NHL News: Vancouver Out As A Hub City … Seattle Gets An Arena Name But Not A Team Name
Seattle's arena will be named Climate Pledge Arena
Image from NHL.com
Vancouver out of the running to be a Hub City

Vancouver Canucks: Statement on the Vancouver hub city bid.

“We sincerely thank Premier Horgan, Minister Beare, Dr. Bonnie Henry and their teams for their incredible support as we worked through the opportunity to host NHL teams in Vancouver. It has been a collaborative effort from the beginning with the NHL and all parties involved throughout the entire process,” said Trent Carroll, CSE COO. “From the beginning, our goal was to help the NHL get hockey back on the ice if we could. Although Vancouver won’t be a Hub City, we are still excited to see hockey start up again.

Now we look forward and are very excited to welcome our Canucks players back for training camp at Rogers Arena in the coming weeks. An exciting finish to the season is just around the corner, and we can’t wait to drop the puck.”

Iain MacIntyre: Dr. Bonnie Henry on the NHL going a different direction in their hub city search: “We are doing very well. We have a good balance. But under no circumstances was I going to compromise in any way the health of people here in British Columbia, and we made that very clear.”

Seattle progressing toward a team name but do get a name for their arena

Nicholas Cotsonika of NHL.com: Seattle is progressing towards announcing their team name, logo and colors. They want to make sure they have everything right according to CEO Tod Leiweke.

“If you camp out on one name with everything that happens in the trademark world, you put yourself at some risk, so we’ve got a handful of names that we think can work,” Leiweke said. “We probably have a leader in the clubhouse. But we’re working away on it. And it’s not going to happen this afternoon, but it won’t be too far off.”

Amazon has purchased the naming rights to the arena and will call it ‘Climate Pledge Arena.” Amazon and Global Optimism created the ‘Climate Pledge’ in 2019 that calls for all their businesses to be net zero carbon by 2040.

NHL.com: Seattle CEO Tod Leiweke on the arena name.

“Most buildings get named. Very few have the privilege of naming it after something that you can truly impact our community but perhaps set an example for the rest of the world, and that’s our opportunity.”

The arena will have all-electric operations, on-site solar panel and off-site renewable energy, at least 75 percent local food, donating unused food to community programs and use reclaimed rainwater in their ice systems.