Those who were in the room still talk about the day David Bonderman literally defined the vision of what the Kraken could be.
More specifically, how he gave the team its “eye” to channel that vision through.
It was in final logo design meetings in 2019 that Kraken founding owner Bonderman, looked at the “S” shaped figure being presented and felt something was missing. Having stayed silent through most of the meeting, he stood up and quietly suggested adding a red dot to the logo – symbolizing the creature’s eye -- and the rest is now history.
“For a man that talked as quietly and softly as he did, I never saw anybody command a room quite like he did,” said Oak View Group (OVG) CEO Tim Leiweke, the man who’d brought Bonderman to Seattle in 2017 to be the majority owner of the future Kraken. “When he had something to say, everybody in the room stopped and listened.”
The listeners included not only designers of the Kraken logo back in 2019, but those running the City of Seattle and its city council in years prior. It’s now fair to say— and Leiweke and others are saying it – that without Bonderman, there would never have been a $1.15 billion overhaul of KeyArena into Climate Pledge Arena by OVG and Kraken ownership, no subsequent Kraken team and no incredible nights of music and live entertainment.
“He gave the vision respectability because he was Bondo,” Leiweke said. “Everybody knew who he was and what he’d accomplished. And that if David Bonderman was involved in this project, it was going to happen.”
Those early months of 2017 when Bonderman and business associate Jerry Bruckheimer were first introduced as prospective Seattle hockey owners were tumultuous times for the city and its arena debate. The city council a year earlier, in May 2016, had narrowly defeated a motion to move ahead with a new, entirely different arena project pitched for the city’s SoDo District. That left the bid for a new, state-of-the-art Seattle arena in limbo until Leiweke and his fledgling OVG company arrived in October 2016 touting a plan to overhaul the existing KeyArena. Bonderman coming in erased any doubt the KeyArena redevelopment pitched by Leiweke would happen and made it much easier for the proposal to be greenlighted.
“I was fortunate to meet David Bonderman a few years ago as he tried to assemble a team to start a hockey franchise in Seattle,” said Amazon CEO and Kraken investor Andy Jassy on X. “It was one of the great pieces of good luck for me over the last 10 years. People probably knew that Bondo was amazingly smart, insightful, big-thinking, and high judgment— some of several reasons why he was so successful professionally.
“But some may not know how creative, thoughtful, warm, witty, and team-oriented he was. He touched a lot of lives in Seattle, and all over the world. I learned from him virtually every time we were together.”
After the city’s full approval of the arena plan, just ahead of the Kraken franchise being awarded in December 2018, it was Bonderman who insisted on hiring renowned design firm Rockwell to complete the arena finishes. Those extra touches are often credited for giving Climate Pledge Arena a refined look that sets it apart.
“It was a huge piece of the arena’s soul and ambience,” said Tod Leiweke, younger brother of OVG head Tim, who was hired by Bonderman in April 2018 as Kraken CEO. “He was truly an extraordinary person that this city is going to benefit from for a long time.”
Tod Leiweke said Bonderman brought with him “gravitas, incredible wisdom and a knowledge of how things should run” that everyone listened to.
“I learned to listen harder than I’d ever listened to anyone,” Leiweke said.
He’d already admired how Bonderman had proven key to helping Leiweke’s brother solve Seattle’s yearslong arena quagmire.
“I guess history will say it was going to take someone extraordinary to fix an extraordinary Rubik’s cube for this community,” Leiweke said. “And that guy came into my world and then he, along with my brother, had the courage and determination and also had a conviction of what this could be.”
Leiweke went on to describe Bonderman as “a mentor” and “an important person” in his life.
“I’m going to miss him.”
Bonderman’s judgement calls and willingness to take risks is now memorialized locally with a legacy of impacts, big and small, from the arena to the team’s Kraken Community Iceplex headquarters and the red “eye” idea he’d come up with at the logo design meeting.
Even with the “eye” addition helping the Kraken brand come together, success still wasn’t a given. OVG CEO Tim Leiweke remembers Bonderman being unwavering throughout the difficult years where the arena and team went from vision to reality.
“He was unafraid,” Leiweke said. “He never, never was afraid of seeing big things and big visions. It took a special kind of person to understand this opportunity and take this kind of risk.
“Remember, we went through COVID and came out of that period of time. And he never blinked. Never once doubted the journey that we’re on.”
Bonderman’s legacy lives on through his daughter, Samantha Holloway, who resides in Seattle and is co-owner of the team. She now becomes the team’s NHL Governor, helping guide daily operations of a franchise once her father’s dream but now a Seattle sports reality in its fourth season of existence.
Leiweke added that Bonderman quietly did other things, such as establishing, along with Holloway, the Hero of the Deep program which donates $32,000 every Kraken home game to a local community hero and a cause they support. It was an extension, Leiweke said, of his love for his own family and the broader community around him.
“People will sit there and say he put the eye in the Kraken,” Leiweke said. “But for me, he put the heart in Seattle.”
