what’s in a name?
President ‘getting closer’ to choosing moniker for Seattle expansion franchise
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. — 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 at this year’s Board of Governors’ meeting at the Inn at Spanish Bay 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 the property of the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds.
“This is exactly what I wanted to wear today,” Leiweke said with a laugh. “Junior hockey is awesome.”
As for what the NHL team will be called, Leiweke said that announcement would not occur until sometime around February. Until then, don’t bother asking Leiweke for any clues. 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,” Leiweke said. “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.
“It’s a very complicated process because you’re taking a historic roof and leaving it in place, but then building a whole new arena underneath,” Leiweke said. “So we had to get the arena supported by a temporary system that could not only hold up that massive structure, but also withstand should there be a seismic event. It was really an amazing feat of engineering.”
Complications notwithstanding, Leiweke said, “we’re on track” for the start of the 2021-22 season. He has even gone so far as to allow 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,” Leiweke said. “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.”