From The October 4, 2021 Edition Of The Hockey News
Please don't tell Geoff Baker that I edited his story.
Geoff, an exemplary sports journalist, covers the Seattle Kraken for the Seattle Times. We see each other often in the Climate Pledge Arena press box, at Kraken practices, and at the soft-serve ice cream machine in what I like to call the "Dreyfuss Media Dining Room."
For some reason, that name hasn't caught on (yet).
Anyway, there's a lot to admire about Geoff, and I do. But his The Hockey News cover story about everything leading up to the debut of the Kraken in 2021 is more than 1,700 words.
That's not to say every syllable wasn't hand-selected from the freshest hockey interviews, arranged in a succulent charcuterie of topics, then presented in his 3-star Michelin-rated gourmet repast of a story. (Thank you, Stephen Colbert.)
But digesting 1,700 words in one online sitting would tax the most experienced of palates. So I picked out the juiciest morsels below.
The good news is, you can find every delectable word of Geoff Baker's original story at THN.com/archive.
Fishing For Fans
October 4, 2021 / Vol. 75, Issue 4 / Written by Geoff Baker
The night before what is now the Seattle Kraken was approved as an NHL franchise, CEO Tod Leiweke wandered the posh hallways of The Cloister resort in Sea Island, Ga., his mind racing about how to keep hockey fans interested in a team that would exist in concept only for years to come.
That December 2018 afternoon, Leiweke had received confirmation of what had been hinted at for months: the NHL’s board of governors, in their meeting at the resort the following day, would approve the league’s 32nd franchise, but the launch date was being pushed back 12 months to October 2021 to buy additional time to complete a $1-billion overhaul of since-renamed Climate Pledge Arena.
That meant waiting nearly three more years, an eternity in sports, especially when nine months had already elapsed since the NHL Seattle organization had collected 32,000 season-ticket deposits in 31 hours.
“There was some consternation with not starting in 2020,” Leiweke said. “Because it had all been about Seattle and NHL in 2020. And what would happen if you told fans, ‘Hey, we have to wait another year to open the gates?’“
The imposed wait proved a blessing, as the COVID-19 pandemic struck 14 months later and caused delays that would further impede the arena’s construction in a busy Seattle market already known for not completing projects on time. But it still didn’t solve the issue of keeping future Kraken fans interested.
Fortunately, the Seattle group had ownership and executives – including minority partner and current Amazon CEO Andy Jassy – who were well-versed in Seattle’s technology-heavy marketplace. The organization quickly built a formidable social-media presence, despite lacking players, coaches or even a team name to rally around.
A theater room featured a miniature model of a completed Climate Pledge Arena, replete with a laser light show and wall-projected promotional video. The idea was to dazzle future season-ticket holders by walking them through the preview center.
NHL Seattle executives had known since January 2020 that “Kraken” would be chosen – despite having the secrecy-sworn social-media group continuously tease possibilities that included “Sockeyes” and “Metropolitans” to keep fans interested. Ongoing trademark research pushed back the planned name-drop to March 2020. But by then, state-imposed COVID shutdowns loomed.
“We were overwhelmed by the excitement that our fans still provided us,” said Bill Chapin, the team’s senior vice-president, sales and service. “While it wasn’t in-person, on Zoom fans were still dressed up in Metropolitans gear or stuff from NHL Seattle – remember, we didn’t have a name at that time – or of their favorite team before the Kraken. Fans were celebrating. They were excited to get their seats.”
That momentum carried through the winter until the pandemic ebbed and public restrictions eased. As spring 2021 approached, the Kraken worked with public-health officials to prepare a nationally televised showcase event at the city’s Gas Works Park on July 21, the day of the expansion draft.
The idea was that the free but limited-ticket event – attended by 4,000 people on the sun-kissed shore of Lake Union – would be a celebration of the team’s players being selected and the pandemic easing. And a thank you to fans for enduring a years-long odyssey since their first ticket deposits. “True to form, they hung in there,” Leiweke said. “They hung in there at every turn. And now, as we’re getting to the point of launch, I think about it every day.”
THN Archive is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 stories for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit the archive at THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com.
