Seattle Thunderbirds Tickets

Seattle Thunderbirds
Seattle Thunderbirds
The Western Hockey League's Seattle Thunderbirds - an ice hockey team, play in KeyArena on the Seattle Center campus. The team's emblem portrays a Native American carving of a thunderbird with the word Seattle imprinted into it, framed by two hockey sticks. The team will move to the Kent Events Center in Kent, Washington in 2008. The basic purpose is the sustaining of the Western Hockey League mission of providing reasonable family entertainment but with desirable quality competitive hockey, developing the players athletic, educational, and professional talents and building the staff in a constructive professional direction. Founded in 1971 as the Vancouver Nats, the team also played in Kamloops, British Columbia as the Kamloops Chiefs before shifting to Seattle in 1977. The team's original name was the ?Seattle Breakers' but they were soon changed to the Thunderbirds in 1985. Rob Sumner - the present coach, who replaced Dean Chynoweth in May 2004, has tremendous coaching capabilities. The general manager Russ Farwell is identified for attaining Eric Lindros from the Quebec Nordiques during his term as the GM for the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Seattle franchise joined the Western Hockey League as the Seattle Breakers in the 1977-78 season and became the Thunderbirds at the start of the 1985-86 season. The team won the WHL's Western Conference Championship in 1997 and the U.S. Division Championship in 2003 and 2005. In 1989-90, the team had its best regular season record with the team finishing at 52-17-3. That included a home record of 33-2-1. The Thunderbirds' Petr Nedved and Patrick Marleau were selected second in the NHL Entry Draft. Nedved was selected by the Vancouver Canucks in 1990 and Marleau was selected by the San Jose Sharks in 1997.In the 1989-90 season, the Thunderbirds began playing home games in the Seattle Center Coliseum, also home to the NBA franchise, Seattle Supersonics. Until then, all games were at the Seattle Center Arena. Presently, the Thunderbirds play full-time in the KeyArena, facilitating 6,324 seats for hockey.

Until the 1991-92 season, Seattle held the WHL single game attendance record with a standing room only crowd of 12,464. That record is now 19,103, and was set at a game between the Thunderbirds and the Portland Winter Hawks in 1997 at the Rose Garden. The Thunderbirds share the market worth akin to the Seattle Mariners American League Baseball franchise, the Seattle Seahawks National Football League franchise, the Seattle Supersonics National Basketball Association team, the Seattle Storm Women's National Basketball Team and the University of Washington sports teams.

Records and championships
Most shutouts in one season (13), tie with league record, Goaltender: Bryan Bridges (2004-05) U.S. Division champions (2005) U.S. Division champions (2003) WHL Western Conference champions (1997) Most goals in one season (76) - Glen Goodall, 1989-1990

The high-tech KeyArena (a.k.a The Key) at Seattle Center facilitates around 3,000-17,000 guests. A series of unremitting improvement keeps KeyArena at Seattle Center on the avant-garde in its service, technology and comfort. Facilities include concession and merchandise areas and a close by five-story parking area for around 600 vehicles. KeyArena also hosts entertainments most highly praised talent from music's biggest stars to popular family shows. Superior acoustics and sightlines make KeyArena at Seattle Center the leading venue in the Pacific Northwest.