far bigger update was still coming, and it began with a hockey team.

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• 7. Rebuilding for Hockey

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  In December 2020, Ryan Smith bought the Jazz and the arena from the Miller family, whose business is now called Miller Sports + Entertainment. A decade earlier, the building had already been through a 125 million dollar renovation. It was announced on the 21st of September 2016, began after the 2016-17 season, and was finished in fall 2017.

  The next change came on the 18th of April 2024. Smith acquired the hockey operations of the Arizona Coyotes, and they became the basis of an NHL expansion team tentatively called the Utah Hockey Club, now the Utah Mammoth. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that further renovations to the Delta Center would follow within two seasons.

  The team's first regular season game came on the 8th of October 2024. It beat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 in front of 16,020 people. The first Mammoth home playoff game was on the 24th of April 2026, against the Vegas Golden Knights, with 12,478 in attendance.

  Smith secured 900 million dollars to renovate the arena and build a surrounding sports and entertainment district. The arena renovations account for 525 million dollars of that total. Work began in April 2025 and is expected to continue until October 2027.

  The first phase started after the team's last home game of its inaugural season. Crews rebuilt the entire lower bowl with new risers, which keep fans close to the action and remove every single-goal or partial-view seat in hockey configuration. The bowl was lengthened by 12 feet at each end, and the playing surface was raised by 2 feet. Four new dehumidifiers now protect ice quality year-round. Restroom capacity grew by 12 percent, new premium areas were added on the main floor, and foundation work started on a parking structure for premium season-ticket holders. This phase was ready for the Mammoth's preseason opener on the 2nd of October 2025.

  The second phase began on the 4th of May 2026, after the team's second season ended with elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs. Smith Entertainment Group describes it as adding "terrace-style ledges with full-view seating that extends the energy and feel of the lower bowl and creates a more connected and immersive experience for fans." Suspended gondolas are going in along both sidelines, and the premium parking structure should be completed before the 2026-27 season.

  The third phase will start after the 2026-27 season. It introduces a "dynamic slope" connecting the lower and upper bowls at the south end, along with renovated suites on that side, refreshed concourse and club areas, and more bathrooms. A larger east-facing concourse and plaza will come later for watch parties and other fan festivities.

  One more date sits further out. The arena is expected to host ice hockey at the 2034 Winter Olympics, which would bring the Games back to the building.

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