[The Athletic] The race to sell Seattle hockey: Inside the Kraken’s 5-year struggle as NBA looms
April 16, 2026
[The Athletic] The race to sell Seattle hockey: Inside the Kraken’s 5-year struggle as NBA looms
22 comments
I don’t have the athletic, so admittedly, I did not read the article.
I think this ownership group has been pretty successful at selling hockey to this market. One, there were definitely already a lot of hockey fans here. Two, I thought this as I was at the game on Monday, yes it was the last home game of the season, but there were a lot of people there for a team that had already been eliminated and had absolutely nothing to play for.
Regardless of what happens when the Sonics come back, I think there is more than enough space in this market for four teams. And the Kraken are doing just fine on selling hockey to this market.
This is all I hear about from the media is about getting people to love the Kraken before the NBA arrives. If this is their game plan than it is a bad one. Hockey is an incredible sport and they should be selling it by showing a promise for the future and not ” we might or might not make it” each year.
Give the fans players they can love to watch the next 10-20 years instead of bits and pieces. The changes that the Sonics will be successful right off the bat are slim, so if you can give Seattle a promising young hockey team, with another promising young team, that would be better than “look at all these vets that play boring hockey”.
Just look at Philadelphia right now. Promising young hockey team and a promising young basketball team. There is no need to have one compete against the other. Let fans grow with both.
Build a winning team, this city will show up and support it. Easy as that
This article is more about the Kraken’s community efforts and profiling owner Sam Holloway than explaining why the Kraken have struggled on the ice. And a bunch of quotes about how the NHL isn’t concerned about sports dollar competition from the pending Sonics return.
IMO this fits into what we already know – Sam Holloway is (and her father before her was) well intentioned and willing to put her money behind the team, but that hasn’t translated to success on the ice.
I think the problem has been that ownership and CEO Tod Leiweke put a huge amount of trust and power in Ron Francis and he failed to deliver. He made some bad roster decisions and compounded that through timidity in the trade market. Diving into that story would have been a much more valuable use of the interview time Mirtle got, and could have exposed more of what’s gone wrong in the past 5 years.
It was nice to see quotes from Dunn and Eberle speaking positively of the city and team, even if the overall tone was negative
As an ex Sonic season ticket owner, F the NBA and Let’s Go Kraken!
NBA basketball is boring now anyways as there’s unlimited traveling and no post play anymore.
I have trouble watching games, we have a local affiliate who had the rights, but they constantly show paid programs instead of the games?
I dunna know, I want to be a fan, but not being able to watch games makes me care less and less.
I keep seeing this take but I don’t understand why it’s framed as one or the other. I’m a fan of both leagues and I suspect I’m far from the only one. The Sonics coming back won’t affect my Kraken viewing much at all.
I used to love the NBA, but have zero interest in it when/if it returns. Aside from getting screwed by the league when they allowed that cow poke to steal the franchise, the game just isn’t the same. No defense, everybody jacks 3s, traveling is ignored, star players take nights off and it’s the only major league where an official was caught rigging games. I guess I see how younger generations could get hooked but I don’t see how you could enjoy today’s product if you experienced 80s/90s NBA. I’ll continue to tune into college games to get my basketball fix.
That said, the NHL is an amazing product and the one playoff run the Kraken had was a blast. I look forward to many more (hopefully soon).
TL/DR: The current NBA sucks and the NHL/Kraken won’t lose out when it comes to my attention or spending. I think there are several others who feel the same.
I was as big a Sonics fan back when they were here in Seattle. But when they abandoned Seattle, it left me feeling like a spurned lover…so already they have a lot to overcome.
And then watching the current NBA game, it pales in comparison to what we remember pro basketball to be. Allowing travelling, carrying, flopping, fouling without consequences, and widespread tanking make the current NBA tough to watch.
I won’t redirect any personal time or funding from the Kraken to the Sonics when they return.
So the article confirms we did our best to acquire Panarin.
> A bold attempt to acquire Artemi Panarin before the trade deadline — including offering a massive $14-million-a-season extension — was thwarted when he chose Los Angeles instead.
It does give multiple data points that the team is doing what they can to build good facilities for the players, which does help a lot.
> “When the (expansion) draft happened, this place wasn’t built yet, but they walked us through the plans and everything. Honestly, I have nothing but great things to say about this organization and the way we get treated. It’s first-class here; ownership has put a lot of money and time into it.” – Eberle
> He’s far from the only player who raves about what it’s like to play here, even though there have been challenges on the ice and a revolving door of coaches behind the bench.
Yet our front office still can’t attract players.
> “It’s still an education,” Kraken GM Jason Botterill said of Seattle becoming a destination for players. “That’s what we’re trying to do; that’s why we’re working with our own players and making sure they’re as comfortable as possible. The fact that it is out here (in the Pacific Northwest), it might not be the spot where everyone thinks of or has been out in Seattle all that much.”
I don’t understand how this can be true. We’re 2 hours south of Vancouver, an established hockey city. We’re closer to Canada and a major Canadian border than 75% of the teams in the league. If you said ‘it’s hard to get beach volleyball players to come to Seattle’ then I’d understand, but not Hockey.
I do think there’s some politics at play. But I also think players hate the front office and that’s the bigger problem. Even the quote above touches on that. No faith in the front office, so why risk your career coming here.
But the crux is winning.
> Holloway added. “We built this in the right way from the ground up and winning consistently is starting to come and will come …
“We have to start consistently winning and the organization is working towards that. It’s always more fun to win.”
I hope it ends up being true but we’re already one of the worst year over year franchises in the league.
Side quotes that I like:
> the Kraken are trying to alleviate as they build more arenas in the suburbs.
Very cool that we’re building more arenas for kids to get into hockey and grow excitement.
I’m still skeptical about NBA expansion. They’ve only voted to accept bids. Why would the owners agree to dilute their revenue share even further?
Didn’t read the article but I think Seattle area sports fans like a winner but they also like competency. The Seahawks are a good example. Yeah Schneider built one SB winning team, but fans were pretty patient with him because they had faith in him and they could see a clear plan in the works. Fans were pretty apathetic about the Mariners for a while because the ownership just didn’t care and it was obvious. That changed recently when it seemed like they were engaged and involved. So for the Kraken, again, have a plan and communicate it. Fans can support it, we don’t need instant gratification. We can tell the owners care. Just give us the vision and work towards it.
The NBA is actually declining very fast in popularity. Also don’t see why they need to think as if you only like one or the other. At this point if you like the Kraken you simply like hockey. Everytime a team gets good they’ll gain more fans sure but the Sonics won’t get in the way of the Kraken I believe.
This who love the Sonics will have always went to go watch them anyways. Seattle never had NHL hockey so it’s very different
Win and lower your goddamn prices. Fuck is it expensive to see a game live. Make it reasonable and its all gravy. Oh and yeah, win. Gotta win.
I could be totally wrong, but I’ve always thought this was a goofy sentiment. Seattle has typically shown out well for its professional teams, at least I think so. The Seahawks have a reputation as a good crowd, the mariners attendance is usually in the top half of the MLB, the Sounders have some of the best attendance in the MLS, and the Kraken always seem pretty well attended despite limited success. I don’t know if the reemergence of the NBA will change that. And personally, I find the modern NBA a very snooze-worthy product… but of course it is exponentially more popular than Hockey!
One mindset that’s never made sense to me is “if the Kraken don’t do well and the Sonics are back, Kraken fans will convert to Sonic fans”. Obviously a winning team is going to be more popular than a consistent loser, but I watch the Kraken because I want to watch hockey. If the Kraken are bad, I’ll probably just tune out than watch basketball. More likely I’ll get more invested in the Torrent.
This also presupposes the Sonics won’t be terrible too, which seems much more likely in the NBA than the NHL. Should we see an increase in Kraken fandom when the Sonics inevitably go through a spell?
Another odd thing I’ve heard is our 2nd season playoff race was premature and incorrectly changed the mindset of the front office. Do others agree? It seems to me we are still drafting and developing young talent! Despite not having a top pick we have a pretty young roster and the AHL squad is doing well. It’s well known we’re trying to get a top talent, but this seems independent of our development timeline.
For anyone just reading the headline and thinking “they are trying to sell the team already?!” No, they aren’t.
A more accurate, less click baiting title would be “Trying to grow hockey in Seattle: Inside the struggle to succeed on the ice while building community and culture off of it”
It is about selling the team to the players. We need to attract a couple of gamechangers and become a winnig team. Kraken does not have to be a great and exciting team but to get people to show up avery game they have to win at home.
I maintain that we have good, if overeager, ownership. I think they want a competitive team to put in front of the fans and want to do things the right way. And I do believe they’re embarrassed about putting a noncompetitive team on the ice for 5 years now.
My outsider read is that they rushed Francis to be competitive after year two and that’s where things went awry. That’s why Francis felt sidelined (in his PR spin blitz). He couldn’t execute on big moves to improve the team.
I think there’s blame to go around, but I see thwarted genuine attempts to get better, not shortcuts and money grubbing.
Climate pledge is too expensive. Make it cheap and fun
The headline was the most critical part of the article.
22 comments
I don’t have the athletic, so admittedly, I did not read the article.
I think this ownership group has been pretty successful at selling hockey to this market. One, there were definitely already a lot of hockey fans here. Two, I thought this as I was at the game on Monday, yes it was the last home game of the season, but there were a lot of people there for a team that had already been eliminated and had absolutely nothing to play for.
Regardless of what happens when the Sonics come back, I think there is more than enough space in this market for four teams. And the Kraken are doing just fine on selling hockey to this market.
This is all I hear about from the media is about getting people to love the Kraken before the NBA arrives. If this is their game plan than it is a bad one. Hockey is an incredible sport and they should be selling it by showing a promise for the future and not ” we might or might not make it” each year.
Give the fans players they can love to watch the next 10-20 years instead of bits and pieces. The changes that the Sonics will be successful right off the bat are slim, so if you can give Seattle a promising young hockey team, with another promising young team, that would be better than “look at all these vets that play boring hockey”.
Just look at Philadelphia right now. Promising young hockey team and a promising young basketball team. There is no need to have one compete against the other. Let fans grow with both.
Build a winning team, this city will show up and support it. Easy as that
This article is more about the Kraken’s community efforts and profiling owner Sam Holloway than explaining why the Kraken have struggled on the ice. And a bunch of quotes about how the NHL isn’t concerned about sports dollar competition from the pending Sonics return.
IMO this fits into what we already know – Sam Holloway is (and her father before her was) well intentioned and willing to put her money behind the team, but that hasn’t translated to success on the ice.
I think the problem has been that ownership and CEO Tod Leiweke put a huge amount of trust and power in Ron Francis and he failed to deliver. He made some bad roster decisions and compounded that through timidity in the trade market. Diving into that story would have been a much more valuable use of the interview time Mirtle got, and could have exposed more of what’s gone wrong in the past 5 years.
It was nice to see quotes from Dunn and Eberle speaking positively of the city and team, even if the overall tone was negative
As an ex Sonic season ticket owner, F the NBA and Let’s Go Kraken!
NBA basketball is boring now anyways as there’s unlimited traveling and no post play anymore.
I have trouble watching games, we have a local affiliate who had the rights, but they constantly show paid programs instead of the games?
I dunna know, I want to be a fan, but not being able to watch games makes me care less and less.
I keep seeing this take but I don’t understand why it’s framed as one or the other. I’m a fan of both leagues and I suspect I’m far from the only one. The Sonics coming back won’t affect my Kraken viewing much at all.
I used to love the NBA, but have zero interest in it when/if it returns. Aside from getting screwed by the league when they allowed that cow poke to steal the franchise, the game just isn’t the same. No defense, everybody jacks 3s, traveling is ignored, star players take nights off and it’s the only major league where an official was caught rigging games. I guess I see how younger generations could get hooked but I don’t see how you could enjoy today’s product if you experienced 80s/90s NBA. I’ll continue to tune into college games to get my basketball fix.
That said, the NHL is an amazing product and the one playoff run the Kraken had was a blast. I look forward to many more (hopefully soon).
TL/DR: The current NBA sucks and the NHL/Kraken won’t lose out when it comes to my attention or spending. I think there are several others who feel the same.
I was as big a Sonics fan back when they were here in Seattle. But when they abandoned Seattle, it left me feeling like a spurned lover…so already they have a lot to overcome.
And then watching the current NBA game, it pales in comparison to what we remember pro basketball to be. Allowing travelling, carrying, flopping, fouling without consequences, and widespread tanking make the current NBA tough to watch.
I won’t redirect any personal time or funding from the Kraken to the Sonics when they return.
So the article confirms we did our best to acquire Panarin.
> A bold attempt to acquire Artemi Panarin before the trade deadline — including offering a massive $14-million-a-season extension — was thwarted when he chose Los Angeles instead.
It does give multiple data points that the team is doing what they can to build good facilities for the players, which does help a lot.
> “When the (expansion) draft happened, this place wasn’t built yet, but they walked us through the plans and everything. Honestly, I have nothing but great things to say about this organization and the way we get treated. It’s first-class here; ownership has put a lot of money and time into it.” – Eberle
> He’s far from the only player who raves about what it’s like to play here, even though there have been challenges on the ice and a revolving door of coaches behind the bench.
Yet our front office still can’t attract players.
> “It’s still an education,” Kraken GM Jason Botterill said of Seattle becoming a destination for players. “That’s what we’re trying to do; that’s why we’re working with our own players and making sure they’re as comfortable as possible. The fact that it is out here (in the Pacific Northwest), it might not be the spot where everyone thinks of or has been out in Seattle all that much.”
I don’t understand how this can be true. We’re 2 hours south of Vancouver, an established hockey city. We’re closer to Canada and a major Canadian border than 75% of the teams in the league. If you said ‘it’s hard to get beach volleyball players to come to Seattle’ then I’d understand, but not Hockey.
I do think there’s some politics at play. But I also think players hate the front office and that’s the bigger problem. Even the quote above touches on that. No faith in the front office, so why risk your career coming here.
But the crux is winning.
> Holloway added. “We built this in the right way from the ground up and winning consistently is starting to come and will come …
“We have to start consistently winning and the organization is working towards that. It’s always more fun to win.”
I hope it ends up being true but we’re already one of the worst year over year franchises in the league.
Side quotes that I like:
> the Kraken are trying to alleviate as they build more arenas in the suburbs.
Very cool that we’re building more arenas for kids to get into hockey and grow excitement.
I’m still skeptical about NBA expansion. They’ve only voted to accept bids. Why would the owners agree to dilute their revenue share even further?
Didn’t read the article but I think Seattle area sports fans like a winner but they also like competency. The Seahawks are a good example. Yeah Schneider built one SB winning team, but fans were pretty patient with him because they had faith in him and they could see a clear plan in the works. Fans were pretty apathetic about the Mariners for a while because the ownership just didn’t care and it was obvious. That changed recently when it seemed like they were engaged and involved. So for the Kraken, again, have a plan and communicate it. Fans can support it, we don’t need instant gratification. We can tell the owners care. Just give us the vision and work towards it.
The NBA is actually declining very fast in popularity. Also don’t see why they need to think as if you only like one or the other. At this point if you like the Kraken you simply like hockey. Everytime a team gets good they’ll gain more fans sure but the Sonics won’t get in the way of the Kraken I believe.
This who love the Sonics will have always went to go watch them anyways. Seattle never had NHL hockey so it’s very different
Win and lower your goddamn prices. Fuck is it expensive to see a game live. Make it reasonable and its all gravy. Oh and yeah, win. Gotta win.
I could be totally wrong, but I’ve always thought this was a goofy sentiment. Seattle has typically shown out well for its professional teams, at least I think so. The Seahawks have a reputation as a good crowd, the mariners attendance is usually in the top half of the MLB, the Sounders have some of the best attendance in the MLS, and the Kraken always seem pretty well attended despite limited success. I don’t know if the reemergence of the NBA will change that. And personally, I find the modern NBA a very snooze-worthy product… but of course it is exponentially more popular than Hockey!
One mindset that’s never made sense to me is “if the Kraken don’t do well and the Sonics are back, Kraken fans will convert to Sonic fans”. Obviously a winning team is going to be more popular than a consistent loser, but I watch the Kraken because I want to watch hockey. If the Kraken are bad, I’ll probably just tune out than watch basketball. More likely I’ll get more invested in the Torrent.
This also presupposes the Sonics won’t be terrible too, which seems much more likely in the NBA than the NHL. Should we see an increase in Kraken fandom when the Sonics inevitably go through a spell?
Another odd thing I’ve heard is our 2nd season playoff race was premature and incorrectly changed the mindset of the front office. Do others agree? It seems to me we are still drafting and developing young talent! Despite not having a top pick we have a pretty young roster and the AHL squad is doing well. It’s well known we’re trying to get a top talent, but this seems independent of our development timeline.
For anyone just reading the headline and thinking “they are trying to sell the team already?!” No, they aren’t.
A more accurate, less click baiting title would be “Trying to grow hockey in Seattle: Inside the struggle to succeed on the ice while building community and culture off of it”
It is about selling the team to the players. We need to attract a couple of gamechangers and become a winnig team. Kraken does not have to be a great and exciting team but to get people to show up avery game they have to win at home.
I maintain that we have good, if overeager, ownership. I think they want a competitive team to put in front of the fans and want to do things the right way. And I do believe they’re embarrassed about putting a noncompetitive team on the ice for 5 years now.
My outsider read is that they rushed Francis to be competitive after year two and that’s where things went awry. That’s why Francis felt sidelined (in his PR spin blitz). He couldn’t execute on big moves to improve the team.
I think there’s blame to go around, but I see thwarted genuine attempts to get better, not shortcuts and money grubbing.
Climate pledge is too expensive. Make it cheap and fun
The headline was the most critical part of the article.
Comments are closed.