Kraken season-ticket sales being conducted virtually because of pandemic

The Seattle Kraken have begun to sell season tickets, ending a two-year wait for depositors eager to select their seat at Climate Pledge Arena.

Seattle became the 32nd NHL team on Dec. 4, 2018. As part of the process, it opened a ticket portal on March 1, 2018 and collected 35,000 deposits, surpassing a goal of 13,000. Now those depositors are virtually choosing where they want to sit in the arena for the inaugural season in 2021-22. Tickets are being sold in the order of when fans made their deposit.
Construction on Climate Pledge Arena is expected to be completed in late summer 2021.
Seattle native J.R. Elvig selected his tickets last week with a priority number of 114.
"I remember like it was yesterday," Elvig said of the initial deposit process. "My wife and I were on both of our computers and I had my phone open. We were trying to get through right as the clock struck 10 a.m. I got through on one of our devices pretty quick and we were 114. It made my week."
Each depositor selects their seats virtually, either on their own or via a Zoom call with a Kraken ticket representative. The Zoom presentations include a seating chart with the available inventory and a visual presentation of the arena and its amenities. The Kraken are working through close to 100 meetings a day, with tickets ranging from $50-$170 per seat per game.

Waiting two years has not dampened the enthusiasm for tickets; the Kraken report a high conversion rate from deposit to purchase.
"I already know our fans are the best in the National Hockey League and we haven't even dropped the puck yet," said Bill Chapin, Kraken senior vice president of sales and service. "So patient, so awesome, so ready, so inquisitive, so many superlatives. It's been amazing … They've embraced it fully."
The original plan was to bring each depositor into the 5,000-square-foot preview center two blocks from the Climate Pledge Arena construction site. The center contains memorabilia, a giant screen that plays a promotional video, and a model of the arena that comes with a light show and removable roof allowing a look inside.
Fans would have been able to sit in an actual arena seat, as well as seeing and feeling tactile samples of the materials used in the arena. But those plans changed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"I think out of an abundance of caution for our fans and staff, it was the right decision," Chapin said. "We've been able to take a majority of these elements and transition those, and pivot those to the online experience."
Along with the 35,000 depositors, the Kraken have a waiting list that has surged to 60,000. It's a good problem to have, but with arena capacity of 17,100, fans faced the potential of being shut out.
To make the games more accessible, the Kraken have reserved more than 9,000 seats for half-season ticket plans. Along with that, single-game tickets will be available at some point.
"The depositors put the wind in the sail of the franchise, no doubt about it," Chapin said. "We really looked hard at creating optionality. Optionality has always been at the ethos to make sure we're walking in the footsteps of the season ticket holders. When we created the 9,000 half-season plans, which is the most of any team in the National Hockey League, that was that ethos."
Chapin said the Kraken hope to work through their list of depositors over the next 3-4 months and are planning a way to get the ticket holders into the preview center at some point down the road.
"We didn't want to miss this opportunity to pick some really great seats," Elvig said. "Me and my buddy, Matthew, are going in on these tickets together, and when we got our tickets, we gave each other big high-fives, just knowing we are going to be there for that first game."