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The Seattle SuperSonics played their last game at Key Arena in 2008, a few months after Amazon planted its flag just down the road with a 1.7 million-square foot office campus in the South Lake Union neighborhood. Fast forward a decade, and Amazon’s campus is more than four times its original size, with more to come, and a group of billionaires are preparing to renovate the Seattle Center stadium in pursuit of a professional hockey team. Amazon figures to have a significant impact on the project, both through its 50,000 downtown workers that could serve as a potential built-in fanbase… Read More
Despite the fact that the actual football game was the more entertaining part of the evening for once, some Super Bowl LII advertisers still managed to create the necessary buzz to justify spending $5 million for 30 seconds of air time. According to USA Today and its annual Ad Meter platform, Amazon bested all the competition with its “Alexa Loses Her voice” commercial. CEO Jeff Bezos makes an appearance in the ad, as do celebs Cardi B, Gordon Ramsey, Rebel Wilson, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. The competition, in its 30th year, required panelists to rate ads on a 1-10 scale. Every… Read More
New England Patriots QB Tom Brady and his coach Bill Belichick are going after their sixth NFL championship, but Jeff Bezos may very well be the subject of Monday water-cooler talk following next month’s Super Bowl Sunday. The Amazon CEO stars in the Seattle tech giant’s new Super Bowl ad, which was teased Friday in a 30-second preview clip. The ad, titled “Did Alexa Lose Her Voice?” features a woman in her bathroom asking Alexa — Amazon’s popular voice assistant — about the weather in Austin, Texas, (which just happens to be a final-20 candidate for Amazon’s second headquarters). Alexa… Read More
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has a unique perspective on Seattle’s chances of bringing back the NBA, as the owner of the L.A. Clippers and a key player in past efforts to retain the Sonics and then land a new team. He has made it clear from the beginning that he will not move the Clippers to Seattle. However, when it comes time for NBA expansion, he will be in a position to make the case for Seattle to the rest of the league. So what will be Ballmer’s pitch? I asked him that question last week at a Rotary… Read More
