A couple of years ago, the Seattle Kraken’s top business executives sat in an office and gazed upon a ceramic whiteboard. Workshopped ideas for sustaining a successful NHL franchise were written on it.
“I think we knocked off everything we talked about,” Kraken CEO and president Tod Leiweke said last week, a few days after announcing a reduction in ticket prices for 80 percent of seats at Climate Pledge Arena for next season.
“It felt good to make that announcement.”
It went against the grain, too.
Many NHL teams are increasing the cost of seats deemed most valuable. Not the Kraken, who are dropping prices and adding discounted group packages despite playing to full capacity in each of its four seasons.
Season-ticket holders will receive a 25 percent discount on food and beverages. A package that includes four tickets, soda, and popcorn will cost $150. Select seats in Amex Hall, the lower and upper bowls, will decrease by $56, $35, and $4, respectively, per game. It hasn’t been cheap to get into a Kraken game, even on the secondary market. Data from StubHub lists the average Kraken ticket price on that site at $118, fifth-highest in the NHL this season.
This is a daring strategy.
Ticket revenue is a singular economic driver for the NHL, which has national television deals that generate less revenue than those for the NFL, NBA, and MLB. The NHL’s salary cap is projected to rise significantly each of the next three seasons, and the surest way to offset those costs for franchises is to increase the costs of teams’ most prized inventory: tickets.
Why would the Kraken, with its tickets in high demand, drop the prices?
“It takes ownership with a little bit more of a vision beyond the next year’s budget,” Leiweke said. “This wasn’t about tickets. This is about building fandom.”
Leiweke said a two-year process that included surveying fans convinced ownership that two things needed to happen. All games had to be televised locally, and people needed to know that tickets were available — and that those tickets were affordable.
Kraken Hockey Network launched this past season. Excluding games that aired nationally on ESPN or Turner Sports, the network made it possible for fans in the Seattle market to watch all Kraken games for the first time. Local broadcasts aired on KING-TV, an NBC affiliate, and independent station KONG. Games were streamed locally on Amazon Prime at no additional cost to subscribers.
“It was a big step, something that needed to happen, and it’s going to help us expand our audience,” Leiweke said. “But the best way to build fandom is to get people into our building.”
Leiweke is proud of that building.
Climate Pledge Arena is unique. It’s a brand-new facility under the roof of an arena that was constructed for the 1962 World’s Fair.
At a capacity of 17,100 for Kraken games, Climate Pledge Arena’s lower bowl is almost entirely underground. Its video boards are attached to the ceiling and are positioned higher than in other NHL arenas.
There is an intimacy to the place that modern, more cavernous multipurpose arenas lack.
The Kraken had no problem selling season tickets after the NHL approved Seattle for its 32nd franchise in December 2018. A region that supported the NFL’s Seahawks, MLB’s Mariners, MLS’ Sounders and WNBA’s Storm — and infamously had its beloved NBA franchise, the Sonics, relocated to Oklahoma City in the 2000s — had a rich hockey history dating to the Stanley Cup’s earliest days, and also successful minor-league teams.
The immense instant support for the Kraken was a boon for the franchise. However, perception is reality, and two years ago, Kraken fans spoke loudly when surveyed.
Fans who didn’t have season tickets began to believe they couldn’t get into Kraken home games.
Leiweke, a longtime sports executive, said he realized a “reinvention” was necessary.
“A lot of people who bought tickets early on had never seen an NHL game in their lives,” he said. “It became something that’s a big part of their life. But if we truly want to increase fandom, we’ve got to open up tickets.”
Leiweke knew he couldn’t risk upsetting the ticket holder who had been loyal from the beginning. Adding group/family packages that hadn’t existed because of pandemic restrictions had to coincide with no additional costs to those fans already coming to games. Also, Leiweke said, it wouldn’t be fair to upgrade in areas such as food and customer benefits — think fan-skates on the ice or pictures with the mascot — if those initiatives were going to be seen as hidden charges.
“You hear about families not thinking they can afford to see a game, and it just tugs at your heart and sensibilities,” Leiweke said. “But if you’re going to do that, you better take care of the people there from the beginning.”
What could have been a money grab going into the Kraken’s fifth season is the opposite — and that’s being done to get more new fans into Climate Pledge Arena, hooked on the experience of viewing the NHL in person, and potentially making a lifelong connection with customers.
“Our current ticket-holders don’t want an elitist sort of place,” Leiweke said, referring to the fan survey and discussion with his executive team two years ago while jotting down ideas on that ceramic whiteboard.
“I’m not saying we were that, but you can become that if you sell every seat for the highest price.”
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