A revamped Delta Center should build on the success of quiet zones. 

• Robert Trishman
• The sensory room at the Delta Center offers a quiet respite for Jazz fans.

The Utah professional sports scene is about to welcome a high-profile addition. Salt Lake City is ready for an NHL franchise to begin play for the 2024-2025 season. The arrival will necessitate renovations to the Delta Center and is poised to spur revamping of a downtown entertainment district.

The changes bring many questions. Will streets be buried underground? Will local businesses benefit from increased sports fan traffic? Will Utah have a Stanley Cup before we see a Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy?

Those are questions I can't claim to answer. But there is one small section of the Delta Center whose philosophy I would like to see cast influence over and factor into implementation of the revitalization process.

On the upper concourse of the Delta Center, between Portals LL and MM, is a Sensory Room. The room is intended for use by children on the autism spectrum, or who have other developmental disabilities. That information is according to Vivint Innovation Center, which raises the question whether it will continue with Vivint sponsorship now that the arena's naming rights have reverted back to Delta.

The Sensory Room debuted in 2018 in time for April's Autism Awareness Month. I first came across the room while attending a 2021 playoff game between the Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers. It was raucous and boisterous, which is standard for NBA and Jazz playoff games as well as many regular season games.

I had taken my then-8-year-old son Briggs with me. He lives with autism. It was crowded and loud, which are normally difficult circumstances for me—I would feel the need to leave a gathering at someone's house in such conditions—though I can somehow tolerate these conditions at sporting events and concerts in larger venues.

But for many, especially children, a threshold of tolerance is reached much faster. It's common while in attendance or watching a game on TV to be shown the adorable sight of a baby wearing protective headphones as their hoop-fan parents hold them up, Simba-style. It's likely that more fans would benefit from ear protection.

Fans may want to be at the game, but the noise and sights can be too much for the nervous system to handle. This was the case for my son during that Jazz-Clippers game, as he got picked up at halftime and went home. After making sure he got out safely, I was walking the concourse back to my seat and noticed the Sensory Room.

It struck me as a cozy and quiet room. Maybe not "cozy" in the sense of man-cave creature comforts—there are no deluxe leather reclining chairs with drink holders (you can't bring drinks into the room, anyway, which is smart). It's cozy in the sense that it's mere feet away from the intense atmosphere of NBA basketball, but feels safe and calm.

In the room are tactile play structures to keep kids occupied and satisfy their sensory-seeking curiosities, as well as some exercise items for the "heavy work" that help regulate the nervous system. It also has books and other items to stimulate the imagination while taking refuge from the overstimulation of the arena.

• Robert Trishman
• Briggs uses a balance ball platform during a Utah Jazz game.

I didn't know everything I needed to know about sensory matters during that 2021 playoff game. I don't know everything now, but I was more prepared to make use of the Sensory Room during a game this past season. More on that shortly.

There is a model for a sensory-needs space at a sporting venue across the pond. Wrexham A.F.C., located in Wales and part of English Football League One (that's soccer, for the Americans here), has devoted a section of its STK Cae Ras stadium to be a Quiet Zone for those with autism or other disabilities and needs.

European football matches look to be electric atmospheres that attract many for the "ABSOLUTE SCENES!" But many fans want to cheer on their team while not being in the middle of the noise. The Quiet Zone offers exactly that.

The Wrexham club is owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and is featured in the FX docuseries Welcome to Wrexham, which can also be watched on Hulu (Programming note: The Quiet Zone is featured in Season 2, Episode 2).

The Welsh side has garnered much praise and some derision due to its rise fueled by an infusion of Hollywood money. But the Quiet Zone is an investment that benefits a fanbase and a community. It deserves to be highlighted and begs to be implemented all over the sports world.

Now, back to the Sensory Room at the Delta Center. This past spring, I took Briggs, who's now 11, to another Jazz game. He wanted to be there, meaning at the game, but he didn't want to be there, meaning cramped in the cacophonous crowd. We were at our seats, but he was telling me he wanted to leave. The atmosphere was very disruptive to his nervous system, despite being somewhere he anticipated enjoying as a young Jazz fan.

"Let's go to the Sensory Room," I said to him. We left our seats.

We spent much of the first half and the start of the third quarter in the room. He explored the play structures, tried his hand ... er, foot ... at a balance ball and even lifted some of the dumbbells. He was calm and struck up a good conversation with a kind arena staffer. In his words, "I liked how it was a place that wasn't so loud and crammed. Just a place where I could play around with stuff."

There was a time in my sports-fan life where I would have been itching to get back to my seat for the game, especially that night as we were seeing young San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama take on the Jazz. But learning about sensory needs and having a safe place for my son were why I was content to stay in the room as long as he desired. Sitting on a bean bag and watching the game on a muted TV were just right that night while he had physical and mental space to regulate his nervous system. We eventually made it back to our seats, and he was able to enjoy a Jazz win.

With all the luxury suites and top-flight gameday experiences that sports venues offer, a space like the Sensory Room is an investment in inclusion that won't take front and center on any highlight reel, but will create appreciative fans for life. Adding more of such spaces and amenities is a win in itself, and, if you believe it, may bring some good karma to earn that Larry O'Brien Trophy and/or Stanley Cup.