“I’m very bullish on the NHL. There’s a lot of upside.” The optimistic words of Seattle Kraken owner Samantha Holloway, speaking to an audience at Bloomberg Green Seattle last week.
“If we can build this into a true hockey market, and get the Kraken really out there, and working on a basketball team, I can’t think much further ahead than that. Sports is one of the only things left that brings everybody together. You go in that building during a Kraken game, and everybody is there for the same reason. There’s no judgement.”
At this point, Holloway caught herself and smiled, because ticket-buying fans have been known to express their views – loudly. “There is a little judgement.” Unlike those fans, Holloway must keep a rein on her passion for the Kraken. “You have to keep emotions out of it, because if you just show up as a fan, you’ll make decisions differently than if you show up as an owner.
“Owning a sports team is way more than what happens on the ice. That is very important and we are working on that. But it’s all rooted in community. There’s what you say and what you do, and you really have to walk the walk. I’m big on listening to customers, listening to fans, taking feedback good or bad.”
Some of the feedback has surprised her. “Maybe I’m surprised by what they care about. Some of the small things matter more than some of the big things. ‘Why is he on that line?’ versus ticket prices.”
Ownership is proud of its commitment to environmental sustainability, a topic of special importance to the Seattle market. “It’s not lip service, and it’s done with authenticity. People love that we use rainwater for the ice. We don’t have any single-use plastics. 25% of people take public transportation to every event, and we subsidize that for every event, not just games.”
Make no mistake – fans have weighed in on pocketbook issues, too. “We built a very expensive building and priced everything before the pandemic,” Holloway explained. For the 2025-26 season, “We had a whole reinvention around season ticket packages and pricing. We wanted to make it family friendly.”
Given Holloway’s background as a tech entrepreneur, she noted tech upgrades at CPA. “Fans can now participate with their phones in the pregame light show. I like that the best because that’s what my kids like the best.”
Slam Dunk Of An Answer
We’ve all seen moments in televised political debates when one speaker unwittingly provides a softball just begging to be slugged out of the park. Holloway pounced on just such an opening.
Bloomberg’s Jason Kelly, conducting the interview in front of a live audience, tried to find a cute way into asking about the return of a Sonics NBA expansion franchise. “Another sport used to be played here.”
A broadly grinning Holloway grabbed the opportunity to deliver her best applause/laugh line of the interview. “It’s still played here. Just by the women,” she said, referring to the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, who call Climate Pledge Arena home.
“Sorry, you walked right into it,” added the Kraken owner. “Well done,” said Kelly, who then returned to inquiring about the Sonics.
NBA Hasn’t Exhausted Holloway’s Patience
“We have been public that Climate Pledge Arena is ready,” Holloway confirmed. “It’s built for an NBA team when the NBA feels ready to expand. The fans are obviously ready. This will be a great basketball market. It will be very complementary to hockey.”
Holloway expressed no outward signs of frustration at the snail’s pace of progress on an expansion announcement. “We’ll be patient. It may happen soon. It may happen later.” She did concede, “We’re working on a deal with no timeline and no price. That’s difficult.”
Ah, the price. She didn’t appear shaken discussing the astronomical recent sale prices for marquee NBA franchises – $6 billion for the Celtics, $10 billion for the Lakers. Holloway amusingly called these figures “data points.” She sees the eventual expansion fee from both the league’s and her ownership group’s perspective. “It will have to be expensive enough to be worth it for the NBA to do it.”
There was an implicit acknowledgement that the asking price could exceed what her ownership would be willing to pay. The reason, she explained, is that expansion NBA owners will need to recoup their investment. Past a certain price, that “recoupment” would necessitate an unreasonable financial burden on ticket-buyers.
“You have to run as a business if you want to give back to the community in the way we want. If we’re lucky enough to bring the Sonics back, we don’t want them to leave again. We need it to be accessible to fans, and at some (price) point, it’s not.”