I hadn’t actually seen Climate Pledge Arena (CPA) until the first Storm preseason game at the end of April. I used to live in Lower Queen Anne and was used to the “old” Key Arena: dark, cavernous, sterile, and cold from the outside.
Sue Bird was used to it, too.
The first time she walked into CPA for a Kraken game, “there was a little part of me that was sad,” she said. Sad because Key Arena had been Bird’s home court since she was drafted into the WNBA two decades ago.
The annual free medical clinic that was formerly held at the Key Arena, before it was bought by Amazon and renamed to the Climate Pledge Arena, will not return in full this year.
The Seattle/King County Clinic, usually scheduled during the month of October, provided vision, dental, and general medical care to hundreds of patients who were either low-income, underinsured, or homeless.
As a new arena brings massive investment and support for the Seattle Kraken, the Storm is overshadowed.
by Maggie Mertens
You might think, based on the constant media coverage of Seattle’s new NHL team and the announcements carefully marketing what will soon be known as Climate Pledge Arena as “the future home of the Seattle Kraken” at seemingly every opportunity, that the renovated arena in Seattle Center will be used exclusively for the NHL team that has yet to play a single game.
In fact, a storied team will also make Climate Pledge Arena their home: the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. For the past three years I’ve followed the arena renovation news with interest because I can’t wait for the most successful sports team in Seattle history — which continues to win, by the way — to play in an arena worthy of their excellence.
