Seattle Center Coliseum The arena opened in 1962 as the
Washington State Pavilion for the
Century 21 Exposition, the work of architect
Paul Thiry. After the close of the Exposition, the Pavilion was purchased by the city of Seattle for $2.9 million and underwent an 18-month conversion into the
Washington State Coliseum, one of the centerpieces of the new
Seattle Center on the former Exposition grounds. When the newly renovated Coliseum opened, the Seattle University men's basketball team became the arena's first major tenant. In 1964, the facility was renamed the
Seattle Center Coliseum. That same year, the
Seattle Totems moved into the Coliseum. The Coliseum became home to its most famous resident, the
Seattle SuperSonics, beginning with their inaugural season in 1967 and remaining as host throughout most of the team's lifetime. The Coliseum in this incarnation hosted two
NBA Finals, in
1978 and
1979, both between the
Washington Bullets and SuperSonics. The Bullets won in 1978, prevailing in in Seattle. The Sonics retaliated the following year, winning in Game 5 on the Bullets' home court, thus capturing the franchise's only championship while based in Seattle. Upon the opening of the new
Kingdome in 1976, which first hosted the
Seahawks of the
National Football League (NFL) and the
Sounders of the
North American Soccer League (NASL), followed by the expansion
Mariners of
Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1977, the Sonics would begin playing a small number of home games at the stadium. For the championship
1978–79 NBA season, the basketball club moved into the Kingdome full-time. They would call it home through the 1984–85 season, after which the team returned to the Coliseum. During those seven years, the Sonics would occasionally play home playoff games at the Coliseum or
Hec Edmundson Pavilion so as to not interfere with the Mariners' regular season home schedule. They would continue to play occasional games at the Kingdome through the late 1980s and early 1990s. The arena hosted the
NBA All-Star Game once, in
1974; the
1987 game had included
NBA All-Star Saturday festivities on February 7, where former Sonics star
"Downtown Freddie" Brown was the MVP of the
legends game,
Boston Celtics star
Larry Bird won the
three-point contest, and
Chicago Bulls star
Michael Jordan won the
slam-dunk competition. The NBA All-Star Game itself for 1987 in Seattle was held at the
Kingdome. In 1983,
Barry Ackerley, head of the Washington, D.C.-based television, radio, and billboard company
Ackerley Communications Inc., purchased the Sonics from long-time owner
Sam Schulman. In the mid-to-late 1980s, the team's on-court success would decline. This was coupled with a sub-par home court experience at the Coliseum, which included the NBA's lone
rain delayed game on January 5, 1986, when rain water leaked from the roof onto the court as the Sonics played the
Phoenix Suns. Timeouts were called so
ball boys armed with towels could do their best to wipe up the puddles, but even so, two players slipped and fell on the wet surface. Early in the second quarter, referee
Mike Mathis suspended the game with the Suns up by 11 points. The game was resumed from that point the following night, and Phoenix won by 17. The arena hosted the basketball competitions of the
Goodwill Games in
1990. Ackerley began exploring new options for an arena. Heavy relocation rumors began to circulate, amongst them a potential move to San Diego or possible sales to groups in other markets like Milwaukee or Toronto. In 2018, Ackerley's son Chris would say that the family was always committed to keeping the team in Seattle, and that "[...] in each case, we stood on our principles that this is a Seattle community asset."
Potential replacement by arena in SoDo In 1990, the Ackerleys talked about building an arena east of Lake Washington near
Bellevue Square. They would eventually purchase land in the
SoDo district near the Kingdome, some of which includes the site that would later become the Mariners' home,
T-Mobile Park. Ackerley approached the city about a public contribution to the new arena, but the city was reluctant over fears the city-owned Coliseum would become obsolete. They offered to help finance a renovation of the Coliseum, but the team owner declined. To sweeten the offer, Ackerley sold city leaders on the idea that the new arena in SoDo could also attract a National Hockey League club. The city, along with Denver, had been conditionally granted an expansion NHL franchise in 1974 to begin play in the 1976–77 season. The NHL
briefly flirted with relocating the
Pittsburgh Penguins to Seattle (and the
California Golden Seals to Denver) to address a troubled market and fill the expansion commitment, but ultimately kept the team there. Eventually, the Seattle franchise award was rescinded altogether when the potential ownership group was unable to secure the funds for the expansion fee. In July 1990, the city council approved a deal for a privately owned $100 million facility to be built on the Ackerley land in SoDo, despite objections over traffic and parking by the Seahawks and Mariners in the neighboring Kingdome. The city's contribution would be to waive about $31 million in tax revenues (about $1 million per year) to potentially be collected on admissions fees at the new arena. It would also pay $2 million for street improvements around the proposed site, including a pedestrian walkway over South Royal Brougham Way. Ackerley also agreed to sign a 30-year lease for the Sonics and to build an 1,800-stall parking garage. Ackerley appeased the Seahawks' concerns, noting the arena would be empty during any NFL games. The Mariners unsuccessfully continued to object, even enlisting then-MLB commissioner
Fay Vincent and then-
American League president
Bobby Brown to speak before the council ahead of their final vote. During negotiations, Ackerley had asked for a provision to reduce the seating at the Coliseum by 9,000 seats so the older arena could not compete with the new building, but the city would not agree. Another selling point of the new arena were luxury suites, a means to attract corporate money and sponsorship that was then an emerging new revenue stream for sports team owners. Ackerley's financing and agreement with the city hinged on the ability to sell the 70 proposed luxury suites. Ackerley also committed to submitting an expansion application to the NHL by a September 15, 1990, deadline as part of the arena deal. His son Bill would head the expansion effort, while a competing group led by Microsoft executive Chris Larson and former Seattle Totems player then coach
Bill MacFarland was preparing their own application. With the Ackerley application already submitted, the two groups would merge with Larson and MacFarland being primary points of contact with the NHL. Then owner of the Thunderbirds, Bill Yuill, also joined the group. Larson and MacFarland, along with Barry Ackerley and Bill Lear, Ackerley's financial advisor, were set to make a presentation to the NHL's Board of Governors on December 5, 1990. At the meeting, Ackerley and Lear asked to meet with the board first, promptly withdrew their application, and left. Larson and MacFarland were stunned to learn of the development but were unable to pursue any recourse as their names were never on the submitted application. Thought to play a factor in Ackerley's decision were the significant demands by the NHL for an expansion team: a $50 million expansion fee that was more than any NHL club was valued at the time; a $5 million down payment that would be forfeited if 10,000 season tickets were not sold in the first year – the Sonics had never sold more than 9,000 season tickets; season tickets needed to produce at least $9 million annually, which would've made the tickets the second most expensive for a team in the area at the time; a 20-year lease with a "substantial" share of arena revenues from concessions, parking, and ad signage; priority status for postseason arena dates; and a secured $5 million line of credit in case the league had to take over ownership of the team at any point. Ackerley would not sacrifice Sonics revenues for a hockey team in which he would be a minority investor. In June 1991, nearly a year after the city agreed to the arena deal, Ackerley announced that the project would not move forward. Increasing project costs, legal disputes, and inability to secure construction financing were cited as reasons to drop the project. Only around 30 of the 70 luxury suites were sold and the Ackerleys were unable to find a corporate buyer for naming rights. Ackerley Communications profits were down, which also contributed to the financing difficulties. A state Supreme Court case brought by Seattle Center employees challenged the constitutionality of the arena deal, while potential lawsuits from the Mariners and trade show organizers and possible legal challenges to environmental review of the project loomed. The renovation cost the city of Seattle $74.5 million and the SuperSonics approximately $21 million. The naming rights cost KeyCorp $15.1 million. The remodeled arena maintained the architectural integrity of the original roofline by using the existing steel trusses in combination with four new main diagonal trusses. The wood, steel and concrete from the demolition was either reused in construction of the new arena or sold to recyclers. The original acoustical panels, the panels attached to the roof that keep the space from echoing, were refurbished and reused. The court was lowered below street level to allow for 3,000 more seats. The doors opened to the newly renovated arena on October 26, 1995. The sightlines, however, benefitted the SuperSonics at the expense of the junior Thunderbirds. The floor was just barely large enough to fit a regulation ice rink. Many seats in the lower level were so badly obstructed that almost half the lower level was curtained off for T-Birds games. The new scoreboard was significantly off-center in the ice hockey configuration, hanging over one blue line instead of the center-ice faceoff circle. The first regular season game for the SuperSonics at the rechristened KeyArena was played on November 4,
1995, against the
Los Angeles Lakers. The renovated arena hosted the
1996 NBA Finals in its first season, when the SuperSonics lost to the
Chicago Bulls in six games.
SuperSonics relocation controversy In 2001, ownership of the
Seattle SuperSonics (who had called KeyArena home on-and-off since their establishment in 1967) transferred from Barry Ackerley to
Starbucks CEO
Howard Schultz. Schultz claimed that in the five years he owned the SuperSonics, the team suffered heavy financial losses, which led him to seek funding from the
Washington State Legislature for a newer, more modern arena. After failing to reach an agreement with the city of Seattle over a publicly funded $220 million expansion of KeyArena, the Basketball Club of Seattle, led by Schultz, put the SuperSonics and its sister team, the WNBA's
Seattle Storm up for sale. After failing to find a local ownership group to sell the team to, Schultz talked to ownership groups from
Kansas City,
St. Louis,
Las Vegas,
San Jose and
Anaheim before agreeing to sell the team on July 18, 2006 to an ownership group from
Oklahoma City, who was pursuing an NBA franchise after
hosting the
New Orleans Hornets franchise successfully for two seasons as the city of
New Orleans rebuilt from
Hurricane Katrina. The sale to
Clay Bennett's ownership group,
Professional Basketball Club LLC (PBC) for $350 million Terms of the sale required the new ownership group to "use good faith best efforts" for a term of 12 months in securing a new arena lease or venue in the
Seattle metropolitan area. In 2006, 74% of voters in Seattle voted to pass Initiative 91, a measure that prohibited use of tax dollars on arena projects in the city unless it could be shown the city would turn a profit on their investment. The limitation of tax dollars that could be spent on the arena, combined with earlier losses under recent ownership groups, "likely doomed the Sonics' future in the city". After failing to reach a deal by the end of the legislative session, Bennett gave up his attempt in April 2007. On November 2, 2007, the team announced it would move to Oklahoma City as soon as it could get out of its KeyArena lease. Seattle's mayor,
Greg Nickels, maintained a stance that the Sonics were expected to stay in Seattle until their lease expired in 2010 and said the city did not intend to make it easy for Bennett to move the team early. Over concerns the city would accept a buyout of the lease, a grassroots group filed a citywide initiative that sought to prevent the city from accepting such an offer from Bennett's group. Seattle City Council later unanimously passed an ordinance modeled after the initiative. On August 13, 2007,
Aubrey McClendon, a minor partner of Bennett's ownership group, said in an interview with
The Journal Record (an Oklahoma City newspaper) that the team was not purchased to keep it in Seattle but to relocate it to Oklahoma City. Bennett later denied such intentions, saying McClendon "was not speaking on behalf of the ownership group". Due to his comments, McClendon was fined $250,000 by the NBA. On October 31, 2007, Bennett informed
NBA commissioner David Stern that the ownership group intended to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City as soon as it was legally possible. The timing of the announcement, one day after the Sonics' home opener, drew critical comments from Tom Carr, Seattle's attorney, who said "Mr. Bennett's announcement today is a transparent attempt to alienate the Seattle fan base and follow through on his plan to move the team to Oklahoma City ... Making this move now continues the current ownership's insulting behavior toward the Sonics' dedicated fans and the citizens of the city." Bennett also reiterated that the team was not for sale and dismissed attempts by local groups to repurchase the team. In the midst of the lawsuit, Microsoft CEO
Steve Ballmer offered to pay half of a $300 million renovation of KeyArena; the rest to be provided by the city and county. However, when the state legislature did not give approval for the county to provide funds by an April 10 deadline, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said that the effort had failed and the city's hopes rested in its lawsuit. The last SuperSonics game played at KeyArena was on April 13,
2008, a 99–95 win over the
Dallas Mavericks. The NBA Board of Governors approved the relocation of the Sonics five days later. On June 16, 2008, the grassroots organization "Save Our Sonics" organized a well-publicized rally, which reportedly drew over 3,000 participants, at the
U.S. District Courthouse in Seattle to protest the proposed relocation of the team. The rally was held on the first day of the city of Seattle's lawsuit against the PBC to enforce the remaining two years on the KeyArena lease. On July 2, 2008, two hours before a ruling in the city's lawsuit was to be given, it was announced that the team and the city had reached a settlement where PBC would pay the city $45 million immediately in exchange for breaking the lease, and an additional $30 million if Seattle was not given a replacement team in five years. According to the conditions of the settlement, the Sonics' name and colors could not be used by the team in Oklahoma City, but could be taken by a future team in Seattle, although no promises for a replacement team were given. The newly renamed
Oklahoma City Thunder would retain the franchise history of the SuperSonics, which could be "shared" with any future NBA team in Seattle. The team moved to Oklahoma City immediately and announced it would begin play in the
2008–09 season.
KeyArena after the Sonics Once KeyArena lost the SuperSonics and the Thunderbirds, who moved in 2008 as well, to nearby
Kent, there was speculation that KeyBank may try to amend the naming rights deal. In March 2009, the city and KeyCorp signed a new deal for a two-year term ending December 31, 2010, at an annual fee of $300,000. That year, the arena hosted the
WWE No Way Out pay-per-view event.
WWE returned on March 9, 2010, to tape the March 9 episode of
NXT and March 12 episode of
SmackDown. They would return a year later to host the
WWE Over the Limit pay-per-view on May 22, 2011. On January 21, 2011, Seattle Center announced that KeyCorp would not renew its agreement for naming rights of KeyArena, after 15 years of sponsorship. However, the venue retained the KeyArena name until its redevelopment, despite the fact that the naming right had expired. In April 2011, the
Professional Bull Riders brought the
Built Ford Tough Series to KeyArena for the first time. Between June 28 and 30, the arena hosted the Seattle audition stages in the first season of the
Fox singer search program
The X Factor. In January 2012,
ESPN.com reporter
Scott Burnside said KeyArena "would be entirely acceptable", as a temporary venue for an NHL franchise, depending on a future arena plan. The
Phoenix Coyotes were often speculated to be a likely candidate for relocation and in June 2013, reports circulated that if the NHL could not negotiate a new lease for the Coyotes with the city of
Glendale, Arizona, by July 2, the league would sell the team to a private investment group which would then be given permission to relocate the team to Seattle prior to the 2013–2014 season and use KeyArena as a temporary home. On July 2, the city of Glendale, Arizona approved a new lease for the Coyotes at
Jobing.com Arena, and soon after, the NHL approved the sale of the Coyotes to an investment group that would keep the Coyotes in the Phoenix area, eliminating the possibility that the Coyotes could move to Seattle. Conversely, in February 2012,
SB Nation columnist Travis Hughes said that while it made "too much sense" for the NHL not to put a team in Seattle in the future, KeyArena was completely unsuitable even as a temporary facility due to the same problems with sight lines that ultimately forced the Thunderbirds to move out. Hughes wrote that even one year of NHL hockey in an arena where half the lower bowl sat unused would be "just unacceptable." He argued that the situation would be even worse than what the Coyotes faced at
America West Arena, their original home in Phoenix. When the Coyotes played there from 1996 to 2003, they had to deal with seats where part of the ice could not be seen at all, forcing them to curtain off several thousand seats in the upper level. League officials later hinted that a new arena would have to be in place before a new or relocated NHL team came to Seattle. During the 2012 All-Star Weekend, Bettman said that while Seattle was a good fit for the NHL, "there's no building." In February 2012,
KING 5 reporter Chris Daniels said an
NBA team could also use KeyArena as a temporary home. In July 2012, at a public town hall meeting debating Chris Hansen's
proposed NBA/NHL arena in downtown
Seattle, anti-arena proponents wanted to "re-explore" using KeyArena instead of the proposed site downtown. From 2014 to 2017, American
video game developer Valve hosted
The International, the world championship for
Dota 2 eSports, at the venue, which featured prize pools of over $20 million in 2016 and 2017. TI returned to the venue in 2023. On September 16, 2016, the arena hosted the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions.
Roger Federer organized a tennis exhibition match at KeyArena with
Match for Africa 4, held on April 29, 2017. Two matches were played, the first a doubles match pitting Roger Federer and
Bill Gates against
John Isner and
Mike McCready of
Pearl Jam, and a singles match featuring Federer and Isner. More than $2 million was raised for the Roger Federer Foundation from the match's proceeds. On October 5, 2018, the
Golden State Warriors played against the
Sacramento Kings in a preseason game at KeyArena, the same arena where
Kevin Durant played previously with the Sonics. The game was mostly played to celebrate its moments with the NBA and ended up being its final event as the KeyArena before the arena closed down for redevelopment.
Redevelopment into Climate Pledge Arena, arrival of the Kraken In October 2016, Seattle Mayor
Ed Murray announced that the city would seek proposals to redevelop KeyArena into an NBA and NHL ready venue, issuing a full
request for proposal in January. This came after the rejection of the new arena proposed in
SoDo by Seattle City Council over the
street vacation of Occidental Avenue. Two groups, Seattle Partners (led by
Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and Hudson Pacific Properties) and the
Oak View Group (led by former AEG CEO
Tim Leiweke), submitted proposals to the city in April 2017 to redevelop the arena, also securing corporate partnerships and seeking the support of the NHL. Both groups were required to submit an additional proposal to preserve the arena's roof, which the city planned to submit for
municipal landmark status. AEG unveiled a $520 million proposal that would extend the roofline over presently underutilized space on the arena's south end. Oak View Group submitted a $564 million proposal that would lower the arena's bowl within the existing roof structure. On June 7, 2017, the city selected OVG as the preferred bidder for the redevelopment. The landmark status of the arena's exterior, including the roof, was approved by a city-appointed landmarks preservation board on August 2, 2017; the exterior was subsequently listed on the
Washington Heritage Register on March 8, 2018, and on the
National Register of Historic Places on May 10. On December 4, 2017, the city council approved a
memorandum of understanding with OVG to rebuild the arena by 2020. The approval came days after the previous memorandum with the SODO Arena had expired. Four days after the approval of the MOU, the
NHL gave the Oak View Group approval to submit an application for an expansion franchise in Seattle. The arena would be closed for two years, and the last remaining professional sports team tenant, the
WNBA's Seattle Storm, would plan to move elsewhere in the Seattle metropolitan area during those two years. The team played its usual summer schedule at KeyArena in 2018, beginning in mid-May and continuing through the playoffs in early September; they ultimately won the
2018 WNBA Finals. During the renovation, the Storm played most of their home games at the
Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on the campus of the
University of Washington, with other games at
Angel of the Winds Arena in
Everett. and others celebrating after she signed legislation authorizing the arena renovation On September 25, 2018, the proposed $700 million renovation of KeyArena was approved unanimously by the Seattle City Council and signed into legislation by mayor The
NHL Board of Governors voted to approve an
expansion team for Seattle on December 4, 2018. Redevelopment commenced the next day on December 5. In mid-December 2018, OVG announced that overall project costs had increased to between $825 and $850 million. Although some design changes and additions had contributed to the increase in cost, OVG replaced the general contractor,
Skanska Hunt, with
Mortenson Construction. With the closing of the arena in October 2018 to begin redevelopment, the City of Seattle, Seattle Center, and Oak View Group retired the KeyArena name and officially adopted
Seattle Center Arena as the name for the project. It was alternately referred to as the
New Arena at Seattle Center.
Alaska Airlines was announced as the naming sponsor of the south atrium in January 2020. On June 25, 2020,
Amazon purchased the naming rights; the arena would be branded as Climate Pledge Arena to promote Amazon's partnership with the environmental advocacy group Global Optimism and its "Climate Pledge", under which companies sign up to make their operations
carbon neutral by 2040. The renovated arena received carbon-neutral certification, uses rainwater for its hockey ice, and aims to source 75% of food locally, divert 95% of waste from landfills, donate unused food, and switched from plastic to compostable containers. The replacement signage was installed on December 5, 2020. During redevelopment, the arena's existing roof was "detached from 20 original concrete Y-columns and four gigantic buttresses that previously supported it", being held up by "72 temporary steel columns, cross-beams and a steel reinforcement structure called a kickstand.” During the excavation of the arena bowl, 600,000 cubic yards of dirt were removed, and the structure was then built upwards to connect with the roof. Climate Pledge Arena was opened to the public on October 19, 2021, by a
Foo Fighters and
Death Cab for Cutie concert for local charities. The first sports event at the renovated arena, a Seattle Kraken regular season game, took place on October 23 against the
Vancouver Canucks. Kraken defenseman
Vince Dunn scored the first NHL goal in the arena and the game ended in a 4–2 Kraken loss to the Canucks. The first Kraken win at the arena was on October 26, a 5–1 victory against the
Montreal Canadiens. On May 6, 2022, the Seattle Storm played their first game at the redeveloped arena against the
Minnesota Lynx, winning 97–74. On October 23, 2023, Climate Pledge Arena hosted the
Coachella Valley Firebirds, the
American Hockey League affiliate of the Kraken, as part of four of their Seattle arena games while waiting for the construction of their arena. On January 5, 2025, the first
Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) game in Seattle was played at the arena between the
Montreal Victoire and the
Boston Fleet. Boston won 3–2 with 12,608 spectators in attendance. The PWHL awarded an expansion team named the
Seattle Torrent, for the 2025–26 season. The Torrent played their first regular season game in the arena on November 28, 2025, in a 3–0 loss to the
Minnesota Frost. The game set a record for the highest-attended women's hockey game in the United States, with 16,014 fans at the game. ==Sporting events==