At the center of Force 10 Hoops is Dawn Trudeau. A co-owner of the Storm, Trudeau fell in love with basketball years ago when she moved to Seattle to work for Microsoft. Her then-husband took her to a Sonics game. \u201cI thought, Wow, this is something!\u201d Trudeau tells the Guardian. \u201cManute Bol was playing that night \u2013 I\u2019d never seen anybody like that before.\u201d<\/p>\n
But to understand what that takes to win, we wanted to get into what it means to be a team owner on a more granular level. So, we asked Trudeau what a typical 24 hours is like for her on a gameday \u2013 in this instance a preseason game between the Storm and one of the WNBA\u2019s newest expansion teams (and Seattle\u2019s newest rival), the Portland Fire.<\/p>\n
Rise and shine<\/p>\n
On gamedays, Trudeau says her alarm goes off bright and early at 6.30am. Then she finds her phone to check the news. \u201cI usually look at the New York Times headlines,\u201d she says. \u201cSo that I know what\u2019s going on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, she exercises. Trudeau says she doesn\u2019t let herself leave her bedroom without doing some physical therapy for her neck and lower back. \u201cI get great help from my cats,\u201d she says, with a laugh. \u201cA lot of the exercises are on the floor, right there with them. Oftentimes they\u2019re in my way, but it\u2019s part of our mutual morning routine between the three of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those scoring at home, her two cats are named Stewie and Jewell. Trudeau says she got the felines as kittens when the former Storm All-Stars [Stewart and Loyd] were still on the team.<\/p>\n
When Trudeau isn\u2019t at Climate Pledge Arena (or with the team on road trips, which she\u2019ll join a few times a year) to see the Storm, she likes to garden on her deck while listening to NPR. \u201cThat\u2019s my calming thing,\u201d she says. \u201cOne area on the deck I call my jungle. There are so many lilies planted out there, it\u2019s hard to walk around when they\u2019re in-bloom.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she\u2019s not at a Storm game or working on her green thumb, Trudeau sits on a number of boards in the city, including one for the Pacific Science Center. The interactive museum stands adjacent to Seattle Center, which is also home to Climate Pledge Arena.<\/p>\n
Trudeau says she appreciates the center\u2019s mission of education and welcoming all families, even if they can\u2019t pay for a membership.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeattle Center for us is like Central Park in New York,\u201d Trudeau says. \u201cThe Science Center is an organization committed to giving access to people. Any family can say they want a membership and even if they can\u2019t afford it, we\u2019ll give it to them for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Midday<\/p>\n
After she\u2019s woken up, worked out and fed her cats, Trudeau makes a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to be in a Storm mug,\u201d she says. That theme continues on gameday. Trudeau then rummages through her three packed drawers of Storm T-shirts to find the right one for the occasion. \u201cI\u2019m a merch person!\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n
She also has a \u201clucky\u201d necklace that she wears some days \u2013 a piece of jade, nothing fancy. But the year the Storm won their first ring under Force 10\u2019s leadership in 2010, Trudeau wore the jewellery to each and every game. \u201cTurns out if I wear the necklace, we can lose, too,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n
After seeing the 7ft 7in Bol play against her home-town Sonics, Trudeau was hooked. So, when the Storm came to the city in 2000 (eight years before she and Force 10 bought the team), Trudeau bought four season tickets. \u201cPart of my mission in life is gender equity,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen the Storm came to Seattle, I got tickets on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today as a co-owner, she still has those season tickets. She likes to give them away to friends and often she\u2019ll meet them for lunch or an early dinner prior to tipoff.<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll leave her Queen Anne condo, which is about a 15-minute walk to Climate Pledge Arena, where the Storm play, and she\u2019ll share a meal with loved ones. One of the spots she likes to visit is Uptown China (she and the proprietor have bonded over being female business owners, she says).<\/p>\n
She gets to the arena around 6.30pm, 12 hours from when she first opened her eyes. \u201cI like to walk around and get a vibe,\u201d Trudeau says. \u201cI like to walk by the team shop and see how many people are there and what they\u2019re looking at. I also go by the concession stands \u2013 I just like to know what\u2019s happening in the arena.\u201d<\/p>\n
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