Connect with us

Seattle, WA

Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke on season 2 expectations, Seattle NBA rumors and Sue Bird statue plans

Published

on

Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke on season 2 expectations, Seattle NBA rumors and Sue Bird statue plans


Seattle Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke sat down with Seattle Sports activities Dwell’s Aaron Levine for a one-on-one interview forward of the NHL franchise’s second season.

Advertisement

Leiweke addresses every little thing from latest NBA rumors, to Sue Chicken statue plans, to Kraken season two expectations, and the one-year anniversary of the Neighborhood Iceplex in Northgate.

Q: It was a monumental weekend on the Kraken Neighborhood Iceplex celebrating its one-year anniversary in Northgate. Kraken CEO Todd Leiweke becoming a member of us tonight. How necessary was this weekend and every little thing that is taken place on the Iceplex because it’s opened?

Leiweke: Nicely, it was an ideal weekend. But it surely was actually a celebration of the 52 prior weeks on this place being open. And you understand, this was a part of our imaginative and prescient. And this is without doubt one of the desires that completely got here by way of. We have had over one million folks come by way of the doorways, some by no means placing on a pair ice skates of their life, others dreaming of probably taking part in within the NHL, we have got a younger man who’s coaching and is now ranked nationally as one of many high determine skaters. So below this lovely roof, a number of superb issues have occurred and extra are gonna come.

Advertisement

Q: I do know followers acquired a bunch of reductions particular offers all through the weekend. In some ways, it is virtually like closing the door on the primary chapter of an ideal story. And now we’re at the beginning of chapter quantity two with coaching camp proper across the nook. The place do you assume this crew is because it heads into its second season

Leiweke:  Nicely, that was a heck of a 12 months. Should you would have advised me once we started this journey that we might in some way lastly determine the world scenario on this metropolis, we carry an NHL crew right here, we construct a coaching heart that will draw one million folks, however you do it within the midst of a worldwide pandemic, I might haven’t believed Aaron, however that is precisely what occurred. So you understand, I feel for us, it is tremendous thrilling. A variety of the challenges of final 12 months have now gone away, launching a crew in COVID was simply uniquely troublesome – gamers not assembly different gamers; households, gamers not having the ability to socialize off the ice, you understand, in a restricted manner. Youngsters not coming to video games, visiting crew followers – I would by no means thought I would miss visiting crew followers! However we did. And all of that now adjustments. And in our coaching heart, not solely is our coaching camp going to start, however we’ll host the Coachella Valley Firebirds right here. And you understand, there will be a time period the place these two groups are internet hosting coaching camp on the identical time one sheet away. And I have been by way of quite a bit in sports activities – that is going to be a primary for me, and it is tremendous thrilling.

Advertisement

Q: Actually a glimpse into the long run with the Firebirds on the town for a few video games. Additionally, with all the joy surrounding 12 months one moving into. Had been all of us untimely with expectations final 12 months, and wouldn’t it be overstepping to assume this crew has the prospect to make the playoffs in Yr Two?

Leiweke: Nicely, you understand, to let you know the reality, my expectations have been met. What we at all times mentioned is, we wish to be sensible and construct by way of the draft. And we actually labored exhausting on constructing out an analytics crew and a brilliant, tremendous scouting workers. And after I look again on the first two draft years we have had, I could not be extra proud. Our heart place, which is usually the toughest place to fill within the NHL, you understand we discovered our future stars. And to assume that we really feel that manner going into our second season – loads of credit score to Ron Francis. And being affected person as a result of he needs to win greater than anybody. This man had an incredible profession. 23 years captain of 4 groups. Member of the Hockey Corridor of Fame. This man needs to win as a lot as anybody however he would not wish to win as soon as – he needs to construct a sustainable winner. And that is actually the directive from possession. And you understand, to try this you’ve acquired to be sensible, you must be strategic. If you are going to draft, you’ve acquired to be ready for when these preliminary draft 12 months contracts come up. We’re excited for the season – we had not solely a profitable draft, we have been actually enthusiastic about free company after which made a commerce that may be certainly one of my favourite trades in my profession. And we’re tremendous excited.

Q: I do know the followers are very excited as effectively. And I’ve realized one massive factor with the world. That place will get actually loud if there is a massive occasion and we simply noticed that within the final week with the WNBA playoffs with the Storm – such an fulfilling sequence to observe in that constructing. I’ll maintain asking – how shut are we to getting a statue of Sue Chicken exterior the world?

Advertisement

Leiweke: “Nicely, let me discuss a bit of bit in regards to the Storm as a result of the world was actually about a spot the place desires would come true. So, for hockey followers, desires got here true – the crew got here and it will be nice. For followers of Paul McCartney, to see certainly one of his remaining exhibits – possibly his remaining present in Seattle. For Bruce Springsteen’s followers who’re going to get to see The Boss. However I feel for the WNBA crew, their finest days are actually in entrance of them. They’ve had an incredible story thus far. However legitimately they’ll now dream massive desires. This enviornment for them introduced some prosperity that had been lacking. It created a real partnership. They are not only a tenant, they’re companions. And so they’re nice pals. And, you understand, exhausting to see Sue’s profession finish, however thrilling to consider their future. And now they seem to be a crew with sources and renown. Visiting crew gamers got here in and noticed this constructing. The long run for the Storm is tremendous vivid.

Q: And I do know Sue goes to be hanging round city additionally. That is good factor. Again to the statue factor shortly, any probability sooner or later?

Advertisement

Leiweke: Nicely, we attempt to do issues proper. And I feel there’s just one proper consequence there. However I am not going to get forward of our pals on the Storm.

Q: Okay,effectively, fingers crossed with that one, we’ll verify in with our pals on the Storm. Additionally, I do know you have additionally mentioned that you’ll observe the NBA’s lead in any attainable enlargement bulletins. There was a report earlier this week that the league wished to announce future enlargement to Seattle and Las Vegas proper across the Clippers preseason recreation right here. Are you able to handle that in any respect? And any validity to it?

Leiweke: Yeah, I am not going to deal with that. There’s going to be loads of rumors and innuendos. , we expect one of the best factor that we are able to do is just not ever get forward of the league. They’ve acquired massive points coming: They’re in a CBA dialogue, they usually’ve acquired broadcast offers developing. In due time, they may get to this. And in due time, we’ll be effectively positioned. The exhausting work is finished, constructing a world class enviornment. That is why the crew left. We now have that world class enviornment in place. It would stand the take a look at of time. The constructing is phenomenal for basketball. And we’re tremendous excited in regards to the Clippers taking part in the Portland Trailblazers right here. And in reality, two video games which might be gonna play right here, the primary NBA recreation in our constructing will occur that first week in October – and we’ll have a packed home and in our personal Seattle manner we’ll inform the world we’re right here. We’re prepared.

Advertisement

Q: Little question about that. And I do know the world was a giant factor. However let me form of ask it this manner: If the league was to say, ‘Hey, that is an choice. Does your group have every little thing in place, from the upfront prices to a plan to make the funds work within the constructing? Is every little thing buttoned up out of your finish if the league have been to say, ‘Hey, we’ve acquired a inexperienced gentle?’

Leiweke: Nicely, you understand, we’ve an proprietor that owns a part of an NBA crew. So there is a built-in affinity there. And I might simply say, Aaron, I got here again to make some stuff occur. And we’re not executed but. And so, I do not wish to get forward of the commissioner. However we have tried to do every little thing proper. From privately financing a constructing, to saving a historic landmark, to embedding extra capacitors and getting the monorail mounted, being nice companions with the Storm, to constructing a coaching heart. We have executed every little thing proper. However we’re not executed. And we all know this city will not be fulfilled till we carry the NBA again. However I am going to go away it at that.

Advertisement

Q: Nicely, we love to listen to that. And if it occurs, you your self would have your fingerprints on 4 professional franchises on this city – from the Kraken, to the Sounders and the Seahawks as effectively. The 12s shall be loud tomorrow in opposition to Russell – You assume they’re going to cheer him or boo him –  what do you assume?

Leiweke: Nicely, I’ll simply say this: I like this city. That is my hometown and to return again and have the privilege of doing this…however once we take into consideration sports activities proper now on this metropolis, my Sounders – love the Sounders; the Storm and what they’ve executed; the Mariners and John Stanton, one of many nice house owners in all sports activities, not simply on this city and all sports activities they usually’re getting what they deserve, which is that this crew goes to make a run and they are going to make massive noise within the playoffs. After which are you able to imagine it? Recreation One, Monday Evening Soccer, Russell Wilson, who would have thought? That is why it is a lot enjoyable to be a sports activities fan on this city. And finally, that is what I’m.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Seattle, WA

Seattle police: Man shot multiple times in Yesler Terrace

Published

on

Seattle police: Man shot multiple times in Yesler Terrace


Seattle police are now investigating a shooting in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood that left one man dead Saturday morning.

Officers say they arrived to reports of a shooting at East Spruce Street and Broadway just before 12:30 a.m. on July 27. There, they found one man shot multiple times and provided immediate medical care until Seattle Fire could take over. However, the man died of his injuries.

Advertisement

As of 10 a.m. Saturday, police do not know the circumstances of the shooting and ask the public for help.

If anyone has information about this incident, please call SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

Advertisement

MORE FOX 13 SEATTLE NEWS:

Shooting at Pioneer Square art party leaves man dead

Airline catering workers prepare to strike at 30 US airports

Advertisement

Lululemon larceny: WA authorities bust major theft ring, ‘fence’ arrested

Seattle sees second-hottest July ever recorded

To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX 13 Seattle newsletter.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Seattle, WA

Former Seattle mayor Charley Royer dies at 84

Published

on

Former Seattle mayor Charley Royer dies at 84


Charley Royer, Seattle’s longest-serving mayor, has died at age 84. He was the city’s 48th chief executive.

Royer was ahead of his time in many ways. He established low-income housing to combat homelessness. Royer decided that the city would recognize domestic partnerships and provided city benefits to those families. He oversaw the development of the Washington State Convention Center.

Royer was born in Medford, OR in 1939. He joined the Army in 1961 and after leaving the Army studied Journalism at the University of Oregon. Royer worked for KING 5-TV.

KIRO Newsradio last spoke with the three-term former mayor in 2023, when he weighed in on the whereabouts of the “Seattle Spirit” in modern times.

Advertisement

“Our spirit is not pep rally spirit,” Royer said. “It’s almost a ‘golden rule’ kind of spirit, and it’s something that I think still exists. But when you start growing as fast as we have been growing, you get a lot of people who don’t know the handshake,” he continued, using the metaphor of fraternal organizations with arcane traditions. “They don’t know that they’re supposed to not be angry about gay people. They don’t know that Republicans sometimes, like Dan Evans and a bunch of Republicans we had in office, are for the environment, they’re for people paying their fair share of taxes.”

As Royer told it, it was almost like that 19th-century Seattle Spirit morphed and evolved into the 20th-century Seattle Process, which is the sometimes – OK, often – pejorative name for a style of big-tent public engagement in decision-making which can seemingly go on for years or even decades, which can often frustrate citizens watching from outside the big tent.

Royer said the modern version of the Seattle Spirit is also about getting over old rivalries like the one with Tacoma – which dated to the railroad age but which continued until recently.

“I couldn’t believe it when the Port of Tacoma decided that it would partner up with the Port of Seattle,” Royer said. “They were fierce competitors. Tacoma and Seattle have always competed for business, and it’s been unhelpful to everybody.

“Our cities in the region have not collaborated and so those grudges and competitions have blinded us to some opportunities,” Royer added.

Advertisement

When asked by KIRO Newsradio to give advice to incoming mayor Bruce Harrell, he said good working relationships with the city council and the media are key.

“Don’t criticize the council, even in private with your department, and don’t engage in bad mouthing the council with the citizens or with others who have some case against the council,” Royer said. “They know it when you’re doing that, it’s almost like an animal kind of sense that they sense that you have been talking about them, or they hear about it, and that will negate any entreaties you make with the council, or any approach you make for the council to try to work with them. So don’t engage in that, and certainly don’t engage in beating up the press.”

One big part of that skill and leadership emerging and taking action, said Charles Royer, is about the timing and about a critical mass of the public having the will and the stomach necessary to tackle the big issues.

Royer said honesty is critical to a functional political system. Even though Royer didn’t share the political views of Ronald Reagan, who was president during much of Royer’s tenure at Seattle City Hall, he did admire him.

“I thought he was a pretty good president. And he was an honest man, I think, and he was a caring person,” Royer said. “But he also told the truth. He may occasionally have, in some of his stories, bent the truth a little bit to his advantage – particularly if he was campaigning – but he didn’t outright lie.”

Advertisement

Royer is survived by his wife Lynn Claudon, two children; Suzanne Royer McCone and Jordan Royer, and 4 grandchildren and one great grandchild. The cause of his death is not known.

Contributing: KIRO 7

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News, read more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea, please email Feliks here.

Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here. 

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading

Seattle, WA

Seattle Seahawks CB Tre Brown Aiming to Be ‘Best on the Field’ Entering Contract Year

Published

on

Seattle Seahawks CB Tre Brown Aiming to Be ‘Best on the Field’ Entering Contract Year


RENTON, Wash. – Coming off the best statistical season of his NFL career, Tre Brown isn’t being cautious setting lofty expectations for himself as he enters the final year of his rookie contract with the Seattle Seahawks.

After playing a career-high in snaps while starting seven games for Seattle last season, Brown has been a fixture in the team’s first-team defense throughout the offseason program into training camp, seeing the bulk of the snaps at left cornerback opposite of Riq Woolen in nickel and dime sets. Believing his best football has yet to come, he’s eager to show what he can do in a new defensive scheme implemented by first-time head coach Mike Macdonald.

“I want to be the best on the field this year,” Brown proclaimed before Friday’s third training camp practice. “I got high standards, Pro Bowl, All-Pro, nothing less.”

When healthy, Brown has performed at a high level for the Seahawks, including recording 10 tackles and a pass breakup in five games after bursting into the starting lineup as a rookie. That season, he allowed just a 47.1 percent completion rate and 59.7 passer rating on 17 targets, looking the part of a potential long-term starter on the outside.

Advertisement

But the former fourth-round pick out of Oklahoma suffered a patellar tendon injury midway through his rookie season and a lengthy recovery limited Brown to only six games and 21 defensive snaps in 2022, putting his status in the secondary up in the air, especially after the team invested a top-five pick in Devon Witherspoon in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Bouncing back thanks to a normal offseason without rehab, Brown wound up beating out incumbent Mike Jackson for the starting left cornerback job last summer. Even with him taking on a diminished role for the Seahawks in the second half after struggling with defensive penalties, he set new career-highs with 34 tackles and two interceptions, returning one of those picks for a crucial defensive touchdown in a Week 2 win over the Lions, along with adding two forced fumbles and a sack.

Since the start of spring practices in May, Brown has looked quite comfortable in Macdonald’s defense, regularly getting his hands on the football for pass breakups in team and 7-on-7 sessions. In Friday’s third practice, he frequently jostled with DK Metcalf, winning several battles between the two in the red zone period, including deflecting a goal line fade. He’s also taken on a more vocal role in the secondary with communication being emphasized by Macdonald and the rest of the coaching staff.

“It’s been a lot to learn,” Brown explained. “But it’s really simple, a lot of things that you just see out there. Everything is really kind of like simplified in terms of the defense and it builds confidence in everybody as a whole because, even though he throws a lot at us, but when you can see how we can do it, it brings so much more to the defense.”

As far as fit is concerned, Brown’s strengths should mesh quite well with what Macdonald has asked his cornerbacks to do in the past as the Ravens defensive coordinator, including playing aggressive press coverage on the outside. Per Pro Football Focus, Brown ranked first among qualified cornerbacks with an 88.5 coverage grade in press coverage, intercepting two passes and forcing five incompletions on 22 targets.

Advertisement

In a very limited sample size, Brown has produced a sack on two blitzes, and given Macdonald’s penchant for sending defensive backs in blitz and sim pressure packages, he could have more opportunities to showcase that aspect of his game in 2024. Aside from leaving a few too many tackles on the field, which plagued Seattle’s entire defense the past two years, Brown has also been a serviceable run defender in his three NFL seasons with 64.0 or better grades the past two years via PFF.

With much still to prove and free agency looming next March, Brown isn’t thinking about his NFL future and he’s solely focused on controlling what he can control in the present with another opportunity to show what he can do in front of a new coaching staff.

“I say it all the time, I’m a really nice player,” Brown said confidently. “I’m a player who makes plays, especially in crunch time, you always see me show up. And you’re going to see more of that this year.”

Looking towards a crucial season, Brown will be counting on a clean bill of health, as durability has been the biggest factor that has held him back from fulfilling his potential to this point. His knee injury suffered in 2021 ultimately cost him a full season’s worth of games, setting back his development and preventing the organization from fully investing in him as a starting option. He will also have to beat out Jackson, who started 21 games over the past two seasons, for the second time in as many years.

Assuming he can avoid the injury bug that plagued him earlier in his career, the 26-year old Brown hopes to demonstrate better consistency as an all-around player and in turn, earn the trust from a new coaching staff that he didn’t from the previous regime. Coupled with a scheme that he believes will best accentuate his strengths and skill set, he’s hoping to finally enjoy the breakout season he has been on the cusp of since breaking into the league.

Advertisement

“I’m still coming back from not having played for so long, so now that the game is slowing down for me, you’re gonna see a lot more of the production you saw from me last year.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending