Climate Pledge Arena
W
hile the verdict is still out as to whether Seattle will get a professional basketball team, 2020 netted the city’s first NHL team, the Seattle Kraken, with the team first taking the ice in 2021.
“Beginning in the 1940s, local hockey fans enjoyed games by amateur teams like Isaacson Iron Works, the Boeing Bombers, and the Wonder Bakers,” according to HistoryLink.
Seattle has had a long history with hockey, however, according to HistoryLink. The website stated, the Seattle Metropolitans took the ice for the first time to “standingroom-only” crowds in 1915.
The Seattle Totems came on the scene in 1958, and they won the 1959 Western Hockey League championship, their first of three titles.
“The following season, coach Pete Muldoon took the team all the way to the finals, where it won the Stanley cup — the first U.S. team to do so,” according to HistoryLink. The Metropolitans competed for the Stanley Cup in 1917, but the championship match was canceled after five games because of the Spanish Flu pandemic, according to the website. The team was disbanded in 1924 when the Seattle Ice Arena was turned into a parking garage for a newly built hotel. Hockey returned to Seattle in 1928 when the Civic Ice Arena opened at what is now the Seattle Center, according to HistoryLink. A team called the “Eskimos” played there for three years until they were replaced by the “Sea Hawks,” who played there for eight, according to HistoryLink.
“The 1960s were the heydays for the Totems, and hopes were high in 1974 when Seattle was awarded it’s first NHL franchise,” according to HistoryLink, adding the deal fell through, and the Totems went out of business in 1975. In 1977, a Western Hockey League junior team, the Seattle Breakers, who became the Thunderbirds, took the ice at the Seattle Center Coliseum,
according to HistoryLink. In 2008, they moved to Kent’s Showare Center. Following the NHL and Oak View Group’s announcement in 2018, the Seattle Kraken were coming to the city, a practice facilty was built at the Northgate Mall, and they took the ice to compete on the brand new hockey rink at the Climate Pledge Arena, which was formerly Key Arena and Seattle Center Coliseum. The Climate Pledge Arena is the first of its kind in that it is the first net-zero arena for greenhouse gas emissions. The facility, which
cost $1.15 billion to renovate, broke ground in December 2018 and broke ground in the fall of 2021. In addition to the Kraken, the 800,000-square-foot arena is the home of the Seattle Storm WNBA team and Seattle University teams. It has a 17,100-person capacity for hockey and a 18,100 capacity for basketball fans. When not used for athletics, the arena is used for concerts. Go to climatepledgearena. com to learn more or to see event or game listings.
