Seattle NHL franchise to-do list on track: CEO
Season-ticket holders begin to pick out seats with naming set to take place in February
At first glance, it seemed like Tod Leiweke was making a statement. Or maybe he was playing the role of spoiler.
One year after the NHL officially voted Seattle in as the 32nd franchise, the team’s president and CEO arrived to this year’s board of governors meeting proudly wearing a pullover sweater that featured a Native American carving of a bird with the city’s name etched into it.
Could this be the team’s new logo? Well, not unless they want a legal battle, since the sweater — and its logo — was property of the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds.
“This is exactly what I wanted to wear today, said Leiweke, with a laugh. “Junior hockey is awesome.”
Leiweke said the naming announcement will be around February. He claims he still hasn’t chosen a name out of the five finalists that were locked away in a vault last October.
“We’re getting closer,” said Leiweke. “I won’t characterize the process, but I will tell you this, that we’re working on it actively and it’s really being driven by a fan-first process. There’s a lot of anticipation about it. The most important thing is getting it right and listening to fans.
“We’re an organization that is going to stand for its fans. We’re asking their opinion on a variety of things, including the team name. It’s a science, but it’s also an art.”
In some regards, picking a name is the easiest thing that
Leiweke has to do before Seattle officially enters the league in 2021-22. The team has a general manager in Ron Francis, but that’s about it. Everything else — from the arena to the practice facility to an AHL franchise located in Palm Springs, Calif. — is currently under construction.
The arena, which literally broke ground a day after the league’s board of governors voted unanimously in favour of accepting a new franchise, presents the biggest challenge. Rather than build an arena from scratch, Seattle decided to preserve downtown’s KeyArena, which meant propping up the arena’s unique slanted roof and digging down as far as 75 feet. It’s a huge undertaking.
Complications notwithstanding, Leiweke said, “we’re on track” for the start of the 202122 season. He’s even allowed season-ticket holders to begin picking out their seats. It’s the first sign that this is starting to feel real.
“It’s incredibly inspiring,” he said of meeting with individual ticket holders. “The underlying part of this is the fans. What we’ve found is unbelievable excitement, incredible anticipation and a strong love for the game. And it’s there. In my 30 years of sport, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Well, that’s not exactly true. A lot of what Seattle is going through is what Las Vegas went through several years ago after being granted a franchise. For Leiweke, the Golden Knights have become his blueprint to success, with one small difference: he has more time to pull everything together.
“We’re being really thoughtful and we’re trying to be patient, because these are big decisions,” said Leiweke. “I have so much admiration in Las Vegas in getting so much right in such a more compressed time frame. Each day, I hold them more and more in high regard.”
LEIWEKE STANDS BY GM
One of Tod Leiweke’s first moves as the CEO of the NHL Seattle franchise was naming Ron Francis the team’s general manager. It is a decision that he stands by today, even after Francis was criticized for how he handled allegations of abuse regarding former head coach Bill Peters while the two were working for the Carolina Hurricanes.
“He’s been an absolute pleasure to work with,” Leiweke told Postmedia News.
“And I really believe in fundamentally in his character. He’s been fantastic.”
Peters, who resigned as the head coach of the Calgary Flames late last month following allegations of uttering racial slurs while coaching in the minors, has also been accused of kicking former Hurricanes defenceman Michal Jordan and punching a second player in the head while coaching in Carolina. According to current Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour, who was an assistant coach at the time, both incidents were relayed to Francis from players and staff members.
Where they went from there is up to debate.
At first, Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos told the Seattle Times that he had not been made aware of the allegations. Had he, Karmanos said, he would have fired Peters “in a nanosecond.”
But Francis recently issued a statement contradicting that report, indicating that not only were the allegations handled internally — and that the abuse never recurred — but that he “briefed ownership” about it.
As for Francis’ future with the Seattle franchise, it did not seem as though Leiweke had any desire to part ways with his GM.
“I haven’t commented on it and I’m not really going to start now. But I do think that it’s a really important story in the world of sports, how we all behave going forward,” said Leiweke.
“I will tell you this: Ron Francis is a man of enormous character.”
We’re an organization that is going to stand for its fans. We’re asking their opinion on a variety of things, including the team name.