Seattle looking forward to rivalry with Canucks
SEA ISLAND, GA. We’re less than three years away from Seattle actually playing NHL games. But that didn’t stop CEO Tod Leiweke from starting a little trash-talk in what he hopes becomes a friendly rivalry with the Vancouver Canucks.
“I don’t want to send up the flames here because those guys are my friends, but bring it on,” Leiweke said of the Canucks.
“We can’t wait. It’s going to be an intense rivalry and it might be the one night I walk in the locker-room and say to the boys, ‘Give it a little more tonight.’ ”
Seattle is about a two-hour drive from Vancouver, which Leiweke calls its “sister city.”
“Vancouver and Seattle share so much in common,” he said. “Two absolutely gorgeous cities right on the water with a backdrop of mountains … there’s going to be a built-in rivalry.”
The NHL is rife with geographic rivals, including Toronto and Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary, and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Until now, Vancouver has never had one.
“(Canucks owner) Francesco Aquilini has been clear on the record for years now that he would love an expansion team in Seattle to create that rivalry,” said deputy commissioner Bill Daly. “The Canucks are excited about it. I know Seattle’s excited about it.”
With Seattle now owning an NHL franchise, the next question is whether this will pave the way for the NBA.
“One miracle at a time,” Seattle NHL owner David Bonderman said. “Obviously the city would be enthused to have an NBA team and so would we. There’s plenty of time to work about that as we have an arena to build, we have a team to build and then we’ll come back and see what there is.”
The SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008. While the NBA has hinted at a possible return, it would likely come through relocation, not expansion.
The Seattle Metropolitans played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1915 -24, becoming the first U.S.-based team to win the Stanley Cup. But with the NHL already having a Metropolitan Division, it appears that another name will have to be found.
There are no shortage of options. According to reports, a lawyer with Oak View Group has registered 38 different domain names, including everything from Eagles and Emeralds to Sea Lions and Totems.
“You just want to do right for Seattle and bring great players and hopefully pick a name where we won’t get too many people mad at us,” co-owner Jerry Bruckheimer said.
Is the Seattle Kraken, apparently the mayor’s favourite, an actual possibility?
“Every name has a chance right now,” said Bruckheimer, who produced the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise.
How did Bruckheimer, who after Tuesday’s meeting was returning to Los Angeles to begin shooting a Top Gun remake, become a hockey fan? He was born into it.
“I grew up in Detroit, my dad took me to Red Wings games, and I sat in the rafters there and looked down on some of the great players who were playing in those days,” he said.
Beginning Wednesday, Seattle’s NHL team will break ground on an ambitious $800-million project to redevelop the outdated KeyArena. Construction is expected to take more than two years, which includes gutting the old rink and digging down 15 feet in order to change the sightlines for hockey.
SEATTLE The NHL will make the Emerald City the home for its 32nd franchise after Seattle’s expansion bid was approved by the league’s board of governors. Here’s what you need to know about the decision.
WHY SEATTLE?
Seattle is the biggest U.S. market that doesn’t have either an NBA or NHL team. Its economy has boomed in the past decade since the departure of the NBA’s SuperSonics to Oklahoma City. It’s a city with disposable income and the itch to spend it on a new team. A season-ticket drive last spring had to be cut off at more than 30,000 deposits.
WHERE WILL THEY PLAY?
The arena at Seattle Center is undergoing a US$700-million privately financed renovation. The building started out as the Seattle Center Coliseum for the 1962 World’s Fair and has been home to the Sonics, minor-league hockey, and thousands of concerts and events. Its roof was given historic landmark designation, adding a complication to the construction, but it will essentially be an entirely new building built underneath the roof. The arena will hold 17,400 for hockey and is being designed with the idea of having the NBA return someday.
WHEN IS PUCK DROP?
The team will hit the ice for the 2021-22 season. Seattle would have loved to have its team take the ice for the 2020-21 season, but arena renovations may not be done in time and no one wants to risk it. Labour uncertainty also hovers over all things NHL because owners or players can vote in September 2019 to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement one year later, right before the beginning of the 2020 season.
NAME? COLOURS? LOGO?
Majority owner David Bonderman and the rest of the ownership group have given no hints, while the public has taken to online suggestions that include everything from the Metropolitans, Totems and Breakers (tributes to Seattle’s hockey history) to the Pilots, Steelheads, Sockeyes and even the Kraken. The expectation is that the franchise name will be announced sometime in the first half of 2019. As for colours, it’s anyone’s guess. Seattle franchises almost all have a shade of green included, so don’t be surprised if that’s part of the scheme.
SWEET 16?
The addition of Seattle will give the Western Conference a 16th team to mirror the east. The Central Division has seven teams and the Pacific Division has eight. Seattle will be placed in the same division as Vancouver, the closest team by geography, so that means Arizona will be moved out of the Pacific and into the Central starting with the 2021 season.
VEGAS, PART TWO?
NHL general managers will be a little more leery about the players made available in the expansion draft after watching Vegas go all the way to the Stanley Cup final in its first year last season. Seattle may not have the same immediate success as the Golden Knights, but with the management team in place — coach and GM still pending — don’t be surprised if Seattle is successful early in its NHL lifetime.