Season IX has officially begun for the Vegas Golden Knights. While the team fell in a shootout to the Los Angeles Kings on the ice, what made Opening Knight so successful for the organization was the initiatives that took place off the ice. The announcement of a Locals Menu within T-Mobile Arena for every home game, the Gold Carpet presented by Naqvi Injury Law, and an NHL history-making in-arena pregame show capped off an Opening Knight like no other.
Wednesday morning, the Golden Knights announced the addition of the Locals Menu at every Vegas home game at T-Mobile Arena. Menu items include nachos, hot dogs, pretzels, waters and sodas priced at $5.50 each. The menu also allows for Season Ticket Members to receive an additional 10% off all concessions in the building, including the Locals Menu.
The announcement of the Locals Menu stemmed from focus groups the organization conducted which led insightful conversations on how to improve fan experience on game days. The organization took the feedback provided to heart and worked tirelessly over the summer to strengthen the fan experience for Season IX.
“A lot of the feedback we received was about how the show was great, we love the environment, and that it’s the best experience in sports,” Todd Pollock, Senior Vice President and Chief Ticketing Officer, said. “The one area that we thought we really had an opportunity to better enhance was the cost of food and beverage. Between myself, John Penhollow (President of Business Operations), and Kris Knief (Vice President of Strategy and Innovation), we worked with our partners at Levy and MGM to share not just our own sentiment, but the sentiment of our fans.”
Following feedback from fans after Opening Knight, Pollock confirmed that popcorn will be added to the Locals Menu at the next home game on Oct. 16 when the Golden Knights face off against the Boston Bruins. The Locals Menu not only creates a better experience for the fans inside the arena but allows the organization to take feedback into consideration to continue driving the premium connection between fans.
Another thing that makes the Golden Knights premium fan experience so special includes the one-of-a-kind pregame show that is unlike any other in the NHL. Andrew Abrams, Vice President and Executive Producer of Entertainment and Production, and his team came together to make Season IX Opening Knight something that has never happened before in the NHL.
The Golden Knights became the first team in the NHL to use drones in an in-arena pregame show. When the team won the Stanley Cup in 2023, the organization used drones during the Stanley Cup Parade, and the same company returned to help the Golden Knights make history yet again. After much back-and-forth between the organization, the NHL, and T-Mobile Arena, the VGK Entertainment team got the green light to use drones to open Season IX.
The first step was finding a song. After a long search, the team landed on a cinematic rendition of “Fly Me To The Moon (Frank Sinatra Cover)” by Oskura. The song was a perfect fit for the ideas the Entertainment team had. Once the team decided on a song, they needed to finalize the idea of how the opening show would eventually come to life.
The team wanted to bring a community aspect to the video which was conveyed through the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, ball hockey players, and casino dealer cameos as well as the four main kids “marching” to The Fortress following a dragon.
“At first the idea was to show a march to The Fortress, and then it morphed into the idea of the dragon personifying Season IX and the excitement around the new season,” Abrams said. “Then it turned into a Disney-esque moment where the arena is in the dark and you hear these kids talking and rustling around, and we’ve never done something like that. So, the drone show started off with these beads of light that personifies the kids searching with the flashlights. The second wave signifies the dragon flying. Other aspects throughout the drone show include moon, stars, and planets which signify the song and ‘Knight Time’ which then ties into our branding, too.”
The pregame show performed flawlessly, however, that wasn’t without specific precision and planning to make sure the little details were perfect.
“Technically, we had a lot of logistics to work out with the drone show. There were these sensors that have to go in very specific places, and if they were off even just a little bit, it could have been catastrophic,” Abrams said. “We had our Knights Guard help us, and they were some of the true heroes of this show because they placed the sensors. There were a bunch of different things that had to go right, but luckily in the real-world situation, everything was on our side. When we saw the drones go up for the first time and light up, that was our big sigh of relief.”
The drone pregame show was the first time in NHL history a team has used drones in the arena. The feat took 64 drones, hundreds of hours to plan and execute, and countless employees pushing themselves to the limits to pull off an even more elevated ‘Best Show on The Strip.”
You can watch the entire in-arena pregame show here.
