Seattle expansion has roots for NHL success
Fan base, hockey history should help thriving city support new team
It was here, where a plaque sits outside an office building downtown, that the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association defeated the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey Association in 1917, months before the NHL was founded.
And it will be here, in a renovated KeyArena at the foot of the Space Needle, that the NHL's 32nd team will play starting in 2021-22.
"I'm looking forward to getting the Stanley Cup back in Seattle," Mayor Jenny Durkan said.
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There is every reason to believe Seattle will excel as an NHL market.
The Oak View Group, the company leading the arena renovation, set a goal of 10,000 season-ticket deposits of $500 to $1,000. Fans made 10,000 deposits in 12 minutes after the online portal opened March 1. In the first 31 hours, 32,000 deposits were made, even though the computers struggled to keep pace. The waiting list has 10,000 names.
"I think that it shows that the city will definitely support hockey," said Chuck Arnold, president of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.
The Seattle metro area has grown to more than 3.5 million people and is No. 13 among TV markets in the United States. It is home to leading companies and passionate fans who haven't had a major league team in a winter sport since 2008, when the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder.
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The NHL has grown into a $4.5 billion business. It will have 16 teams in the Western Conference to go with the 16 in the East. The Vancouver Canucks will have a geographic rival.
"I think it's a natural for us," said Jeremy Jacobs, owner of the Boston Bruins and chairman of the Board of Governors. "We should be there. When you think about it, it really does tie that western Canadian market to the western U.S. market. The right building and the right ownership seem to be in place right now. I look for it to be very successful."
Businessman David Bonderman leads an ownership group that includes Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer and prominent investors from the local sports and business scenes. They're paying a $650 million expansion fee. They are also renovating KeyArena, under its iconic roof, at a cost of at least $800 million, and spending about $75 million for a practice facility.
"This is not for the faint of heart," NHL Seattle CEO Tod Leiweke said. "This a major investment. There are no public dollars in this. It defies some of the rules and rhythms of this industry."
Like the Vegas Golden Knights, who shattered records and made the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season of 2017-18, Seattle will have more favorable expansion draft rules than teams in the past and enter an NHL with a salary cap. Seattle will have the same rules Vegas did, except the Golden Knights will be exempt. The team will have the chance to be competitive immediately.
Leiweke and his brother, Tim, the CEO of OVG, have accomplished track records of building arenas and organizations in major league sports, including the NHL. Tod has been an executive with the Canucks, Minnesota Wild and Tampa Bay Lightning. Tim has been the CEO of parent companies of the Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs.
"You've got two of the top people in our industry, so they're not lacking leadership with tremendous experience," Golden Knights president Kerry Bubolz said. "They know what they're doing."
Tod knows this market well. He was CEO of the Seahawks from 2003-2010 and of the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer from 2007-10. The Seahawks have a sellout streak of 135 straight games. The Sounders led MLS in attendance their first eight years after beginning play as an expansion team in 2009.
Tod left the job of COO of the NFL to do this. Hockey was his first love growing up in St. Louis, rooting for the Blues after they joined the NHL as an expansion team in 1967. He played minor hockey from ages 7 to 12 and had a chance to skate at old St. Louis Arena once, and he has played rec hockey since he left high school. He loves this city too.
"I came here for things that were beyond economics," he said. "I came here because I believe that it was an absolute shame when the Sonics left. The city deserved better. I believe that KeyArena could work, and my brother did a brilliant job of showing courage and conviction to see that through. I've always believed in the fans.
"I really think that you build these teams to engage and resonate and build brilliant relationships with fan bases, and when you look at the historic teams, they all have one thing in common: They have this unique relationship with their fan base.
"I saw it twice here, with the Seahawks and with the Sounders, and I go to those games today and I'm in awe of what I was able to be a part of with those two franchises. And I think we'll do that again."
Seattle's hockey history goes far beyond the Metropolitans. High-level hockey has been played here almost continuously for more than a century. A hockey team used the name Seahawks before the football team did.
The first sporting event at the arena where Seattle's NHL team will play was an exhibition between the Totems of the professional Western Hockey League and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sept. 30, 1964. George Armstrong, Andy Bathgate, Bobby Baun, Johnny Bower, Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich, Eddie Shack and Terry Sawchuk played under that roof.
The Soviet Union national team played the Totems there Dec. 25, 1972, with 17 players from the Summit Series months earlier, and returned Jan. 5, 1974. The Soviets were tired after a long tour and rested their top four skaters, including Alexander Yakushev, but started Vladislav Tretiak in goal. They trailed 5-2 after two periods, scrambled their top skaters into uniform for the third and lost 8-4. It was a miracle before the "Miracle."
"Mark my words: This franchise launch will be fabulously successful, because of the people involved in it and because of the resources that this city will marshal to make it successful and just the excitement and enthusiasm that it'll generate," said Dave Eskenazi, a Pacific Northwest sports aficionado and memorabilia collector. "This has been a hockey town and will be a hockey town."
Seattle has a small but strong hockey community, from the Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips of the junior Western Hockey League, to minor hockey programs. The number of players in the area grew from 3,024 in 2008-09 to 4,405 last season, according to USA Hockey. It grew from 1,179 to 1,744 among players of all genders 18 and under.
NHL Seattle is committed to helping it grow further. Representatives have met with each of the junior teams as well as the minor hockey associations in the area to discuss initiatives. The training facility will have three sheets of ice to provide more opportunities to play. NHL practices will be open to the public.
"I use a term with Tod all the time," said Dave Tippett, the former NHL player and coach working with NHL Seattle as a senior adviser. "I would like to build a 'legacy' franchise where you actually have a chance to win all the time, you're part of the community -- a franchise that, for lack of a better way to put it, is like an old Original Six.
"You're not going to get to Original Six, but you can have a culture and a presence that people will look at it and say, 'This is really well done.'"
