Seattle Kraken
Rink: Climate Pledge Arena
Capacity: 17,151
Built: 1962; Rebuilt: 2021
League: NHL
City: Seattle, Washington
Home Of: Seattle Kraken
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: October 24, 2024 vs Winnipeg
Unique Arena: #92
NHL Arena: #12
Many know the history of the former Seattle Center Coliseum, now Climate Pledge Arena. It was built on the edge of downtown Seattle, a stone’s throw from the Space Needle. The Coliseum opened in the early 1960s and was one giant bowl that played host to the NBA’s Supersonics and WHL’s Thunderbirds. In the mid 90’s the arena was gutted and rebuilt into more of a 90’s entertainment centre with two separate decks of seats. The new setup was geared towards basketball, which made it less than ideal for the Thunderbirds, so they left in 2009 for their own purpose-built facility in the suburb of Kent. With the NBA gone and the NHL finally calling, the then KeyArena was gutted once again, and they dug down to rebuild leaving the original iconic roof of the facility intact. What lives on today is the essentially brand-new Climate Pledge Arena. It looks small from the outside, with some small new additions like the atrium you see in the foreground. It’s one of the few NHL rinks where when you enter at street level, you’re already in the upper-level concourse and have to take an escalator downstairs to the lower bowl.
In a world where so many NHL arenas are all pretty similar, Seattle feels very different. The upper bowl has much less seating in the ends to show off the windows and let in natural light from street level outside, which is a fantastic touch. Also very noticeable is the arena has two scoreboards that are three-sided and hang over each attacking zone, leaving the space above centre ice empty. I was skeptical of this approach but in practice it works extremely well.
The A/V production in Seattle is top notch. I remember watching the first ever Kraken game on TV and being disappointed to their pre-game show in comparison to Vegas who had just started a few years prior. But in person, the pre-game hype up packages are fantastic and I personally love the Kraken gimmick, logo and colour scheme.
With the construction of Climate Pledge trying to fit into the footprint of an old 60s Coliseum, they had no choice but to build the seating pretty steep. Upper bowl views are fantastic, and the lower bowl has a pretty decent pitch of seating itself. There are tons of social spaces and lounges/bars around the facility that all ticketholders can access. The place just has a great vibe to it that’s hard to explain. Despite all the new age comforts the atmosphere is very good. It’s not the most insane I’ve come across in the NHL, but it felt louder than many rinks I’ve been to. Bonus points for showing off the short history of the NHL in Seattle with the 1917 Stanley Cup banner honouring the Metropolitans. Also, a nice touch is the faux-arched roof on the press box that mimics the exterior roof of the facility.
It’s also the only NHL facility I can think of that has a legit living concourse: I’m talking a full rainforest wall on one of the lower levels. In addition, the ice is made from Seattle rainwater collected from the arena’s roof – I guess the rink lives up to its goofy sounding name!
Seattle has always been a hockey town and it’s a wonder that this didn’t happen decades ago. Mind you if, a team called the Seattle Kraken started in the mid 90s no doubt it would be an angry cartoon octopus eating a hockey stick.
If I ever happen to find myself in the Seattle area again during hockey season, I won’t hesitate to go to another game at Climate Pledge.
