Salt Lake City Welcomes New NHL Team: Downtown Businesses Brace for Boost in Foot Traffic and Profits
Salt Lake City’s downtown area buzzed with excitement on April 18, 2024, as the NHL announced a new team coming to town. Local businesses in the central business district are eagerly anticipating the influx of foot traffic and increased profits that will come with it.
Dee Brewer, the Executive Director of the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance, expressed her enthusiasm for the new addition to the city. She believes that the arrival of the NHL team will bring more entertainment options to draw customers downtown. With an estimated 41 nights of hockey games next year, Brewer predicts that this could result in up to 600,000 new customer visits.
The Delta Center, where the NHL team will play, is crucial to the downtown economy. It hosted a majority of the top visitation days last year and is not just important for professional sports but also for concerts, shows, and other forms of entertainment. The arrival of the NHL team presents an opportunity for businesses to attract a different demographic and reach new fans who may not overlap with existing supporters of the Utah Jazz basketball team.
Brewer highlighted that businesses in addition to benefiting from increased visitors are likely to see growth in their hospitality sector including hotels, bars and restaurants. The NHL team’s arrival is predicted to stimulate economic activity in
