Seattle Sounders guide - history, logo, stadium map

Description:

While the Seattle Sounders are technically an expansion team for the 2009 Major League Soccer season they are anything but a new name on the American soccer scene. The Sounders name dates back to the 1974 North American Soccer League and the city can point to an almost unbroken chain of teams at or near the highest level of the game in the country. The sport is widely played at the amateur level, season ticket sales at over 20,000 and, with MLS expanding to the Sounders' Pacific Northwest rivals Portland and Vanouver in 2011, all signs point to the Sounders becoming one of the league's most successful clubs.

History:

Seattle Sounders version one was founded 1974 as members of the NASL, the first nationwide professional league in the United States and Canada. The team name was chosen in a "name the team" competition in early 1974. Interestingly one of the options it beat out was the Mariners which three years later was chosen for the city's Major League Baseball team. The name refers to the Puget Sound, a body of water in the Pacific Northwest that Seattle is at the heart of. The Sounders played at Memorial Stadium and later at the Kingdome, a domed stadium. The Sounders were a steady success on the field, reaching the playoffs seven out of ten years and reaching the NASL championship game (the Soccer Bowl) twice, losing to the New York Cosmos both times. They also played two seasons in the NASL indoor soccer competition. The Sounders were very popular in their early years, leading the league in attendance in 1975 and selling out the Kingdome (58,000) in the very first event held there, a 3-1 loss to the Pele-led Cosmos. But by the early Eighties the quality of play declined as did attendance and the team folded in 1983.

In 1984 the semi-professional club FC Seattle (later FC Seattle Storm) launched and played in the Western Soccer Alliance (later Western Soccer League) and the American Professional Soccer League. The team survived until 1990, changed ownership and relaunched in the amateur Pacific Coast Soccer League in 1992 before retiring from the senior game in 1995 to focus exclusively on youth soccer.

The second version of the Seattle Sounders launched in 1994 and joined the American Professional Soccer League that the Storm had left a few years previously. The following year the APSL would change names to the A-League, two years later merge with the United States Inter-regional Soccer League (and adopt the latter league's name) and finally in 1999 adopt the name USL - United Soccer Leagues which it still carries. The Sounders always competed at the top tier of these leagues and won a total of four league championships - 1995, 1996, 2005 and 2007. The Sounders II played at several different locations throughout the area, including the Tacoma Dome, Memorial Stadium, Qwest Field and the Starfire Sports Complex in suburban Tukwila.

In November 2007 Major League Soccer announced the addition of a Seattle franchise to begin play in 2009. The new club would include Adrian Hanaeur (majority owner of Sounders II) in its leadership. In the spring of 2008 a name-the-team contest was held which controversially did not include the Sounders as an option. After a public backlash "Seattle Sounders FC" was allowed as a write-in option and proceeded to win the contest handily.

The Sounders emblem includes the Space Needle, a tower in the center of Seattle built for the 1962 World's Fair. The colors of blue, green and white were those used by both the NASL and USL Sounders.

Qwest Field:

The Sounders play at Qwest Field, also home of the American football team the Seattle Seahawks.

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