Game On For Vegas Golden Knights, But Not The Same Without Fans At T-Mobile Arena
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It just won’t be the same.
The Vegas Golden Knights are scheduled to begin their 56-game season Thursday at T-Mobile Arena.
And fans will not be there.
The Golden Knights invested a lot of money into creating an event experience that just happens to be an NHL game and even enacted a special charge on season tickets to collect money for arena enhancements.
This is Las Vegas and owner Bill Foley was all in on the over-the-top Vegas experience with loud music, the show girls, a castle-style platform and the Strip acts to entertain the masses at T-Mobile Arena, a five-minute walk from the Strip.
It’s round two of the Golden Knights playing before no fans because the team did participate in the NHL bubble in Edmonton during the pandemic over the summer.
The Knights players are staging scrimmages at T-Mobile Arena to get a feel for game-day vibes, but fans are not allowed at any practices and even media is banned from the arena to report on the scrimmages like the one tonight. There has not been a game at T-Mobile Arena since March 2020.
The Knights did post a video on their Twitter account this afternoon explaining the team is reacquainting itself with T-Mobile Arena.
“This building just doesn’t feel the same without our Medieval Maniacs,” Stormy Buonantony, the VGK’s in-house reporter, said near the end of the 1:50 video.
Playing at T-Mobile Arena does offer newcomers like defenseman Alex Pietrangelo a chance to get a feel for the way the puck bounces off the boards on shots and passes.
The Knights did allow media to see a 30-minute skate session at the Summerlin practice center at 10 a.m. Saturday. But tonight is another scrimmage when players will take to the ice to the familiar John Wick theme music and video images on the center-hung jumbotron scoreboard. But, again, no fans. As forward Jonathan Marchessault said on the VGK video, no fans screaming when scoring a goal. Just not the same.
I have attended UFC events at UFC’s Apex building, Raiders games at Allegiant Stadium and even a few college football games at Sam Boyd Stadium and the games are a fundamentally different entertainment experience without fans.
The Golden Knights game experience is built on the fans, many of whom build much of their lives around the VGK experience. That’s because the Knights were organically created from scratch here in Las Vegas, an expansion team instead of a re-located team. Knights fans are emotionally invested in this franchise in a way you don’t see in many markets.
