Utah Jazz Tickets

The Jazz franchise, from New Orleans to Salt Lake City

The Utah Jazz play their home games at the Delta Center in downtown Salt Lake City, and the NBA regular season runs from October into April. The franchise began as an expansion team in New Orleans on June 7, 1974, a name chosen for the city's music, and moved to Salt Lake City on June 8, 1979.

The name stayed after the move for a practical reason: there was not enough time before the 1979–80 season to get league approval for a change. More than four decades later, the mismatch between the name and the city has become part of the team's identity.

• Conference and division: Western Conference, Northwest Division.
• Finals appearances: two, in 1997 and 1998, both lost to the Chicago Bulls four games to two.
• Conference titles: two (1997, 1998); division titles: 11.
• Best season: 64–18 in 1996–97.
• Ownership: Ryan Smith, co-founder of Qualtrics, has owned the team since 2020 through Smith Entertainment Group, after 35 years under the Larry H. Miller family.

Rosters and coaching staffs change, so check the team site for the current lineup. What does not change is the building, a steep bowl that keeps the crowd close to the floor.

Delta Center seating for basketball

The Delta Center opened on October 9, 1991, at 301 West South Temple, and Wikipedia lists its basketball capacity at 18,186. The building is in the middle of a multi-year renovation, approved at 525 million dollars and scheduled to run from April 2025 into October 2027, so layouts, section labels and seat counts are changing from season to season. Treat any seating map older than the current season with caution.

The arena is known for its pitch. Team owner Ryan Smith has described the lower bowl as the steepest for basketball and hockey in any dual-use professional arena, and the 2025 rebuild kept that slope while raising the event floor by two feet. In the first rows under the hoops, fans now sit with their feet on the court level.

Courtside and the lower bowl sideline

Courtside seats and the first rows along the sidelines are the premium tier. Because the lower bowl rises so sharply, seats 10 to 20 rows up along the sideline still feel close, while giving you the elevation to read plays. For most buyers, this middle band of the lower bowl is the best seat in the house for basketball.

Behind the baskets

Seats behind the baskets usually cost less than the sidelines at the same height. The first few rows under the hoop put you level with the floor, which is a thrill for a few possessions but a poor view of the far end. If you sit behind a basket, a higher row gives a cleaner look over the stanchion.

The upper level

The upper bowl is the value tier. The steep rake means upper-level seats look straight down onto the court rather than across a long distance, which helps. Front rows along the sidelines are the strongest picks; the back rows of the corners are the weakest. The renovation's later phases are reworking upper-level club and communal seating, so expect changes in that area.

When the Jazz play and which games draw the biggest crowds

Each NBA team plays 82 regular-season games, 41 at home, from October to April. The play-in tournament and playoffs follow from mid-April through June, and a few preseason games fill early October.

• Star opponents: visits from teams with national stars, along with the Lakers, Warriors and Celtics, push demand highest.
• Northwest Division rivals: Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Portland visit more often than most opponents and bring standings stakes.
• Weekends and holidays: Friday and Saturday games, and games around Christmas and New Year's, sell tighter than midweek winter dates.
• Former players returning: games when former Jazz stars come back to Salt Lake City tend to get extra attention locally.

Midweek games against non-contending Eastern Conference teams, especially in January and February, are usually the easiest tickets to find.

Getting to the Delta Center on TRAX and by car

The simplest way in is UTA's TRAX light rail. Arena Station sits on South Temple across from the Delta Center, and rides that start and end inside downtown's Free Fare Zone cost nothing. If you are staying near the Salt Palace, City Creek or the Gateway, walking is often faster than driving.

The team says more than 10,000 parking spaces lie within two blocks of the arena, including lots at the Gateway, City Creek, the Salt Palace, the Triad Center and Park Place. Event pricing varies, so plan for heavier traffic on I-15 exits before tipoff and give yourself extra time after the game.

As of the 2024–25 season, the team's guidance says Jazz games are fully digital and cashless: tickets live in the Utah Jazz app, and bags are generally prohibited, with exceptions for clutches or wallets up to 4 by 6 by 2 inches and for diaper and medical bags up to 14 by 14 by 6 inches, screened at Door 5. Check the team's current arena guide before you go.

Gameday in Salt Lake City

The steep bowl shapes the experience: the crowd sits close to and above the court, so noise carries straight down onto the floor. Fans arrive early for warmups, and the Jazz Bear, the team's mascot since 1994, works the crowd through timeouts.

Since 2024 the arena has also hosted the NHL's Utah Mammoth, so the building's calendar is busier than it once was. On nights when the Jazz and Mammoth play back to back, the downtown area around South Temple fills earlier than usual.

There is no tailgating culture in the football sense. Pregame happens in the restaurants and bars around the Gateway and downtown. For road trips, Denver and Phoenix are among the closest NBA cities, which makes them the most practical away games for Utah fans.

Every GoodSeats order comes with guaranteed entry.

Stockton, Malone and the Jazz record book

The New Orleans years featured Pete Maravich, whose number 7 hangs in the Delta Center rafters. After the move, the Jazz reached the playoffs for the first time in 1984 and then went 20 straight seasons, from 1984 through 2004.

• Stockton to Malone: John Stockton and Karl Malone ran one of the most famous pick-and-roll partnerships in NBA history from the late 1980s to 2003. Malone is the franchise's leading scorer with 36,374 points; Stockton is second with 19,711.
• Jerry Sloan: Sloan coached the team from 1988 to 2011. His retired banner reads 1223, the number of wins he recorded with the Jazz.
• The 1997 shot: Stockton's buzzer-beater against Houston closed the 1997 Western Conference Finals and sent the Jazz to their first NBA Finals.
• The Bulls Finals: Utah met Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in both 1997 and 1998 and lost each series 4–2.
• The 2022 reset: the team traded Rudy Gobert to Minnesota on July 1, 2022, and Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland on September 1, 2022, starting a rebuild.

The arena hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1993 and 2023, and figure skating and short-track speed skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Sources

• Wikipedia – Utah Jazz
• Wikipedia – Delta Center
• Utah Jazz – Know Before You Go
• Delta Center – Transformation shifts to rebuilding the lower bowl
• KSL – How the Delta Center is staying true to the Jazz
• Wikipedia – National Basketball Association