The field-level sign said, “Welcome to Green Hell.” Last Friday night, I joined more than 55,000 people at CenturyLink Field, home of the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. And a soccer match broke out!
Facing the rival Vancouver Whitecaps for something called the Cascadia Cup, the Seattle Sounders took the field after two national anthems, fireworks, and the opening drumbeats from a section of diehards who call themselves the Emerald City Supporters. The drumming would continue, uninterrupted, for 90 minutes of play and throughout halftime, drowned out only by periodic chants of SEATTLE from one side of the stadium and SOUNDERS from ours.
Sports have never been more international. Soccer fans in Memphis can watch action from the English Premier League every Saturday morning, as live as the NFL action broadcast overseas the next day. But the passion (and intensity) of a fan base remains quite local and reflects the population, tastes, and culture of the city and region a team calls home. College football fans in California are now aware Ole Miss has a special team this season. But if they haven’t spent a couple of hours in the Grove, those fans are in the metaphorical cheap seats when it comes to measuring the Rebels’ impact on this part of the world.
How has soccer developed such a profound following in the Pacific Northwest? To begin with, the Sounders have existed since 1974, a minor-league franchise until joining Major League Soccer in 2009. Seattle is a young city, affluent and diverse . . . a marketing trifecta for a sport that sells its “culture” as much as any star player or championship history. I made the mistake of suggesting those 55,000 fans must have missed the NFL train, or had been caught on the emotional rebound when the NBA’s Sonics left for Oklahoma City. My brother-in-law — who has lived there 14 years now — said MLS is targeting the fan who only watches soccer. There were surely some Seahawk fans in that cacophonous crowd, maybe a Mariner fan or two. But on this night, they were fully engaged in a game much of the United States still considers an exotic distraction until the World Cup is played every four years.
With a few distinct exceptions, MLS players are not getting wealthy like their brethren in MLB. The 19 teams have a salary cap this season of $3.1 million, enough to buy the Mariners a reserve second-baseman. Each team is allowed to “designate” a player or two, though, who doesn’t count against the cap. (Some call this the Beckham Rule.) Sounders forward Clint Dempsey — a star for the U.S. men’s team in Brazil last summer — will take home more than $6 million this season, enough to keep him out of an EPL jersey. He may be the face of the Sounders franchise, but I’m not convinced Dempsey sells a single ticket by himself. Seattle soccer fans are attracted to the Seattle soccer experience.
The game I saw was tight, the only goal scored by Vancouver’s Kekuta Manneh in the last minute before halftime. With the win, the Whitecaps retain the Cascadia Cup, awarded to the top team among Seattle, Vancouver, and the Portland Timbers. (Think Egg Bowl, Mississippi football fans, with three rivals in the mix.) My only regret is not hearing the roar that massive crowd would have delivered for a goal by the home team. (Seattle leads MLS with 19 wins and is a contender for the league championship.)
Two days after my descent (ascent?) into “Green Hell,” CenturyLink hosted more than 65,000 fans (in similar blue-and-green colors) for the Seahawks game with the Dallas Cowboys. (Dallas won its fifth straight game, and first in Seattle in ten years.) The NFL’s defending champs are visible all over the city, the team’s iconic 12th Man flags flying from atop skyscrapers and construction cranes. The closer we get to January’s playoffs, the more the Emerald City may feel like a football town. But listen for the drum beats. And don’t tell a Sounders fan.
