The vibe, the amenities, the noise of the Kraken’s Seattle opener: ‘It’s world-class’
Clay Bennett, eat your Oklahoma heart out.
“It’s awesome. It’s everything I thought it was going to be — maybe even more.
“It’s world-class.”
That was Jerry McMullen, a 57-year-old transportation director for schools in Bremerton. He was in awe in section 20, lower bowl, row Z of Climate Pledge Arena, looking around the glistening new palace in Seattle Center about an hour before the puck dropped on Seattle sports history Saturday night.
Just past the living wall of green hanging and wall plants that remind everyone this is a zero-carbon arena, McMullen and his family were blown away.
They weren’t alone.
Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, was casually strolling alone outside the carpeted Pitchbook Suites on arena’s second level. It was two hours before he took the building’s microphone to officially welcome the Kraken into his league just prior to faceoff.
Bettman’s mouth was noticeably agape, even through his arena-mandated face mask.
Seattle officially, truly joined the NHL when its fans booed Bettman, a league tradition, at the start of his welcoming pregame remarks.
“It’s been a long time coming,” McMullen said, with his wife Maggie and their grown, former junior-league hockey player son Jake sitting on each side of him at the home debut of the Seattle Kraken, against the Vancouver Canucks.
“I’m REALLY looking forward to this.”
“This” was the unveiling of the NHL’s 32nd franchise, inside the $1.15 billion arena at Seattle Center. Tickets outside were going for a minimum of $300 each.
Why pay that when you can walk off the street and line up high above one of the goals, to peer through the arena’s giant windows to watch the game?
To think, Bennett once said he basically couldn’t pay people to come to Seattle’s games inside the old arena that was on this site.
It had been 13 1/2 years since the NBA’s SuperSonics last played a real game at Seattle Center. The Sonics beat the Dallas Mavericks on April 13, 2008, their last game in old KeyArena.
Bennett was the Sonics’ owner then. He had bought the franchise from Starbucks mogul Howard Schultz and immediately declared KeyArena was untenable. Bennett said that was chiefly because it lacked the luxury suites, seating and lounges that allow pro-sports team owners to essentially print money.
Climate Pledge Arena has luxury everything.
There’s the Tunnel Club, on the ice. The Verizon Suites. The gold-plated Moet and Chandon Imperial Lounge. The Symetra Club and WaFd Bank Club.
The every-person’s concessions include the Modelo Cantina, the Jack Daniel’s lounge and, of course, the Kraken Black Spiced Rum stand.
Local microbrews are on tap against chic brick walls on either end of the arena. The beer is served in what presumably are zero-carbon, silver cups with “Climate Pledge Arena” printed in green on them.
Never mind the price is more than what you pay for a six-pack of them on the outside — $16 per beer, the Kraken are playing!
Seahawks stars Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner and DK Metcalf were there, Wagner and Metcalf wearing Kraken blue home sweaters. Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch made a video appearance, exhorting the constantly roaring fans to “show up and show out.”
As if they needed exhorting.
“Yeah, I mean, it was rockin’. They got loud,” Canucks captain Bo Horvat said after he scored half of Vancouver’s goals in its rally in the third period past the Kraken, 4-2.
“It was definitely louder than most (NHL games). I think, obviously, everybody was excited about tonight. It was exciting playing in the first game here. The fans obviously were loud tonight, which made it that much more easy to get up for this game.
“It was fun. It was such a raucous (environment). There’s nothing better.
“The atmosphere like that, that’s why you play hockey. That’s why you play in the NHL.”
The roar-ers began pouring into the arena two hours before the game. They wore Kraken sweaters; 29-year-old Finnish right wing Joonas Donskoi’s number 72 was a popular choice. Other game sweaters in the crowd included those of the red, green and white-striped Seattle Metropolitans, the city’s first NHL team current Vancouver home blues and black, yellow and orange Canucks throwbacks of 53 Bo Horvat and the 88 of Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane.
There was even a white, blue and gold Charlestown Chiefs number 16. That was the jersey of Jack Hanson, one of the dirty-playing Hanson brothers from Slap Shot, the iconic 1977 hockey movie starring Paul Newman.
“Growing up, it was always hard to root for an NHL team here in Seattle,” Jake McMullen, Jerry’s 26-year-old son, said back in section 20 of his days living in Kennewick then Bremerton and playing junior hockey in Wenatchee.
“I liked the San Jose Sharks.”
Not anymore. The hot-starting Sharks, 4-0 with eight points already this young season, are now a Pacific Division rival of the Kraken. San Jose entered Saturday five points ahead of Seattle (1-3-1) in the standings.
Seattle rocker Ann Wilson of Heart shook the new building during her belting out of the first Kraken national anthem on opening night.
Yanni Gourde almost blew its roof off 20 seconds into the first game.
Gourde won the opening face off against Horvat, who later scored Vancouver’s tying first goal midway through the second period. With the crowd still roaring over the NHL finally beginning here, Gourde took a quick, cross-ice pass and sped down the left side. Fiffteen seconds into Seattle NHL history, Gourde was in alone on Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko.
Demko slid to his right and deftly blocked Gourde’s sneaky, high wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle, or else the historic, 1962 World’s Fair roof preserved to cap the Kraken’s new mansion may have blown off.
The noise was constant. Think Seahawks crowd, packed into a 17,500-seat arena.
:That was fun,” Vancouver’s Conor Garland said. “Sold-out crowd (in their seats early) for warmups...
“It was pretty fun.”
Especially when he scored on an unassisted goal at the 15:58 mark of the third period. That gave the Canucks the lead, 3-2, erasing what what been the Kraken’s 2-1 lead on captain Mark Giordano’s first goal of the season early in the final period.
After Garland’s goal, he stared down a Kraken fan seated next to Vancouver’s bench.
“He was giving me the finger and yelling at me a few minutes earlier, just because I was taping my stick --I was facing him and taping my stick.
“I just happened to score the next shift.”
Yep, already, after one night, the Seattle-Vancouver NHL rivalry is on.
“Things got heated out there a couple times today,” Horvat said. “Fans are going to be coming back and forth when the border opens, too. So, it’s going to be a big rivalry.”
The roars peaked in the final minute of the opening period. The Kraken’s Donskoi won a scrum for the puck out of the corner. Adam Larsson passed across the point to fellow defenseman Vince Dunn. Dunn’s left-handed slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle beat Demko past his glove side for the first goal inside Climate Pledge Arena.
The press bridge full of reporters that hovers like a catwalk over the top section of the arena shook.
It jolted the Canucks awake. They were playing the finale of a six-game road trip to begin the season that stretched from Buffalo to Lower Queen Anne.
“Yeah, we talked about it before the game: If you are going to pick a building to play in at the end of a road trip...sometimes you worry about your team’s energy after you’ve been on the road for a while,” Vancouver coach Travis Green said.
“Everyone knew this was going to be a high-energy game, the building was going to have a lot of energy. I think that probably helped the group a little bit.”
“It was a lot like with Vegas, with the atmosphere.
“It was a special night.”
Speaking of Vegas...
Back in section 20, a section below where those peering in from the street were watching through the windows for free, Maggie McMullen from Bremerton was asked what she expected from this inaugural Kraken season in this impressive palace.
Is what the expansion Vegas Golden Knights did their first season, a magical run all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2018, what she expects?
“Exactly!” McMullen said, beaming and laughing.
“All the way to the Stanley Cup!”
This story was originally published October 23, 2021 at 9:04 PM.
