The Utah Hockey Club may have only been in existence for a few months, but owner Ryan Smith already seems to have a clear sense of how to attract lifelong fans who will help the franchise thrive in the years to come.

How does he do that? How do free tickets sound?

On Wednesday before Utah’s game against the Vancouver Canucks, Smith – who also owns the NBA’s Utah Jazz – decided to make sure some people who haven’t yet seen his team play in person get that chance.

Then, a few hours before the opening game, Smith announced that over 700 people had responded to his first tweet and that some of them had been granted access to his eight-seat suite.

Because so many people wanted to attend a Utah Hockey Club game (better yet, for free), Smith decided that the club would open additional seats at the Delta Center and give them away to fans.

Okay, that’s very cool.

Of course, as expected, these tickets were in high demand and sold out after about an hour.

However, Smith promised that he would do so again in the future.

This is a great way to get people in the door because people usually become fans as soon as they attend a game. Anyone who has ever attended a hockey game in person knows that there is nothing quite like it.

A big thank you to Utah for growing the game and building an already hungry fan base.

Remember, this is the club that broke a sales record for Delta Center beer at its home opening and had huge crowds waiting to buy their first sweaters.

And these were sweaters that might only be available for one season!

So far, the NHL’s push into Utah appears to have been a success.

The team hasn’t been quite as successful on the ice, but they are in the hunt for the playoffs and are currently five points behind the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.