Release the Kraken! On Thursday, Seattle's new NHL franchise unveiled its team name and a line of merchandising on their team site.
The Kraken, who will be the NHL's 32nd franchise, will take the ice beginning in the 2021-2022 season. Kraken co-owner Jay Deutsch explained to Cheddar how the franchise came up with its name.
"The fans came out with over 1,000 names suggested. We did a poll locally a year-and-a-half ago." Deutsch said. "Throughout this entire process, the Kraken kept going to the front. That's what we're so excited about. We listened, we heard what the community wanted, we then developed a logo that we felt would be incredible."
Although the team won't be taking the ice for more than a year, they are already pushing merchandising online at releasethekrakenstore.com. Deutsch said that not only is merchandise "hot off the presses," but proceeds are also going to a great cause.
"All net proceeds are going to charity in the local area for youth care and for other community charities that are embedded in taking care of the youth through these COVID times and dealing with bringing the community together around our new mark."
Deutsch also said making the merchandising exclusive to the club for the first month was important for their charitable mission.
"Instead of letting everybody sell it, we said for 30 days, let's take the profits and put it right back into our community, and that's what we did."
The Kraken will be playing at the currently-under-construction Climate Pledge Arena, named by Amazon, which will be the first zero-carbon arena in the world powered exclusively by renewable energy. In addition to playing in such an environmentally-friendly stadium, Deutsch, a Seattle native, says the arena will present an intimidating presence to opponents due to being partially underground.
"It's like a pit. It's almost like a lair. The Kraken's lair you're going to come into." Deutsch added, "It's going to be like fans are on top of the ice. This is going to be, whether you are a fan saying 'I want to go experience this,' or you are the Krakens that are going to come, we are going to release fury on our opponents."
Speaking of fury, Deutsch mentioned he has already been hearing trash talk from nearby regional opponents. But the Kraken co-owner isn't backing down.
"The Kraken's not afraid of a Canuck or a Shark, let's just say that."
Five women have been named to the U.S. short-track speedskating team for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Among those five, there was only one returning Olympian of the group, Maame Biney, who competed in the 2018 Olympics as the first African-American woman to ever qualify for the U.S. short-track speedskating team. JD sat down with Biney to discuss how she's preparing for the games.
Eric Mitchell, Sports Analyst and President & CEO of LifeFlip Media, breaks down the updated rules around testing in the NFL and outlines how vaccinated players are impacted by new return-to-play guidelines.
Carlo and Baker kick off the weirdest week of the year with all the news you missed over the holiday weekend, including calls for the CDC to shorten its isolation window as Omicron sweeps through the country.
The 2022 Winter Olympics will be without some of hockey's biggest players. The NHL and the NHL Player's Association have agreed to not participate in the men's hockey tournament at the Games in Beijing next year. The league has been forced to postpone some games because of a rise in COVID-19 cases among players. Washington Post sports reporter Samantha Pell joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what this could mean for the Winter Olympics and the sport of hockey.
Former professional tennis player Patrick McEnroe joined Cheddar to discuss the troubling issues surrounding player Peng Shuai who appeared potentially to have been silenced following her social media post accusing former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Shuai's subsequent disappearance, reappearance, and apparent retraction of the accusation in an interview only added to worries. "When this happened, all of us in the tennis community were very concerned. And, by the way, another thing Peng said in this interview was that she doesn't speak very good English," McEnroe noted. "Well I can assure you, she speaks darn good English, 'cause I spoke to her on many occasions over the last 15 years."
Carlo and Baker cover the heartening news on the Covid front ahead of the holiday, plus President Biden punting student loan repayments again, a new space telescope and Love, Hate, Ate: Christmas Eve Eve Edition!
The boys discuss President Biden's plans to send out free rapid tests as the testing supply chain starts to buckle ahead of the holidays. Also, why aren't Americans having more babies, and The Matrix returns.
Cam Rogers, host of 'Lock It In with Cam Rogers,' and betting analyst at the Bleav Podcast Network, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down how sportsbooks - and bettors - need to adapt to changes to sporting events due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
