New Seattle NHL Team to Play at Climate Pledge Arena

The Oak View Group, NHL Seattle, and Amazon today announced that the home arena of the expansion Seattle hockey team will be known as Climate Pledge Arena when they take the ice in the fall of 2021. The arena is named after Amazon’s commitment to meet the Paris Agreement by 2040, ten years earlier than the agreement’s 2050 target.

“I’m excited to announce that Amazon has bought the naming rights to the historic Seattle arena previously known as KeyArena”, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos posted to his Instagram account. “Instead of calling it Amazon Arena, we’re naming it Climate Pledge Arena as a regular reminder of the urgent need for climate action.”

Climate Pledge Arena is slated to be the first zero-carbon sports arena in the world. All power will be generated exclusively via renewable sources located both on and off-site, there will be no natural gas used anywhere. Single-use plastics will be phased out over the course of three years with a goal of total elimination at the arena by 2024. There will be no trash cans available to fans — only recycling and compost bins.

“It will be the first net zero carbon certified arena in the world, generate zero waste from operations and events, and use reclaimed rainwater in the ice system to create the greenest ice in the NHL”, Bezos added.

The logo for the arena was also unveiled, it shows Amazon’s green The Climate Pledge logo with “THE” removed and “ARENA” added on in a darkish teal colour (perhaps a hint, NHL Seattle?).

Climate Pledge Arena is the renovated Key Arena (previously the Seattle Center Coliseum), former home to the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics off-and-on between 1967 and 2008. It was also the home of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm starting in 2000 until renovations forced them out in 2018, they will return to the arena in 2022. Great care was taken during the renovations to preserve the building’s uniquely shaped roof.