First Vegas, now Seattle: Duo now creating entertainment productions at Kraken games

SEATTLE — The twin video boards inside Climate Pledge Arena take you swiftly down to the ocean’s bottom. At its floor, projected on the ice, is a Vegas Golden Knights logo attached via hook.

The left side of the arena is met with an ominous red glow. Projected on a screen where the venue’s windows meet is the red eye of the Seattle Kraken, observing its prey.

Repelling from the rafters simultaneously from the pyramid-shaped roof is a Kraken tentacle that will sit at the top-left edge of the faceoff circle. As it continues downward, the projected Kraken readies its attack. The Kraken snatches the Vegas logo, the tentacle lands on the ice surrounded by 23 shards of ice above it, and the Kraken players take to the playing surface.

To most, that would sound complex and cool. For Jonny Greco and Ayron Sequeira, it’s another day in Seattle.

Greco and Sequeira were vital in producing what the Golden Knights’ on-ice entertainment division has become over the past five seasons. The two were with Vegas since the beginning of the expansion franchise; Greco joined in April 2017 as the team’s vice president of events and entertainment, and Sequeira arrived three months later as Vegas’ senior director of entertainment experience and eventually moved up to executive director.

Now with the Kraken as the league’s 32nd team, they’re hoping to provide that same kind of atmosphere and visual enjoyment to their new home.

“The juxtaposition between the two are fascinating,” said Greco, now the senior vice president of live entertainment and game presentation with the Kraken. “The fact that this city has such a rich sports tradition and such a defined fanbase with such incredible passion, that was a unique opportunity.”

The Golden Knights made their initial appearance in Seattle on Wednesday in a 3-0 victory. The teams will meet again at 7 p.m. today (ESPN+).

“There are similarities in launching a franchise in two different markets, but this is a different ownership group and different philosophy,” said Sequeira, Seattle’s senior director of entertainment experience. “It’s been an honor to launch another franchise for this league and to bring the National Hockey League to this city, which has an incredibly rich history of hockey.”

Leaving a legacy with Vegas Golden Knights

The vision began when Sequeira was 18 years old. It was not necessarily the idea of bringing entertainment to a hockey team in the epicenter of entertainment. As a theater major in junior college, Sequeira put a lofty goal on her bucket list: Be part of the hottest ticket in Las Vegas.

Neither Sequeira nor Greco envisioned the on-ice product to take off the way it did in the Golden Knights’ inaugural season. Winning helped, and Vegas’ run to the Stanley Cup Final only increased the visibility.

That run introduced Elvis, the giant 2,400-pound helmet that lowers from the rafters for every home game. Then they got crafty during the playoffs. The Golden Knight, played by Lee Orchard, would strike down an on-ice shark projection when the team played San Jose in the second round, and then split a jet in half in the Western Conference Final against Winnipeg.

“It’s a two-, three-year process really developing that show,” Greco said. “By the end of that first year, this created a spectacle that honored the city (following Oct. 1) and all the other stuff that happened because of winning.”

The pregame festivities, and even the stage product featuring in-arena hosts Mark Shunock and Katie Marie Jones, and in the early stages with Wayne “Big D” Danielson, took on a life of its own.

It became just as important to the Golden Knights’ organization as the actual games themselves.

Sequeira said the entertainment experience team had always been run like a family. Seeing former Vegas co-workers Tyler Ferraro and Jeff Chaves take the reins of the Vegas operation and continue to build on the success she and Greco have produced has been most rewarding.

“We’re forever family and we’re forever entwined,” Sequeira said. “You give other people a chance, you let them shine, you let them put their mark on it and you cheer for him.”

Moving on

Greco left Las Vegas on Nov. 13, 2019, to become the senior vice president and executive producer of event presentation for the Madison Square Garden Company for the group’s major-league sports franchises, hockey’s New York Rangers and basketball’s New York Knicks.

Four months later, the global pandemic struck. The NHL and NBA seasons went on pause.

Having moved cross-country to suddenly be stuck at home would take a toll on anyone. But Greco — who calls himself an eternal optimist — used that downtime to keep his creative mind going. He found different avenues to think forward.

“The pandemic happening taught us how to create different kinds of content, how to do virtual calls and instead of doing high-end production shoots. If you can tell a good story on a Zoom call, that’s OK. People are down with that now,” Greco said. “It was fun to introduce a style of creation, a style of content, a different path of narratives.”

Within months, the Kraken came calling. Greco said the opportunity to build something in another new hockey market was too enticing. He arrived in Seattle in August 2020.

Meanwhile back in Las Vegas, Sequeira had made her own decision to leave the Golden Knights. Her final game with Vegas was March 3, 2021, shortly after fans were allowed back in T-Mobile Arena for games. She was acknowledged on the T-Mobile Arena video board that night for her accomplishments and work for the organization.

Sequeira didn’t have immediate plans upon leaving Vegas, but it helped to have a familiar face in Greco for the next “creative challenge in my world.”

Day One with the Kraken

The Kraken didn’t play their home opener until Oct. 23, 2021, 11 days after their first-ever game against Vegas. The build-up to the home-opener was “ambitious,” Greco recalls.

“You’re hiring people virtually. Nothing stayed on time as far as supply chains,” Sequeira said.

Then, the official clearance to open Climate Pledge Arena was given Oct. 15. The Foo Fighters christened the venue four days later with a concert.

Three nights after that, Coldplay had a concert at the venue.

The concerts meant Greco and Sequeira had only two chances to rehearse everything: a four-hour mock game Oct. 17, and a two-and-a-half hour window the day of the Kraken’s home opener. Greco and Sequeira had everything running by puck drop. “We put out a show with what we could, with the amount of time we had, that I would put up against anybody with those same variables,” Sequeira said.

The complete package isn’t even where they want it to be as Seattle’s first season nears its end.

“I think there’s been a nice progression of how the show has evolved,” Greco said. “It’s evolved to a place where it’s starting to get a little bit of a rhythm, starting to get a little bit of a heartbeat.”

They have plenty to work with as they look forward to Year 2 for the Kraken.

‘In a way, we never left’

The imprint on what they left behind in Vegas is evident to this day, and it’s allowed others to pick up the ball and see how far they can carry it.

“You do enable others when you leave,” Sequeira said. “Leaving Vegas was very tough, a very tough decision. You also are responsible for challenging yourself and elevating your skills and learning and growing. The opportunity to launch another franchise in a completely different market, there was a lot to be learned.”

That desire to learn continues to drive Greco and Sequeira. No matter where they end up, the need to create content and develop new ideas fuels them.

The Vegas show will continue to evolve and take that next leap, much like Seattle’s will. The roots developed by Greco and Sequeira in those franchises, however, will always remain.

“In a way, we never left (Vegas),” Greco said. “We’re not there, but there’s an indelible mark for any organization or team or piece of content we’ve created or been a part of. You’re kind of part of it forever.”

Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.