Location: 3200 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City
Disciplines and events: Ice hockey (22 men's games and 7 women's games over 16 days)
Projected capacity: 8,500
Status: Currently used by the Utah Grizzles of the International Hockey League and the Utah Freezz of the World Indoor Soccer League. Also used for other events and concerts.
Previous Olympic-type events: 2000 Five Nations men's under-18 hockey tournament; 2000 World Ice Sledge Hockey Championships; 1998 U.S.-Canada women's hockey exhibition.
Upcoming events: U.S.-Canada women's hockey exhibition, Oct. 20, 2001
Briefly: The E Center is a state-of-the-art, built-for-hockey facility, with superb visibility for spectators and an abundance of luxury suites. Its only real drawback is that it is fairly small. Olympic officials would love to have a capacity of about twice the projected 8,500.
The Five Nations men's hockey tournament — the venue's test event in November — went without a hitch and drew the largest crowd ever (10,157) to see an International Ice Hockey Federation under-18 game. But an additional 5,000 would-be spectators seeking admission to that contest were turned away at the gate.
One concern may be the venue's media sub-center, which will be a huge, enclosed tent in the parking lot between the E Center and the northbound lanes of I-215. SLOC is looking to ensure that the sub-center, which will be the main media center for the 2002 Paralympic Games the next month, won't be the chilly, noisy location some fear it may be.