Sports in Seattle

In 1976, the NFL's Seattle Seahawks began play. The Seahawks played at the Kingdome until its implosion in 2000. The Seahawks now play in CenturyLink Field.

Professional soccer in Seattle has always involved the Seattle Sounders, whose original team played in the defunct NASL in the 1970s through to its demise in 1983. The name lived on in a second incarnation of the team, which played in the second level of US soccer from 1994 through 2008. In November 2007, Major League Soccer announced that Seattle would host the league's fifteenth franchise to start play in 2009. The team held a vote among its fan for the team's name between March 27 and March 31, 2008 and Seattle Sounders FC was chosen. The current version of the Sounders plays at CenturyLink Field.

In 1977, following years of legal wrangling over the move of the Pilots, the MLB awarded Seattle a new baseball franchise, the Seattle Mariners. From 1978 the Mariners played in the Kingdome until it was imploded in 2000. The Seattle Mariners now play in Safeco Field. The WNBA's Seattle Storm arrived in Seattle in 2000, and they currently play in KeyArena.

In September 2012, the Seattle City Council agreed to move forward in a process towards building a $490 million new stadium in the SoDo neighborhood.^[1] This could bring the NBA back to Seattle along with the NHL.^{[citation needed]} The NHL has proposed relocating or expanding to Seattle.^{[citation needed]}

The first professional team to play in Seattle was the PCHA Seattle Metropolitans, which played in the Seattle Ice Arena between 1915 and 1924. In 1967, the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics (more commonly known as the "Sonics") became the first modern-day major professional sports franchise in Seattle. However, in 2008, the Sonics' ownership group moved the team to Oklahoma City. In 1969, the Major League Baseball Seattle Pilots were established, but only played one year in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Pilots' sole season was immortalized in Jim Bouton's book Ball Four.

The city of Seattle has a total of eight championships, one Stanley Cup, one NBA Championship, one Super Bowl, two WNBA championships, and three U.S. Open Cup Championships.

The city's first professional sports championship was brought to the city by the Seattle Metropolitans in 1917, when they became the first American team to win the coveted Stanley Cup by beating the Montréal Canadiens three games to one. They returned to the Stanley Cup finals twice more. Their first return, again versus Montreal, was in 1919; that series was cancelled due to an outbreak of influenza with the two teams tied at 2–2–1. The Metropolitans last went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1920, when they lost to the Ottawa Senators.

Led by Lenny Wilkens, the SuperSonics made it to the NBA Finals for two consecutive years in the late 1970s. In 1978 they lost to the Washington Bullets in seven games, but rebounded in 1979 to defeat the Bullets four games to one in to win the NBA Championship. The next time the Sonics made it to Finals was in 1996 when they met Chicago Bulls, to whom they lost in six games.

Another basketball championship trophy arrived in 2004, when the Seattle Storm defeated the Connecticut Sun two games to one to win the WNBA championship. The Seattle Storm won their second WNBA title in 2010, beating the Atlanta Dream in 3 games.

The Seattle Mariners have won the American League West Pennant three times, in 1995, 1997, and most recently in 2001, after a record 116-win season. They, however, have not won an American League Championship or a World Series Championship.

The current Sounders won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the team's inaugural season of 2009. The Seattle Sounders FC won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup again in 2010 becoming the first MLS team to have back-to-back U.S. Open Cup Titles. Seattle continued its U.S. Open Cup dominance in the 2011 campaign becoming the fourth team ever to win the tournament three consecutive years (the last being the New York Greek Americans in 1967-69). They beat the Chicago Fire 2-0 in front of a record-setting crowd of 35,615 at CenturyLink Field on October 4, 2011.

The Seahawks have won eight division titles, two in the AFC West and six in the NFC West. They won the NFC championship in 2006, earning them a trip to Super Bowl XL, where they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-10 in a game that was marked by several controversies involving the officiating. In 2014, the Seahawks defeated their arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, to clinch their second NFC title and a berth in Super Bowl XLVIII, where they routed the Denver Broncos 43-8 to win their first NFL championship.

The Seattle Thunderbirds are a Major Junior league ice hockey team that plays at the ShoWare Center. The Thunderbirds arrived in Seattle in 1977 as the Seattle Breakers, before changing to their current name in 1985. They play in the Western Hockey League, one of three components of the Canadian Hockey League, traditionally a major feeder system for the NHL. In 1976, Seattle was awarded a conditional NHL franchise, however the deal did not come to fruition.

Originally arriving in 1974, the men's soccer team Seattle Sounders played in Seattle until 1983 when the North American Soccer League collapsed due to overexpansion. The Seattle Sounders were brought back in 1994 and played in the USL First Division at what was then known as Qwest Field. Six years later the men's team was joined by a women's team of the same name (now known as the Seattle Sounder Angels) which plays in a nearby suburb, Tukwila. In 2008, the USL incarnation of the Sounders played its last season, and in 2009 Seattle Sounders FC began playing in MLS, America's top soccer division. The Sounders play league matches at the since-renamed CenturyLink Field, but use the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila for matches in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (except when they host the final). In 2013, a new professional women's team, the Seattle Reign (named after a women's basketball team in the former American Basketball League), began play in the newly launched National Women's Soccer League.

The Seattle Sounders (USL) won the A-League championship 1995 and 1996 and the US First Division championship in 2005 and 2007.

The Seattle Thunderbirds were the Western Hockey League champions in 1997.

The Seattle SeaDogs defeated the Houston Hotshots two games to 0 for the CISL championship in 1997.

The Washington Stealth defeated the Toronto Rock 15-11 for the Champion's Cup in 2010.

The Seattle Sockeye won the USA Ultimate Club Championships in 2004, 2006 and 2007. They also won Seattle the gold medal at the World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC) in 1997 (Vancouver, BC). They also won the silver at the World Ultimate Games (WUGC) in 2008 (Vancouver, BC) and at WUCC in 2010 (Prague, Czech Republic).

The University of Washington, Seattle University, and Seattle Pacific University field teams in a variety of sports, including football, basketball, and rowing. Their teams are known as the Huskies, Redhawks, and Falcons, respectively. The Husky football team has a following that ranks with those of the major professional teams in the city. In 1991, the Huskies shared an NCAA Division I collegiate football championship with the Hurricanes of the University of Miami. In 2005 the Huskies volleyball team won the NCAA National Championship.

Swimmer Helene Madison (1913–1970) of Seattle won three gold medals at the 1932 Olympic Games.

Seattle is home to an all-female flat track roller derby league called the Rat City Rollergirls.[1]

The Seattle Dojo[2], which was founded before 1907, is the oldest judo academy in the United States.

Seattle has been host to number of important sporting events, the NFL Pro Bowl in 1977, the MLB All-Star Game in 1979 and 2001, the 1974 NBA All-Star Game and 1987 NBA All-Star Game, The Goodwill Games in 1990 and the NCAA Final Four in 1984, 1989 and 1995.

In 1998, the Seattle city council failed to pass a resolution that would have allowed Seattle to be considered for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The Seattle Marathon has taken place annually since 1970.

In football (soccer), the "All Nations Cup" is held every year.

• Seattle Mariners official website
• Seattle Pacific University Athletic Department website
• Seattle Seahawks official website
• Seattle Sounders official website
• Seattle Storm official website
• Seattle SuperSonics official website
• Seattle Thunderbirds official website
• Seattle Grizzlies official website
• Seattle University Athletics official website
• University of Washington Athletics official website
• All Nations Cup official website
• Website celebrating the 1995 Mariners
• Seattle Sockeye official website
• Seattle Rainmakers official website