Amazon buys naming rights for Seattle’s NHL arena
SEATTLE — Amazon has purchased the KeyArena naming rights, but the venue will be known as Climate Pledge Arena, rather than using the company’s name.
The arena, home to Seattle’s incoming NHL franchise and the WNBA’s Storm, will be powered 100% by renewable electricity and seek to achieve a zero carbon footprint. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos broke the news Thursday on Instagram.
NHL Seattle CEO Tod Leiweke said in an interview Thursday that the arena aims to produce zero waste, will source food locally and reduce all plastics by 2024.
He said the team had long been looking into increasing “sustainability” within the arena, but added that the Amazon deal takes things to a different level.
“We were talking about Amazon and talked about community,” Leiweke said. “And they came back and said ‘Look, the number one community cause for us and what we believe in most is climate, and Jeff’s commitment to the climate pledge.’ And we came away inspired.”
What resulted, he said, was something NHL Seattle, the Oak View Group arena developer and Amazon all felt could give the city something bigger to believe in during these trying times.
In a release, Bezos said: “We’ve secured naming rights to the historic arena previously known as KeyArena. Instead of naming it after Amazon, we’re calling it Climate Pledge Arena as a regular reminder of the importance of fighting climate change. We look forward to working together with Oak View Group, a new Climate Pledge signatory, and NHL Seattle to inspire global climate action.”