Seattle’s LGBTQ community members say they hope that this Friday’s World Cup “Pride Match” between Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is criminalized, can be an opportunity to change minds.
Seattle, WA
Seattle Kraken Check-In: How is Matty Beniers' 2nd season going?
The Seattle Kraken have rebounded from a rough start to 2023-24, as they recently used a six-game win streak to get over .500 for the first time in this NHL season.
A similar thing could be said about the player that many hope will be the face of the franchise, Matty Beniers.
Why are Seattle Kraken surging? Coach Hakstol says they’ve found their identity
The 6-foot-2, 178-pound center ran away in the voting to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year for 2022-23. He earned 160 of a possible 196 votes for first place after leading the league’s rookies in goals (24), points (57) and plus/minus (plus-14) in 80 games, while also ranking second in assists (33).
But after his sterling debut campaign helped the Seattle Kraken reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs in just their second season of existence, he had trouble repeating his performance out of the gate this fall. In fact, his plus/minus (the specific goal differential for a player’s team when they are on the ice) was at minus-12 through 11 games, when he finally registered his first positive plus/minus this season in a single game.
“I think he’s learned a life lesson in hockey,” said John Forslund, a longtime NHL broadcaster who is the voice of the Kraken on ROOT Sports, when he joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob last week. “… I think what we saw in the first six to eight weeks of the season a player that had lost his way, and a player that had lost his way offensively and then lost his confidence. And because he was losing confidence, he was forgetting how to play defensively. He was forgetting where to go on the ice to put himself in a better spot to break the puck out to defend better. And because of that, his plus/minus started go down around a minus-20, which is very uncharacteristic because he’s smarter and he’s better than that.”
How Beniers turned things around
Why were things tough in the opening months this season for Beniers?
“As he progressed through his first year, there was a lot of awareness, obviously, and there was a lot of gameplanning against him,” Forslund said. “But as this season started, the first number in terms of the forwards that the other coach would circle is No. 10 (Beniers’ number), and that’s tough, and it’s tough for him to learn.”
The Kraken have won eight of their last 10 games – and earned a point in the standings in each of those 10 games, as well. Beniers’ play has been a big part of it, as his plus/minus over that stretch is plus-seven, with no individual games in the minus category. He also has five points on his own in those 10 games.
“What’s happened is he’s turned the corner, and you can see it. You can see the step that he has now; he doesn’t appear to be as slow,” Forslund said. “Usually when players appear slow, it’s because they don’t have confidence. He’s going now with a purpose and conviction, which we saw in his first year, even when he had scoring droughts. Even when he went six, seven games without a point, his defensive game never vacillated, he never came off of it. This season it did, so I think it’s a lesson for him.”
Beniers’ role for Seattle Kraken
The 21-year-old Beniers is learning how important it is for the Kraken that he plays well due to his position and the expectations that come with being a talented former first-round pick.
“He’s learned (that) he’s surrounded by a lot of players, but when he’s not going, then Jordan Eberle is not going right. And whoever the left winger is, whether it be (Jaden) Schwartz or (Jared) McCann as it was at the front of the season – you know, it’s difficult,” Forslund said.
That’s not to say the Kraken’s resurgence is entirely due to Beniers finding his footing again. Their recent stretch of success has almost completely coincided with the addition of forward Tomas Tatar in a trade with Colorado, which has had a direct impact on Beniers because they are now playing on the same line.
“There was a trade made about three weeks ago and Tomas Tatar came in, a veteran guy who wasn’t scoring with his new team in Colorado, didn’t have a good slot in that lineup because of the star power that they have,” Forslund said. “So (Kraken general manager Ron) Francis went out and got him, they put him on on Beniers’ line with Eberle and now that’s a good fit, and you see Matty now starting to play off of him a little bit.”
The adjustment period
Forslund related Beniers’ brief second-year slump to what Seattle Mariners star Julio Rodríguez, who was also a Rookie of the Year winner a year ago, went through in 2023.
“I think Julio went through a little bit of that at the beginning of the baseball season. It’s hard for a young player to just automatically show up and do it again, but as they learn these lessons and they get it, then you have perennial output, perennial stats that are always there and that leads to stardom. I’m not saying this guy is going to be – I’m not going to go there and put that pressure on him, but the expectation is that he will get there, and I think he’ll work hard enough to be there someday and be the centerpiece of the franchise. … I think he’s going to have a great second half. I really do. We all know he’s going to be here a long time.”
You can listen to the full Wyman and Bob conversation with ROOT Sports Seattle Kraken broadcaster John Forslund in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post.
Seattle Kraken Takeaways: Is this win streak the start of a run back to playoffs?
Seattle, WA
Council eyes street barricades in fight against violence, sex trafficking in north Seattle
SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council is expected to vote next week on a plan that would give the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) the authority to close off street access for public safety reasons.
The proposal comes after months of outcry from residents in north Seattle who say sex traffickers and sex buyers are looping through the streets surrounding Aurora Avenue North.
The street-closure proposal passed the council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday and is expected to be voted on by the full council next week.
“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say the crime has gotten much worse, much more violent, and much more predator,” said District 5 councilmember Debora Juarez. “I think that we do have the authority to shut down a street for bullets flying and endangering the lives of those who live there.”
Frustrated neighbors have installed their own homemade barricades after a spate of gun violence between sex traffickers in May.
RELATED | SDOT removes street barricades near Aurora Ave; neighbors doubtful of temporary measures
Councilmember Bob Kettle says street closures will help tamp down sex buying in certain areas, but he emphasizes it must be accompanied by an increase in outreach and enforcement.
“We have to have a sustained effort,” Kettle told KOMO News. “My concern is for every action, there’s a reaction. We need to take this flex and then really attack it … because if we do just a bit and our attention wanders, we could have this conversation three months from now and we’re talking about the same thing.”
A 15-year-old boy was shot near 95th Street and Aurora Avenue North around 10:45 p.m. last night. The teen initially claimed he had been shot while walking down the street, but investigators now say he was shot by a passenger in his car.
RELATED | Seattle police say ‘drive-by’ on Aurora Ave. was actually passenger shooting teen driver
Kettle credited the city’s Real Time Crime Center cameras with helping investigators quickly piece together the events of the shooting.
“Just as important to finding out what happened, the cameras help police determine what did not happen,” Kettle said.
According to Seattle police data, reports of shootings and shots fired in the north precinct area are at their lowest levels since 2021.
Through the end of May, there were 48 total reports of shootings or shots fired, with one fatal shooting and seven nonfatal injury shootings.
That’s down from 63 total reports of shootings and shots fired – one fatal and seven injuries – in 2025; and 64 shootings or shots fired reports – one fatal and 17 injuries – in 2024.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, councilmembers pointed out residents are calling for a new police precinct to be built on Aurora Avenue.
Ten years ago, a new North Precinct building was slated to be built at 130th Avenue and Aurora Avenue North to replace the existing precinct building, which was decades old and did not have enough space for the department’s needs.
Led by former councilmember Kshama Sawant, the “Block the Bunker” movement successfully got the North Precinct replacement project killed in city council.
Kettle said the city’s current financial issues make it essentially impossible to bring back a project similar to the one the previous council defeated.
“We have to connect the dots back,” Kettle said. “If we want to know why we are where we are today, we have to look at decisions made over the last two councils.”
Seattle, WA
Iran and Egypt to play in Seattle ‘Pride Match’ despite earlier complaints | The Jerusalem Post
Seattle revels in its reputation as a welcoming place and Pride flags are visible all over the city, all year round. Its June Pride weekend is one of the biggest in the United States.
So, ahead of December’s World Cup draw, it was only natural that local organizers designated the June 26 match to be held in the city as a “Pride Match.”
Then the draw happened — and the two teams scheduled to play the game were Egypt and Iran.
Egypt’s Football Association urged global soccer governing body FIFA to prevent any Pride-related activities, arguing such events clashed with the Muslim-majority country’s cultural and religious values. The governing body in Iran, where same-sex relations can carry the death penalty, filed an objection with FIFA.
Some in Seattle have doubts over the teams in the ‘Pride Match’
But in Seattle, there is no question that the Pride Match will go ahead as planned.
“The World Cup is going to come and go in three weeks,” Hedda McLendon, from Seattle’s local World Cup organizing committee, told Reuters. “The Pride celebration … has happened on this weekend for 50-plus years.
“It is going to happen this weekend, it is going to happen long after the World Cup.”
Some in the city’s LGBTQ community had mixed feelings given the participants, said Jon Cairns, 49, manager of local LGBTQ+ club Kremwerk.
Cairns, however, said his own view was that it provided a platform to promote acceptance that only the world’s biggest sporting event could offer.
“My reaction is let’s have them,” he told Reuters. “International sports is one of the biggest brokers historically of social change and individual rights and freedoms worldwide, including in the U.S.”
He cited black U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ raised-fist protest in 1968 as moments where “only international sports could reach that big of an audience.”
“They’re not going to turn off the World Cup on state television in Iran or Egypt to block out a Pride flag in the audience,” Cairns said.
The Pride Match is “a host city initiative” and separate of FIFA, a spokesperson for soccer’s governing body told Reuters.
Seattle’s LGBTQ community sees an opportunity
Egypt and Iran’s involvement in the Pride Match is not the first time the World Cup has grappled with stark differences in attitudes between hosts and visitors.
In 2022 World Cup host Qatar, the emir said visitors should “respect our culture” when asked about gay people attending the tournament.
FIFA threatened yellow cards for captains wearing the “OneLove” armband, citing its rules against political slogans. Teams including England and the Netherlands that had been planning to wear the armbands to protest Qatar’s laws against same-sex relationships abandoned the plan.
For Ryan Webster, a 40-year-old lifestyle manager who was at Kremwerk the weekend before Pride, Seattle’s “Pride Match” was an opportunity to show solidarity with people in countries where their sexuality was outlawed.
“I’m choosing to believe that this is our moment to allow the members of the LGBTQ community that come from those countries to have the opportunity to celebrate themselves in totality that they might not have otherwise,” he said outside the club, which will host a watch party for Friday’s game.
Inside, ‘Venus Fengz’ lip-synced to Cher’s “Believe” before introducing fellow drag performers to the stage, clapped and cheered by a raucous crowd.
Fengz, who only wanted to provide their stage name, said Pride coinciding with the World Cup would bring increased visibility, anticipating perhaps some new audience members.
“I think it’s always great for us to be able to share space and share places with people who don’t have the same experiences as us,” they told Reuters.
“Sometimes you just have to be the bigger person and show grace where you can and know that everyone is a human learning (from) different experiences, but also it can get hard — because you’re on the shorter end of the stick, always trying to have to explain yourself around people who don’t grow up with the same worldview.”
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Las Vegas could be years away from landing an NBA expansion team, but the league’s commissioner is now offering a clearer sense of the timeline.
On Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told “The Dan Patrick Show” that Seattle and Las Vegas remain the cities the NBA is focused on if it expands. “If we expand, at least we’re thinking ’28-29 season,” Silver said.
Silver had previously signaled before that March meeting that Seattle and Las Vegas were at the center of the expansion discussion, while cautioning that no decision had been made.
“We will make decisions in 2026,” Silver said in February.
At the time, Silver said the league was not expected to vote in March but could emerge from those meetings ready to take the next step and begin discussions with potential ownership groups.
Las Vegas has long been viewed as Seattle’s most likely expansion partner if the NBA grows from 30 to 32 teams. Silver, however, has repeatedly said the league could expand by two teams, one team, or not at all.
The potential of an NBA Las Vegas expansion team has already drawn interest. This week, majority owner of the Vegas Golden Knights, Bill Foley, announced he is putting together a bid for the expansion team in Las Vegas.
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