Practically everyone who lives in Alaska at some point has boarded one of those three-and-a-half-hour flights to Seattle. Maybe they’re going down for a business trip, some sort of vacation or to watch a Seahawks game at the artist formerly known as CenturyLink Field. Some even joke that going to Seattle is like driving to the next suburb.
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The connection between the state of Alaska and Seattle has always been there. The Seattle Kraken know this and it is why they are making a push to tap into a hockey-obsessed part of America that has gone overlooked.
In August, the University of Alaska Board of Regents voted to cut the Seawolves men’s hockey program, among other sports, after the 2020-21 school year to reduce the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s budget. But the board offered a chance at reviving those programs should boosters and supporters raise enough money to cover two years of operating expenses.
This led to the creation of Save Seawolf Hockey, a group trying to raise $3 million to save the program.
Here’s where the Kraken enter the picture. Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke was sitting in on a partnership call with Bristol Bay Native Corporation, an Alaska Native regional corporation, when the group’s president and CEO Jason Metrokin mentioned what was happening with the Seawolves. Leiweke said that he and the Kraken would like to help. From there, Leiweke got in contact with Kathie Bethard, the president of Save Seawolf Hockey, to have the Kraken pledge $200,000, with Leiweke and co-majority owner David Bonderman making personal donations.
The original deadline of Feb. 18 passed, with Save Seawolf Hockey raising $1.8 million. On Thursday, the board unanimously agreed to grant Save Seawolf Hockey until Aug. 30 to raise the remaining funds with the idea that the program will play at the start of the 2022-23 season. On Friday, the Kraken made an aggressive marketing push by urging fans to donate in an effort to boost the chances of UAA having hockey again.
“What it means is that we won’t have a 2021-22 season, which was a little disheartening to begin with,” Bethard said. “But then when we stepped back and started looking at the reality of everything, we don’t want to do it halfway. When we launched this program, we wanted to be the best it could be at that time. This will give (Seawolves coach Matt Curley) more time to recruit. It will give him more time to schedule some games because most people already have their 2021-22 season schedule filled with games. It also gives us time to re-negotiate with Sullivan Arena to get that contract in place and make it more beneficial to the university than it was previously.”
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Understand something about what this particular move means. The Kraken being an active participant in preserving one of the state’s two collegiate programs declares an intent to invest in a place that has an affinity with Seattle and the game as a whole.
Eric Tuott jokes that it feels like there are at least 15 flights a day from Anchorage to Seattle. And that’s just on Alaska Airlines alone, never mind the other airlines that offer service out of Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. Tuott is a Kraken season ticket holder who is a firefighter in Anchorage. In fact, he is a former UAA Hockey player who is on a fire department team with 15 former Division I hockey players, which includes former NHL forward Joey Crabb. Tuott grew up in Alaska as a die-hard Quebec Nordiques fan who followed them to Denver when they became the Colorado Avalanche.
Still, the fact that Seattle will have an NHL team means he finally has a “local” team to call his own. Tuott said the regionalism is evident in that people are Seahawks or Seattle Mariners fans. That there is a strong concentration of alumni from the University of Oregon, Washington and Washington State University who live there. The fandom runs so strong in Alaska that there are people who have Seahawks season tickets and fly down on weekends for home games.
“I say this as a Broncos fan that does not like the Seahawks: Sometimes, it’s sickening to see this many 12s around this place,” Tuott said. “I have no doubt that the Kraken are going to have a similar following. Especially with ROOT Sports. We have ROOT up here and they carry the Mariners games. The Mariners are on every single night here and you know all those guys growing up. You live and die with the Mariners.”
Attracting the highest number of viewers possible was one of the driving forces in the Kraken’s search for a broadcast partner. That is what made ROOT Sports an attractive option. ROOT’s footprint extends into Alaska and it will allow the Kraken to be the first NHL team fans can watch throughout an entire season.
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The natural assumption is Alaska’s proximity to Vancouver and the fact it borders British Columbia means most residents would be Vancouver Canucks fans. Canucks fans do exist in Alaska, but there are pockets of fans for other teams throughout the state. Better yet? Think of it like this. Living in Alaska is akin to being a fan who lives in Iowa when it comes to watching games. They’re watching the NBC and NBCSN broadcasts while also taking advantage of NHL Network. And some also have an NHL Center Ice subscription and watch the nightly game on ESPN Plus.
“I think the biggest challenge in watching games is the time change unless you are watching something on the West Coast,” former Alaska Aces coach Keith McCambridge said. “Everything on the East Coast is hard to follow. In regards to being in a closer time zone and the closeness, it is a big thing that there is a team in Seattle and it can be part of the hockey community. It will be a lot easier to follow. To see how people have followed along with the Seahawks and Mariners, it makes sense they would do that for the Kraken.”
McCambridge, now an assistant with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, played three seasons for the Aces and coached them for two more seasons. By his description, hockey is the state sport and the climate makes it a natural fit. The years he was with the Aces meant Sullivan Arena, the venue that once housed the Aces and the Seawolves, was always filled to capacity.
He said fans were knowledgeable and the love for hockey runs so deep that in November 2019 there was an Aces alumni game. Former players returned for a two-night exhibition.
“It was sold out for both nights,” McCambridge recalled. “Our average was around 5,500 fans and Sullivan Arena held 6,000. To sell out to watch retired, overweight ex-hockey players play two games is something else.”
USA Hockey’s 2019-20 seasonal registration report lists Alaska as having 8,540 players. That ranks third in the Pacific region behind California and Washington. Alaska has become a youth hockey hotbed and one that can has sent countless players to collegiate, junior and major junior teams. As a whole, the state has sent 17 players to the NHL with the most notable being Matt Carle, Brandon Dubinsky, Scott Gomez and Nate Thompson.
So how is it that a state this passionate about hockey has experienced so much heartache? Why did the Aces have to leave town? How did it get to the point that there is a major movement to save a Seawolves program that has existed for more than 40 years?
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Like everything in life, money is the answer.
The Aces said at the time of their departure in 2017 that a down economy was the primary reason why they were struggling, according to KTUU-TV. In the 2003-04 campaign, the Aces began a run of 11 consecutive playoff appearances highlighted by two Kelly Cup titles – the ECHL championship – in that run. Their last championship season came during the 2013-14 slate and it would be the last time they reached the postseason. The Aces missed the playoffs and finished either at or near the bottom of their division.
Attendance figures, according to hockeydb, fell from averaging 4,367 during their last championship season to 3,623 fans in their final year before relocating to become the Maine Mariners. The team shared at the time that they were down $600,000 in sponsorships while also losing $262,000 in ticket sales all while acknowledging the financial climate at that time would continue to lead to more potential losses.
Bethard even addressed how challenging it was fundraising during the pandemic. Alaska ranks sixth nationally in oil production and the oil industry has witnessed more than 100 oil and gas companies declare bankruptcy in 2020. Furthermore, a city like Anchorage and the state as a whole heavily relies on tourism.
It’s another reason why Bethard described the effort to save the Seawolves as “something exciting in a dark period.”
“There are costs involved,” McCambridge said. “You have a product in Anchorage like the Seawolves and Aces and there are maintenance costs that come with being in a remote location compared to sitting at home watching a Kraken game on TV. It is a different scenario. The Kraken will be well supported.”
CCHA commissioner Don Lucia coached at UAA and Alaska-Fairbanks before moving on to Colorado College and then the University of Minnesota. Lucia, who still has a home in Alaska, said the Kraken’s Alaskan adventure reminds him of something he saw when he was coaching the Gophers.
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The Minnesota Wild created “The State of Hockey” mantra that gave everyone in Minnesota ownership. The Wild went all-in on that strategy by doing things such as having traveling caravans in places like Bemidji, Crookston and Mankato to make those living outside the Twin Cities feel included. Plus, fans from those areas saw other unique touches such as every high school hockey sweater from across Minnesota displayed at the Xcel Center, a feature that still exists to this day.
“It is the state’s team and in Minnesota, you have that metro versus outside metro competition going,” Lucia said. “I think they extended the olive branch to the whole state that they want to be your team. It’s not the Twin Cities’s team or just St. Paul. It’s for everyone. They have done a really good job of spreading out to different communities.”
And it just so happened that Leiweke was the president of the Wild during that time.
“It’s a part of our brand and we are thrilled with that,” Leiweke said of Alaska’s place in the Kraken’s landscape. “But if you are going to make it part of your brand, it can’t be a one-way street. If they are a part of who we are and a part of our territory, you’ve gotta be willing to give back and to show up and to be present. How could we not be involved? I think that’s the real question. We had to be involved in some way. It’s not just helping with this campaign, we want to be involved with hockey across the state.”
Leiweke said he is optimistic that the fight to save the Seawolves will be a successful one. But it requires multiple people getting on board and the Kraken are “committed to doing our part,” Leiweke added. Bethard was asked to start a list of sports bars throughout Alaska that the Kraken can highlight on their telecasts and in Climate Pledge Arena during games to recognize their fans in the state.
A long-term goal for Leiweke is to someday have the Seawolves play games at Climate Pledge Arena. He took it even further by saying those plans could include playing their in-state rival Nanooks. Or that they could look into doing a Beanpot-style tournament at Climate Pledge Arena similar to how the TD Garden hosts Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern for one of college hockey’s most famed events.
“It is a wonderful connection and Alaska and Seattle have been connected for decades and decades and decades,” Leiweke said. “This is another fantastic connection and we are going to build through hockey relationships with Vancouver, with British Columbia. But we’re going to build even stronger relationships with Alaska.”
(Photo: Courtesy of Save Seawolf Hockey)
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