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KUOW Blog

News, factoids, and insights from KUOW's newsroom. And maybe some peeks behind the scenes. Check back daily for updates.

Have any leads or feedback for the KUOW Blog? Contact Dyer Oxley at dyer@kuow.org.

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  • Will City Hall give downtown Seattle a tax break?

    Downtown Seattle stakeholders are urging city leaders to provide some tax relief to help spur the neighborhood's recovery from pandemic slowdowns. But some at City Hall may not agree on the solutions to downtown's economic woes.

    "In conversation with the mayor's office, I think we all are very interested in revitalizing the downtown core," Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda told KUOW. "It's been a focus of this administration and the council has been very supportive."

    The approach to helping downtown is where some at City Hall may differ from business advocates. Mosqueda is the council's budget chair. While she is supportive of revitalizing downtown, she does not support the request for a tax holiday. Instead, she argues that the revenue from business taxes gets directed at public services, which in turn, supports the private market and helps local businesses weather economic downturns.

    "I think it's shortsighted and it's contradictory to what good economic policy tells us, that data supports, and the economic proof has shown us," Mosqueda said. "When we have revenue that supports keeping people employed, when we prevent layoffs in the public sector — which both the B&O tax and JumpStart have done — it actually buoys our local economy and it supports the private market as well."

    In a statement this week, Downtown Seattle Association CEO Jon Scholes differed from perspectives like Mosqueda's, arguing that, "The ability to fund basic services and priorities across the city will only become more challenging if downtown’s revitalization is impaired."

    Mayor Bruce Harrell has not yet provided specific details on his plans for downtown recovery. In a statement, a spokesperson for the mayor's office noted that Harrell's post-pandemic economic plan is expected next month. That plan should speak to many of the concerns being raised by downtown stakeholders.

    "Since day one of Mayor Harrell’s administration, we have been focused on supporting local businesses and job creation. Fluctuations of the post-pandemic economy are impacting employers across Seattle and the country, as well as the City’s ability to maintain and expand critical services. A focus of these programs are included in the mayor’s Downtown Activation Plan, which will be released in April, the result of extensive partnership with employers, residents, and other stakeholders. As we continue our work to revitalize downtown, hire more police officers, and deliver effective public safety, we will need to calibrate existing revenue sources with the cost of funding those efforts – and the overall price of other essential City services residents rely on, needed homelessness and affordable housing investments, and projected budget deficits in the coming years. We need transparency and dialogue to set priorities for both revenue and spending to weather these changes and best support all Seattle communities."

    Mayor Harrell delivered a similar message to the Downtown Seattle Association last week, when Scholes laid out four requests to heal downtown, including:

    • Make streets welcoming to all.
    • Bring employees back into offices.
    • Make it easy to open a business in downtown.
    • And "do no harm," which essentially meant "don't raise taxes."

    Seattle business taxes

    Continue reading »

  • This Seattle magazine is printing again: Today So Far
    • The Stranger is back in print ... sort of.
    • Ciscoe Morris has some tips to kick off spring gardening.

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 21, 2023.

    The Stranger is back in print ... sort of.

    The Stranger ceased printing physical editions in March 2020, as pandemic shutdowns were kicking in. It's been published entirely online ever since. Until now. For the first time in nearly three years, The Stranger is printing a physical publication via its Art and Performance Spring 2023 magazine.

    Stranger arts editor Megan Seling tells Seattle Now that this edition is going to stir something within readers, something they forgot about.

    "Once people pick up a copy and remember what print media feels like, especially an alt-weekly or an arts, creative publication," Seling said. "People are going to want to go to a coffee shop, get a cup of coffee, whatever, and flip through The Stranger. I used to love doing that ... I think people are going to realize they missed that."

    It took a staff-wide effort to get the print edition out for the spring quarter. But don't expect regular editions of the alt-weekly to start showing up at your local coffee shops and bars. Seling tells Seattle Now that, "We're taking it publication-by-publication." In this case, a quarterly arts magazine. The regular weekly won't be back as in the Before Times. The magazine was an experiment to see if there was a desire in the city for a printed publication to come back.

    "This one did well enough to where we are planning to do one in the summer as well, so look for that, and also one in the fall. We are not going to be back in weekly print, or even bi-weekly print at this point, financially that's just not feasible. We don't have the staff to maintain that kind of workload either. But if people read it, if they like it, if word gets out that people want it to stay, that will be very helpful to us in knowing whether or not it's worth it to keep going."

    A lot of people wonder if magazines, like the one The Stranger is publishing now, can hold up in our modern media era. That's a lot of what Seling was speaking to while chatting with Seattle Now. Full disclosure: I published my own indie magazine project over the past year, so I have a bit of a personal angle into all this. I too have had to answer similar questions around the relevance of print media. Here's my answer.

    Media is changing, but it's not really all that different. The same demand is still there. It's a matter of whether legacy media is providing content the way audiences have evolved. The demand for radio shows is still there, we just call it "podcasts." The demand for newspapers is still there, audiences just moved online. Just as the above-mentioned forms of media have learned, modern audiences are more engaged when you target a specific niche. Podcasts are not like radio shows that cast a wide advertising net to pull in as many people as possible. They likely focus on a core interest group (politics, drones, 1970s Ford vehicles, comic book collectors). Niches may be smaller, but audiences are often more engaged. Magazines can be similar in this regard. People still like magazines (folks are also still buying physical books after all), but it's not like the '90s when you could print massive numbers for wide, generic audiences.

    In the case of The Stranger's recent Arts and Performance edition, my Dyer prediction is that it will be successful. It's a niche publication for a targeted audience. That's my reasoning. You may think differently. Feel free to email me at dyer@kuow.org. And check out Seling's full conversation on Seattle Now here.

    Now is the time to start gardening, according to local gardening expert Ciscoe Morris.

    Continue reading »

  • Why Seattle traffic is lighter on Fridays: Today So Far
    • Traffic seems to be a lot better around Seattle on Fridays. Mondays too. There's a reason for that.
    • King County Executive Dow Constantine is not going to run for Washington state governor.
    • The train that derailed near Anacortes may have gone off the tracks because it was supposed to, according to one tribal leader.
    • What is the best thing to do with more daylight?

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 20, 2023.

    My wife Nina made an observation after many, many commutes into Seattle — traffic on Fridays is great. I have since made the same observation on my trips into the office. There seem to be far fewer cars on the road on Fridays. Our assumption has been that, with the option of hybrid and remote work, more folks are opting to work from home on the last day of the week.

    It seems our assumption may be correct. Commute Seattle recently released the results of its annual commuter survey, offering some insights into our region's travel habits. One observation is that workers are more often coming into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and sticking around home on Mondays and Fridays.

    Some other quick takeaways:

    • Remote work is still dominating Seattle with about 46% of workers engaging in hybrid or remote work. This is keeping many cars off the road. Remote work is more popular among higher-earning employees.
    • While work commutes have declined amid remote work, that doesn't mean traffic has gotten any better during certain times. People are still getting into their cars, only now, it's for non-work errands, such as the grocery store, school pickups, or the doctor's office.
    • Public transit has not entirely recovered from pandemic slowdowns. It's about half of what it was in 2019.

    Commute Seattle's survey reflects habits from late 2022, but there is reason to believe that there could be a shift in habits in the months ahead. There is a chorus of downtown voices urging the city and local employers to get workers back into offices. In other words, "Go back to the way things were before." Downtown Seattle is still suffering from the pandemic hit and many long for pre-pandemic life — commute into Seattle, and leave some money behind.

    Many in the business community have already discovered that remote workers can be more productive than in-office employees. On top of that, there is evidence that employees will take lower pay in exchange for remote-work jobs. There are also cities throughout the USA actually paying remote workers to relocate there. My amateur expectation would be that these business and cities will reap future economic benefits, over businesses and cities who want to pick up the basket that previously held all their eggs, and start filling it back up the exact same way they had it in 2019.

    In the more immediate future, it seems that some major Seattle companies will get a portion of their employees back into the city more often. Starbucks and Amazon have both started new policies to get employees back in the office three days a week.

    King County Executive Dow Constantine is not going to run for Washington state governor. At least, not for the next election. Constantine's name has been thrown around as one potential Democrat who could compete for the job, should Gov. Inslee opt not to run again. But in a recent letter to supporters, Constantine says that is not going to happen. Instead, he says that the county has a lot of goals and challenges that need to be addressed, and he is too busy working on them. Read more here.

    The train that derailed near Anacortes may have gone off the tracks because it was supposed to. That's according to one account from Samish Indian Nation chair Tom Wooten. KUOW hasn't been able to confirm with BNSF, state or federal agencies about how the train derailed, exactly, but Wooten says he already got a briefing on the incident from officials at the scene. He reports that the train tracks are designed to intentionally push a train off the tracks when a bridge ahead is not in service. In this case, there is a rotating bridge over the Swinomish Channel. It is often in the open position to allow for boat traffic to pass. It was likely open when the train approached last week, which meant a derailer device was activated.

    “It did what it was supposed to and spilled the train off the tracks so it wouldn't continue on into the Swinomish Slough, into the water, which wouldn't have been good at all," Wooten told KUOW.

    Continue reading »

  • Amazon is cutting another 9,000 jobs as tech industry keeps shrinking

    Amazon is cutting another 9,000 workers, adding to the massive downsizing happening across an embattled tech sector that is uncertain about the economic future.

    The layoffs will happen "in the next few weeks," according to CEO Andy Jassy, who announced the cuts in a memo shared with staff and uploaded in a blog post on Monday.

    "This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company long term," Jassy wrote in the memo. He said the layoffs will mostly hit employees in its cloud platform, people's experience department that works with employees, advertising, and the Twitch video service.

    Earlier this year, Jassy announced the company would lay off 18,000 workers, a deeper cut than it had planned last November, when it announced it would slash 10,000 jobs.

    The company has also paused construction on its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, a space that was expected to bring more than 25,000 jobs to the region.

    Like other Big Tech companies, Amazon's workforce ballooned during the pandemic, reaching a peak of 1.6 million employees in 2021.

    The rapid hiring "made sense given what was happening in our businesses and the economy as a whole," said Jassy on Monday. "However, given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount."

    Jassy said the company aims to make final decisions on impacted roles by "mid to late April." [Copyright 2023 NPR]

    Continue reading »

  • Remote work continues to thrive among Seattle commuters

    It sounds odd to say, but "remote work" has continued to thrive among Seattle's commuters.

    That's according to the results of Commute Seattle's 2022 survey showing how people are getting to and from work. Remote work shot up to 46% of commuters in 2021, amid ongoing pandemic measures. That share held strong through 2022.

    RELATED: Can Seattle turn underused office towers into apartment buildings?

    The main takeaways from the 2022 survey:

    • Remote workers tend to be higher income earners. Lower income workers are more likely to hit the road and work in-person.
    • Commuters are more often choosing to work in-office Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Mondays and Fridays are lighter on the roads.
    • Before the pandemic, in 2019, public transit had a considerable share of commuters (46%), but this method has not recovered and was 22% in 2022.
    • Driving alone into work trended downward during this time. In 2019, driving alone added up to 26% of commuters. In 2022, it was 21%.
    • Rideshares took a hit, going from 9% to 3% between 2019 and 2022.
    • Walking trended downward, going from 7% in 2019 to 3% in 2022.
    • Biking held at a solid 3% all three years.
    • 10% of commuting cars were hybrids, and 6% were electric vehicles.
    • Preferences for modes of transportation also break down demographically. Women were less likely to take public transit. White commuters were less likely to take public transit, too. Asian and white workers were more likely to telework.

    One point that Commute Seattle notes is that while the share of commuters "driving alone" has declined, traffic congestion has still gone up. This has largely been due to people choosing to drive to places other than work. In other words, cars are still hitting the road, causing congestion, they just aren't going to work. They're going other places.

    RELATED: With office employees gone, downtown Seattle residents became the neighborhood's economic lifeblood

    "...over 75% of the trips that Seattleites take to grocery stores, healthcare, and school pick-up and drop-off are done by driving alone. We also take more of these trips in a week than we do from home to work."

    The commuter survey reflects one-tenth of Seattle workers as of fall of 2022. Recent developments could significantly influence next year's survey.

    Continue reading »

  • Why Dow Constantine will not run to be Washington's next governor

    King County Executive Dow Constantine will not run to be Washington state's next governor in the 2024 gubernatorial election.

    According to a Friday email from Constantine:

    "Not infrequently, people kindly ask whether I would run for Governor in 2024 if Gov. Jay Inslee chooses not to seek re-election. Governor is an important office, and Jay is doing great work, day-in and day-out, for Washington State — and leading the nation on the critical issue of climate. While I hope he is willing to continue, he should be given the grace to make his own decision on his own timeline.

    But I've made my decision. Having given it thorough consideration, I have concluded that the answer is no, I would not run. I'm not willing to set aside all that we're achieving right now — the full-time work that I'm passionate about — in favor of full-time fundraising and campaigning. I am grateful to serve as Executive of one of the nation’s largest, most progressive, most innovative jurisdictions, and I'm committed to seeing my many local, regional, and national initiatives through."

    Constantine's statement also notes that the county has a range of challenges ahead, with an "ambitious agenda" that includes securing a budget, modernizing Harborview Medical Center, helping to build Sound Transit 3, and dealing with ongoing issues of mental health. He argues that he would rather put his energy into such challenges than into fundraising for a gubernatorial campaign.

    Gov. Inslee's term ends in 2025, meaning the 2024 election season is just around the corner. He is currently serving a rare third term as governor.

    Constantine's announcement comes shortly after the results of a poll by the Northwest Progressive Institute, which stated the King County executive got 7% of support from those polled.

    The institute asked a pool of 874 likely voters who they would favor out of a "hypothetical field" of 2024 candidates. The poll found that Republican Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier led the pack (35%), with Democrat votes split between state Attorney General Bob Ferguson (21%), Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz (7%), and Constantine (7%). A total of 30% of likely voters weren't sure who they would pick.

    The above mentioned names were the only options offered in the poll, therefore only one Republican option was given. Together, the Democrat candidates add up to match Dammeier's 35%.

    Continue reading »

  • Sunshine and warm weather arrive in Seattle, along with allergy season

    With the sun finally peeking out for St. Patrick's Day, it's starting to feel like spring around Seattle. The days leading up to the start of spring on March 20 are expected to have temps rising into the low 60s.

    But perhaps a leprechaun brought a trick with his sun-shining pot of gold. The spring weather also is triggering the beginning of allergy season.

    You can’t completely avoid pollen as we go about our lives, but you can take measures to keep it out of your home. The best way to deal with allergies is to avoid pollen, according to Jenny Sun, clinical assistant professor of allergy and immunology at UW Medicine.

    Sun recommends taking off your shoes inside the house, and keeping windows closed during peak allergy season. She also notes that the best time to start allergy medications a couple weeks before peak allergy season. In other words, now might be a good time to start your meds.

    “Washing the hair before going to bed at night, so you’re not bringing pollen onto your pillowcases. That way not breathing it in throughout the night,” Sun said.

    It turns out, all those face masks from the past few pandemic years also come in handy for allergy season, especially if you have nose allergies.

    “I think masks can be an avoidance measure, more for the nose than for the eyes,” Sun said, noting this is one way to keep your nose from being physically exposed to the pollen.

    Showers are expected to be back in the Seattle area by Sunday. Sun says the rain can help clear the pollen out of the air "very temporarily." But there is also a theory that the rain can hit large chunks of pollen and help it disperse. Therefore, it could "potentially increase pollen season."

    According to the Northwest Asthma and Allergy Center, the pollen count for March 17, St. Patrick's Day, remains low.

    Allergy season tips

    • Take allergy meds two weeks before allergy season is expected to start
    • Use face masks to lessen pollen exposure
    • Wash hair before going to bed to rinse out pollen
    • Keep an eye on local pollen conditions
    Continue reading »

  • Are you ready for some cricket?!: Today So Far
    • Seattle just got a new professional cricket team.
    • How do you recycle in the San Juan Islands?
    • When will the cherry blossoms bloom this spring?

    This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 17, 2023.

    Would you go see a cricket game in Seattle? A group of locals are confident enough people will be interested to justify a new cricket team.

    The Seattle Orcas is the newest team in town. It's more accurate to say that this team will represent our region. It doesn't have a playfield yet, but organizers are working with King County, Bellevue, and Redmond to build a 6,000-person cricket facility at Marymoor Park. The team is forming now and is slated to play in the 2023 season this summer against a handful of other teams popping up around the USA to create Major League Cricket.

    An interesting point about the formation of this team is the group of investors bringing it to town, a veritable who's who of the local tech scene. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is one such investor, so is Sanjay Parthasarathy, former Microsoft and Valara executive.

    “We are super excited to bring world class cricket to the Pacific Northwest, which has a vibrant and passionate community of cricket and sports fans," said Soma Somasegar, co-investor in the team and managing director at Madrona Ventures. "The Orcas name and the team’s colors pay tribute to our local community that has helped build that spirit of support."

    For the non-sportsy type folks out there (I'm included in this group), our area already has one professional cricket team, the Seattle Thunderbolts, which is a minor league team that practices in Redmond and Issaquah. This team, and the new one, should spur some local curiosity. I look forward to checking out a game, and perhaps finally understanding what a "sticky wicket" is.

    The folks living on the San Juan Islands are quite trashy, and I mean that in a very good way (I also mean it in a clickbaity way). Because, do you know how they recycle in the San Juans?

    When you toss something into a recycling bin somewhere in the San Juan Islands — a can from San Juan Island Brewing, or a paper bag from the Lopez Island Farmers Market, or a jar from San Juan Sea Salt — that waste generally gets loaded onto a boat and shipped to South Seattle. That's where the processing facility is for much of the region's recyclables. All the materials get mixed up into one heap. But folks around the San Juans got worried that the materials weren't getting sorted well enough. Enter the Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District, which is a group of volunteers who separate out all the comingled recyclables for a little pre-processing. Plastic gets shredded and compacted. Glass gets ground up. That's a lot more efficient for travel.

    Orcas islanders have a similar effort up and running and also have a composting program. They even grind up glass into sand which can be used in construction or landscaping. It's estimated that they have reduced what is shipped off-island by about 50%. You have to admit, this is all quite impressive. I'm a little inspired to get trashy myself. Soundside has the full story here.

    If you've been planning your annual spring Instagram photos, then you'll be happy to know when the cherry blossoms will bloom at the University of Washington.

    In short, peak bloom is expected in early April. That's when about 70% of the flowers will be on display in the Quad. UW has about 29 Yoshino cherry trees in its Quad, which draw a considerable crowd each year as they put on a flowery show. I'm not joking when I say to expect traffic delays around UW, potentially stretching out onto I-5, during this time. UW recommends folks try to visit during the week or early mornings to avoid the heaviest crowds. That way, you can capture the best family photo, Instagram glamor shot, or pretend like you're the star of your own anime.

    Continue reading »

  • 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods' is a near myth

    The 2019 film Shazam! followed on the heels of Wonder Woman (2017) and Aquaman (2018) — two DC superhero movies that had already managed to step out from under the grim-dark era of filmmaker Zack Snyder, with its muddy, grayish-brown color palette and even muddier, brownish-gray emotional palette.

    Yet there was something distinctly bright, fresh and colorful about director David F. Sandberg's movie, which starred Asher Angel as lonely foster kid Billy Batson, who gets granted powers by a mysterious wizard (Djimon Hounsou) that transform him into an adult (albeit naggingly unnamed) superhero played, with bracing gusto, by Zachary Levi.

    The idea, then and now, is Tom Hanks' Big-meets superheroes: When he says a magic word, young Billy's body transforms, but his mind stays the same. Thus the film unspooled with its every superhero cliché (training montage, random acts of heroism, climactic battles with various villains) inflected with something new: the heedless joy of a kid being granted a wish. Levi played his superhero as an over-enthusiastic try-hard who was desperate to figure things out. Sure, he tossed out the occasional pop culture reference or wincingly dumb joke, but that resultant doofiness was endearing, novel, fun.

    That was then. This is now.

    More (big red) cheese

    It's apparent quite early that the narrative fuel mixture of Shazam: Fury of the Gods is off. This time out, returning director Sandberg attempts to crank the volume on the first film's breezy goofiness, and succeeds. But that increase in volume introduces distortion: We get more of Levi in the red muscle suit and less — startlingly less — of Angel as teen Billy.

    That's only an issue because of what Levi chooses to do with his greater share of screen time, which is to make the sweatiest, schtickiest, most effortful choice, again and again. He mugs. He preens. He goggles his eyes. The performance devolves to one level, one joke, over and over: His character makes a pop culture reference that the film's villain du jour — an ancient god named Hespera, played by Helen Mirren — kind of squints quizzically at.

    Repeat that bit once per minute, 130 times, and there's your movie.

    There's an attempt to leaven Levi's go-for-the-jugular approach with a character arc. When we meet him, he's suffering from imposter syndrome, as his found family of fellow super beings (including Freddy, played by both Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody) fail to embrace his leadership.

    That leadership gets further challenged by the appearance of the daughters of the mythical Atlas (Mirren and Lucy Liu), who seek to reclaim the power he and his friends wield. Big fights happen on and above the streets of Philadelphia (played by Atlanta); sundry zappy standoffs occur amid rubble and rebar.

    Continue reading »

  • Northern and southern resident orcas hunt differently. New study could help orca numbers

    According to a new study from the University of Washington and NOAA Fisheries, northern and southern resident orcas who live in the Salish Sea have different fish hunting patterns.

    The northern resident orca’s population has slowly increased. However, southern resident orca numbers are still dangerously low. Both types of killer whales eat salmon and other fish. Their favorite snack is a big chinook because “they’re lipid rich, and they pack the biggest bang for the buck,” according to Jennifer Tennessen, a UW researcher and lead author of the study.

    Typically, when killer whales hunt, the group travels to a foraging habitat, individually dive down to capture fish, then share with their family, Tennessen said.

    According to the new study in both populations females were the best at catching prey. Female northern resident orcas were also more efficient compared to males as they spent more time foraging. Tennessen says the southern resident orcas had “completely opposite behavior.” Males captured more prey and spent more time foraging compared to females.

    When a female has a calf, their ability to capture fish declines, however, Tennessen says this trend was particularly strong among the southern resident orcas. No females who had calves caught prey during the study.

    One theory behind the different patterns could be due to the southern resident orcas evolving as they try to feed themselves, Tennessen said.

    Females are also more vulnerable to disturbances in the water, especially to frequencies from boats, explained Tennessen. Southern resident male orcas may be trying to catch more fish to provide for their families while the females are feeling the impacts from the disturbances in the habitat.

    “Reducing disturbance may be key to recovering these critical female foraging opportunities,” Tennessen said, adding that this new study could help environmental groups create better convocation plans for the killer whales now that they understand their hunting patterns.

    Northern resident orcas have tripled their population over the past 50 years. There’s now more than 300 of them. Southern resident orca populations are endangered. Currently, there are 73 known southern Resident Killer Whales.


    Continue reading »

  • When will the cherry blossoms bloom at UW in 2023?


    The cold weather through the start of 2023 has stalled the cherry blossom bloom this spring, which means that all your Instagram photos will have to wait a little longer.

    According to the University of Washington:

    "As of March 15, the cherry trees in the UW Quad are mostly green buds and a few florets, where the folded-up petals are emerging. The trees will likely hit 10% bloom, meaning one in every 10 buds has erupted in pink or white blossoms, the week of March 20."

    The university's arborist expects "peak bloom" to be in early April. That's when 70% of the buds have bloomed.

    RELATED: Seattle will save cherry blossom trees on Pike Street, but the old ones still have to go

    The cherry blossom bloom attracts massive crowds to UW's Quad each year. The university recommends visiting during the week to avoid heavier crowds. Early mornings are good, too.

    UW has started a new website for cherry blossom visitors. There is also a live video feed of the campus trees, as well as Twitter and Instagram accounts.

    The Quad is home to 29 Yoshino cherry trees that are nearly 90 years old.

    Continue reading »

  • Seattle is getting a major league cricket team


    Seattle sports is getting a lot bigger as the Orcas cricket team enters the mix.

    “We are super excited to bring world class cricket to the Pacific Northwest, which has a vibrant and passionate community of cricket and sports fans," said Soma Somasegar, co-investor in the team. "The Orcas name and the team’s colors pay tribute to our local community that has helped build that spirit of support."

    While the team's name is the Seattle Orcas, it's more accurate to say the team represents Western Washington, if not the Northwest, among franchises in emerging Major League Cricket. The team is currently forming its roster, yet does not have a home field. Major League Cricket says it is working with King County and the city of Bellevue to build a cricket field at Marymoor Park in Redmond. That proposed field would host up to 6,000 people on 20 acres.

    Other investors in the Seattle Orcas include major players in the local tech scene. They include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Icertis CEO Samir Bodas, Ashok Krishnamurthi (GreatPoint Ventures), and former Microsoft and Avalara executive Sanjay Parthasarathy. Somasegar is managing director at Madrona Ventures.

    To help get the team going, the Orcas are partnering with the Delhi Capitals to fill its roster.

    “We see America as the new frontier for cricket’s growth globally, and the Pacific Northwest provides an incredible opportunity for us to bring the resources of GMR Sports to the region and help the Seattle Orcas build a team competing for championships,” said Kiran Kumar Grandhi, CEO of GMR Group, which co-owns the Delhi Capitals.

    The first season for MLC is slated for summer 2023. Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., are also lined up to get cricket teams in the league.

    “The Pacific Northwest is a hotbed for American cricket, with a vibrant youth scene and the current reigning Minor League Cricket champions, the Seattle Thunderbolts, hailing from the area. It’s going to be exciting to see the Seattle Orcas build on that platform and compete in the inaugural Major League Cricket championship this summer,” said Justin Geale, MLC tournament director.

    The Seattle Thunderbolts is the city's minor league cricket team. It was formed in 2021. It currently practices and plays at Issaquah's Klahanie Park and Marymoor Park.

    Continue reading »