Seahawks president Chuck Arnold appeared on Sports Radio 950 KJR on Monday, and revealed some interesting insight on the team's future.
Arnold was on KJR as part of Dave “Softy” Mahler’s annual President’s Day show that also featured appearances from Mariners president Catie Griggs, Kraken CEO & president Tod Leiweke, Storm CEO & president Alisha Valavanis and Sounders FC president and general manager Garth Lagerway.
Here are five highlights from Arnold's interview with Mahler:
1. New video boards are coming to Lumen Field.
Lumen Field has always been a great place to catch a football game, but looking to make the gameday experience that much better, the Seahawks are adding new video boards on the north end the stadium. Arnold said that if all goes according to plan, the video boards, flanking the existing one above the Hawks Nest, will be in place for the start of the season.
"If all things go according to plan, we're going to have two new video boards on the north end of the building in 2022," he said, noting the new boards will be double the size of the existing ones east and west of the Hawks Nest.
Arnold noted that while they want to upgrade the video boards, they did not want to do so at the expense of the iconic views of downtown Seattle that can be seen looking north from the stadium.
"That was one of the important things for us to protect was that view looking north with the city skyline right there," he said. "You'll still have a really nice view."
2. Throwback uniforms could finally be on the way, just not in 2022.
Seahawks fans have been clamoring for throwback uniforms for years, and while Arnold said they won't happen in 2022, there is a good chance that the old royal blue, green and silver look could be seen at Lumen Field sometime in the not-so-distant future. For a long time, the biggest hang-up was that the league had a player-safety rule in place that prohibited teams using multiple helmets in a season, and it would have looked odd to wear a navy helmet on top of a royal blue jersey. The league has relaxed that rule, however, and now Arnold said throwbacks are getting closer to being a reality.
"The league has now allowed a second helmet option, so with that, we're getting closer," he said. "We won't see it in 2022, but we're making really good progress. We know the fans are going to love the throwbacks."
3. There will likely be a new member of the Ring of Honor in 2022.
The Seahawks inducted quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and former head coach Mike Holmgren into the Ring of Honor in 2021, and Arnold said it likely won't take long for the Ring of Honor to add another member.
"It was awesome seeing Coach Holmgren and Hasselbeck go in last year," he said. "… I think you're likely to see another one this upcoming season. There's a lot of worthy candidates, and I think we're going to go for another one this year."
On a related note, Arnold was asked about retired numbers and if there was a specific criteria, as so far all the players whose numbers were retired—Steve Largent, Walter Jones, Cortez Kennedy and Kenny Easley—played their entire careers in Seattle and are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"That's just the way that it's worked out so far, but there really is no hard and fast rule for that," he said.
4. No news yet on a possible international game in 2022.
The NFL announced earlier this offseason that for the first time, regular season games will be played in Germany, adding to the international games that also will include three games in London and one in Mexico. The Seahawks had a great experience and fan turnout when they played in London in 2018, so it's likely only a matter of time before they play overseas again or go to Mexico, but if that's going to happen in 2022, Arnold said it hasn't been decided yet by schedule makers.
"We haven't heard anything yet, but that doesn't mean that we are or we're not," he said. "We loved playing in London last time we were there, seeing all the 12s… People flew in from all over the world to support the Seahawks when we were there in London."
5. The Seahawks will try to "reimagine our guest experience a little bit."
While Lumen Field has long been home to one of the best gameday experiences in the NFL, the Seahawks aren't planning on sticking with the status quo when it comes to taking care of the 12s. With Lumen Field now 20 years old and with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting sports and the fan experience, along with just about everything else in life, Arnold noted, "We've got to kind of reimagine our guest experience a little bit. We've got to figure out what it's like to continue to keep that homefield advantage and how we can make sure that we're exceeding the 12s' expectations every time they come to Lumen Field."
The Seahawks announced changes to their coaching staff on Tuesday, including the promotion of Clint Hurtt to defensive coordinator. Take a look at every member of the 2022 staff.