Buoy & Seattle Kraken Might Be Getting New Roomates

When the NBA grants Seattle a Sonics expansion team, as is widely expected, owners of the Seattle Kraken will deserve to take a victory lap.

Remember, it was a Key Arena deemed not suitable (read: not lucrative enough) to continue housing Sonics 1.0. That's why the league unforgivably allowed carpetbagging owners to bolt the franchise to Oklahoma City.

The NBA wouldn't consider returning until such a building was constructed. So, a mix of investors developed - and executed - a plan to create a structure worthy of 21st century sports economics. Crucially, they did it (almost) without public financing.

The NHL team awarded to the city - you know them as the Seattle Kraken - could have been nicknamed "Canaries." As in, the canaries in the coal mine, the test case to see whether Puget Sound sports fans in the 2020s would flock to a winter sports franchise. Also, the Kraken road-tested Climate Pledge Arena.

Multiple media reports indicate the suitably impressed NBA fathers will soon extend a hand of welcome - and to receive several billion dollars - from the investors who will own Sonics 2.0. Those investors are expected to be the same individuals who fund the Kraken and the Arena.

In fact, Fox-13 writes , "In a letter to Seattle Kraken season ticket holders, team co-owner Samantha Holloway wrote, 'Later this summer, you will hear more about our future Seattle Ambitions as we roll out a parent brand that will umbrella the Kraken brand and prepare for other big opportunities.'"

When that big dimpled orange bouncing ball of "opportunity" arrives, it will be a great day for the region's sports fans. A deserved bow will be taken by members of that "parent brand."

But.

Purely from a parochial viewpoint, I'm having a hard time seeing how this benefits the Seattle Kraken or the region's hockey fans.

The return of NBA basketball would make Seattle the 12th metro area in the U.S. with all four major pro sports. (Phoenix was previously one of the 12, until losing its NHL team a few weeks ago.)

Then there's the devoted followings of the MLS Sounders, WNBA Storm, and NWSL Reign. Seattle is also a rarity in having UW Huskies' major college football within its city limits.

When the Seahawks, Mariners, Sonics and Huskies are done sucking up their share of Western Washington's sports oxygen, how much will be left for everyone else?