The Golden Knights have opened up their home as part of a 24-hour open house at T-Mobile Arena from 8AM this morning to 8AM tomorrow. I wrote this post last week explaining the whole thing, and I don’t really feel like explaining it again, so instead here’s a bunch of pictures and my thoughts on the event.
Observations
- Early returns on attendance have been pretty strong. For the first few hours there’s been somewhere between 500-1000 people in the building at any point and there’s been a steady line the entire time at the “ticket information” table.
- The ice is NOT laid despite what my friend from Channel 8 thinks who told me he expected the ice to be much more white. #NailedIt
- They have a blow-up castle type thing to shoot pucks in, cornhole/beanbag games decked out with Golden Knights logos, both goals are in place, they have VGK Jenga (seriously, there’s a picture below), and the head equipment manager has sticks, helmets, and pads to try on.
- There are white pieces of paper on seats throughout the arena which have information on season tickets for that seat. By rough count, there are probably about 100 of those.
- Split season ticket information is available for the first time on 11-game and 22-game packages. The price list is in a picture below.
- They weren’t kidding, they are literally giving away two seats to the home opener once an hour. You do not have to be present to win.
- A very loud gong is hit every time someone purchases tickets.
- Behind The Vegas Ice episodes are being played on the jumbotron. You better believe I filmed “the scene” on the big screen.
- Attendance picked up significantly through the early night. I’m guessing about 1500 or so as a max in the building at one time.
- They turned on the Blackhawks/Wild game on the big screen, with sound. I also heard that Duluth Trading Company underwear commercial about eight times on the T-Mobile sound system. Lucky them.
- I was in the arena all the way from about 10PM until 4AM. There were people on the floor playing the games throughout the entire time. Most were recently off the late shift at the casinos or restaurants. However there were a bundle of people who were here earlier in the day and came back cause they thought it would be fun.
- Multiple tickets were sold between the hours of midnight and 5AM.
- I’m not going to make it the whole 24 hours. I arrived at 7AM on Tuesday and I will be leaving the arena at 6:30 AM on Wednesday. 23 and half ain’t too bad.
- All in all, this should be viewed as a highly successful event, and I’ll have much more on it tomorrow about what we learned. At least 8,000 people were through the building during the 24 hours and the final number is likely to be pushing 9,000. Pretty darn good to come in and see a building that’s been open for 10 months.
Pictures
Updated the thoughts and pictures page from the event. And to answer your question, yes, I’m still here. (23 hours)https://t.co/THYSHoHCae pic.twitter.com/fsoKHHggOv
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) February 22, 2017
Current crowd shot. pic.twitter.com/BGUYTv6iCG
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) February 22, 2017
Updated crowd shot pic.twitter.com/Lb6cqF4HK1
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) February 22, 2017
PhiSig 150
No ice?? Are they giving a tour of the entire arena (locker rooms, press box, etc)?
Ron Murphy
Went about 9:30am…if your jittery of heights, get set for the escalators!!..if the power goes down, there’s about 175 steps straight up…Waiting for ears to pop going down…checked out seats in section 210 and was very happy…looking up from ice level, it doesn’t seem that high…seats very stepped, which is great…top of back seat rest of row in from is about at my shoe top level, which means no scrunching down for us folks 6’2” to be polite to those in back of us…seats 2 rows up in back of goal, $17,000 each…little more cushioned than mine and with a cup holder but I’ll take the $15,460 savings..impressed with arena but still scoping out best ways/places to park, especially leaving the game
Phisig150
Is it worth taking a 5 year old to or this just more for tickets purchases?
Ron Murphy
5 year old would love it….anything on the “ice” he can do…bean bag toss..shoot the puck…have picture taken in goal
Ken Boehlke
It’s probably worth coming down if you haven’t had a chance to see the whole arena. (No tours of the guts, just the stuff normally open to fans)
Phisig150
Where you at Ken?
RJ
Super sad I’m out of town today! Would have loved to be there. Pics are great.
PhiSig 150
Nice event. Kids had fun playing hockey and cornhole. UNLV Hockey team was very friendly. Was hoping for more merchandise. Didn’t see any secondary logo items. Didn’t see any club officials you could approach or the hockey education lectures that were promised. Arena is beautiful. Walked most of it and the views were great for the most part. Liked the park area in front of the arena. It has potential to be a nice hangout spot. Don’t get the nude woman statue. Nothing really to indicate it’s the Knights home. Was hoping the club was going to hand out some free stuff although I did manage to track down Ken and he was nice enough to give a sticker. So once again Sin Bin bests the Knights in marketing. Was hoping for tour of the press box and locker room but apparently they’re unfinished. I’d give the event a solid C+.
Julian Carracino
Im a season ticket holder.Sec 202 I got 2 seats for 3500.Im as high as you can go.Good view.I brought my 2 kids tonight.I moved here 17 years ago from Jersey.Just glad a pro team is here as for the open house.I bought me and my son some shirts and jackets but honestly when you walk up to arena its beautiful but nothing on outside to make it feel like Knights home.I know tickets are pretty much sold out but I hardly see any advertising around town about team on billboards or whatever.Also someone mentioned they didn’t give anything free out which I dont get why not.Especially for season ticket holders.
I know Im not spending 20k on tickets but the nose bleed people will be more loyal then the rich crowd its the same in every city.
Phisig150
It was fun to see the Knights fans concentrated in one area. I see the occasional fan at the grocery store or park but to see so many people wearing Knights stuff in one place was really cool. Pretty sure they would have made a killing if they had new merchandise to sell. Where are the blankets, towels, dufflebags, cups, decent swords star hats (the one in white would be perfect if it came in black), etc.
jacobm
Whats the plan for the press box?? Looks like a large “false-wall” at the top of it. Assuming they are leaving it up to the knights to decide on booth fit out?
Ken Boehlke
We got a little bit more info on this. The press row will stay where it is, and they are building out a work space as well as a bunch of studios for TV, radio, etc. They are hanging TV’s from the catwalk for the press to look at for replays, out of town games, etc. There will only be one row of seating for press. It will stretch across that entire side of the building, but doesn’t go all that deep. It’ll be rather small, but should be very nice when it’s done.
jacobm
I actually seems fairly big for the press, given most teams would have fewer than 15-20 working media for any given game, plus scouts, and visiting teams. I was assuming what you are saying was true, in that the knights would determine how many tv,radio, personnel booths, ect.. would be needed. Normally the press box is an afterthought, happy they included one.
Ron Murphy
Forgot one thing….across from the snack bars is a high shelf/table with a high chair with numbers on both the table and chair…thought they were just a place to munch down on some grub but an usher said they were actual seats you could buy…outside of having people constantly running up and looking over your shoulder or spilling something on you, they would be pretty good seats…you’d constantly be kicking people out every time you got up and the padding was kinda thin on the chairs…but is this done in other arenas?..also would hate to be in the last row of regular seats and have people almost directly above you eat food
Brandon
Aren’t you supposed to save money on season tickets over single game tickets? There are only 41 home games and the seats for $100 a game are selling for $4400 a season. Buy 41 games up front and save -$300. What a deal!
Ken Boehlke
There are 3 preseason games included in that package. Including preseason is standard across every professional sport. A $100 a game season ticket can be expected to be somewhere around $150-$175 when they are sold by the team as single game tickets.