Bulls & Bears: Sporting greenest ice in NHL, owners' lips smacking over Kraken

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Bulls of the Week

They won’t start playing until the fall of 2021, but the Seattle Kraken are already making waves and creating a buzz as the club assembles the building blocks to the NHL’s 32nd franchise and the arena it will be playing in.

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Bulls & Bears: Sporting greenest ice in NHL, owners' lips smacking over Kraken Back to video

Seattle’s US$650-million expansion team unveiled its brand mark in a virtual announcement and video reveal Thursday. Inspired by the mythical sea monster, the name, logo and colours were unveiled just three weeks after Amazon bought the naming rights to Climate Pledge Arena, the US$930-million reconstruction of Key Arena that will create the first “net zero carbon certified arena” in the world.

Backed by an arena naming rights deal thought to be worth north of $20 million per year, the Kraken will be right at home playing on what is being billed as the “greenest ice in the NHL,” made from recaptured rain water.

A front office led by widely-respected sport business operations guru Tod Leiweke has scored a huge goal in the early days of their franchise.

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In a globalized world in which it has become increasingly difficult to be original, the double blue and red-eyed Kraken appear to have successfully differentiated themselves from both the blue-and-green of the other major professional sport franchises in Seattle, while also finding a way to say “West Coast” without drawing on their Western Conference cousins represented by the blue-and-green of the Vancouver Canucks, the teal, burnt orange and black of the San Jose Sharks, the black-and-silver of the Los Angeles Kings and the black, gold and orange of the Anaheim Ducks.

They’ve also managed something special in team branding: A name and storytelling platform that will be a magnet for children and young fans and a simple stylized ‘S’ that will connect with baby boomers and older fans. What they’ve done is cut the fan engagement swath across at least two generations in a way few before them ever have.

It’s another bullish step for a Seattle ownership group chaired by David Bonderman and featuring Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Mitch Garber and Tod’s older brother Tim Leiweke of the Oak View Group, the longtime international sport executive who is the driving force behind the arena remodelling.

Operating in one of the wealthiest, tech-centric sport markets in North America, they have a waiting list of season ticket holders that could fill another 17,000-seat arena.

Bears of the Week

Just as they were settling in on the notion they would be playing 30 home games at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, the Blue Jays announced Friday that the team will instead play its home games at Buffalo’s Sahlen Field, their triple-A affiliate’s park, and not Baltimore’s Camden Yards, which became a contender after Rogers Centre was deemed a no go due to COVID-19 concerns.

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Too much time was spent by the commissioner’s office on the length of season and player salary and not enough on a format that could have avoided the travel that will put the 60-game MLB season under close scrutiny these next two months.

• The Sport Market on TSN Radio rates and debates the bulls and bears of sport business. Join Tom Mayenknecht on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. for a behind-the-scenes look at the sport-business stories that matter most to fans. Follow Tom Mayenknecht at: Twitter.com/TheSportMarket

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