At this point, Todd Humphrey has provided all of the visuals that one would need to fully comprehend the Goliath nature of the 167,000 square-foot Seattle Kraken Training Center along with the financial undertaking that comes with a $90 million project.
It will have all of the modern amenities fans will come to expect, and a few they will not see coming. Humphrey shares how the Northgate Ice Centre will feature a light rail station that is slated to be open toward the end of 2021. Suddenly, the Kraken’s senior vice president of digital fan experience and the training center offers one more detail about the club’s complex that further reinforces what comes with being in a non-traditional market.
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“These are the first sheets of ice in the city of Seattle,” Humphrey said. “And when I say that, I don’t know how. It’s crazy to me. I am Canadian. I could have walked from my front door to four sheets of ice. I have lived here for 20 years. You drive to some of the other rinks. You have to go to Renton and Everett and Kent and Lynnwood. You got to drive out of town and these are the first three ice sheets in the city of Seattle. We think it’s really going to change the dynamics of hockey in the city.”
Rarely can something in this contemporary landscape be monolithic. This is the prism through which the Kraken view their practice facility.
For them, this is not a largesse building with three ice sheets where the team will train. They know this will be the place where coaches, players and administrative staff will spend most of their time when they are not at Climate Pledge Arena. That is exactly why the club is investing so much thought into items such as decor, lounges, parking and training areas featuring the best equipment on the open market.
Knowing how Seattle continues to grow means this cannot be another structure that came out of nowhere. The Kraken view it as an opportunity to make this a community fixture. It is why they will have bleacher seating that can accommodate 1,000 fans during practice at the main ice sheet. That same ice sheet will have a digital scoreboard that can be used to televise Kraken games on certain nights when the team opens the facility to provide their fans with an intimate setting to view games whether they are at Climate Pledge Arena or on the road.
Above all, the Kraken are taking on all of these tasks with the idea of making hockey accessible to everyone throughout Seattle and the entire region.
“We really see this as a community facility,” Humphrey said. “We’re going to be really thoughtful. This is not going to be something that is going to be a headline for us. We are going to be thoughtful all the way through the way we program these hours on these rinks.”
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Humphrey said the project is being broken up into two phases. The first phase will open July 15, 2021. That is when the facility’s administrative offices, main NHL-sized ice sheet with 1,000 seats and training area will be fully operational. The second phase is set to open Sept. 1, 2021. Part of the second phase includes a bar and restaurant that is expected to seat 200 people. It also includes when the remaining two ice sheets plus the community areas will be available for use.
The Kraken are scheduled to play their inaugural campaign at the start of the 2021-22 NHL season which, for now, could commence in October of that year.
BNBuilders, the West Coast-based construction firm with an office in Seattle, has kept the project on track. Humphrey said BNB’s practices for handling COVID-19 means they have only lost two construction days during the pandemic.
“We’re super excited about getting them open,” Humphrey said. “In part because we have an NHL team that is going to move in here. We’re going to have an expansion draft, an amateur draft, free agency and then you roll into rookie camps. If the NHL is back on schedule, that is mid-September for training camp. We have a lot of work to do but we’re on schedule.”
Part of the narrative with the Kraken centers around the fact that the expansion draft is the only item of importance. It is a massive piece but there is still more work in other areas that need to be completed.
Humphrey said the north end of the building will house the NHL training facility. The top floor of the complex will be home to their administrative offices while the bottom floor is where the actual training will take place. He said there will be the main NHL dressing room in addition to 14 auxiliary dressing rooms that can be used for events such as development, rookie and training camps. It is exactly why the Kraken have already ordered 180 pairs of hockey pants for when those dates arrive. That, and it is one less item to worry about going forward.
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They have already started planning where certain signage will be placed throughout the building. The same goes for items such as artwork, carpeting and chairs.
And for those curious about the team’s dressing room, Humphrey said the plan is to place the Kraken logo on the ceiling. That way, everyone can avoid the awkward glances in the event someone accidentally steps on the logo.
“You’re going to see as you walk into the player’s entrance, a spectacular big logo,” Humphrey said. “As the players walk off the ice back to the dressing room, you’re going to see the logo. You’re going to see the Kraken brand living and breathing throughout the building.”
One of the advantages Humphrey and the Kraken had was the fact they were able to tour other NHL practice facilities. That allowed them to gain additional insight into how a modern practice facility functions while further incorporating items that makes their facility unique. Humphrey said that he and former senior adviser Dave Tippett, before Tippett was hired to coach the Edmonton Oilers, traveled to Alberta to look at that club’s facility.
It goes back to something Kraken general manager Ron Francis said to Humphrey: Climate Pledge Arena will be their home for three exhibition games, 41 regular season contests and what they hope are several playoff games.
But the rest of the days throughout the year, the Kraken Training Center is their home.
“The dressing room is one area and then you’ve got all of the training areas,” Humphrey said. “I think we’ve done a thoughtful job of thinking about how players train today. It is not just lifting barbells. We need space for that. We need height for that. As we think about massage rooms and hydrotherapy tubs. A coach’s lounge that is comfortable. A player’s lounge that is comfortable because players will often eat breakfast and lunch there. Even pregame meals at times.
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“We’re just trying to be thoughtful with how players interact with this space.”
Keeping the fan experience in mind also is also part of the Kraken’s plans for the facility. They are installing bleacher seating that should be able to fit 1,000 fans. Those fans will be watching practice from the south end of the main NHL practice rink.
Fans will also be able to track what is going on through a digital scoreboard on the east wall of the facility. Humphrey said the Kraken are anticipating there will be certain game nights when the fans are invited to watch a game at the practice facility. That way, they can sit in the stands and watch a live broadcast as if they are in Climate Pledge Arena or whatever venue that the team is playing in on that particular day.
“Imagine there are a bunch of seven-year-olds playing on rink one during the Kraken game,” Humphrey said. “We’ve got the Kraken game on the scoreboard. Now you have 1,000 people watching this game. Then you had the 200 people sitting in the bar and restaurant. We really see this as a place that is going to be a hockey gathering place when the Kraken are playing home or away games, whether we activate the entire facility or just the bar and the restaurant.”
Exactly what was it that made the fan experience important for the Kraken? Couldn’t they have just left it as a state-of-the-art building and call it a day?
Look around the NHL. City National Arena, the training home of the Vegas Golden Knights, is no stranger to drawing several hundreds of fans. Great Park Ice houses the Anaheim Ducks and that facility has become something of a hub for those in Orange County. Solar4America Ice has had a similar impact for San Jose Sharks fans over the years.
Part of accommodating for the fan experience means taking COVID-19 into account. Humphrey said they have not changed the construction of the physical facilities at both Climate Pledge Arena or the Kraken Training Facility. But they have examined different contingency plans that will allow them to have an idea of what those buildings will look like at full capacity, half capacity or whatever is deemed to be the safest figure for fans.
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“You know this well all the way through: Seattle fans are different,” Humphrey said. “I’m looking at the front window of my house right now. I’ve got a Seahawks sticker on the window. I’ve got a Kraken thing in the window. Even in Toronto where I come from, people are diehard Maple Leafs fans. They don’t fly it the same way fans do here. I have been up in Alaska and Vancouver, and you see 12 flags everywhere. You see the inspiration our fans have provided us through season ticket deposits and the waiting list that is now 60,000-plus and just the overall excitement.
“There are going to be 17,000 people in Climate Pledge Arena. There’s going to be hundreds, thousands, millions of other Kraken fans who are not in the building.”
One of the items the Kraken plan on implementing is how more people in the community can use the building in those months when hockey is not being played. That is why they plan on using part of that space as a farmer’s market, for example, when the time comes.
Because, why not?
“I think that’s just part of being in Seattle,” Humphrey said. “I didn’t grow up here. But I feel like I know this city really well now. This city is different. This city operates differently. It thinks differently. It wants to be a leader. We’re going to have a park at the south end of this facility. There is going to be green space around. There is going to be a really cool walkway at the west side of the building. Then you start to think if the rinks are going to be used all the time. And if they’re not, how do we bring other people in whether it is a farmer’s market or an arts show?
“How do we use it for other parts of this city? How do we address some of the barriers for entry for non-traditional hockey communities? Do you start them with ball hockey in one of those rinks? It’s not just strapping expensive skates on kids. We’re really trying to be thoughtful of how do we ensure all kids have access to all ice sports here.”
Making community a priority is one of the edicts that has been openly and aggressively pushed by Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke. One of Leiweke’s approaches to building the Kraken is ensuring the team has these conversations while working toward having minorities and women in different roles throughout the organization in a sport that has come under a microscope for not having those groups represented.
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That, in turn, has led to the Kraken then taking that plan and expanding into a market where they want to attract every fan in a city where people attend games in droves.
“We’re not just pushed from a hiring perspective internally, but as we build this facility and build hockey in this region, it can’t just be for people that look like me,” said Humphrey, who is White. “It’s gotta be diverse. We are really focused and part of our challenge internally is to do that every day. This facility is doing the welcoming. It can’t feel like a hobnobbing, country club-facility that the average kid is not going to walk into. It’s gotta feel like a piece of home and we’re really intent on doing that.”
(Photos courtesy Seattle Kraken)