The Delta Center will get its first taste of Stanley Cup Playoff hockey Friday night.
But as the Utah Mammoth and Vegas Golden Knights face off in Game 3 of their first-round series, one of the top stars on the ice won’t be wearing skates or holding a stick.
You may have heard of the “Zammoth” by now, the rideable, mammoth-shaped Zamboni that Utah unveiled earlier this month.
While a few other NHL clubs have similar fan engagement machines in their arenas, the Zammoth is arguably the most ambitious such project to date, roaming the Delta Center ice before each Mammoth game and at the beginning of every intermission while carrying eight fans at a time for a memorable joyride.
It was designed and built by the Diesel Brothers, a team of Utah-based content creators known for their impressive work with trucks and other motor vehicles, who completed the project for around $500,000 and used a Zamboni from Salt Lake City’s 2002 Winter Olympics as the base.
The Diesel Brothers’ effort quickly paid off. The Zammoth became an immediate hit, delighting Mammoth fans and capturing worldwide attention via social media, where posts praising the motorized mascot received millions of views and likes.
For a new franchise building its culture on the fly, having the Zammoth is a major asset for the team moving forward, especially in adding to the Delta Center’s rowdy game-day atmosphere.
“I think the Mammoth already have another level of passion and fan excitement, so we had the bar set pretty high to make something pretty cool,” “Diesel” Dave Kiley of the Diesel Brothers told the Deseret News.
“... We had to go all out, and I think we got lucky and nailed it.”
While Kiley said he wasn’t necessarily surprised that Mammoth fans were fond of his team’s creation, seeing the Zammoth’s initial in-arena reception left him speechless.
“We caught the vision for it, we loved it, but when you bring it in front of a whole crowd of people and they also love it and it actually works to get the crowd on their feet, I can’t even put it into words what that feeling was,” Kiley said.
But as rewarding as the Zammoth project has been for Kiley, there’s a bittersweetness to it as well.
One of Kiley’s crew members, Matthew Arnold — better known as “Billy Luber” — is currently battling terminal esophageal cancer. Arnold painted the Zammoth and drew its first design right after the Mammoth called requesting the crew’s services.
His cancer battle may be intense, but Arnold’s work on the Zammoth will help bring joy to fans in Utah and beyond for years to come.
“He’s leaving his legacy on the line with this Zammoth build, he put it all out there,” Kiley said of Arnold.
“... We’re on the front lines of creating what will last a lifetime here in Utah, you know? It’s pretty amazing, it’s an honor to be part of it.”
