Climate Pledge Arena

Lore & Background

Seattle's hockey story is, in many ways, a story of almost. The city hosted the NHL in the 1970s with the North Stars, then watched the league cross the border to Vancouver. For nearly fifty years, Kraken fans—many of them former North Stars or Canucks supporters—followed other teams, drove to Tacoma, or simply waited. Climate Pledge Arena, completed in 2019, was the first physical proof that the wait was ending. When the Kraken took the ice for their inaugural 2021–22 season, the arena was already humming with anticipation, and the crowd's reaction to the first puck drop was less like a game and more like a homecoming.

The arena's design leans into intimacy. The seating bowl is closer to the rink than in many larger North American venues, which means the roar of a full house hits the players' ears with a physicality that smaller, older rinks sometimes lack. The concourse areas are wide enough for the pre-game gatherings that have become a Seattle tradition: fans in teal and black, coffee in hand, debating line changes with strangers who will be beside them for the next two hours.

The 'Kraken Call' emerged organically in those early seasons and has since become the arena's signature moment. It is part chant, part wave, part collective exhale—fans on both sides of the ice sweeping their arms in slow, undulating tentacle motions while the crowd swells into a sustained, low roar. It has been deployed during power plays, after goals, and in the tense lull before a face-off. For a city that prides itself on being quiet, thoughtful, and a little bit reserved, the Kraken Call is a controlled eruption, and the arena is the only place it gets to happen.

In Their Own Story

The rain hadn't stopped for three days. By the time the bus pulled up to the arena, the SoDo streets were a river of headlight reflections and the smell of wet asphalt. Inside, the air was dry and cold, the kind of cold that settles behind your eyes and makes the ice look almost white under the lights. A hundred and seventy thousand pairs of eyes—no, not that many, but enough—tracked the Zamboni's slow arc, the fresh sheet gleaming like poured glass. Then the music cut, the lights dimmed, and the first wave rolled. One section started it, arms sweeping low, then the next, and the roar built like a tide coming in off Puget Sound. A rookie on the far bench looked up from his stick, water beading on his visor, and for a moment the only sound was the collective breath of a city that had been waiting its whole life to hear this particular noise. The puck dropped. The tentacles rose.

Reader's Guide

Climate Pledge Arena rises in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, a sleek indoor venue where the Pacific Northwest's damp air meets the controlled chill of a professional ice rink. The building's exterior is clean and modern, while inside, the sightlines are tight and the crowd sits close to the ice, creating an intimate, pressurized atmosphere that distinguishes it from larger, more cavernous arenas.

The most iconic ritual is 'The Kraken Call'—a coordinated wave in which fans on both sides of the arena sweep their arms in slow, rolling tentacle motions, mimicking the mythical creature that gives the franchise its name. It typically erupts during key moments: a power play, a goal, or a stoppage in play. The sound it produces is a low, sustained roar that fans describe as feeling like the arena itself is breathing.

The fanbase reflects Seattle's identity: tech professionals, college students, lifelong hockey devotees who followed the Canucks across the border for decades, and families discovering the game for the first time. The crowd is loud, knowledgeable, and unapologetically passionate. Season-ticket holders gather in the concourse before every game, and the general admission sections bring a raucous, unpredictable energy.

Local identity runs deep. Wearing Kraken colors—black, teal, and white—on a game day is a small civic act. The arena has become a gathering point for a city that waited over four decades for its own NHL franchise, and every shift feels like a homecoming.

Did You Know?

• Climate Pledge Arena opened in 2019, two full years before the Kraken's first NHL game, and hosted a variety of events during that interim period.
• Seattle's previous NHL team, the North Stars, left the city in 1979, meaning the Kraken's arrival ended a gap of roughly 42 years without a local NHL franchise.
• The arena's hockey seating is positioned closer to the ice than in many larger North American venues, a design choice that amplifies crowd noise and creates a more intimate game-day atmosphere.
• The 'Kraken Call' tentacle wave was not a scripted production element but emerged organically from the fanbase during the early 2021–22 season and has since become the arena's signature ritual.