After the NHL’s announcement on March 12 that it was pausing its 2019-20 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, no one knew T-Mobile Arena would sit fanless for nearly a year.
So with the 2019-20 season resuming in a bubble format in Canada and this season beginning with the Golden Knights playing without a crowd, fans have been yearning to get back in the Fortress.
“After having hockey season to look forward to every year for the last three years, October was dull,” season ticket holder Stephanie Salonga said. “I realized how I had begun to relate holidays
to VGK games. My friends and I had made it a tradition to do things like go to the game the day after Thanksgiving — Gold Friday, we’d call it — or the New Year’s Eve/Day game. Not having the game to celebrate the holiday with 18,000 of my closest friends made it lonely.”
With the Knights being allowed 15 percent capacity crowds, or 2,600 fans, for games in March starting with Monday’s against the Minnesota Wild, Salonga will be among the first fans to see the Knights in person.
“I’m attending the March 1 game because I absolutely have to be there the second the gates open and the March 17 game because the St. Patrick’s Day game is always a good time,” said Salonga, who organized the ticket-buying effort with friends so she would be able to attend more than the one allowed game per season ticket holder in March.
For the first time in nearly a year, the chants of “Go Knights Go” inside of T-Mobile Arena will be authentic and not piped in from prerecorded sound bites, which will be music to Knights forward Alex Tuch.
“It’s going to be the best,” Tuch said Thursday. “We’re really excited. It doesn’t matter if it’s five new fans or thousands of new fans, we know they’re going to bring a lot of energy and emotion to the building. There’s no fans like Vegas fans.”
T-Mobile experience
When fans enter T-Mobile Arena on Monday, they will be greeted by an array of health and safety protocols set forth by state and local entities.
Before fans arrive, they must fill out a health survey on their smartphone. No bags of any kind are allowed in the arena, including clutches and clear bags.
“Nothing like that,” said Chris Engler, executive director of operations at T-Mobile Arena. “Really just bring your credit card and your ID to come into the venue.”
Once they enter through a touchless screening process, they will be in six designated sections and must remain in those sections at all times. Fans will be provided designated arrival times on their tickets that will be evenly spaced out, Engler said.
Three-ply masks are required at all times. No gaiters, scarves, bandanas or masks with vents are allowed. Face shields by themselves are also prohibited. Anyone who wants to wear a shield must also wear a proper mask with it.
T-Mobile Arena will be a nonsmoking facility upon reopening, with the outdoor terraces closed to arena goers.
Select concession outlets will be open throughout the arena, all selling the same items.
“Unfortunately right now we can’t have specialty items or specialty stands,” Engler said.
The arena will be a cashless facility, with all transactions being made with credit or debit cards.
Seating pods will be set up in two-, four- and six-seat sections. Groups must purchase all seats in the designated section. Suites will be in use with up to eight people per suite, with everyone inside each in the same group.
Social distancing markers and signage will remind fans of the safety regulations in all parts of the facility.
One thing that won’t change is the in-game activities. Those will go on as planned as if there were a capacity crowd, Engler said.
“They’ll still get the full game-day experience,” Engler said.
The implemented health and safety measures will take some of the fun out of the game-day experience for Salonga, but she’s just glad to get a glimpse of the team that first…
Read More: Golden Knights, NASCAR fans excited to return in limited capacity