Today marked one of the most important events in my neighborhood in quite some time -- the grand opening of the new (well, sorta) Climate Pledge Arena, in the shell of the old Key Arena, which itself was in the shell of the old Coliseum... and, well, the first hockey game was last night, with the official first concert the night before and the actual first concert (it's complicated) a few days ago... OK, maybe I'm overselling this a bit. But today was the public opening, and likely the only time the public will be able to get into the arena without paying insane ticket prices and fees, which was enough reason for me to head down there on this miserably windy and rainy day!
The new Amazon arena shares the Seattle Center campus with the Space Needle, probably the only thing that non-Northwesterners would know Seattle Center for.
I quite like all of the faux-neon used in the exterior signage here. I hope the trend of faux-neon will extend to retail decor in the near future! The biggest visible change to the exterior of the arena was the new glassed-in entryway space seen here (sponsored by Alaska Airlines -- with the feud between Alaska and Delta for Seattle business, it seems like everything is sponsored by one of the two!), built where the loading/service space for Key Arena was (the loading docks were moved underground with the remodel).
Here's the inside of that "atrium" space, filled with Amazon ads, of course.
Because the roof needed to be preserved, both the Key Arena and CPA remodels resulted in the arena floor being pushed further underground. My father (who attended the actual first concert here -- I didn't much feel like going to a concert with 15,000 other people, and not just because of COVID) thought this space felt like an airport, but all of the escalators going down underground feel more like a train station to me! Those escalators going down only one level, perpendicular to this view, lead down to the exclusive lounge spaces, and that level was off limits for the open day. I quite like the large 737 MAX model hanging over this escalator bank!
The other escalator well has this giant Alaska tail model hanging over it, which looks super cool in person (it's 3D with mirrored and lighted sections), but looks terrible in pictures!
In addition to the normal concessions, the arena has a few of these little convenience store things, which are basically Amazon Go stores (with the automated no-cashier checkout thing) with branding from various local businesses.
Most of the atrium walls were covered in these giant video walls, which display a mixture of ads and nature scenes. For an arena that's branding itself as being green, these things seem like they must use a ton of electricity!
The lower-level concourse definitely feels like a basement, with low, dark ceilings!
And here's a first view of the rink itself, from the top of the lower level seating.
Each side of the lower level had a bar space like this, which appears to be connected to a specific seating section (probably expensive seats). I found it amusing that even the garbage cans here are both branded and sponsored!
The north end of the arena has a very nice wall of windows, looking out to one of the four original buttresses.
I have to say, I quite like the Kraken's logo/branding. The arena itself is quite bland, though, probably because it's intended for use by multiple sports, not just hockey. All of the walls are painted white, and the seats are plain black, so it looks rather stark.
One wall of the basement concourse was taken up by plants, which feels like absolute greenwashing -- since there's no chance of natural light down here, presumably they have to run the lights a large amount of the time even when there's no one around.
Heck, I'd say the whole theme of the new arena is greenwashing. One of the most prominent concessions places is dedicated to fake meat, which seems just so stereotypically Seattle.
I have to imagine this logo is a subtle reference to another historic Seattle arena -- the Kingdome!
The only retail that was in operation for the opening was the Kraken merchandise store, branded as The Lair. I have to say, the whole Kraken branding feels appropriate for this arena, being largely buried underground!
This is the view from the very top row of seats, back above ground. My parents thought about going to the first game, but for a pair of seats like this, it would have been over $500 with fees! Probably best that they didn't go... the Kraken lost pretty badly. The bar over the top of the picture is home to the press boxes and probably some boxes for the wealthy; it was clearly designed to not block the view of the rink itself, but it completely blocks the view of the rest of the arena and even the jumbotrons.
These two pictures are from ground level, which would have been the original floor level of this arena before the two remodels (so clearly, they dug down a lot to build this place!). The jumbotrons are an interesting shape, basically giant triangular wedges with the end piece curved in both directions. It's pretty impressive that it's possible to make displays with such a complex shape!
And, of course, I couldn't help but wrap it up with a panorama. Those lines in the middle that looks like panorama glitches are actually the net intended to catch stray hockey pucks!
I hope you all didn't mind yet another little diversion from my normal content! I thought this would be a fun post to put together. And I totally didn't just do this to make my Spirit set end on halloween proper! 😉
I was wondering if you were going to make a post or comment about the Kraken! My favorite team, the San Jose Sharks, are off to an unexpectedly hot start this year. They're in the same division as the Kraken so I'm sure they'll play a lot of games in Seattle over the next several years. I am a Clippers basketball fan. They certainly have a Seattle connection since they are owned by Steve Ballmer. That said, I used to root for the Houston Rockets many years ago and they played many important games in that arena back when it was called other names! The Rockets didn't usually do too well in that arena, unfortunately. At least back in the old configuration, it was known for being quite a loud arena.
ReplyDeleteI know the Sharks have one of the oldest arenas left in the NHL and it opened in 1993! I've never been there, but it seems like a nice place to watch a game even if it's dated by modern standards. I have seen a hockey game in Houston at the Toyota Center when the Houston Aeros AHL team existed.
The Houston Astrodome was built partially underground. The neighboring NRG Stadium, which replaced the Astrodome for football, is mostly/completely above ground. The end result is that NRG looks absolutely huge compared to the Astrodome. It was kind of strange walking into the Astrodome from ground level and then looking down into the field!
While a 737 seems appropriate for a Seattle arena, it seems a bit odd to have a 737 and all that airline stuff in an arena named for environmental purposes. Granted, Amazon promoting anything concerning environmental improvement is rather laughable if I may say so! Greenwashing indeed.
I don't think there are too many pro arenas or stadiums named after retailers so I guess Seattle is a rare example of one if we count it as being named after a retailer. I know the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA team plays in an arena named after Target. The Clippers, Lakers, and NHL Kings all play in Staples Center named after Staples (the Clippers are building a new arena). The San Diego Padres baseball team plays in Petco Park. Nothing else is immediately coming to mind so maybe that's it! Oh, there is the Canadian Tire Center in Ottawa that the NHL Senators play in if you want to count that.
I'm not a sports person, but with this being just a few blocks from home, I felt like I had to say something! It will be interesting to see if the NBA ever comes back to Seattle (if they do so, it will probably be here). And yeah, I know Key Arena had a rather poor reputation back in the day -- that's probably why the current arena owners are pushing so hard for this to be considered a new arena rather than a remodel!
DeleteInteresting to hear that about San Jose's arena -- depending on how you count it, this one could be considered to be several decades older than that!
I never knew that about the Astrodome! I can't imagine there are all that many underground stadiums like this, since excavation isn't cheap. This place has the same weird thing when you walk in, plus it's interesting to have the cheap(er) seats closer to ground level than the deluxe rink-side seats!
Ha, yeah, that's certainly true -- it's a bit weird overall to have an airline as one of the main sponsors of a venue that's supposedly environmentally friendly!
I never thought about that! I grew up hearing ads for the Save-On-Foods Centre in Victoria, but that's not exactly major league. Of course, it's hard for me to consider Amazon as a retailer in the same category as those sort of companies...
Technically, the Seattle arena is the oldest arena in the NHL! That's a bit misleading obviously as the entire arena was more or less rebuilt. The next oldest is Madison Square Garden in New York which opened in 1968, but that was also more or less completely rebuilt a few years ago except for the outer shell. If you don't count those, the oldest NHL arena is the Saddledome in Calgary which opened in 1983, but there are plans to replace that with a new arena here soon.
DeleteThe next two oldest after that are Honda Center in Anaheim and SAP Center in San Jose. Both of those opened in 1993. Once the Saddledome is gone here in the foreseeable future, an argument could be made about those two being the oldest arenas in the NHL!
I think Key Arena was fine for basketball, but it was not really suitable for hockey without severe limitations. The problem the Supersonics had is that they were bought out by someone from Oklahoma who was set on moving the team. The NBA could have done something to stop that, but they didn't. Sporting leagues use having a major market without a team to their advantage though as it serves as a threat for other teams to use when they want a new arena. With Seattle now off the table in the NHL, teams will likely use a threat of moving to Houston if they don't get a new arena in their hometown. The NFL did this for years when LA didn't have a team.
My best guess is that the NBA will put a team in Seattle at some point either via expansion or a team moving. The only team I can see moving in the near future is New Orleans so perhaps expansion is the more likely possibility.
I know that there are some college sports stadiums named after retailers like Albertsons and Kroger, but for whatever reason, they are rare in pro sports. Maybe retailers don't want to become too affiliated with one team because that might alienate fans of other teams. Who knows. I liked it when arenas didn't have corporate names. There were some good names like The Summit here in Houston, The Omni in Atlanta, The Spectrum in Philadelphia, and so forth.
The Kingdome had a great name, but it was a terrible stadium, lol. I remember the Supersonics playing there for a while. It was always strange when NBA teams played in large football/baseball stadiums, but there were a few teams who did that.
The Saddledome is sure cool (even if it's absolutely not a dome) -- too bad it looks like they're planning to completely replace it rather than upgrading it in place like they did here.
DeleteI'm sure Key Arena was fine for basketball, but it had a rather poor reputation in recent years as a bad music venue, at a point when concerts were the biggest events there! The redesign was intended to make it better for music, and from what I've heard about the first two concerts, it sounds like they were fairly successful in that regard. It was really designed for both hockey and basketball, though, so hopefully a new NBA team will happen at some point. The Kingdome is a bit before my time; I've heard those bad things about it, but there seems to be a strange nostalgia for it these days.