Sea you soon!
It’s official: Seattle named NHL’s 32nd franchise, team will hit the ice in 2021-22
SEA ISLAND, Ga. — About 10 minutes before NHL commissioner Gary Bettman stepped up to the podium and announced on live television that the league’s board of governors had voted unanimously to accept Seattle as the league’s 32nd franchise, a Teleprompter blew the surprise by flashing his prepared speech for all to see.
Not that it was really much of a surprise.
From the beginning, everything about this expansion bid has followed an inevitable path to its $650-million US conclusion.
The league has wanted Seattle, which became the first American city to win the Stanley Cup as part of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1917, for a very long time now. That desire only grew after the ownership group secured the rights to revamp a downtown arena last year and then sold deposits for 32,000 season tickets in a single day last March.
As CEO Tod Leiweke said, “That’s when we all knew that this was the right idea.”
Indeed, the move to Seattle makes a lot of sense for a league trying to extend its geographical footprint. Not only is Seattle one of North America’s fastest growing cities, with tech giant Amazon having recently opened its head offices in the downtown core, it’s an area that is starving for a professional winter sports team after losing the NBA’s SuperSonics 10 years ago.
And unlike Quebec City, its location in the northwest of the United States allows the NHL to add balance to a league that is Eastern Conference heavy, while also providing a natural rival for the Vancouver Canucks. The fact that
an ownership group headed by David Bonderman and Hollywood film producer Jerry Bruckheimer paid $150 million more in expansion fees than what Vegas paid two years ago also didn’t hurt.
“Seattle, the NHL is thrilled to welcome you,” said Bettman. “I know obviously that those words are words that the passionate and patient fans in Seattle have longed to hear.”
All that is left now is coming up with a name, although you can strike Metropolitans off the list. Apparently, the league doesn’t want to cause any confusion with the Metropolitan Division, especially now that Seattle will be in the Pacific Division, with Arizona moving to the Central to make room.
“We’re going to take our time,” Leiweke said of the name. “There’s a group of owners involved. We’re going to listen to our fans and we’re going to do it right and we’re not going to have a time pressure, but it’s something we’re working on each and every day.”
The thing is, patience will be key as the NHL has set 2021-22 as the start date for the franchise.
Most of that delay is due to the ambitious job of turning the NBA-first Key Arena into a reimagined Seattle Center Arena, an $800-million project that is expected to take about two years. But you have to think that the league also wants to avoid the messiness of having its start date pushed back because of a potential lockout.
“I have business cards I’m going to have to toss out that say Seattle 2020,” said Leiweke. “This is an organization that’s going to be built around our fans, and as we thought about this on behalf of our fans, we realized that perhaps we wouldn’t open the season with our fans in our new building, perhaps the training center wouldn’t be ready … so waiting a little longer seemed to make a lot of sense and we ultimately agreed with the league.”
For now, the league is happy to accept Seattle’s $650 million expansion fee and start planning for what’s coming next.
Aside from the name and the construction of a new arena, there is a front-office staff to hire and an expansion draft to start planning for. According to Bettman, Seattle will be afforded the same advantages that Vegas had in being able to draft quality players from other teams, with one minor wrinkle: the Golden Knights, who are in their second season, won’t be losing anyone.
“Certainly we’re going to be able to lay eyes on players for an additional season,” said Leiweke, who’s only hockey hire to date is adding former NHL coach Dave Tippett as a senior advisor. “There is certainly one model where you can bring on staff earlier, and I think ownership has proven they’re willing to make investment. So we’re going to make the best use of this time. And ultimately, for our fans, this will be a good thing. Not only will the building be on time, but we’re going to be really sharp on the hockey side of things as well.”
Based on what’s transpired so far with the franchise, there’s no reason to doubt it.
“I love Seattle,” said Bonderman, who has deep ties to the city. “I worked on the Space Needle in 1962. So what goes around comes around. Seattle is one of my favourite cities and it’s a pleasure to be here. If it were someplace else, I wouldn’t have done it.”