The Sporting Life

Tod Leiweke’s résumé is the business equivalent of the three-sport athlete, and then some.

For anyone who’s not been paying attention, Leiweke is president, CEO, and minority owner of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken. He previously worked in the NFL as its chief operating officer after serving as CEO of the Seattle Seahawks and soccer’s Seattle Sounders. He was CEO of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning and president of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. He has also held executive positions with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and the PGA Tour.

Leiweke’s older brother, Tim, is CEO of Oak View Group, which led the development of and operates Climate Pledge Arena at Seattle Center. Leiweke calls the venue — the first net-zero carbon arena in the world — “awe inspiring.”

The Kraken, however, did more than just spur the arena. The club is also a key part of Simon Property Group’s massive transformation of Northgate Mall, one of the nation’s first enclosed malls when it opened in 1950. The reimagined mall — still under construction — is home to the Kraken’s corporate office and practice facility as well as the Kraken Community Iceplex, which includes three NHL-size ice rinks open to the public, a restaurant, meeting rooms, a Starbucks and the Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Medical Pavilion.

Leiweke played a key role in bringing professional hockey to Seattle and will be just as instrumental in the city securing another NBA franchise. For now, he’s most excited about the Kraken’s second season and how the dreams of the new arena have exceeded expectations.

People will say to me that hockey is a harder sport to watch on TV. I love it on TV.

It’s a brilliant sport, but it is an acquired sport because it’s a complicated game. It’s three-dimensional chess.

There’s a toughness to it, but there’s also a likeness to ballet and the skating ability, the speed, the quick decisions. I’ve loved the game my whole life and I’m confident that in time, this is going to become a great NHL market.

It’s not yet a sophisticated hockey town, but we certainly have plenty of fans to fill our building.

For the long term, to be a success, you’ve got to have more than just the hardcore hockey fans. You’ve got to have sports fans who see the joy of the game. It’s a game that anyone can play.

I want to win every game. It’s not going to happen.

The NHL generates revenue from all the same sources you might find in the NBA. Not quite as much broadcasting. Still very much dependent upon that event sort of experience. The NFL generates massive broadcast revenue, and those don’t exist in the NHL.

I do love the fact that it’s the fans who are buying the tickets and the accountability between the players and the fans. And that’s not going to get lost in the NHL.

There are other rinks here, but the commitment we made on (the Iceplex) was don’t take a shortcut. We’ll have more people come to this facility than we will our games. We’ll have a million people come through the doors here.

We had a women’s refugee group here that came and now we’ve formed a hockey team. It’s just so fantastic. We see little girls walking in with the heaviest bags carrying goalie equipment. There’s a young man skating on the third rink over who we think could someday be an Olympic skater.

The biggest surprise was the incredible challenge it was to get (the Kraken) going. Building the arena, which started out with a budget of $780 million and came in over a billion. To go through a global pandemic. It was a road full of obstacles.

I feel such deep, deep gratitude for the men and women in the trades who kept building (Climate Pledge Arena) in the midst of a pandemic, and they built something spectacular.

We have this incredible waterfront and prosperity in these big companies. But we couldn’t solve (the arena) issue. And we not only lost an NBA team, a whole bunch of stuff that should have come here didn’t. We’re going to do close to 90 concerts this year. It’s a big deal (financially).

Now we have a world-class arena that was actually built specifically for basketball. And it’s shown so well with the (WNBA) Storm. I have a special place in my heart for the Storm and Sue Bird’s final game.

I went to the Super Bowl with the Seahawks. I’ve had some incredible experiences with hockey. I started my career in the NBA. So, I have embraced the power of all sport.

Seattle is a place where big ideas have been launched. If you look at the history of the city and its synergy with sports, there are connections. We have very unique fans.

We’ve had the heck beaten out of us by national media, who’ve portrayed our city as things that it’s not. And quite frankly, it really pisses me off. Certainly, our city has issues, but there’s so much to be proud of here. And people here have unique pride in their sports teams.

Our best days as a community are in front of us. Our best days as an arena are in front of us.

This will be a great home someday for the NBA.