Before the expansion draft, Seattle has to build a team and a fan following. Outside of putting together a roster, how else can the Seattle Kraken be successful?
Las Vegas is a hockey town. Critics who said the tourist town should not have received the NHL’s 31st franchise have been proven nothing but wrong for the past three years as T-Mobile Arena continues to host sellout crowds. Now it’s the Seattle Kraken‘s turn to turn Seattle into a hockey town.
There are some things they share with the Vegas Golden Knights, and somethings they do not. Let’s take a look at things that can help the franchise get fans, purely from a business point here. All that expansion draft speculation can be left to your armchair general managers.
Here are a few unique advantages has for success for the Seattle Kraken.
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Capitalize On Hockey History
It’s surprising just how much of a hockey town Vegas has become, but you shouldn’t be surprised that there were hockey fans in Vegas. The city has hosted multiple professional minor league hockey teams in the past.
Current Vegas Golden Knight Deryk Engelland had his early beginning in professional hockey there and served as a de-facto welcoming community and tour guide for players who came over in the inaugural season.
Seattle has a much lengthier hockey history. Certain pieces are well known, such as the Seattle Metropolitans were the first American hockey team to win the Stanley Cup. In between then and now many professional and junior teams now have called the city home, including the current Seattle Totems of the Western States Hockey League.
The Kraken should seek to expand and complement the Totems instead of competing with them. Hockey fans in Seattle should be able to be fans of both teams and not have to choose.
The Great Indoors
An episode of the sitcom Frasier had two characters discussing Seattle’s then NBA team the Seattle SuperSonics. One character explains her fandom by saying “It rains seven months of the year here. We take out indoor sports very seriously”.
Well even though the Sonics are gone, the rain hasn’t changed in Seattle. That might be to the Kraken’s advantage.
The Kraken will be the only indoor based sports team in Seattle. If a speculated NHL schedule change goes through, that would make the Kraken are the only sports ticket in town.
Under the current October to April NHL season, the Kraken would have to share the first half of their season with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. When the NHL regular season winds down than they would share media attention with the MLB’s Seattle Mariners spring training and the beginning of their regular season.
Canadians
One of the unique things about the Buffalo Sabres is that their home games usually draw a good amount of Canadian hockey fans. Even if they’re not fans of the Sabres, the drive from Toronto to Buffalo is a rather easy hour and 45 minutes. That makes an easy trip.
The drive from Vancouver to Seattle (using Google Maps) comes in at a slightly longer, but comparable, two and a half hours. Expect many Vancouver Canucks hockey fans to travel to Seattle. Going off anecdotal stories from Buffalo, Canadians will travel south to watch hockey more than American fans will travel north to watch hockey.
Seattle is going to seem successful out of the gate, as all expansion and relocated teams do with the hype surrounding them. Remember there was a time in the late 1990s the Arizona Coyotes played to sellout crowds. It’s sustained success afterward that makes a winning franchise on and off the ice.