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News & ArtsFriday, March 5, 2010
Sports Seattle Tries to Get Hockey Team, Doesn't
Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:13 AM
The NHL is reporting that Tampa Bay's hockey team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, has been purchased by Boston hedge fund manager and co-owner of the Boston Red Sox Jeff Vinik. But it seems Seattle was in the running and the Key Arena would have been the venue.
"There was somebody looking at the Tampa hockey team but someone else bought them," says Seattle Center spokeswoman Deborah Daoust. She couldn't name the prospective Seattle buyer. However, she says that Key Arena presented some problems with sight lines—as it was never built for hockey. What large tenant will replace the vacuum left by the Sonics? "We're already getting kind of full over there: Seattle University men's basketball, Rat City Roller Girls, the Seattle Storm, and we are really filling up with a lot of concerts," Daoust says.
2
I wouldn't worry, the Seattle Curling team is still being formed, and we already have team jerseys picked out for your avatars to purchase for Wii Curling.
Hockey - requires way too much effort and gets in the way of drinking beer and hot cocoa - curling less so.
Hurl those rocks! Sweep! HARDER! HARDER! Whoa!
Hockey - requires way too much effort and gets in the way of drinking beer and hot cocoa - curling less so.
Hurl those rocks! Sweep! HARDER! HARDER! Whoa!
4
It's not just "sight lines". It's my understanding that the floor at Key Arena is simply not large enough for an NHL rink
When the venue was remodeled in the mid-90s, the Ackerleys intentionally kept it too small for the NHL, supposedly because they didn't want competition for the Sonics. That worked out well...
When the venue was remodeled in the mid-90s, the Ackerleys intentionally kept it too small for the NHL, supposedly because they didn't want competition for the Sonics. That worked out well...
5
Playing hockey might get in the way of drinking beer (though probably not for players in the 1960s and 70s), but watching hockey most definitely does not. Let the number of 24 oz. Molsons I consumed at a recent NHL game attest to that.
7
Hockey should be played where hockey is played. I don't want a team in Seattle till Hamilton, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford get their teams back from ridiculous Sun Belt cities.
8
I knew some diehard NHL fans in Seattle when I lived there (myself among them) but I never got the impression that Seattleites by and large gave a shit about hockey. It would have been interesting to see if NHL hockey got a good reception.
9
@ 7, Quebec's team went to Denver, hardly a "sun belt" city and definitely a hockey town. But fuck yeah, Winnipeg and Hartford need their NHL teams back. (Hamilton never had an NHL team and it's just suburban Toronto, so they can suck it up and support the Maple Leafs.)
10
How about we get some basketball back up in here first?
How about we build a brand spankin' new basketball palace, to lure those tall guys back?
And then we can replace the South Park Bridge, and build the city-wide Monorail (the one we voted TWICE to build? remember that one??)....
Sigh. I frickin' hate SeeAddle sometimes....
How about we build a brand spankin' new basketball palace, to lure those tall guys back?
And then we can replace the South Park Bridge, and build the city-wide Monorail (the one we voted TWICE to build? remember that one??)....
Sigh. I frickin' hate SeeAddle sometimes....
11
@7, are you aware that the Seattle Metropolitans were the first American team to win the Stanley Cup, in 1917? That's before the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, or New York Rangers even existed.
Sadly, DOUG. @4 is right. The ice is too small, and is even partly under the concrete of the stands at one end. Among other problems it melts down there, creating super-soft ice. No way in hell the NHL is going to permit that. Thanks, Sonics (they did it deliberately).
Sadly, DOUG. @4 is right. The ice is too small, and is even partly under the concrete of the stands at one end. Among other problems it melts down there, creating super-soft ice. No way in hell the NHL is going to permit that. Thanks, Sonics (they did it deliberately).
12
Plus, the beer is too expensive. A good hockey team needs beer that doesn't cost an arm and a leg for the fans to buy.
13
@7, I meant what I said, hockey should be played where hockey is played. Seattle should have an NBA team because we play a lot of basketball and produce a lot of good players. The (nonexistent) Garfield hockey team isn't exactly lighting them up.
@9, Hamilton is the ninth largest city in Canada (I know, I know), and the 8 million Canadians in the Golden Horseshoe can certainly support two NHL teams. It was also home to the NHL Tigers from 1920-25.
@9, Hamilton is the ninth largest city in Canada (I know, I know), and the 8 million Canadians in the Golden Horseshoe can certainly support two NHL teams. It was also home to the NHL Tigers from 1920-25.
15
@ 13, NHL? I'm pretty sure that the NHL never had a team based in Hamilton. Some other league perhaps, but not the NHL.
17
Yeah, those Seattle U games and Rat City bouts (as much as I love them) are _really_ bringing in the crowds.
18
Remodel the damn Key first, and then send an investor to buy a hockey team. Until something is done with Key and the awful sight lines there will be no hockey in Seattle... sigh.
21
@13 Uh, hockey is most definitely played here. Sure, it's not as prevalent as it is in Hamilton or Hartford, but the sport has been constantly growing in this area for decades now. I can think of at least three rinks that have opened in this area since I was a kid (and I'm only 27 so we're not talking too much time). The difference is that it's not a school sport here, it's run by private associations, so it's less visible.
23
I love hockey. I play it. I watch it and I am blessed to have 2 local teams (Kings and Ducks). But, the NHL has over expanded. The Coyotes are going broke. The Panthers can hardly fill the seats ans well as the Lightning and the Predators. We must not also forget that Gary Bettman is the anti-christ.
24
The only way Seattle could get a NHL team is with a new arena, not some remodeled version of Key Arena. After the B.S. with Safeco and Qwest, there's no way one would get built, unless it was all privately-funded.
Then again, Seattle isn't a hockey town; this "city" couldn't even support for a WHL team - an NHL team would end up relocating, as soon as the fair-weather fans got tired of them.
I'll keep following the Vancouver Canucks, thank you.
Then again, Seattle isn't a hockey town; this "city" couldn't even support for a WHL team - an NHL team would end up relocating, as soon as the fair-weather fans got tired of them.
I'll keep following the Vancouver Canucks, thank you.
25
By the way, this area has two junior teams (Thunderbirds and Silvertips), and the fifth largest adult hockey league in the country. Don't tell me that this area doesn't support hockey because that just leaves you coming off as being uninformed.
26
@20 - not until we actually HAVE high speed passenger rail from Seattle to Vancouver BC will the team up in Vancouver be "our" team.
27
Lets get Seattle to be the host city for the 2018 FIFA World Cup (fussball/soccer) first. Then you can start the talks on wether or not Seattle needs a Hockey team.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_and_20…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_and_20…
28
Sounds like a load of BS to me. The NHL was going to agree to move a Cup winning team to an unsuitable arena in Seattle?!?! Yeah right
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