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Post by mikecubs on Dec 17, 2017 21:04:43 GMT -6
NHL says Seattle can apply for franchise, start season-ticket driveThe announcement comes the same week the Seattle City Council approved and Mayor Jenny Durkan signed a $600 million agreement with the Los Angeles-based Oak View Group to renovate KeyArena.
During this 100th anniversary year of the Seattle Metropolitans winning the Stanley Cup, the NHL announced an expansion process Thursday that likely will lead to the city gaining the league’s 32nd franchise. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced after a Board of Governors meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., that the league has received a request to file an expansion application from billionaire investment banker David Bonderman and Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Bonderman and Bruckheimer are partnered with the Oak View Group (OVG), which this week finalized a deal with the City of Seattle for a $600 million renovation of KeyArena.The league has agreed to review the application, has set a $650 million expansion fee and now will gauge progress by the Seattle group in coming months before deciding whether to award a franchise to this market. “Mr. Bonderman, with his partner Jerry Bruckheimer, has asked if they might file an application for an expansion team,’’ Bettman told reporters. “And the board has said that they may do that. That doesn’t mean that we have granted an expansion team. We’ve agreed as a league to take and consider an expansion application and to let them run — at some point in the next few months — a season-ticket drive.”Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan signed a Memorandum of Understanding with OVG on Wednesday. Durkan and the city hope the renovated KeyArena attracts an NHL team, and eventually the return of an NBA team. The Sonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008. Durkan held a news conference Thursday to discuss the NHL announcement. “I said (Wednesday) I thought we were on the path,” Durkan said. “I didn’t know it would happen so quickly. We are thrilled that it is happening. I will be talking to the NHL commissioner soon. I’m also hoping to talk to the NBA commissioner because I know I’m going to get that. “We saw the (Vancouver) Canucks are really excited to come here and get beat. And we’re excited to go up north. We remember Seattle has more Stanley Cups and we plan to add to that. “We are looking forward to bringing the NHL to Seattle.” The process announced Thursday is similar to what the Las Vegas Golden Knights did ahead of being awarded an NHL expansion team that began play this season. Before that process, the league opened an expansion-application process for any interested parties and received offers from groups for Las Vegas and Quebec City. This time around, only Seattle is being considered. Bettman reiterated that the process is exclusively about Seattle when asked whether Quebec City might again be considered.Barring issues with the season-ticket drive — or a snag with the KeyArena renovation plan — it appears an expansion team will be headed Seattle’s way. In fact, the NHL has been negotiating with the Seattle group on the expansion fee for several months. The group initially offered $600 million but agreed to pay the higher price.Bettman mentioned that relocation of one or more teams is still on the table and did not rule that out. But a renovated KeyArena is not expected to be ready until October 2020 at the earliest, leaving no place to accept a relocated team in the short term. Also, the league stands to gain double in expansion fees what it would get from any group offering to take in a relocated team. And not every market can afford to pay that fee and make it work. In small-market Quebec City’s case, a $650 million expansion fee would cost close to $850 million in Canadian dollars after the exchange rate is factored in. The league also has been eyeing Seattle as a solution to address the 16-to-15 team imbalance between its Eastern and Western conferences. OVG co-founder Tim Leiweke had no immediate comment Thursday about the developments. Leiweke is scheduled to arrive in Toronto on Friday for the MLS Cup game between the Sounders and the Toronto FC team he helped run for two seasons in which it acquired many of its current star players. Besides spending $600 million to refurbish KeyArena, Leiweke’s group also has pledged an additional $60 million to a separate city transportation fund and to various community charities. Durkan on Thursday said the city will begin work on the season-ticket drive with Bonderman and Leiweke. “I’m hoping to meet with or speak with Mr. Bonderman soon as well as having constant communication with Mr. Leiweke,” Durkan said. “ … I think we’ll see the launch right after the first of the year, because it’s not a time right now to be launching that kind of campaign. “But I think there’s a lot of pent-up appetite here in Seattle for this, and so I think we can meet the benchmarks we need to meet.” Durkan was asked for specifics on the benchmarks. “I don’t have all of those in front of me, but we’ll get them. I know there’s an aggressive schedule for season tickets and the like,” she said. “Obviously we have to get the arena in place. We’ve got to show that we’re moving that around. The part the city has to do is make sure we do our deal. We get the agreements in place. We keep the arena on track. “And Mr. Leiweke and his group, we’re going to make sure they meet their benchmarks to sell the season tickets and the like. We’ll be working together closely. I have every confidence that that partnership will go very smoothly.” The Metropolitans were the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup. They reached the Stanley Cup Final two more times before folding in 1924. www.seattletimes.com/sports/hockey/nhl-says-seattle-can-apply-for-franchise-start-season-ticket-drive/
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 17, 2017 21:16:53 GMT -6
Some stuff not mentioned in the article.
1. The Key Arena renovation is going to be a complete 100% gutting saving only the roof and 3 walls of the arena which is a lot better than I thought they'd do. They have a new technology just developed in the past 5 years where they can dig down to make more room for a modern bowl. I'm still leary of this site because traffic in the Queen Anne neighborhood is a nightmare and there is no public transportation(until 2035)
2. The other issue is that the roof is going to be historically landmarked making it hard to ever do a future expansion if you need it. The owners will get a historic tax credit of $70M though the Trump administration is trying to eliminate all historic tax credits.
3. The NHL owners will be 1/3rd owners of the arena. Oak View will own 1/3rd and the other 1/3rd is being saved for the NBA(sonics)
4. NBA commissioner Adam Silver is ok with the renovation and has a long friendship with Tim Liewke the guy leading this for Oak View. Liewke has built 18 stadiums in the 4 major sports and has great relationships with both NBA/NHL.
5. Chris Hansen totally blew it. Brian Robinson Seattle's version of Darren Ford turned on him and went with Oak View. Robinson wanted to have a ground game/reach out to city council members/community groups, Hansen told him it wasn't necessary and a ground game wasn't needed. Hansen also wouldn't play nice with any NHL groups and the NHL turned on him. The city council doubted he had the money to build an arena without Balmer.
I personally think Hansen has something wrong like a personality disorder/mental issues. He's not comfortable reaching out to people. Very weird guy.
6.Key Arena won't be the arena name. The naming rights expired but they left is as Key Arena because of the cost to take down the signs etc... Naming rights will be sold to someone else
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 17, 2017 21:19:27 GMT -6
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 17, 2017 21:41:15 GMT -6
The capacity will be
18,350 for NBA 17,100 for NHL
It will have 40 suites and 16 bunker suites
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Post by mikecubs on Feb 25, 2018 20:14:30 GMT -6
Game on: Seattle's NHL season-ticket campaign starts March 1Hockey fans wanting to be among the first to get in on Seattle's prospective NHL franchise can do so in a little more than a week. As part of her state-of-the-city address on Tuesday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced the start of a season-ticket drive beginning March 1. Fans interested in purchasing tickets can sign up at NHLSeattle.com. "We have taken another big step down the path of bringing professional hockey to Seattle," Durkan said Tuesday at Rainier Beach High School. "The application has gone in to the National Hockey League. And I'm telling you, mark it your calendars: Starting March 1 at 10 a.m., you can make your deposit for season tickets. So let's meet there when the puck drops!" A $500 deposit reserves a spot to select from available season ticket locations in the renovated KeyArena, which is expected to be ready by the start of the 2020 league year. A $1,000 deposit is required for a center ice, lower-level club season ticket, which will also come with "preferred parking" and first priority for potential NBA club season tickets in the event the city secures the rights to a team. On Dec. 7, one day after an agreement to renovate KeyArena was signed by Durkan and Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke, the NHL announced it would accept an expansion application from Seattle. Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league would allow an ownership group to submit a bid for a team and begin a preliminary season-ticket drive. Billionaire David Bonderman and filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer submitted their bid last week. "We are excited for the next steps in the process and our continued partnership with the City of Seattle," Leiweke said in a statement. If granted a franchise, season-ticket prices for 41 regular-season home games (plus preseason matchups) will be announced in early 2019. www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/seattle-nhl-expansion-season-ticket-campaign-12631145.php
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Post by mikecubs on Feb 25, 2018 20:22:17 GMT -6
The NBA is coming back to Seattle ... for a preseason game: ReportThe NBA is coming back to Seattle, but SuperSonics fans shouldn't get too excited. It's just for a preseason game. According to a report from the Sacramento Bee, Kevin Durant is coming back to Emerald City this fall and bringing the Golden State Warriors with him for a preseason game against the Sacramento Kings that will be played in the Sonics former home -- Key Arena. The game is set to take place on October 6 and it will be the first time an NBA matchup has been played in the arena since 2008 where the Sonics played their final home games before moving to Oklahoma City and being renamed the Thunder. It should be a melancholy affair for NBA fans in Seattle. While it will be nice to hear the sounds of the game echoing through Key Arena, they will also have to watch their former star, Durant, playing for a visiting team. The Kings, who were a strong candidate to be relocated to Seattle when the Maloof brothers sold the team back in 2013, remained in Sacramento when then-NBA Commissioner David Stern gave city officials a chance to find an ownership group that would keep the team in California. www.oregonlive.com/nba/index.ssf/2018/02/the_nba_is_coming_back_to_seat.html
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Post by mikecubs on Feb 25, 2018 20:24:58 GMT -6
The president of the Golden State Warriors/Seattle native Rick Welts came up with this idea.
Kevin Durant played his rookie year for the Seattle Supersonics during their last year in Seattle in which he won rookie of the year.
Lots of talk about a 2 team NBA expansion to Seattle and Mexico City. There's still some rumblings of a Memphis and New Orleans relocation too. New Orleans owner is very old and has been in and out of the hospital a lot the past few years. There's a terrible confusing ownership mess/fighting in Memphis.
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Post by mikecubs on Feb 27, 2018 1:10:22 GMT -6
Latest renderings of revamped KeyArena highlight efforts to preserve ‘historic nature’ of site and surroundingsOak View Group finally released updated renderings Monday of its planned $600 million renovation of KeyArena, showing features the company says will “preserve the historic nature of the site” and the surrounding areas of Seattle Center. The designs include new views of an external 360-foot-long glass atrium that will allow spectators to view the iconic Paul Thiry-designed roof when approaching from a distance. The roof itself protrudes out beyond the edges of the atrium, which was deliberately shortened so the edges of the roof will be visible.They also show views from the new Space Needle Club in the venue’s upper level, where the city’s landmark tower can be seen through an interior glass skylight while patrons watch action on the ice below. The designs, by architectural firm Populous, also feature widened concourses and a view of the interior ice rink from a seating perspective. “The atrium addition is all about a transparent lens from which you can view the historic arena,” said Geoff Cheong, architect and associate principal at Populous. “You can kind of see it celebrated and awash with light.” Cheong said the atrium, which is to be the arena’s new entry point, “offers a contemporary and definitely transformed arrival experience and amazing first impression.” Inside, Cheong says the Space Needle Club “is a fantastic space that has views right into the arena seating bowl…and it has views into the atrium and a neat, kind of carved away skylight view to the Space Needle as well. It’s kind of a dynamic space tucked under the historic roof and just fantastic kind of connected views as well.” As for the interior rendering — depicting a hockey game taking place — he says “the idea is that while we are maintaining this historic landmark roof, we are designing a brand new spectator experience within, under that historic roof.” The 17,000-seat hockey interior depicts “a very intimate seating bowl” as well as hospitality environments and video displays. “When they come into this arena for the first time, it is going to look and feel completely different from what they are used to.” OVG’s special projects director Lance Lopes says that also the rendering features hockey players in red uniforms and fans waving red flags in the stands, this isn’t meant to be a sneak peek at any potential color scheme for the home team’s uniforms. “We aksed the architects to do the renderings and they’ve had no conversations with the team ops people,” he said. “So, any inference on the color scheme is strictly speculation.” The NHL has accepted an expansion application from OVG and its hockey partners David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer. The group is to launch a season ticket drive this Thursday, with Hollywood producer Bruckheimer expected in town as part of that. www.seattletimes.com/sports/hockey/latest-renderings-of-revamped-keyarena-highlight-efforts-to-preserve-historic-nature-of-site-and-surroundings/
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Post by mikecubs on Feb 27, 2018 1:11:49 GMT -6
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Post by Ric O. on Feb 27, 2018 17:45:23 GMT -6
Quirky and unconventional which isn't necessarily a good idea when you're creating a major league facility, but renderings actually look pretty nice.
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Post by mikecubs on Feb 28, 2018 8:13:20 GMT -6
Quirky and unconventional which isn't necessarily a good idea when you're creating a major league facility, but renderings actually look pretty nice. Agree. For example a LOT of Sonic fans on Sonics rising including Brian Robinson(Seattle's Darren Ford) are nervous about them going against the industry standard with no center hung scoreboard. Biggest things are the traffic and in the future it will be hard to do renovations because the roof line is protected. I'm surprised they were allowed to add the atrium. AEG proposed something similar and it was shot down because it interfered with the roof line. I agree the renderings look nice and they've done a good a job as you can do. But this is a compromise arena in terms of location and the limitations with the roof. It's a shame the SODO project was lead by a complete idiot who "didn't need a ground game" to convince local politicians to approve his project. SODO was the perfect location and the arena was nicer.
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Post by mikecubs on Mar 2, 2018 7:48:31 GMT -6
Seattle surpasses 25,000 NHL season ticket commitments in just over an hour, OVG saysOak View Group says it acquired 10,000 NHL season ticket deposits in just 12 minutes while it had surpassed 25,000 in a little over an hour. Fans were asked to put down deposits of $500 and $1,000 depending on season ticket type. Twelve minutes in to the biggest National Hockey League test this city has known, its fans crashed the system.
The Oak View Group had set a goal of 10,000 season ticket deposits of $500 and $1,000 for a future NHL expansion team at KeyArena when an online submission portal went live at 10 a.m. PT on Thursday. By 10:12 a.m., the goal of 10,000 had already been surpassed and the online reservation system set up through Ticketmaster couldn’t keep up.Some fans reported long delays in processing requests, while some said the system hung up and forced them to retry several times. “ I think at one point, they told me we had between 50,000 and 60,000 people that were trying to get in,’’ OVG head Tim Leiweke said. “It was crazy.’’
Just more than an hour in, the deposits had surpassed 25,000. Leiweke said it was at about 29,000 by mid-afternoon and that OVG would shut things down by the end of Friday.“I think the NHL is surprised, very pleasantly surprised,’’ Leiweke said. “And so I think they’re very happy. We still have work to do. But I think it sends a great message to the league and it’s what we’ve been telling them about Seattle. So, I think this is a great day for the league.’’ It took Las Vegas, considered a highly successful NHL expansion franchise launch, about six weeks to reach 10,000 commitments. The $500 deposits were for general season tickets while another 5,000 “club” seats in the lower center ice level between the two bluelines quickly got snatched up for reservations of $1,000 apiece. Lewieke said those making deposits will receive a “priority number’’ by next week in the order in which they paid their reservation fees. After that, OVG expects to have a computerized seating configuration of KeyArena worked out by April and will begin contacting people by May about seat location and pricing. Full refunds on deposits can still be obtained once pricing becomes known. Leiweke cautioned that fans should still register through Friday because there’s a good chance everybody on the list will have a priority crack at full or partial season tickets, mini-season tickets and even some single game seats. “It’s going to be essentially who gets priority for all tickets,’’ he said. “That will be essentially our club, our fan club and our partners, and we’ll begin communicating with them often.’’ He said his next priority for now is hiring a team president and getting expansion approval for Seattle on to the agenda of the NHL’s board of governors meeting in June. Leiweke said the group began getting an inkling of just how quickly things might go based on the sheer volume of fans registering for further information about the ticket campaign on the NHLSeattle.com website since its launch last week. “We were doing simple math and had an equation as to where we would end up at and I can tell you we’re a couple of thousand away from where we thought we’d be with the rest of the day to go,’’ he said. “So, we’re humbled and presently surprised and extremely happy. But we’re not shocked.’’ Leiweke said they’ll cap the drive by Friday simply because “we don’t want to be sitting on people’s money beyond a certain number.’’ A good chunk of that money might still be refunded once folks get a better idea of what NHL season tickets cost. In Las Vegas, for instance, the cost of a lower level center ice club seat was $9,460 for 44 home games — three of them preseason. The cost of the best lower level blue line seats were $5,500, while the best upper deck seats were $3,300 and the cheapest “upper end” seat in the house was $1,100. But the Vegas Golden Knights, who launched this season, are still the most successful expansion team in NHL history. They are neck-and-neck for first place overall with the Tampa Bay Lightning and generating huge ticket demand. Would-be Seattle hockey team owners David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer joined Leiweke on Wednesday in saying the NHL had already assured them of favorable expansion draft rules equal to what the Knights received. Those rules should allow the Seattle franchise to be competitive right away and offset some of its record $650 million pricetag. Selling more season tickets is the first step towards the hockey owners doing just that. And for now, at least, a Seattle market trying to demonstrate its affinity for winter sports has put its money where its mouth is. www.seattletimes.com/sports/hockey/oak-view-group-says-it-surpassed-25000-nhl-season-ticket-commitments-for-seattle-in-just-over-an-hour/
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Post by mikecubs on Mar 2, 2018 8:03:45 GMT -6
Chris Daniels ✔ @chrisdaniels5 The @nhl responds to the @nhlseattle_ ticket drive...
25k deposits in an hour.
NHL Deputy Commish Bill Daly tells me, one word, "Impressive".
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Post by mikecubs on Mar 2, 2018 8:12:22 GMT -6
From Baker's interview with the NHL Seattle guys Potentially both Bondo and Bruckheimer as Sonics owners as well. On the subject of reviving the NBA Supersonics, Bonderman and Bruckheimer insisted they would do what it takes to bring a basketball franchise here and become owners in that as well. Bonderman, already a minority owner in the Boston Celtics, said he is prepared to sell his stake in that team so he could become a Sonics owner here. "It makes a lot of sense, actually,’’ Bonderman said. "And if there’s a franchise on offer, we would be in the thick of the fray trying to bring it home to Seattle.’’ Bonderman said his fellow NBA owners already hold Seattle in high regard. "I think it’s fair to say that everybody I’ve talked to among the NBA owners think that we’re doing the right thing by coming to Seattle,’’ Bonderman said. "A lot of them said ‘Why hockey? Why not NBA?’ And what we said to them is ‘We love hockey and it’s the place to start here.’ ’’ Bruckheimer, a lifelong hockey fan originally from Detroit, who is close with NHL commissioner Bettman, said he’d gladly follow partner Bonderman into NBA ownership as well. "I love sports period,’’ Bruckheimer said. "And I would be involved in anything we can get done in this arena. Because we’re so excited about the prospects of what what the design is, what the fan experience could be for both sports." www.seattletimes.com/sports/hockey/would-be-seattle-nhl-owners-say-theyll-get-favorable-expansion-rules-would-want-ownership-in-nba-team-as-well/
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Post by mikecubs on Mar 8, 2018 8:15:55 GMT -6
OVG CEO: NBA commissioner ‘loves Seattle,’ aware of NHL ticket successThe group behind the effort to bring an NHL expansion franchise to Seattle has made it known this week that bringing the NBA back to Seattle Center is a priority. And after Thursday’s success with an NHL season ticket drive that saw 25,000 deposits made within an hour, Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke indicated that it sent a message to NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “He’s very aware what happened, he knows the passion of the fans,” Leiweke told 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny, Dave and Moore on Thursday afternoon. “We never get ahead of commissioners, we stay in touch with commissioners, and I think everyone knows what happened today in Seattle and everyone’s blown away.” Prospective NHL ownership has its eyes on NBA in Seattle, too Leiweke added that while there may be a perception that the NBA has a dislike for Seattle – likely referencing the Seattle SuperSonics being moved to Oklahoma City and the league blocking a purchase of the Sacramento Kings by Chris Hansen a few years later – that is not the case. “ I occasionally read stories saying that the league hates Seattle or the commissioner hates Seattle — couldn’t be further from the truth,” Leiweke said. “Adam loves Seattle.”While the NHL seems to be well on its way to Seattle for the 2020-21 season, there has been no progress with the NBA, which is not presently considering expansion. But the OVG team is prepared to be patient when it comes to bringing pro basketball back to the city. “There’s just no team today,” Leiweke said of the NBA. “They’re not going through an expansion process and no teams are moving. That does not mean that will always be the case.” As for what comes next after Thursday’s big start to the NHL season ticket drive, Leiweke shared a quick look. “I think the next thing you’ll see out of us is within five days we’ll start getting back to people (who made season ticket deposits) and give them priority numbers so they know where they stand on the list,” he said. “We’ll begin to put a management team together. Although we can’t go out and actually begin to put a hockey management team together, we can put a business management team together. So we’d like to find someone that will run this that is familiar with Seattle and well respected in Seattle, and we’re working on that.” sports.mynorthwest.com/422829/ovg-ceo-nba-commissioner-loves-seattle-aware-of-nhl-ticket-success/
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