What’s going on with Seattle Kraken season tickets for next year?

We at Sound Of Hockey have been asked on a number of occasions what is happening with Seattle Kraken season tickets for the 2025-26 season, as news about renewals, pricing, and benefits has repeatedly been pushed back by the organization.

We now have some clarity about the team’s plans in this area and got the inside scoop from Kraken senior vice president of marketing and communications, Katie Townsend. Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke also announced these updates to season ticket holders at a fan appreciation event at the 32 Bar and Grill on Tuesday.

A year of reflection for the organization

What Townsend told us is that the organization has been hard at work over the last year, determining what it has done well over its first four years in existence and what it can do better moving forward.

Factoring in survey results, listening sessions, focus groups with fans, and a myriad of other data sources, the Kraken believe they’ve done a strong job of getting both the Kraken and Coachella Valley Firebirds franchises off the ground. They built three state-of-the-art facilities—Climate Pledge Arena, Kraken Community Iceplex, and Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif.—and have had excellent attendance and merchandise sales numbers for both teams.

But they are also realistic that there are things they can (and want) to improve.

“We looked at all of those areas and said, ‘How do we make this better for fans?’” Townsend said. “And this comes from [Kraken chair and owner] Samantha Holloway and, I think, her tech background as well, being nimble and making changes. And her saying, ‘Yeah, do these things if they make sense for the business.’”

On-ice struggles and a shift in focus

On the ice, things haven’t quite gone according to plan, aside from Year 2, when the team came up a goal shy of the Western Conference Finals. Now, as the Kraken head into their third extended offseason in four years—after once again missing the postseason by a long shot—the organization is looking at what it can do to improve its hockey product.

But it’s also seeking ways to entice its fanbase to continue buying both season ticket packages and single-game options, beyond simply improving the team—which it also hopes to do this summer.

“Everyone acknowledges this season didn’t go as we’d hoped with where our expectations were, but [these changes are] totally unconnected to that,” Townsend said. “This is about how we look at particularly our season ticket members and our offerings.”

So, what will change exactly?

New approach to pricing and benefits

The team believes season ticket holders want more exclusive benefits—experiences that money cannot buy—while the broader, ever-evolving fanbase wants more affordable single-game options.

For example, family packs have been seen as a smashing success for getting new fans in the door at Climate Pledge Arena to experience Kraken hockey. These types of packages (there’s a family bundle that includes four tickets, four hot dogs, four sodas, and a popcorn for as low as $150) will be more readily available for next season.

As for season ticket holders, they too will see reduced pricing on a vast majority of seats. According to Leiweke, about 90 percent of season ticket holders will see the per-game price of their seat decrease in 2025-26 compared to what they paid for the same seat in 2024-25 or remain flat. Exactly how much it will decrease (or if it will decrease) will depend on the location of the seat and several other factors, but the Kraken have re-evaluated their pricing models across the board. Some season ticket holders we’ve heard from have received their updated pricing for 2025-26 and have seen decreases of up to 25 percent.

“We felt like the world was a really different place when we did a lot of our initial setting of prices and setting of benefits, partly because of the pandemic and partly just the world that we live in,” Townsend said. “For a lot of our fans, they had never been in the arena, and our fanbase has evolved over time.”

The fan experience and resale reality

I personally do not hold season tickets, since I get into the games as a member of the media. But one thing that has struck me on a number of occasions is that a season ticket holder may have paid $150 or more for their seat for a midweek game against an unexciting opponent in the middle of the season. As the team’s performance went sideways again, so too did demand on the resale market—especially for those types of games—and prices just before game time would often plummet.

So, although I don’t get too concerned about whether or not fans are able to offload tickets for games they either don’t want to attend or can’t attend (I’ve been a season ticket holder for other teams in the past and always viewed this as part of the price of the package—you commit to going to the games and accept the risk that they may go to waste if you can’t go), I do sometimes feel badly for people who paid three times what their neighbors paid—especially when the season ticket member is the one that has been there almost every game and lived through all the highs and lows.

That does seem unfair to me, and I believe it’s related to prices being set too high in the beginning. The team hopes that this exercise of reexamining pricing across the entire arena will help to rectify these types of issues, but how that shakes out remains to be seen. (I also think the team needs to be significantly better next season to ensure that demand remains high throughout the long season, but that’s a topic for another article.)

Regardless, the folks that sell tickets are doing everything they can to show that buying season tickets comes with good value. They are introducing new benefits in addition to the old ones, including a 25 percent discount on food and beverages throughout the arena for season ticket members, and a sort of choose-your-own-adventure calendar of events and experiences to pick from.

We’ve obtained the list of events, and they are as follows:

Signature Events (all season ticket members invited):

• Kraken 5k presented by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health
• Paint the Ice presented by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health
• STM Private practice(s) at Training Camp presented by Starbucks
• Crystal Mountain takeover
• Road Trip Experience in Vancouver
• Kraken Gear Sale
• NHL Draft Party at 32 Bar & Grill
• Development Camp Scrimmage

Chart Your Own Course (choose your own exclusive experience):

• Rookie game
• Season ticket member practice & meet Kraken players
• Kraken holiday photos with Buoy
• Skate at Climate Pledge Arena
• Watch party in player lounge for away game
• Watch party in 32 Bar & Grill with Kraken Hockey Network team
• “Play like a Kraken” adult hockey at Climate Pledge Arena
• “Play like a Kraken” kids hockey at Climate Pledge Arena

From what we’ve heard, the changes to season ticket memberships are all very positive for fans. Are you a season ticket holder? If so, are you encouraged by these changes? Let us know in the comments.