‘The Community’s Building’ Turns Five

Five years have gone by in an instant for Nick Vaerewyck considering the seemingly endless work it took to first bring Climate Pledge Arena to life.

As the venue’s senior vice president of programming, Vaerewyck has been an arena fixture since 15 months before its October 2021 reopening as a $1.15 billion world class entertainment venue reimagined from the prior KeyArena. He remembers the mad scramble to complete interior finishes just ahead of a pair of soft-opening concerts and the major unveiling for the Kraken’s inaugural home opener against the Vancouver Canucks, nationally broadcast in both the U.S. and Canada, five years ago today on Oct. 23, 2021.

“We ended up getting the occupancy permits the Sunday before the first show,” Vaerewyck said of a Foo Fighters and Death Cab for Cutie charity benefit. “We started loading in equipment on the Monday and then Tuesday we had the first show. It all happened really quick and the Monday was the first time a lot of us had been able to step into that building and properly see where things would go and how you would have crowd flow and things like that.”

Three days later, the arena staged a Cold Play concert. And just 24 hours after that, the Kraken game.

“So, right there, the first (rink floor) conversion happened overnight for them,” Vaerewyck said of the arena’s operations crew. “That’s something they hadn’t done yet as a team and arguably they executed it perfectly and made it work.”

That home opener, which the Kraken lost 4-2, saw defenseman Vince Dunn score the venue’s very first goal in front of a capacity crowd of 17,151.

Ann Wilson of Heart sang the U.S. national anthem, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was also on-hand and roundly booed as per league-wide ritual and the late David Bonderman, the team’s founding owner, watched as the twin scoreboards paid video tribute to his time as a Space Needle elevator operator while a graduate student attending the University of Washington.

Bonderman’s daughter, current Kraken majority owner Samantha Holloway, was also at the game.

“There was a lot of stress level,” Vaerewyck said. “I mean, it was a lot of eyes on the building from an industry standpoint. It was the first building that Oak View Group had built and opened and constructed all on its own. So there were just a lot of eyes on us in in that respect.”

The game was streamed across the U.S. on ESPN+ and Hulu and shown as part of the CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada broadcast north of the border.

And for Vaerewyck, the fact the arena made it through that opening week without a major hitch, to widespread accolades, is largely due to the staff behind what’s fast becoming a landmark Seattle venue.

“They are an amazing staff,” Vaerewyck said. “I say all the time, this is this is not only the best building that I've ever worked in, but this is the best staff that I've ever worked with as well. From the box office to conversions, operations, housekeeping, event management, marketing, guest services, security, you name it. Everybody works at a really high level and does an amazing job night after night. It's a busy building. We do over 200 events every year, and hopefully that grows in future years with future plans.”

A decade ago, with political and economic battles raging over where the venue should be located and how much it would cost, it became immediately clear that sports alone could not sustain the building.

A major part of the pitch made by Tim Leiweke and his fledgling Oak View Group development company to the City of Seattle starting in late 2016 was that the region lacked a state of the art music venue. The idea was for concerts to fill in the bulk of dates around Kraken games while a new Seattle NBA franchise was also pursued as a source of additional revenue to offset an all-privately-financed construction.

The arena’s acoustics, bolstered by more than 5,000 lapendary wall panels, specialized 40-foot curtains and networked amplification platforms, have  become so revered that the building rarely sits empty more than a night or two.

As of Friday, Climate Pledge Arena had played host to more than 1,000 events with over 8 million attendees. Music has comprised 287 of those events with 3,357,057 attendees, the Kraken another 224 events with 3,234,278 people attending.

The arena also serves as home to the WNBA Seattle Storm and the second-year Seattle Torrent of the Professional Women’s Hockey League – making it the only North American venue to host two women’s pro teams. It’s also hosted major WWE and AWE wrestling events, UFC mixed martial arts, live comedy featuring top performers such as Adam Sandler and Dave Chapelle and other seasonal and theatrical shows.

Global music, particularly Latin and K-Pop, has also seen a growing rise in popularity.

“I think it put Seattle back on the map from a content standpoint,” Vaerewyck said. “I think it's a place that people in the touring world and in the music world now know that they have to come to. It's a ‘can't miss.’ I think from a city perspective, it made us another major market again.”

With NBA expansion a hot topic, the 148 basketball events already hosted by Climate Pledge is something to be proud of. These include NBA preseason games, NCAA March Madness first and second round tournament matchups, other men’s college basketball games and the NCAA Women’s Super Regional.

“This building was the catalyst to get an NHL team here,” Vaerewyck said. “This building was also a catalyst to get a PWHL team here, and there is more to come."

It took two years, 10 months to get the prior KeyArena demolished starting in December 2018 and completely rebuilt other than its historically preserved roof designed by architect Paul Thiry for the 1962 World’s Fair.  

The 44-million-pound roof at one point was suspended midair by up to 76 heavy temporary steel pipe columns while the building’s outer shell was taken down. Crews dug 53 feet below street level and excavated dirt from the sides as well to widen the future arena’s below ground surface capacity.

Today, first-time visitors still marvel at how compact the arena looks from the outside given much of the structure sits below ground.

But none of it came easy.

It took two years of planning by Tim Leiweke and OVG just to finalize a partnership with the city and then to begin redeveloping municipally-owned KeyArena. The Seattle City Council made the initial demolition phase contingent upon an NHL franchise first being secured, which happened in a unanimous league board of governors vote on Dec. 4, 2018 in Sea Island, Georgia.

Then, after an ensuing year of demolition and excavation led by Minneapolis-based Mortenson Construction and project executive Ken Johnsen, the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020. The job site was initially shut down despite ongoing excavation work to remove 600,000 to 680,000 cubic yards of dirt and the roof remaining suspended by the temporary steel pipes. There was concern that the pipes, already in-place for months, were only meant to be temporary and could be vulnerable during an earthquake. So, Washington state officials deemed it an essential construction project and allowed work to continue under heavily supervised distancing and health safeguards.

Within a week, construction resumed. But the restrictions meant work slowed and eventually pushed against the following year’s Kraken launch deadlines. Pandemic-related global shipping slowdowns also meant some items being imported – such as arena seating – were delayed getting through customs and had to be installed very late in the process.

Still, the on-site workers, primarily members of LIUNA Local 242 (Laborers' International Union of North America) got it done despite the COVID-19 safety concerns and logistics obstacles.

Former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan would say in late 2021 that what happened at the arena will likely become a pandemic model for other companies to use in the future.

“We were very concerned – the city and the ownership group – when the pandemic hit,” Durkan said at the time. “You’ll remember we had to stop construction for a period of time. And we didn’t know what that was going to look like and how long. Every day lost is like five days lost on the opening. Just because of the complexity of bringing in different trade groups and where you are and resources.”

The Kraken honored LIUNA Local 242 workers as “Heroes of the Deep” during this month’s home opener against Calgary for their “skilled work in overcoming the challenges of the pandemic.”

One positive bit of pandemic-era news had come in June 2020 when Amazon was announced as the arena’s naming rights partner. Amazon took the pioneering step of naming the future building not after the company itself, but “The Climate Pledge” it co-founded with Global Optimism in 2019 as a commitment to reach zero-carbon emissions by 2040.

Part of the partnership involved committing to groundbreaking initiatives at the venue, both during construction and after, with the goal of making it the world’s most sustainable arena. It was a bold statement, but one largely achieved.

Sustainability efforts, led previously by former Kraken senior VP Rob Johnson and now by current VP Brianna Treat, have since become a more organic part of the fan experience. In some critical areas, such as arena waste diversion, the venue has been even more successful than initially anticipated.

Single use plastics were discontinued inside the arena by 2023. Since then, more than 1,014,642 plastic snack bags and 2,494,842 plastic bottles have been eliminated. Reusable cups were introduced in August 2025 with more than 350,000 since washed and reused.

These efforts helped divert more than 94% of monthly waste away from local landfills.

The arena has also captured more than 450,000 gallons of rainwater to resurface its rink and other ice facilities. And roughly 75% of all food ingredients served at the arena, overseen by Executive Chef Chef Molly DeMers, are locally sourced from within a 300 mile radius.

In 2023, Climate Pledge became the world’s first and only arena to receive ILFI Zero Carbon certification. It also received LEED Silver certification that same year and TRUE Platinum in 2024.

And for all the work that went into the building, very little has needed changing  beyond cosmetic fixes based on fan sentiment surveys.

The Verizon Lounge was upgraded with a more Pacific Northwest feel and honor music and sports. An upgraded kitchen provides a more robust food and beverage  program in that space. 

A new luxury card member only space was opened to Amex centurion and platinum card holders. And a part of the Space Needle Lounge was upgraded to a Pacific Northwest inspired dive bar feel that includes pinball machines, dart boards, and new casual furniture.

As for the Kraken, many of the team’s signature moments have come at the arena, including Jordan Eberle scoring the overtime winner in Game 4 against Colorado on April 24, 2023 in an eventual opening round playoff upset. There was also Brandon Montour scoring the fastest overtime goal in NHL history just four seconds into the extra session against Montreal on March 12, 2025.

And, of course, there has been plenty of music to fill in the date gaps.

Bands and artists from Bruce Springstein to Pearl Jam, Guns ‘N Roses, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, The Eagles, Paul McCartney, Dua Lupa, The Cure, Doja Cat, Jonas Brothers, Linkin Park have all played the modernized venue. For arena programmer Vaerewyck, his biggest surprise the past five years has been the number of performers booking multi-run shows of more than one concert – which is tough for artists to pull off in a 17,000-seat venue.

“We’ve done over 35 at this point and they just keep growing,” he said.

On Friday, the venue added a fourth Garth Brooks concert in November, just days after announcing a third. And that came right after announcing a second Calvin Harris show for next May.

Vaerewyck is also thrilled about the rising popularity of Latin and K-Pop artists and the continued community response to such shows. Those events will see the venue reflect what’s going on, with things such as diversifying LED boards with Spanish messaging during Latin concerts, to make the building feel more welcome to various groups.

“At the end of the day, I think it's the community's building,” he said. “We book things that aren't just serving hockey fans. At the end of the day, we're serving the entire community. I think that's going to be the lasting impact. This is going to be a place people love going to time after time after time.”