Wearing a hockey jersey with Utah’s number 24, country artist Shaboozey performed a pregame concert outside the Delta Center while people grabbed dinner from food trucks and took part in hockey activities like “Hardest Shot” and “Accuracy Shooting.” “participated. Three fighter jets flew over the mountains to the left, flew over the Utah State Capitol and flew over the arena.

The doors opened and the stands filled. Markkanen wasn’t the only member of the Jazz to show up. Utah’s ice hockey and basketball teams combine and play in the same arena for the same owners in the same season.

“We want it to be kind of a weird blended family,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “We will support them, they will support us, but we have a little family competition. It will be a race to the rafters to see who can hang a banner there first.”

The official attendance was 11,131, but that only counted vacant seats in an arena that still needs further renovations to accommodate hockey in the next two or three years. The thousands of blocked seats were also full, and it was a hockey crowd.

The fans cheered when they should cheer and booed when they should boo. Often they would shout, “Let’s go, Utah!” Sometimes they would just shout “Utah!” They would also shout “Spicy Tuna,” striker Liam O’Brien’s nickname.

They celebrated after forward Dylan Guenther scored the first goal in Utah Hockey Club history at 4:56 of the first period.

“This building was something special,” said Günther. “It was a lot of fun, it was a lot of fun playing in front of that crowd. … If the building stays like this all year round, that’s a big advantage for us.”