K-pop one night, Kraken the next: How Climate Pledge Arena is preparing
A team of 20 to 30 people will work to turn the floor back into ice, and it’s an estimated eight-hour arena cleaning effort.
SEATTLE – In a fitting twist of fate, the world’s most sustainable arena will host its first NHL knockout on Earth Day.
Climate Pledge Arena isn’t even two years old but works like a well-recycled oil machine. The staff are working through the night to prepare the home kicks but they won’t be able to start until all the fans have gone home on Friday night.
Before the knockouts take place on Saturday, the gym will host the NCT Dream concert on Friday night. Fans lined up before sunrise to see their favorite K-pop group, and that meant the stage was covered in ice.
“It’s not difficult to transition it back to hockey but you have to have a good plan and stick to it,” said Tom Conroy, deputy general manager of Climate Pledge Arena.
He says a team of 20-30 people will work to turn the floor back into ice, and it’s an estimated eight-hour cleaning effort. Making sure the stadium looks perfect for Kraken’s post-season debut is a point of pride for the team, and Conroy says they’ve more thoroughly prepared the team to play on the clearest and bluest ice in the NHL.
Approximately 150,000 gallons of rainwater is collected from the arena’s historic roof each year, and that rainwater is converted into the ice the team skates on.
Rosie Selle is the vice president of marketing for Climate Pledge Arena and said that although the arena is young, the team has experienced rapid change for competitive events.
“We’ve only been doing this for 18 months so we’ve done a great job on this and just last week there were some events,” says Selle.
The arena hosted WWE wrestling, then a John Mayer concert, followed by Kraken and then two sold-out Phish shows.
“Our team is extremely dedicated and works all night so we were built to do this,” she said.
Tickets for the home debut of Kraken’s Stanley Cup Playoffs are sold out but the Climate Pledge arena will be hosting a party in the square starting at 4pm. The event is free and features a beer garden, live music, and family-friendly activities.
The match will also be shown on several large screens outside the arena. Seattle hosts Colorado for Game 3 on Saturday, April 22 at 7pm
