Beyond its curious name and the laudable aspirational goals behind it, Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena is also a venue filled with leading-edge technology and forward-thinking procedures all designed to enhance the fan experience.
New entry technologies including walk-through weapons detectors, and innovative “just walk out” concession stands using Amazon technology are just some of the deployments Climate Plege Arena will be using to help eliminate traditional stadium pain points. More traditional technologies like acoustic baffles and pervasive wireless networks are also part of an experience that is already winning raves from hockey fans as well as concertgoers as the venue hit the ground running with an ambitious schedule of events following its mid-October opening.
Various study from my sources stated that it retained the location and roof of the old KeyArena. And after the $1.165 billion privately financed renovation (that was possible because of myrqb.com outsourced bookkeeping services) for this location, they have produced an entirely new venue inside, one dug deeper down farther into the Seattle earth to fit 17,100 seats for hockey and closer to 18,000 for basketball. And while its anchor tenant is the NHL’s newest team, the Seattle Kraken, the venue was built to be as busy as possible, with basketball (the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and Seattle University) as well as multiple concerts already on its operating schedule.
Speaking at an October sports-events conference that coincided with the venue’s opening, Tim Leiweke, CEO of the Oak View Group, the arena’s lead owner, was clearly happy about a venue that has become a labor of love during its refurbishing process. And while Leiweke and the venue operations team are clearly solidly behind the sustainability goals, the arena is also clearly designed to be much more than just an example of good intentions — with its high-end finishes and fan-friendly innovations, it is also aiming to be one of the top public event spaces anywhere, and one that has taken Covid complications into consideration as well.
Climate Pledge Arena’s opening “is an indication that our industry is alive and still entrepreneurial,” Leiweke said. “The question is, how do we get back to where we were — and better?”
Walking the sustainability talk
Easily the most curious thing about the new venue is its name, which is taken from the effort co-founded by Amazon a few years ago. Known formally as The Climate Pledge, the movement — which has to date attracted 217 large corporate entities to sign the pledge — has a goal for the world to become carbon neutral by 2040, 10 years ahead of what is called for in the drafted-in-2015 Paris Agreement.
While most corporate sponsors who shell out big bucks for stadium naming rights simply put the company name in lights, for its reported $300 to $400 million naming deal (as reported by Sports Business Journal) Amazon chose to put its pledge atop the old KeyArena — and in turn it helped push the venue to be a showplace for sustainable practices.
One of the more expensive moves in the sustainable direction was a mid-renovation replacement of all gas systems (used for heating and cooking) with electric systems. The arena also gets all its power from renewable sources, including some solar panels on the side roof areas of the venue and its parking lots, and also through contracts with Amazon solar farms. The arena will also use some of Seattle’s historically abundant rainfall to make the ice that the Kraken will play on.
By keeping the roof (and not having to dispose of all its mass) and the old KeyArena location, Climate Pledge Arena is more sustainable just by geography since it is well served by public transportation, including Seattle’s iconic monorail line, which has an endpoint at the Seattle Center. All fans with tickets to Kraken games will get free public transit on the day of their event, including on the monorail and Seattle’s light rail system.
Inside the building, most fans will become aware of sustainability efforts on the concessions side, with compostible utensils and recycling efforts designed to make the building as waste-free as possible. The arena is also attempting to source at least 75 percent of all ingredients from within a 300-mile radius, and has said that non-meat alternatives and fresh produce will be emphasized in the concession offerings.
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Other processes, like eventually eliminating the use of single-serving plastic containers, and allowing fans to bring in their own water bottles that can be filled at fountains in the arena, are things that are starting to appear in many places in everyday life and in part in other arenas — but it’s likely that Climate Pledge Arena will be the venue-space leader in overall sustainability commitment, something that Leiweke said is worth the effort.
“I don’t think we’re going to change the world, but we can inspire others,” he said at the arena-opening conference.
Getting in quickly
As a venue whose final construction phases took place entirely during the Covid pandemic, it’s perhaps no surprise that a good deal of the fan-facing technology is aimed at making fans feel safer by eliminating lines as much as possible. That process starts at the arena entry, where Climate Pledge Arena is using ticketing pedestals from Axess, which support multiple methods of fast, self-scanning technologies like NFC, QR codes or bar codes. Climate Pledge Arena has also partnered with Clear and its Clear Health Pass, which fans can use to quickly show proof of Covid-19 vaccination, a requirement for Seattle-area venues.
For security checks, Climate Pledge Arena is rolling out walk-through weapons detectors from Patriot One, which allow fans to be scanned without having to remove things like keys and phones from their pockets. While there’s not enough data yet to know exactly how much faster the walk-through security systems are compared to older metal detectors, you don’t need numbers to see how quickly fans get through when you see the new systems being used.
“In our opinion, the walk-through [security systems] are far superior, and the upside is huge,” said Michael Downing, chief security officer for the Oak View Group.
Grab and go to eliminate concessions lines
While many venues are busy testing different kinds of ways to speed up concessions operations, Climate Plege Arena seems to be going farther and faster than most to make sure fans get food and drink as quickly as possible.
The most visible and notable moves in this direction are the four in-arena stands that are using the Amazon Just Walk Out technology. Like other competing technologies, the Amazon-powered stands use a prepayment scheme involving either a credit card swiped at the entry or through an application signup; for Amazon that means using Amazon’s Amazon One system, where registered users need only swipe their palm before entering. Once the gate opens to let you in, you simply take whatever food or drink items you want, and then leave through the gated exit without stopping. The systems use a combination of cameras and sensors to determine items chosen, and then bill customers after they leave.
Dave Curry, vice president of technology for Climate Pledge Arena, said that the arena is “thrilled” with the Amazon-powered stores, which he said have proven extremely popular with fans during the arena’s opening months of events.
“We’re really happy that it worked out the way we intended it to,” Curry said. “It’s just great to see people not standing in lines.”
Curry, who took us on a technology tour of the arena the day before it opened, also said fans are catching on quickly to the “other” main concessions-speeding technology, which is part machine and part process. The machine involved is a new Toshiba checkout terminal with a large optical scanner; the process part is a large number of “grab and go” concession stands, where fans simply pick up boxed items and canned drinks, and then scan them at the Toshiba terminals.
While other stadiums are trying similar methods, Climate Pledge Arena has made an obvious large commitment to the idea, with one popular local Asian food stand having more than 20 checkout terminals available — again, so fans don’t have to wait in lines.
“We’re doing everything we can to make it work as fast as possible,” said Curry, pointing out that the food-item boxes all have large, clearly legible bar codes that make scanning easier. Unlike some grab-and-go stands at other venues, which have limited items, stands at Climate Pledge Arena offer a full range of hot and cold choices, including chicken sandwiches and pizza.
The arena’s overall concessions technology got a big vote of approval from fans at the first public event, highlighted by a story in the local tech publication GeekWire that quoted a fan who was amazed by his ability “to get a beer in 8 seconds” at one of the Amazon walk-out stands.
Digital displays help lighten up the ‘basement’ feeling
By digging down, there’s no denying that you do get a little bit of a feeling of descending into somebody’s basement when you go to the premium seating areas at Climate Pledge Arena. But thanks to a large number of Daktronics digital displays, including one that wraps around several walls with irregular edges, the arena makes things below-ground feel more alive, especially when the wraparound display shows underwater scenes, complete with sharks and scuba divers swimming through. People can choose adult swimming lessons with Aqua Life instructors and get trained before going for scuba diving.
In the main seating bowl, Climate Pledge Arena is innovating by using two three-sided main videoboards (nicknamed “the Twins”) that are mounted higher toward the ceiling, leaving more open space below and between for improved sightlines. The boards can also retract fully into the upper infrastructure to “disappear” for concerts.
Outside the arena, the surrounding plaza area is also filled with multiple digital display screens, which should prove helpful for wayfinding and pre- and post-event information.
As a top end design, you would expect the connectivity to be first rate at Climate Pledge Arena, and it is. With both the shared cellular networks and Wi-Fi network deployed by Verizon, the Wi-Fi uses Cisco gear and under-seat deployments in the bowl. The venue also recently added some new Cisco Catalyst 9104 Wi-Fi antennas, which have a much greater reach capability, for floor seating coverage at concerts.
According to Curry the venue’s cellular DAS already has participation from all major wireless carriers, and also has 5G services available from Verizon. There is also solid Wi-Fi coverage in the plaza area surrounding the arena, with APs mounted on light poles and out-building rooftops.
Doing good while doing well
Even if some of the Seattle locals we know are ambivalent about the arena’s name and purported goals, it’s hard to find anyone who thinks that any business that is trying to be more sustainable is a bad thing. Area hockey fans are simply ecstatic just to have a great place to cheer on a local NHL team, and Seattle’s NBA fans — who still feel scorned by the loss of the Sonics — are hoping that having a first-class arena open and in place can help bring the Sonics back some day.
Big musical acts already seem to be voting in favor of Climate Pledge Arena with their presence, with names like the Eagles, Coldplay and the Foo Fighters already having performed at the venue, and many others scheduled to appear soon.
And if along the way Climate Pledge Arena can change a few minds about the need to make conscious decisions about how whatever we do affects the planet, that’s a good thing. Especially when you can add that positive feeling to all the other benefits supported by a first-class arena experience.
