Vivint AreNa Salt Lake City
Vivint Arena is a Salt Lake City, Utah-based indoor arena. Many professional athletic teams call the arena home, including the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Utah Blaze of the Arena Football League, and the Utah Starzz of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). It is owned by Larry H. Miller’s estate, Jazz Basketball Investors, Inc., and has a basketball seating capacity of 19,911 seats, 56 premium suites, and 668 club seats.
Vivint Arena is also the region’s major events venue, having hosted everything from NCAA tournament games to concerts to preseason NHL games over the years. It hosted figure skating and short-track speed skating competitions during the 2002 Winter Olympics. The Salt Lake Ice Center was the name given to the arena during the Olympics because the IOC doesn’t allow sponsorships from businesses, so it was called that.
The arena was named the Delta Center when it first opened in 1991, thanks to a naming rights agreement with Delta Air Lines, which has a hub at Salt Lake City International Airport. After Delta decided not to extend their 15-year deal owing to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy the year before, SLC-based EnergySolutions purchased the naming rights in November 2006. It was known as EnergySolutions Arena from 2006 to 2015. The arena was rebranded on October 26, 2015, as part of a 10-year naming rights agreement with Vivint, a Provo-based home security system provider. The arena’s name was changed from “Smart Home” to Vivint Arena in August 2020.
The Salt Palace Arena was designed to be a 20,000-seat home for the Utah Jazz and Salt Lake Golden Eagles, replacing the now-demolished Salt Palace Arena, which had 12,616 seats. Ground was broken on May 22, 1990, under the leadership and private funding of Utah businessman Larry H. Miller, and it was finished on October 4, 1991, in time for late-October basketball games, at a cost of $93 million.
In addition to the Utah Jazz and Blaze, the arena has also hosted the Utah Starzz of the WNBA from 1997 to 2002, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the International Hockey League from 1991 to 1994, and the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League from 1995 to 1997. Game 4 of the 1996 Turner Cup Finals was played at the Delta Center on June 8, 1996, and 17,381 people came to see it. This was then the largest crowd in American minor league hockey history.
The Utah Jazz revealed plans to restore and enhance the arena on September 21, 2016. The majority of the work was linked to the renovation of the structure. About $25 million has been invested in arena enhancements during the last five years. Upgrades to the public address system, bigger concourse entrances with retail and food options, digital directions and concessions signs, the addition of the Legends Club, Fanzz stores, and the expansion of the main team store, as well as a lot of energy-saving projects, have all been done to improve the fan experience at the game.
Vivint Arena, which takes up a whole city block, is only one of many attractions in a busy downtown sector with much to see and do. In addition, the neighborhood is close to Interstates 15 and 80, which meet west of the neighborhood.
If you’ve never been to Salt Lake City, you might be perplexed by the city’s odd street naming scheme. Temple Square, a few blocks east of the arena, serves as the city’s nerve center, so if you’re near Temple Street, you’re close.
The TRAX light rail system in Salt Lake City passes through downtown as well; get off at the Arena station on South Temple, just north of the venue, or at the Planetarium station on the Blue Line along North 400 West.