Queering the Ice: Your Feedback in Action

Welcome Back to the Seattle Pride Classic – we’re always improving because of YOU!

We’re thrilled to welcome you back to this year’s Seattle Pride Classic! It’s always a pleasure to see returning players, and we truly appreciate your continued support and enthusiasm.

We also want to thank you for the feedback you provided after last year’s tournament. Your input has been incredibly valuable, and we’ve used it to make several improvements to this year’s event. Based on what we heard, here are a few key updates:

• Building inclusive representation in teams – Our players this year self-identified as 8% non-binary, 43% female, 49% male, 38% allies, and 58% LGBTQIA+ across the tournament. Representation within the teams across all division has a similar balance of all skill levels, gender identities, and orientations to best create a learning environment and foster a caring community that plays, learns, practices, watches, and gathers around hockey together.
• New selection system for Alaska Airlines: All Stars of Pride – This year at the end of every Friday & Saturday game, instead of selecting the outstanding player from your own team, each team will choose a player from their opponent’s team who best embodies the spirit of inclusion, support, and good sportsmanship. This change reflects our commitment to creating an environment where all players feel welcomed and encouraged—where we cheer for each other, regardless of skill level, and connect through a shared love of the game to make hockey better for everyone. These Outstanding Player award recipients will then be randomly selected to participate in Sunday’s Alaska Airlines: All Stars of Pride game.
• Competitive & Social Conference options – Based on your feedback, we’ve created two conferences (competitive and social) to allow players to opt-in to the playing experience that matches what they’re looking for in an inclusive hockey tournament. We’re eager to see how this change impacts the vibe of the tournament and meets the needs of players!
• Simplified and unified the Icebreaker Social – Following last year’s Icebreaker Welcome Reception, a more formal reception, we heard a lot of valuable feedback around the event, pricing, tiered experience, style, and location. We’re proud to have a more community-focused, all ages, Friday night, relaxed atmosphere event on Capitol Hill to start the weekend off together. See you there!
• Added youth programming – The outpouring of support from player’s friends and families has been tremendous, and we continue seeing more young people coming to cheer on players at Seattle Pride Classic. Our team has added story time with Pride Tape, face painting provided by WaFd Bank, more sign-making and crafts for kids, and our pals at Rainbow Hockey Families are hosting a youth pond hockey game following the Alaska Airlines: All Stars of Pride game. Be sure to stick around afterwards!
• Team captain (C) identifier on jersey – you asked to be able to identify team captain’s more easily and we’ve produced (C)’s that team captain’s will install on their jerseys on Friday.

We’re confident these changes will make this year’s tournament even more fun and engaging for everyone involved.

We look forward to seeing you hit the ice and can’t wait for the action to begin! Our team is committed to quickly listening and acting on all feedback to help us continuously improve your tournament experience. Please share any feedback with tournament staff in-person, via text or call to the Command Center at (206) 627-0005, or submit feedback (optionally anonymous) through the Feedback & Incident/Injury Report form.

Let the countdown to puck drop begin!