Virtually every business in the West is trying to catch up with diversity. Or at least say they want to.
Professional sport is no exception. And if there is one ecosystem that starts from afar, it is that of hockey.
NHL teams have always been managed and led by white men. On the ice, the players, overwhelmingly, are white.
Teams have therefore been trying to make changes for several years. Some are more successful in this regard than others. This is the case of the Seattle Kraken.
“They don’t just talk about it; they take action,” says Jessica Campbell, assistant coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Kraken’s farm club in the American League.
“I want to be around people who are different from me,” she adds. That’s how you learn, not by putting 20 like-minded people in a room. It is an organization of which I am proud to be a part. »
A founding philosophy
This philosophy has been anchored in the values of the club since its very creation, long before the first players took to the ice.
We talked about it from day one: we want an open, diverse team.
Ron Francis, General Manager of the Kraken
It is clear that the boots have followed the chops. One of the franchise’s first employees was Alexandra Mandricky, who was assigned the analytics team. Here she is, since last summer, vice-president and assistant general manager.
In 2019, the Kraken also made former women’s hockey star and Hall of Famer Cammi Granato the first woman in NHL history to hold a professional scouting position. She has since been hired by the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant general manager.
In 2020, the organization created an intersectionality consultant position, which was entrusted to Chanel Keenan, a rare person with a disability to work in the hockey community.
At least three people of color are also part of the Kraken’s hockey operations. In fact, of all employees in the organization, 44% are women and 25% are people of color, says Ron Francis. The latter, however, denies making positive discrimination, but says he is looking for the best candidates, without bias; “qualified people to whom we want to give a voice, to listen to what they have to say”, he specifies.
“We are proud of that, but as I have often repeated: I do not hire someone because this person corresponds to the diversity criteria, insists the CEO. I hired Jessica because she fully deserved the job. »
PHOTO TED S. WARREN, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Seattle Kraken General Manager Ron Francis
“Since my job interview, I have never felt different,” confirms Jessica Campbell.
Progress
Beyond the diversity, we feel in Seattle a real desire for progress and modernity.
The organization describes its amphitheater, the Climate Pledge Arena, as “the most responsible and sustainable in the world”. The building is moving towards carbon neutrality and is trying to limit its production of waste and its use of single-use plastics.
This situation is not unrelated to the resolutely progressive market. In presidential elections, Washington State has been Democratic since 1988. Governors there have been blue since 1984.
Joe Biden narrowly beat Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primary, a sign of a considerable presence on the left within the electorate. King County, which includes Seattle, gave Biden 75% of its vote in the ensuing presidential election.
The Coachella Valley school club is in the same line, explained its president Steve Fraser to The Press. With its roof covered with solar panels, it shares the carbon-neutral ambitions of its big brother further north. In this region, which experiences infernal heat in summer, we dug the rock and built the skating rink 25 feet underground in order to optimize energy efficiency.
“We wanted the organization’s mission to continue here,” says Mr. Fraser. Goals [du Kraken] correspond to our market, to our vision. The president also challenges his club to become “the champion of the LGBTQ+ community”, strongly represented in Palm Springs, the main city in the Coachella Valley.
“A lot of things are changing in our society,” concludes Ron Francis. We progress, we learn, we become better. From an organizational point of view, we want our doors to be open to everyone. This is how we are going to move forward. »