I don’t have the athletic, so admittedly, I did not read the article.
I think this ownership group has been pretty successful at selling hockey to this market. One, there were definitely already a lot of hockey fans here. Two, I thought this as I was at the game on Monday, yes it was the last home game of the season, but there were a lot of people there for a team that had already been eliminated and had absolutely nothing to play for.
Regardless of what happens when the Sonics come back, I think there is more than enough space in this market for four teams. And the Kraken are doing just fine on selling hockey to this market.
surfingeagles
This is all I hear about from the media is about getting people to love the Kraken before the NBA arrives. If this is their game plan than it is a bad one. Hockey is an incredible sport and they should be selling it by showing a promise for the future and not » we might or might not make it » each year.
Give the fans players they can love to watch the next 10-20 years instead of bits and pieces. The changes that the Sonics will be successful right off the bat are slim, so if you can give Seattle a promising young hockey team, with another promising young team, that would be better than « look at all these vets that play boring hockey ».
Just look at Philadelphia right now. Promising young hockey team and a promising young basketball team. There is no need to have one compete against the other. Let fans grow with both.
GoSeattleSockeye
Build a winning team, this city will show up and support it. Easy as that
SiccSemperTyrannis
This article is more about the Kraken’s community efforts and profiling owner Sam Holloway than explaining why the Kraken have struggled on the ice. And a bunch of quotes about how the NHL isn’t concerned about sports dollar competition from the pending Sonics return.
IMO this fits into what we already know – Sam Holloway is (and her father before her was) well intentioned and willing to put her money behind the team, but that hasn’t translated to success on the ice.
I think the problem has been that ownership and CEO Tod Leiweke put a huge amount of trust and power in Ron Francis and he failed to deliver. He made some bad roster decisions and compounded that through timidity in the trade market. Diving into that story would have been a much more valuable use of the interview time Mirtle got, and could have exposed more of what’s gone wrong in the past 5 years.
DijkstrasPathway
It was nice to see quotes from Dunn and Eberle speaking positively of the city and team, even if the overall tone was negative
brownnote71
As an ex Sonic season ticket owner, F the NBA and Let’s Go Kraken!
NBA basketball is boring now anyways as there’s unlimited traveling and no post play anymore.
What1does
I have trouble watching games, we have a local affiliate who had the rights, but they constantly show paid programs instead of the games?
I dunna know, I want to be a fan, but not being able to watch games makes me care less and less.
FoolishReplica
I keep seeing this take but I don’t understand why it’s framed as one or the other. I’m a fan of both leagues and I suspect I’m far from the only one. The Sonics coming back won’t affect my Kraken viewing much at all.
hawkfan78
I used to love the NBA, but have zero interest in it when/if it returns. Aside from getting screwed by the league when they allowed that cow poke to steal the franchise, the game just isn’t the same. No defense, everybody jacks 3s, traveling is ignored, star players take nights off and it’s the only major league where an official was caught rigging games. I guess I see how younger generations could get hooked but I don’t see how you could enjoy today’s product if you experienced 80s/90s NBA. I’ll continue to tune into college games to get my basketball fix.
That said, the NHL is an amazing product and the one playoff run the Kraken had was a blast. I look forward to many more (hopefully soon).
TL/DR: The current NBA sucks and the NHL/Kraken won’t lose out when it comes to my attention or spending. I think there are several others who feel the same.
9 Comments
I don’t have the athletic, so admittedly, I did not read the article.
I think this ownership group has been pretty successful at selling hockey to this market. One, there were definitely already a lot of hockey fans here. Two, I thought this as I was at the game on Monday, yes it was the last home game of the season, but there were a lot of people there for a team that had already been eliminated and had absolutely nothing to play for.
Regardless of what happens when the Sonics come back, I think there is more than enough space in this market for four teams. And the Kraken are doing just fine on selling hockey to this market.
This is all I hear about from the media is about getting people to love the Kraken before the NBA arrives. If this is their game plan than it is a bad one. Hockey is an incredible sport and they should be selling it by showing a promise for the future and not » we might or might not make it » each year.
Give the fans players they can love to watch the next 10-20 years instead of bits and pieces. The changes that the Sonics will be successful right off the bat are slim, so if you can give Seattle a promising young hockey team, with another promising young team, that would be better than « look at all these vets that play boring hockey ».
Just look at Philadelphia right now. Promising young hockey team and a promising young basketball team. There is no need to have one compete against the other. Let fans grow with both.
Build a winning team, this city will show up and support it. Easy as that
This article is more about the Kraken’s community efforts and profiling owner Sam Holloway than explaining why the Kraken have struggled on the ice. And a bunch of quotes about how the NHL isn’t concerned about sports dollar competition from the pending Sonics return.
IMO this fits into what we already know – Sam Holloway is (and her father before her was) well intentioned and willing to put her money behind the team, but that hasn’t translated to success on the ice.
I think the problem has been that ownership and CEO Tod Leiweke put a huge amount of trust and power in Ron Francis and he failed to deliver. He made some bad roster decisions and compounded that through timidity in the trade market. Diving into that story would have been a much more valuable use of the interview time Mirtle got, and could have exposed more of what’s gone wrong in the past 5 years.
It was nice to see quotes from Dunn and Eberle speaking positively of the city and team, even if the overall tone was negative
As an ex Sonic season ticket owner, F the NBA and Let’s Go Kraken!
NBA basketball is boring now anyways as there’s unlimited traveling and no post play anymore.
I have trouble watching games, we have a local affiliate who had the rights, but they constantly show paid programs instead of the games?
I dunna know, I want to be a fan, but not being able to watch games makes me care less and less.
I keep seeing this take but I don’t understand why it’s framed as one or the other. I’m a fan of both leagues and I suspect I’m far from the only one. The Sonics coming back won’t affect my Kraken viewing much at all.
I used to love the NBA, but have zero interest in it when/if it returns. Aside from getting screwed by the league when they allowed that cow poke to steal the franchise, the game just isn’t the same. No defense, everybody jacks 3s, traveling is ignored, star players take nights off and it’s the only major league where an official was caught rigging games. I guess I see how younger generations could get hooked but I don’t see how you could enjoy today’s product if you experienced 80s/90s NBA. I’ll continue to tune into college games to get my basketball fix.
That said, the NHL is an amazing product and the one playoff run the Kraken had was a blast. I look forward to many more (hopefully soon).
TL/DR: The current NBA sucks and the NHL/Kraken won’t lose out when it comes to my attention or spending. I think there are several others who feel the same.