page_title: Seattle Kraken
section_title: History of hockey in Seattle
hierarchical_section_title: Seattle Kraken / Background / History of hockey in Seattle
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of the Seattle Metropolitans hockey club in the 1916–17 PCHA season.Top row, left to right: Harry "Hap" Holmes, Bobby Rowe, Eddie Carpenter, Jack WalkerMiddle row, left to right: Frank Foyston, Pete MuldoonBottom row, left to right: Bernie Morris, Cully Wilson, Roy Rickey, Jim Riley
context_page_description: The Seattle Kraken are a professional ice hockey expansion team based in Seattle, Washington. The Kraken will compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, beginning with the league's 2021–22 season. The team is owned by Seattle Hockey Partners, consisting of David Bonderman, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Tod Leiweke.
  In December 2018, the NHL approved a proposal by Seattle Hockey Partners to grant an expansion franchise to the city of Seattle. In July 2020, the Kraken's name and branding were revealed. It will be the first professional hockey team to play in Seattle since the Seattle Totems of the Western Hockey League played their last game in 1975, and the first Seattle hockey team to compete for the Stanley Cup since the Seattle Metropolitans folded in 1924. The team will play at Climate Pledge Arena, a new $930 million arena under construction at the site of the former KeyArena, which had previously been optimized for basketball to suit the former Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association.
context_section_description: Professional ice hockey in Seattle dates back to the formation of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA)'s Seattle Metropolitans in 1915. The 1917 Metropolitans were the first United States-based team to win the Stanley Cup, but folded in 1924, while the Seattle Totems played in the minor Western Hockey League (WHL) from 1944 until the WHL's dissolution in 1975. On June 12, 1974, the NHL announced that a Seattle group headed by Vince Abbey of the Totems had been awarded a tentative expansion team to begin play in the 1976–77 season along with a team in Denver. The team, which according to season ticket promotions would have kept the WHL name of Totems, never came to fruition because of the original WHL's instability (the WHL was shut down the day the potential NHL team was announced), the inability of Abbey to gather the necessary funding and meet deadlines, and the poor performances on the ice and at the box office of 1974 expansion teams the Washington Capitals and the Kansas City Scouts. Abbey later came up short in bid to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins and move the team to Seattle when they were sold in a bankruptcy auction for US$4.4 million in June 1975. The NHL quickly rescinded the expansion offer and Abbey filed a lawsuit against the NHL, which he lost, and ended up paying the Vancouver Canucks over US$600,000 in damages.
  A second attempt at an NHL expansion team in Seattle by a local group was made in 1990, but it failed again over the financial terms the NHL demanded. Then-Seattle SuperSonics owner Barry Ackerley committed to submitting an expansion application to the NHL by a September 15, 1990 deadline as part of a proposed new arena deal, provided that a group could be found willing to meet the NHL's asking price of $50 million. His son Bill, President of the Ackerley Group, worked with Bill Lear of the First National Bank of Chicago, in order to find an ownership group for the prospective franchise. The only group to step forward was led by Microsoft executive Chris Larson and former Seattle Totems player then coach Bill MacFarland. Ackerley and the Larson/MacFarland group met multiple times, but the Larson/MacFarland group determined that the expansion franchise was worth $15 million less than what the NHL was asking for. Ackerley advised that the only application they would be party to was one that met the NHL's $50 million threshold. As a result, when Bill Ackerley and Bill Lear met with the NHL's Board of Governors on December 5, 1990, they advised the group that they (Ackerley) were unsuccessful in finding an ownership group that was willing to meet the NHL's asking price, and so they were, out of respect to the Board of Governor's and their process, withdrawing their application. However, they also advised the Board that there was a Seattle Group, Larson/MacFarland, that wanted to present their offer to the Board, but the Ackerley group was not be party to that effort. As a result, the Seattle bid was denied as the NHL was able to find two markets (Ottawa and Tampa Bay) willing to meet their price. Larson and MacFarland represented to the Seattle media that it was the Ackerley Group that cost Seattle a chance at an NHL team, but in fact it was Larson and MacFarland's unwillingness to meet the NHL's expansion price. A US$50 million expansion fee was more than any NHL club was valued at the time; a US$5 million down payment that would be forfeited if 10,000 season tickets weren't sold in the first year — the SuperSonics had never sold more than 9,000 season tickets; season tickets needed to produce at least US$9 million annually, which would've made the tickets the second most expensive for a team in the area at the time; a 20-year lease with a "substantial" share of arena revenues from concessions, parking, and ad signage; priority status for postseason arena dates; and a secured US$5 million line of credit in case the league had to take over ownership of the team at any point was also required. As a result of these factors, Seattle was unable to secure an NHL franchise as part of its efforts t
caption: The Seattle Metropolitans were the first American team to win the Stanley Cup.
exif: {}