ATOP A BARSTOOL INSIDE THE ANGRY BEAVER—When Tim Pipes arrived for work one afternoon five years ago, one of his employees told him someone named Todd had called. He asked for the caller’s last name, and when the employee said it started L-E-I, Pipes burst out laughing. This wasn’t some random Todd. This was Tod Leiweke, CEO of Seattle’s new hockey team, calling the city’s first—and, at that point, only—hockey bar.
A few weeks later, on Feb. 28, 2018, Leiweke stopped in for a pint. Pipes remembers the exact date because, the next day, someone bought the first Kraken ticket. Someones, actually, as more than 30,000 were immediately scooped up. At the bar, Leiweke asked Pipes whether he thought the team could sell 10,000 season packages in the first hour. “Five minutes,” Pipes responded.
Leiweke motioned to a friend at his table and said, “Come over and tell Jerry this.”
