[Love sports and technology? Sign up for our sports tech newsletter to receive this rundown from GeekWire’s Taylor Soper via email every week.] TAYLOR’S TAKE ON THE WEEK IN SPORTS TECH: The big sports news in Seattle this week was all about Key Arena and the potential arrival of professional hockey. The Seattle City Council and new Mayor Jenny Durkan approved a new $660 million deal to renovate Key Arena, which served home to the Seattle Supersonics before the NBA franchise left to Oklahoma City in 2008. Various reports this week noted that the process for NHL expansion to Seattle has already started, allowing… Read More
The Sounders are bringing the MLS Cup back to Seattle if Roger Levesque’s prediction holds true. Levesque dropped by our big GeekWire Gala party on Wednesday and we had a chance to catch up with the former Sounders star who retired in 2012 and recently took a job as a business development manager at Seattle sports tech startup Vicis. The Sounders face Toronto on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT for an MLS Cup rematch, one year after Seattle won its first title in the Canadian city. Former Seattle Sounder Roger Levesque predicts the 2017 MLS Cup Former Seattle Sounder Roger… Read More
In a lot of ways, Microsoft’s big redevelopment project at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., looks similar to many tech companies around the world — a dense, modern campus centered around open spaces and an outdoor plaza. But there is one unique part of the redesign that will surely excite any employees who also happen to enjoy playing cricket. In what appears to be a first for tech giants, Microsoft plans to build a dedicated cricket ground in the middle of the new campus, adjacent to a soccer field. Greg Shaw, senior director in the office of the CEO at… Read More
OK, the Sonics aren’t coming back (just yet), but Seattle moved a step closer to giving hockey geeks (raise your hand — are you out there?) a reason to celebrate on Thursday when the NHL announced how it feels about an expansion franchise in the city. According to various reports — and tweets from Pierre LeBrun, a hockey guru for Canada’s The Sports Network — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said during the league’s Board of Governors meetings in Florida Thursday that the process for expansion in Seattle has begun. And it’s not cheap. Bettman announces that the NHL Board of… Read More
This week marked a big milestone for the future of pro sports and live entertainment in Seattle as the City Council approved a new $660 million deal to renovate Key Arena, signed by Mayor Jenny Durkan today. It’s the latest chapter in a decade-long saga that started after Seattle’s NBA franchise departed to Oklahoma City in 2008. Numerous high-powered groups and individuals have been involved in the process of building a potential new stadium in Seattle, including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who was part of a ownership group that nearly brought the NBA back to Seattle in 2013. But… Read More
