Sorry for my recent absence. As has become a tradition I’m celebrating a big milestone by taking some time off the issue, spending time with my family and getting caught up on business. I am having a good time savoring “the joy of the journey” as Tim Leiweke advised a year ago but am posting to Twitter occasionally if you want to give me a follow @206Empire.
The great news is that things are going just fine. The first of two teams is in hand and, as described in this article, both OVG and NHL Seattle are transitioning into new phases of the game. In a letter that I don’t think got as much attention or scrutiny as was warranted Tod Leiweke describes his approach:
”We will build a franchise that is by the Fan, of the Fan, and for the Fan. Our transcendent new arena and NHL team will be the most fan driven in all of sports. We will always be inspired by your epic support, and your voice will be heard as we assemble our team and a fan driven brand.”
This is a meaningful evolution of their previous talking point that the team will be by Seattle, of Seattle and for Seattle, perhaps addressing Seattle Sports fans need to be spoken to directly after years of feeling ignored.
Not that I think for a second that a specific focus on fans is going to detract from their commitment to a broader Seattle coalition. The team continues to make big moves like forging a substantial partnership with KEXP and the hiring of Mari Horita from Artsfund. Also in his letter to fans Tod announced the creation of a Fan Giving Council, pledging that the team would match interest earned from season ticket deposits as a donation to local charities.
Much of the recent coverage has centered around Tod and his fan-centric vision for the team.
“You live the life of the fan.” he told the Athletic. ”You buy tickets like the fan, you park where they park, you eat the same hot dogs, and by doing that, you can really understand their journey. I’ve always had an abiding respect of fans. It’s one thing to buy a ticket, but the most important thing they’re giving you is their faith and their passion and those are valuable things in this world. Fans make teams. Smart organizations build their organizations around the fans.”
”Common themes in his career have been authenticity, community and philanthropy, not to mention energy and enthusiasm.”, wrote Nick Costonika of NHL.com, ”He has focused on fan service, sense of place and event experience, taking ideas from team to team and coming up with new things.”
“Tod is just very inspiring to me.” Horita told our own Rebecca Maloney, “He has a proven track record of not only being a brilliant leader and a brilliant sports executive but also someone who, at his core, is committed to the community and committed to making a positive difference. That is it part of the foundation. That it is part of the DNA.”
There has been no shortage of quality coverage at a local or national level. Here at Sonics Rising Doug Mellon has actually transitioned to talking about the expansion draft while uniform/logo speculation seems to be picking up momentum, not cooling off. Both @NHLSeattle_ (www.NHLSeattle.com) and @NHLtoSeattle (www.nhltoseattle.com) keep upping their game, offering real insight and exclusive content regularly. As a fun bonus to this our friend John got the dream write up from NHL.com. It couldn’t happen to a nicer or more deserving guy. (side note: I don’t believe he credited me for the picture with Bruckheimer that I took with his phone.)
Wherever I re-emerge after this lull I’m going to be having fun, enjoying this roller coaster ride that David Bonderman, Jerry Bruckheimer, Seattle Hockey Partners, the Leiweke family, OVG. and NHL Seattle have set up for us. I will also remain committed to the next miracle, bringing back the NBA and the Sonics. I will do everything I can to help Tim Leiweke deliver on the commitment he made to basketball fans at the arena groundbreaking:
This ownership group has made a commitment to the city, to the sports fans of the northwest, to the mayor, and all the basketball fans, we’re going to prove that we’re ready for the next one and we’ll work diligently to get that here as well. -Tim Leiweke
Merry Christmas everybody. As always thank you for your participation in this site and the movement it supports.
Comments
On to the second miracle
For me as well. I’m almost ready to move to Albuquerque come mid January to start with the much in demand master’s in sports administration program at UNM, one of the oldest such programs in the US, dating back to………..1979. And to add to that, I am in contact with the Lobo athletics department about being brought on as a graduate student assistant working the operations and event management sides at Football, Basketball and Baseball games.
UNM athletics seems to be excited about my ability to speak to many worlds after seeing my portfolio of advocacy work and research I have done at UW on behalf of and in solidarity with those of us who live with severe mental illness. There’s so much that we all face that misperceptions sold by the political and media systems end up erasing, further promoting stigma (Both the right and the left are riddled with these narratives, and there’s so much the public doesn’t know that would sound stranger than fiction to almost anyone as a result).
I am incredibly grateful for this journey I am on, just as I am for the fun ride Tim Leiweke and OVG have been generous enough to put all of us on. We are all on to the next miracle, and hopefully the coming years will be full of them.
By PeterCGraef on 12.24.18 10:36am
Sorry for the long update
It’s just that I grew up on this journey, the Sonics were sold the summer after my freshman year of high school. Both my life and our larger situation seem to be coming together at the same time, and they both seem like miracles now. If people knew the impossible odds and horrible experiences I have overcame to get to this point and how this fight has ran exactly parallel, then they would know that "miracle" is the exactly the right word to describe them both. I’m starting to think that the fact that this program I’m starting with started in 1979 isn’t a coincidence. At all.
By PeterCGraef on 12.24.18 4:27pm
Happy Holidays
To everyone in the Sonics and Seattle NHL communities everywhere they may be right now.
May many miracles be in our future.
By PeterCGraef on 12.24.18 10:51am
Hear, hear!
Happy holidays Sonics/NHL Seattle fans! This has been the very best year and can’t wait to see how the excitement unfolds!
Thank you to Sonics Rising staff for all the great coverage, and thank you Brian for keeping the enthusiasm up!
By SuperSonicBoom on 12.24.18 11:29am
Merry Christmas!
I’m asking for a Kraken.
By MrCLM on 12.24.18 1:07pm
Merry Christmas and
Release the Kraken!
By RedwolfI on 12.24.18 6:55pm
the kraken was good with the marinara sauce on Christmas Eve
no, no never
Pilots, please
By Jeff - j1012 on 12.26.18 5:23am
Thank you, Brian. Merry Christmas.
We all appreciate your hard work over the years.
By Throbert Bedford on 12.24.18 1:10pm
Might be a dumb question
But as Sonics Rising is about the Sonics, will this new team have their own separate SB Nation site?
By markusalkemus on 12.26.18 4:49pm
Yes. We just don't know when it will happen.
By Throbert Bedford on 12.26.18 6:18pm
Maybe after the team name and colors are announced?
By markusalkemus on 12.26.18 7:19pm
No idea. I don't think they need a name or colors to launch the site, but they're probably waiting for the right timing. It's SBNation's call.
By Throbert Bedford on 12.27.18 9:46am
If you guys hear when it does
Let us know.
By Matt Tucker on 12.27.18 1:05am
I'll probably be the last person to know.
By Throbert Bedford on 12.27.18 9:46am
Doug's twitter
By Jeff - j1012 on 12.27.18 5:46am
He doesn't live here anymore, right? He moved to cover an ECHL/AHL team somewhere, Colorado?
By Throbert Bedford on 12.27.18 9:37am
Construction
Anyone surprised by the lack of activity around Key Arena? I drove by yesterday and there wasn’t much happening.
By seafan12 on 12.28.18 9:58am
It's possible
they are waiting until after the holiday to get started. They might also be recalibrating with the change in general contractor three weeks ago.
I believe they’ve still been working on some of the infrastructure stuff around the arena that they needed to address before starting demolition.
By Matt Tucker on 12.28.18 10:46am
I'm hoping they put in a webcam like they did for Husky Stadium
It would be cool to see the daily inner-workings of the construction team as it gets flipped from the key to the new place. Mount it on the iconic roof somewhere so it won’t get damaged.
By 206er on 12.28.18 3:30pm
I did ask ovg on their facebook page
Got a response saying there will be one with different angles of demo/construction and will let us know when it goes up. Didn’t get an exact time window of when it’ll be up.
By gstommylee on 12.29.18 1:54pm
cool, thanks!
By 206er on 01.04.19 11:25pm
Also,
Thanks for the friendly hello post, Brian. I think it’s fair to say that we’re all excited with anticipation for the fun ride ahead. It’s so weird knowing that all of this planning is taking place but NHL Seattle is keeping it SO close to the vest.
By 206er on 12.28.18 3:33pm
Bettman has a press conference at the space needle today at 1:30pm. I'm guessing King5 will stream it.
By Throbert Bedford on 01.09.19 12:12pm
Started late at about 1:50.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/kiroradio/videos/?ref=page_internal
By Throbert Bedford on 01.09.19 1:53pm
Tod: 60 days from now they plan to roll out a place to display plans exclusively for the season ticket depositors. Interactive process for many items, including name/logo/colors.
They plan to have a name announced in 2019 that will come out of the interactive process.
By Throbert Bedford on 01.09.19 2:00pm