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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:25:21 Q:
13:25:27 A: Hi, I'm Bert Kolde. I'm Vice Chairman of the
Seahawks and a Senior Director at Vulcan.
13:25:27 Q:
13:25:27 A: Hi, I'm Bert Kolde. I'm Vice Chairman of the
Seahawks and a Senior Director at Vulcan.
13:25:32 Q:
13:25:50 A: Well, it seemed like things were really adrift and
there was no real direction forward. Ken Behring had
floated out a couple, some stadium ideas none of them
seemed to get traction for the community. And the
Kingdome was in bad disrepair. Just recently at that
time the tiles had fallen down from the Kingdome
ceiling and it was turning into an unsafe environment.
And so people didn’t know what was going to happen.
There was a lot of uncertainty.
13:26:26 Q:
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:26:37 A: Some of the political leadership, the local
political leadership, particularly at the King County
Level was, King County Executive Gary Lock and Council
Member Pete Van Reich Bauer (ph.), they made a couple
of overtures to Paul to step forward and consider
buying the Seahawks. And I remember going to a
meeting at the Rainier (ph.) Club with Councilman Van
Reich Bauer and Bob Widsit (ph.) Allen Israel where we
talked about that the Behring’s might be willing to
sell the team to local ownership, but they needed some
viable local ownership to step forward.
13:27:15 Q:
13:27:17 A: Because local ownership would help keep, would
increase the likelihood that the Seahawks would stay
in Seattle and remain in Seattle. And that’s really
been important to long term stability in teams around
the country is when they have robust local ownership
they tend to stay in place for a long time.
13:27:39 Q:
13:27:45 A: I was one, a conduit between the government and
Paul. I was one conduit. There were a few others too.
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
But I was a conduit and indeed over time I’d
ultimately register as a lobbyist to deal with all the
interactions with the different political operations
or political groups.
13:28:08 Q:
13:28:16 A: It was, there were a lot of unknowns at the time,
because we were looking for something that was a … I
should really say that Paul was looking for something
that would be a sustainable solution, a sustainable
stadium solution that would allow the Seahawks to
generate the resources so that they could compete on a
level playing field with the other teams around the
league.
13:28:44 And the Kingdome didn’t provide that. The Kingdome
didn’t provide all the level of fan experience, the
level of fan amenities and revenue streams like suites
and so forth that more modern up-to-date stadiums did.
And so the Seahawks needed an updated stadium to be
able to get the resources to compete with other
leading teams in the league.
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:29:14 Q:
13:29:21 A: Because of those uncertainties around can the
Seahawks get to a long term stadium solution that
would provide them with a solid foundation to be
competitive with the best teams in the NFL long term
Paul decided on an option structure where he made a
deposit, a down payment or earnest money if you would
and bought time, bought 16 months to work with
temperature community, work with the state, the city,
the county, to help craft a public/private partnership
that would put in place a new stadium for the Seahawks
that would keep them competitive for years to come.
13:30:14 Q:
13:30:21 A: It was like a lot of third and long and fourth
long situations. We had, the polls two months before
the Election Day, the polls showed us down 32 to 57,
57 being the no. And we worked hard to get the
information out there so people could understand that
you didn’t pay for the stadium unless you used it and
all the benefits it would bring to the community. And
what turned out to also be a very important message
was that this stadium would be a world class soccer
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
stadium as well and could bring major league soccer to
Seattle.
13:30:58 And so we got those messages out there and we worked
really hard and when we showed up that night, at the
campaign party that night, walked in the door and Paul
said we’re down by 30,000 votes and everybody was a
little bit nervous and that’s because the votes had
come in from some rural districts in eastern
Washington that were tilted against the stadium, but
some of our, you know, political strategists looked
and said, well, the Seattle votes and western
Washington haven’t come in yet. So things could turn
out well for us yet.
13:31:40 As it turned out those western Washington votes did
start coming in and they came in well enough that by
11 o’clock that night Paul I think was ready to pick
up his guitar and play some victory celebration songs
for the assembled group. And as it turned out it was
a tight vote. The stadiums prevailed by 35,000 votes
out a million and a half votes cast. So it was very
close. It was a squeaker, but it was a win. It was a
W.
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:32:16 Q:
13:32:27 A: It was kind of like a microcosm of the whole
process, because it was, you know, it was a long shot
from the start, but we were always on an uphill
battle. We were always kind of behind the Barings and
the Seahawks, you know, had a period of kind of
mediocrity, so the level of fan support was not nearly
as intense as it is today. And so we had to do a lot
of heavy lifting there. And I think that night was a
microcosm in the sense that yet again we started out
behind, but we prevailed, you know, we made our case
and we prevailed.
13:33:13 And so there was a lot of, you know, a lot of people,
we were just, we were glad for the city. And I think
the real story was told ten years later when not only
did the Seahawks had they moved into their stadium by
that time, but then the Sounders, you know, were
formed in Seattle and became the most successful major
league soccer franchise launch anywhere and lead the
league in attendance and have won their own
championship as well.
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:33:51 And then the Seahawks they definitely, this stadium
did help them remain competitive to the extent that
they were able to get to three Super Bowls and win a
Super Bowl and that, what it mean to the community I
guess was kind of epitomized by the parade, the
victory parade the week after the Super Bowl where
over 700,000 citizens came out and they were just in
such a good mood, the police said they’d never seen a
rally or a group that large with not one police
incident. It was incredible.
13:34:30 And the outpouring of emotion was heartfelt and it was
across all segments of society. I think another
metric of that was the TV rating for the Super Bowl
that the Seahawks won. The TV rating was a 92, so out
of every 100 televisions that were turned on, 92 were
watching the game. And so that cut across every
demographic from the top to the bottom, every
ethnicity. And it just shows how powerful sports and
the Seahawks can be in bringing communities together,
which was part of our message throughout this whole
campaign.
13:35:20 And that was just a tremendous proof point, because
when you have 92 percent of a community unified on one
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
common shared pursuit that is awesome and it’s an
awesome feeling for everybody.
13:35:34 Q:
13:36:05 A: So the votes coming in and by 11 o’clock it was
looking like the votes from western Washington were
tipping the scales and moving the needle to the
positive and then Paul stepped up on stage and the
band was the Beatniks and he brought his, he strapped
on his guitar and started sort of playing along with
them and one moment of celebration released was we
decided to do Wild Thing, which is something we had
played from time to time at company parties and just
for fun on weekends and we did a rendition for the
group there. It was a lot of fun.
13:36:48 Q:
13:37:06 A: So what was it like at the time when the community
leaders were asking Paul to get involved with the
Seahawks? It was getting pretty dire. At that point
the Mayflower moving vans had packed up the Seahawks
from their headquarters in Kirkland and shipped
everything down to Anaheim, California and the
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
Seahawks were actually starting to conduct off season
workouts in California. So they had moved and at that
moment in time they were actually turning into the
Anaheim Seahawks.
13:37:41 Q:
13:37:45 A: Once Paul agreed to the terms of an option where
he put in place a structure that allowed him 16 months
to work with the civil leaders to come up with a
public/private partnerships for the stadium part of
that agreement was that the Seattle would come back
and remain in Seattle for the duration of that option
period and give Paul time to put together a long term
stadium solution, which thankfully he did along with
the community.
13:38:19 Q:
13:38:28 A: I think people thought that this was a better
community with the Seahawks here than with the
Seahawks gone.
13:38:37 Q:
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:39:00 A: Paul is such a good owner because he cares and he
cares about putting on the field the best team he can
to represent the community and to give them all the
tools he can to succeed. And as part of that he’s
made it a point to try to bring in the best coaches,
the best executives to help, you know, as part of
doing everything he can to maximize the probability of
success. So he’s tried to give the team everything he
can to make it successful.
13:39:43 Q:
13:39:52 A: Paul is a person who doesn’t just accept the
status quo. He tries to make it better. He tries to
be the best, to make the organization be as successful
and be the best it can be. And he will ask questions,
he’ll challenge people to think out of the box to not
always just keep doing things the same way they’ve
been done the last 20 years, but to look at doing
things in more innovative ways.
13:40:30 And he’s a synthecist, he’s a person with interests in
a lot of different areas; technology, medical
research, computer technology, media and culture. And
he tends to often connect the dots and do things that
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
are multidisciplinary, come up with solutions that
draw on some of the best ideas and best practices in
those different areas.
13:41:02 Q:
13:41:15 A: I think Paul has put in place a championship
culture by bringing in some of the best people to help
implement that from bringing in great leadership,
investing and developing and retaining great players.
Developing a real strong connection with the fan base
through the 12s and reinvigorating the tradition of
the 12s, which had gone a little bit dormant and
fallow under the Behring regime.
13:41:50 So the community connection was reestablished, the
talent was improved, the leadership was put in place
and Paul helped orchestrate all that.
13:42:00 Q:
13:42:11 A: It’s a unique, the 12s are a unique fan
connection, because when a fan is a 12 they’re not
just a fan, but they are connected to the team, when
they’re there at the stadium as a 12 they’re helping
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
to influence the victory with their cheering, you
know, creating a difficult environment for the
opponents. So they’re not on the outside looking in,
they are part of the team and they are part of the
victory. And you hear that many, many times in post-
game interviews, Coach Carol or Coach Holmgren saying
we want to thank the 12s for the victory today,
because they had such a big part and a big role. So
they are participants, they aren’t just, you know,
viewers, they are participants.
13:43:07 Q:
13:43:17 A: I think the Seahawks … I think the Northwest is
kind of a forgotten region, a little bit of an
underdog. And the Seahawks help kind of put us, put
Seattle and the Northwest a little more on parody with
some of the more established areas down in California
on the West Coast or along the East Coast. It puts
Seattle on the map as being able to compete with the
very best and to prevail and win. And Seattle is now
part of the ongoing dialogue every NFL season.
13:44:03 The Seahawks are in the conversation like hey have
been for the last half dozen years now, they’re in the
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
championship conversation and in the mix. And they’re
not an afterthought. We’re no longer just south of
Alaska, we’re the great Pacific Northwest.
13:44:23 Q:
13:44:43 A: I think the Seahawks, in terms of unifying the
community I think the Seahawks have been a very
powerful unifying force and that’s never more apparent
than in the playoffs. When you can drive around any
neighborhood in Seattle and people have their 12 flags
and their colors, they’re wearing their colors and you
can just see that and it like permeates neighborhoods,
all demographics, everybody is part of the, you know,
the phenomenon.
13:45:22 Q:
13:45:25 A: Everybody is part of the 12 phenomenon.
13:45:26 Q:
13:45:41 A: Paul’s invested at a couple different levels in
improving the Seahawks game day especially. The
fundamental level he made a big investment in the new
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
stadium and creating what is now Century Link Field,
in partnership with the state. And that’s provided a
wonderful place to watch a football game. And Paul
grew up watching Husky football in Husky Stadium. His
dad would take him to games.
13:46:16 And he borrowed some of the best design principles
from Husky Stadium, including what we call vertical
intimacy where the people in the upper decks are close
to the game in Husky Stadium and having one end of the
stadium be open so that where in Husky Stadium’s case
you can see Lake Washington in the Seahawks Stadium
you can see, it’s open to an urban vista on Pioneer
Square and the downtown area.
13:46:48 So you feel, there’s a visual connection to your
surroundings and to the community. So every seat is a
great seat for the game and you’re also really
connected to the Northwest. You know where you’re at.
You’re not sitting in a concrete donut like so many
other stadiums are where that could be anywhere.
13:47:07 Q:
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:47:16 A: I think with the … I don't know if I got a lot new
to say beyond what I just said.
13:47:27 Q:
13:47:39 A: Every game at Century Link is like a major event.
And, you know, it starts, the buildup starts that
morning and people, you can feel the excitement just
continuing to build. People have a higher energy
level. They’re connecting with each other and with
their own social networks and their friends, their
families. So people are getting ready for their game
day experience, whether it’s at the stadium, whether
it’s at home, whether it’s at a friend’s home. But
it’s a big deal. You know where you were for each of
your Seahawk games, because those, it’s a very
important ritual.
13:48:34 And, you know, I know when I'm at the stadium then I
go down on the field before the game and I can get a
real sense of the crowd and the energy level and it’s
high, the players are getting amped up and getting
their game day faces on. And then, you know, the crowd
is just, gets this energy that just builds throughout
the day and it gets all pent up and they’re ready to
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
release that, you know, come time for the game, to
help their Seahawks, to help confuse the opponents and
to do their part to help with the victory.
13:49:17 Q:
13:49:24 A: When we were designing the stadium another thing
we were very aware it’s wet in Seattle and we wanted
to cover the majority of the seats in the stadium.
And so we put in a roof system. Again it was kind of
inspired by the roof system at Husky Stadium. And by
making the seats as close as possible to the field and
by putting in a roof system we also knew that we were
maximizing the channeling of sound of the field so
that the crowd sounds were either coming directly on
the field or they were ricocheting off, being
reflected by the roof structure back down onto the
field.
13:50:15 So we wanted to give the 12th man every edge we could
and help amplify that in a natural way. And I think
we succeeded.
13:50:24 Q:
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:50:55 A: The early years of the Seahawks were about getting
to learn the organization, getting to learn some of
the strengths, some of the areas to improve. And we
had to make some leadership changes and some changes
on the field over the first few years to try to
improve our chances of winning and getting to a
championship. So it was like a learning period.
13:51:19 Q:
13:51:34 A: The 2005 season was kind of like a magic carpet
ride. It was amazing to watch the Seahawks keep
winning and they were starting to fly at an altitude
that no Seahawk had ever flown to before. It was
getting up there. And when we won the, when the
Seahawks won the NFC title game in the conference
championship at Century Link Field that’s when the
reality sunk in that we are really going to go to the
Super Bowl, which no Seahawks team had ever done.
13:52:24 And that was a fantastic accomplishment and we were so
excited. And I think about when I saw the Seahawks
run out onto Ford Field before the Super Bowl 40, and
the loud speakers played Bittersweet Symphony, the
Seahawk theme song, that just, you know, that made the
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
hairs kind of stand up on the back of my neck, I just
felt so emotional. It was like a kind of coming home
of this is why we all together tried to keep the
Seahawks in Seattle and this is what we were trying to
achieve.
13:53:07 Q:
13:53:36 A: In the 2013 season the Seahawks started to put
together a very nice run as the season unfolded. And
I think a difference from the 2005 experience was in
2005 it was the Seahawks had never been to a Super
Bowl and we were kind of just happy to be there. And
I think now when we saw, as the team continued to
succeed and show what it was capable of in 2013 we
were even more focused on winning the championship.
13:54:16 And just getting there again wasn’t … we’d experienced
that, now we wanted to bring the Lombardi trophy home
to Seattle for the Pacific Northwest. And the team
had a physicality to it, an attitude. They were kind
of the underdogs, they didn’t feel like they got a lot
of respect, a chip on their shoulder a bit. And they
carried that all the way through and beat teams that
were more established, had bigger reputations. And it
18
Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
was something when we got to New York and I remember
talking to… We had a lot of internal self-confidence,
the outside world kind of thought we were still kind
of an up and comer and who are these Seahawks anyway?
13:55:18 And I remember talking to some of the coaches before,
in the walk through the day before the game, and they
felt like we have a pretty good game plan here, we
could really take it to Denver. And as it turned out
they totally dominated the Broncos and there was no
doubt, the left no doubt and they won. There is no
ifs, ands or buts about that championship. That was
the Seahawks’ championship that year. They won it
hands down and brought it back to the Pacific
Northwest.
13:55:54 And I think every Seahawk fan and Pacific Northwest
resident woke up the next day, they were pinching
themselves, did that really happen? Thankfully it
did. It really did happen. And that championship was
brought home to the Northwest and everybody in the
Northwest was a champion.
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
13:56:16 Q:
13:56:19 A: It felt great. And it felt great standing on the
podium in … what’s that stadium called? In Met Life
Stadium New York …
13:56:29 Q:
13:56:31 A: It felt great standing up on the podium Met Life
Stadium in New York and holding that trophy and
looking up at the big scoreboards around that had,
they had the Seahawk logo and they had champions. And
just seeing that brought home, just kind of helped the
reality sink in of what had just happened. And the
confetti flying all over the place. It was kind of
like living, it was living the dream. That’s what it
was.
13:57:00 Q:
13:57:13 A: It was really surreal being in the parade vehicle
and going, you know, going down all those, you know,
city block after city block and it’s lined with
hundreds and thousands of people and the outpouring of
emotion and connection and the celebration. It was
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Vulcan Inc. Seahawks PGA 20 Years
BERT
such a positive vibe, a positive experience, a
positive sense of community. It was beautiful. And
it was wonderful. And, you know, I think everybody
there, you know, people pulled their kids out of
school, families, and it was just such a great shared
experience. It was just a celebration of sharing. It
was wonderful.
13:58:00 Q:
13:58:31 A: Paul, thank you for saving the Seahawks.
13:58:35 Q:
13:58:46 A: Thank you Paul. Thank you 12s. Go Hawks.
13:58:49 Q:
13:58:52 A: Thank you Paul. Thank you 12s. Go Hawks.
21