Seattle Thunderbirds
Rink: accesso ShoWare Center
Capacity: 6,500
Built: 2009
League: WHL
City: Kent, Washington
Home of: Seattle Thunderbirds
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: September 29, 2017 vs Prince George
Unique Arena: #40
WHL Arena: #3
The accesso ShoWare Center is home to the Seattle Thunderbirds, who for decades played in downtown Seattle but now actually play 22 miles south of downtown Seattle in Kent, Washington, where they moved to in 2009 when the arena opened. Unlike other large population centres across the CHL, the move to the suburbs may have done the Thunderbirds well.
The rink sits with highway 167 on one side and a residential neighborhood on the other. Just across the street are plenty of bars and restaurants as well as a shopping centre, which makes the area a nice little entertainment hub. The arena has a large front glass facade that, on the night we were there early in the season, let in a ton of light from the setting sun.
The arena itself most reminded me of the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga. The biggest difference here is that the main concourse is on ice level below the seats. You can’t actually go all the way around the ice level concourse, as the far end is cut off from the Zamboni garage area and the Thunderbirds’ dressing room. There is a smaller narrower walkway around the top of the bowl though that allows for some standing room in one of the ends.
The biggest thing that stood out to me in Kent was the atmosphere of the crowd. Our crowd that night wasn’t a large one, maybe 3,500 people. But the noise they made for that size of a crowd was incredible. It again really proves my point of the US crowds in the CHL are louder and a bit crazier than many in the Canadian cities of the league. I would love to witness a full house in Kent cheering on the Thunderbirds. However, I have heard some stories over the years of the crowds being quite nasty to visitors. We had no such problems in 2017, but we were also there as neutrals and not cheering on that night’s visitors. There are morons in every city looking to ruin the night for the visitors, but I feel like I’ve heard more stories of that coming out of Kent lately than anywhere else.
The accesso ShoWare Center in Kent was the site of my first non-Memorial Cup game outside of the OHL, and it felt very odd that night watching Seattle and Prince George do battle. I would love the opportunity to go again one day to refresh my review and take some better photos. But among the many clone rinks across the CHL I would definitely rank the home of the Seattle Thunderbirds among the best of the group.
