Seattle wastes no time breaking ground on site of arena for NHL team
SEATTLE — The celebration outside the building Seattle’s NHL team will eventually call home Wednesday came with all the formality of a groundbreaking event with the principals taking turns giving remarks and ceremonially shovelling dirt.
It also came with a new price-tag even higher than what was stated a day earlier when Seattle was awarded the NHL’s 32nd franchise.
The cost now is $850 million for the new arena at Seattle Center, according to Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke, with construction expected to get started almost immediately.
That’s an increase of $200 million from the initial projections for the privately financed project, but the principals involved believe the increased investment is part of making the new building one of the top arenas in the country.
“We never value engineered. That was an amazing commitment on behalf of ownership,” Leiweke said. “Everything we dreamed about and more, we have kept in this building and will write the check.”
The ceremonial event concluded a whirlwind 36 hours for hockey fans in the region.
The franchise will take the ice for the 2021-22 season after the league and ownership group decided not to risk an already tight arena construction schedule.
Rather than having the franchise start for the 2020 season — with the potential of delays creating adverse conditions for the new team, such as a lengthy road trip to begin their inaugural campaign — the launch was delayed by a year.
That does provide a cushion in the construction timeline.
“We’ve always wanted to build in a very responsible way, so we’re going got have a little more time to do that,” said Tod Leiweke, the CEO and president of NHL Seattle.
The goal is to have the building open by March or April of 2021, so that the WNBA Seattle Storm can play the 2021 season in the building and other events can be scheduled to start recouping the investment on the project.
The additional time should allow the team to have its three-rink practice facility completed in time for their first training camp in 2021.
By the time the entirety of all the projects and investments in the franchise is realized with the team’s first game — arena, expansion fee, practice facility and other costs — bringing the franchise to Seattle could end up running in the neighbourhood of $2 billion.