Carlotta and her husband have season tickets to the Sounders' games.
Until Carlotta mentioned she was going to a Sounders game I did not realize the Seattle Sounders were back playing soccer again.
Decades ago, in 1974, I went to the first Seattle Sounders game. It was played in Memorial Stadium at the Seattle Center. I had never been a fan of soccer but I greatly enjoyed the spectacle of a packed stadium, with Mount Rainier glowing bright to the south.
Two years later, on April 25, 1976 the Sounders played the New York Cosmos before 58,218 soccer watchers in the first sporting event to take place in the now long gone Kingdome.
Soccer has had a tough time catching on in the United States. It's been struggling to do so for decades. The Seattle Sounders played their games in the Kingdome until 1979 when they moved to the Seattle Center Coliseum. In 1982 the Seattle Sounders ceased to exist.
I do not remember if the Seattle Sounders ceased to exist because the North American Soccer League folded, or if they got stolen from Seattle like what happened with the Seattle Supersonics when the evil Oklahoma entity known as Aubrey McClendon stole the Sonics, moving the basketball team to Oklahoma City.
In 1994 a new Seattle Sounders soccer team was born, playing in something called the American Professional Soccer League. In 1997 the Sounders became part of something called the USL First Division, which was a second tier level of the American soccer hierarchy.
In 2008 the Seattle Sounders morphed into a new Major League Soccer franchise owned by Hollywood producer, Joe Roth as the majority owner, with minority owners Microsoft Billionaire, Paul Allen and funnyman Drew Carey.
The Seattle Sounders FC soccer team was the new league's 15th team. The first game for the new team was played on March 19, 2009. Since its start the Seattle Sounders FC have sold out Qwest Field for every match, with the highest average attendance in the MLS, along with leading the league in season ticket sales.
The Seattle Sounders FC was the second expansion team in MLS history to win something called the U.S. Open Cup, doing so in 2009, and then repeating the win in 2010 to become the first team to win the Open Cup two years in a row.
There is also a Seattle Sounders women's soccer team which started playing in 2003. The women play in the United Soccer Leagues W-League. The Seattle Sounders women play at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.
I do not now if Carlotta Camano also goes to the Seattle Sounders women's games. I do know that Carlotta Camano used to play soccer. I do not believe she played the game professionally.
I remember seeing the Sounders play in Memorial Stadium, and also at that first Kingdome game. Pele was the star of the Cosmos.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Memorial Stadium was where my high school, Roosevelt, played most of its home games, so a sellout there isn't a giant accomplishment.