Professional hockey is coming back to the Emerald City. The NHL Board of Directors on Tuesday awarded an expansion franchise to Seattle, where the league’s 32nd team will play games at a redeveloped KeyArena beginning in the 2021-22 season, just a few blocks away from Amazon’s headquarters and offices of other tech giants such as Google and Facebook. “Seattle: The NHL is thrilled to welcome you,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said at press conference on Tuesday. Bettman makes it official.NHL to Seattle in 2021.#NHL #Seattle pic.twitter.com/jVrivUYDwX — Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5) December 4, 2018 This is an awesome day for Seattle… Read More
Andy Jassy runs the world’s largest cloud computing business. He also just joined an NHL franchise ownership group trying to bring professional hockey to Seattle. So the new team operations and arena infrastructure will use Amazon Web Services technology, right? “I don’t think anyone has gone that far,” Jassy said. It’s too early to tell how Amazon will be involved in the potential NHL team playing at a proposed redeveloped KeyArena, just blocks away from the company’s headquarters in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. But Jassy is already jazzed to be apart of it all. GeekWire caught up with Jassy,… Read More
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, has joined the investor group aiming to bring an NHL expansion team to Seattle, adding new financial capital and tech credibility to the effort to land a pro sports franchise a few blocks from the tech giant’s headquarters. Why this top Amazon exec just placed a bet on a future Seattle NHL franchise The group, called Seattle Hockey Partners, announced new additions to its ownership team as part of a press conference at Seattle’s Space Needle on Wednesday that included Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and helped launch Amazon… Read More
Tod Leiweke is headed back to Seattle. The veteran sports executive will be officially announced as the CEO and president of Seattle’s NHL ownership group on Wednesday. Leiweke was most recently chief operating officer at the NFL and was the Seahawks CEO from 2003 to 2010. He’ll make a return to the Emerald City to join his brother, Tim Leiweke, who heads up Oak View Group, the ownership firm trying to bring an NHL expansion team to the Seattle. Update: Here’s a statement from Leiweke: “It’s an honor and privilege for me and my family to return to Seattle, and I thank… Read More
Seattle Freeze didn’t even make the list. Speculation about what name could be bestowed on a potential National Hockey League expansion team in Seattle turned interesting this week with the revelation that a number of domain names have been registered by the group renovating KeyArena. According to a report by Clark Rasmussen at DetroitHockey.net, 38 domains representing 13 potential team names were registered by a lawyer representing Oak View Group. While the group and Seattle haven’t been awarded a franchise yet — potentially the league’s 32nd — it’s never too early to drop the gloves and fight over which, if… Read More
