The league officially awarded a 32nd franchise to Seattle via unanimous decision on TuesdayWho will own the team?An ownership group called the Seattle Hockey Partners is behind the city's bid for a team. That group is led by by billionaire businessman David Bonderman, who would serve as majority owner, as well as movie/television producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Tod Leiweke, who has served in major sports executive roles for nearly two decades. Leiweke will serve as the team's president and CEO.
The Seattle Hockey Partners group will pay NHL owners $650 million to join the league.
When will they begin play?Seattle's franchise will join the league starting with the 2021-22 season. The ownership group was hoping to begin play in 2020, but setbacks in arena construction will push their plans back a year.
Where will they play?The team will play at KeyArena, which famously served as the home of the Seattle Supersonics from 1967 to 2008, or at least a sexier version of it. Seattle approved a $700 million renovation of the arena, which will be almost entirely gutted (with the roof remaining untouched) to build a modern arena. The new building will have a capacity of 17,400 for hockey and 18,600 for basketball.
How much interest is there?Quite a lot. Seattle has the Mariners, Seahawks, Sounders, Storm and Reign, but they've been hungry for another major professional sports franchise since the SuperSonics left town in 2008. The season ticket drive for the Seattle NHL franchise hit 10,000 deposits (the ownership group's initial goal) in just 12 minutes and over 25,000 in the first day.
For reference, when the Vegas Golden Knights ownership group held their season-ticket drive, it took them two days to reach 5,000 deposits, and two months to reach 9,000. The Seattle group surpassed that in less than 15 minutes.
What will they be called?Details regarding the team's name, logo, color scheme are not known yet, and there will be plenty of time for those rumors and announcements over the next couple of years. However, it's never too early to start. In regards to a potential name, the leader in the clubhouse seems to be the Metropolitans at this point in time.