Climate Pledge Arena Nabs NBA Preseason Game

SEATTLE — Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena will be home to the NBA's first-ever "Rain City Showcase" this year, hosting the Portland Trailblazers and the L.A. Clippers for a preseason contest in October.

As The Seattle Times reports, this year's NBA game will be Seattle's first since it hosted an exhibition game at the then-Key Arena in 2018. For this year's game, the newspaper notes both teams share a local connection: The Clippers are owned by Steve Ballmer, and the Trailblazers are owned by the Paul G. Allen Trust.

Pricing for tickets has yet to be revealed, but presale tickets go on sale for multiple groups Friday morning and will be available to the general public starting at 10 a.m. next Wednesday. Since reopening last October, Climate Pledge Arena is currently home to the NHL's Seattle Kraken and the four-time WNBA champion Seattle Storm.

In 2020, the arena's owner said Climate Pledge will be ready to welcome the Seattle Supersonics back to the Emerald City if the NBA approves an expansion, which is rumored to be on the table within the next several years. The Sonics left Seattle and became the Oklahoma City Thunder amid much controversy in 2008, two years after Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sold the team to an investment group.