The Seattle Sounders were an American professional soccer team that was founded in 1994 and played in several second-division leagues, beginning with the American Professional Soccer League. They played in the A-League, later renamed the USL First Division, from 1997 to 2008. The team was named for the Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League (NASL), which folded in 1983. The Sounders folded after the 2008 season as part of a transition to a new Major League Soccer (MLS) team named Seattle Sounders FC that debuted in 2009.
The team generally used blue and white jerseys. They played at Memorial Stadium and various small venues from 1994 until their move to Qwest Field (now Lumen Field) in 2003. The Sounders played their last season at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Washington, which would become the training facility for the MLS team. Their head coach from 2002 to 2008 was Brian Schmetzer, who had played for the NASL Sounders and later coached the MLS team. A sister organization, the Seattle Sounders Women, played in the women's USL W-League from 2001 to 2015.
History
The club was founded in 1994 and named after the original Seattle Sounders team, which played from 1974 to 1983 in the North American Soccer League. Former coach Alan Hinton had acquired rights to the Sounders name after the club folded and began a campaign to bring an American Professional Soccer League (APSL; later the A-League) team to the city in 1992. The league previously had another Seattle team, the Seattle Storm, that had joined from the Western Soccer Alliance and played for one APSL season in 1990 before they folded.
A bid for a new APSL team, to be named the Sounders and owned by former Microsoft executives Scott Oki and Neil Farnsworth, was announced in September 1993. The bid's approval was announced by United States Soccer Federation secretary general Hank Steinbrecher on January 30, 1994, during a men's international friendly match between the United States and Russia at the Kingdome that was attended by 43,651 spectators. The reborn Sounders competed with a rival group that aimed to create a Seattle franchise for Major League Soccer, the new top-level soccer league for the United States. Hinton was named club president and later appointed himself as head coach prior to the inaugural season.
The Sounders played their inaugural season at the Tacoma Dome and Memorial Stadium. The team decided against playing at the Kingdome and Husky Stadium due to their high rents, and found Cheney Stadium in Tacoma to be unsuitable for soccer use. The Sounders finished the 1994 season with a 14–6 record, the best in the A-League, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Colorado Foxes. Hinton resigned as head coach and club president in 1996 and transferred the rights to the Sounders name to Oki. The Sounders played in the 1996 CONCACAF Champions' Cup and advanced to the final round in Guatemala City, where they finished at the bottom of a four-team group. They were the second Seattle-based team to play in the continental championship, after the Seattle Mitre Eagles in the 1988 edition, who also lost to Cruz Azul.
For the 1999 season, the team played at Renton Memorial Stadium, a 6,500-seat suburban venue in Renton, while Memorial Stadium in Seattle underwent renovations. The Sounders had an average attendance of 6,132 in 1994, but declined to 2,100 by 1999; the club had also lost its profitability during this time. They attracted more spectators in Renton, but found group sales had declined and needed more locker room space for their various teams; in 2000, the Sounders returned to Memorial Stadium.
The Sounders earned four A-League championships, winning the playoffs in 1995, 1996, 2005, and 2007. Seattle finished with the best regular season record in the league in 1994, 2002, and 2007. In addition to their titles, the Sounders finished as runners-up in the league championship to the Montreal Impact in 2004. Seattle drew the Richmond Kickers 1–1 at Qwest Field before claiming the 2005 championship 4–3 in a penalty shootout. In 2007, the Sounders defeated the Atlanta Silverbacks 4–0 to claim their fourth championship title, an A-League/USL-1 record.
The team primarily played at Memorial Stadium, which was aging and in need of repairs, and later Seahawks Stadium (Qwest Field) beginning in 2003 despite their low average attendance. Seahawks Stadium had been designed to be used by a future MLS team, but an expansion team had not been granted after it opened. In the early 2000s, the team considered plans to build a soccer-specific stadium with approximately 15,000 to 20,000 seats and a complex of fields in various suburbs, including Fife and Kent. In 2006, the Sounders proposed a stadium at the Kitsap County Faigrounds in Bremerton, one of Seattle's western suburbs in Kitsap County. A 6,500-seat stadium was proposed again in 2007 as the home of a possible Major League Soccer franchise. A move to Tacoma or folding the club were also considered in the event that a rival MLS bid won rights to an expansion team in Seattle, according to Hanauer.
MLS expansion and final season
The Sounders looked to earn an MLS expansion team in the 1990s and 2000s while also competing with other prospective ownership groups. Farnsworth and Oki initially stated that they were interested in becoming minority investors in an MLS team and permit use of the Sounders name, rather than being majority owners. In 2000, the club announced plans to pursue a MLS team that would play in the then-unbuilt Seahawks Stadium (now Lumen Field) and keep the A-League franchise as a developmental team named "Sounders Premier". Later owner Adrian Hanauer also made a bid for a 2005 expansion slot that was instead awarded to Real Salt Lake. On November 13, 2007, Major League Soccer (MLS) announced that it had selected Seattle as the recipient of an expansion team that would begin play at Qwest Field in 2009. USL Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer would become one of the team's owners, along with Drew Carey, Paul Allen and majority owner Joe Roth.
The team's name, Seattle Sounders FC, was unveiled on April 7, 2008, continuing the Sounders name into MLS. The USL team would play their last season in 2008, mostly at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila. The Sounders made their second consecutive appearance in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, where they lost to fellow USL-1 club Charleston Battery in a penalty shootout. Following a regular season that finished with a 10–10–10 record, the second-division team were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by the Montreal Impact and played their last competitive match on September 28, 2008. The Sounders played a series of exhibition matches in Argentina against the reserve squads of local clubs as part of a farewell tour in late October 2008. They won all six matches, which also served as a tryout for the MLS team for the existing members of the USL team.
Club identity
The Sounders adopted a new logo in 1994 that featured an orca jumping from the wordmark to head a soccer ball. It was replaced by the original logo from the NASL team at the beginning of the 2003 season.
Year-by-year
This is a complete list of seasons for the A-League/USL club. For a season-by-season history including the current Seattle Sounders FC MLS franchise, see History of professional soccer in Seattle#Sounders season results.
Notes
Honors
Team honors League Championship Winner (4): 1995, 1996, 2005, 2007 Runners-up (1): 2004 Commissioner's Cup (regular season championship) Winner (3): 1994, 2002, 2007 Pacific Division Champion Winner (3): 2000, 2002, 2003 Runners-up (2): 1997, 1998 Western Conference Champion Winner (1): 2004 Cascadia Cup Winner (2): 2006, 2007
Individual player honors
MVP 1995 – Peter Hattrup 1998 – Mark Baena 2002 – Leighton O'Brien 2007 – Sebastian Le Toux
Leading scorer 1995 – Peter Hattrup 1998 – Mark Baena 1999 – Niall Thompson 2006 – Cam Weaver 2007 – Sebastian Le Toux (tied)
Goalkeeper of the Year 1994 – Marcus Hahnemann 1995 – Marcus Hahnemann 1997 – Dusty Hudock
Defender of the Year 2005 – Taylor Graham
Coach of the Year 1994 – Alan Hinton 2000 – Neil Megson 2002 – Brian Schmetzer
Rookie of the Year 1994 – Jason Dunn 2000 – Greg Howes 2006 – Cam Weaver
First team All Star 1994 – Marcus Hahnemann, Neil Megson, Shawn Medved, Chance Fry 1995 – Marcus Hahnemann, Peter Hattrup 1996 – Wade Webber 1997 – Dusty Hudock, Mark Watson 1998 – Mark Baena 1999 – Mark Baena 2000 – Darren Sawatzky 2001 – Leighton O'Brien 2002 – Andrew Gregor, Leighton O'Brien, Brian Ching 2003 – Danny Jackson, Andrew Gregor 2005 – Taylor Graham 2008 – Taylor Graham
Stadiums + Year Attendance 1994 6,348 1995 4,571 1996 3,750 1997 2,873 1998 2,902 1999 2,243 2000 2,143 2001 1,885 2002 4,087 2003 3,357 2004 2,874 2005 2,885 2006 3,826 2007 3,325 2008 3,386
Tacoma Dome, Tacoma (1994) Memorial Stadium, Seattle (1994–1998, 2000–2003) Renton Memorial Stadium, Renton, Washington (1999), due to construction at Seattle Center Interbay Stadium, occasional matches (2002) Huskies Soccer Field, U.S. Open Cup match (2003) Qwest Field (formerly Seahawks Stadium and CenturyLink Field; now Lumen Field), Seattle, Washington (2003–2007) Starfire Sports Complex, Tukwila, Washington (2005–2007 occasional games, 2008)
The Sounders originally played at Memorial Stadium, with select matches at other venues such as the Tacoma Dome, and moved to Qwest Field (originally Seahawks Stadium) in 2003. The Sounders and the Sounders Select Women played the first-ever sporting event at the stadium on July 28, 2002, before 25,515 fans—setting an A-League attendance record. For Sounders matches, Qwest Field was limited to a capacity of 8,500 seats on the east side of the lower bowl. After opening the 2008 season at Qwest Field, the Sounders played their remaining 14 league home fixtures at Starfire Sports Complex.
Various exhibition matches against A-League and MLS opponents were played at local high schools, including Marysville Pilchuck in 1998 and Mount Vernon in 1999.
Ownership and management
In 2007, the team had eight owners: general manager Adrian Hanauer; former Microsoft executives Scott Oki, Neil Farnsworth, and Josef Bascovitz; tour operator Paul Barry; real estate developer Robin Waite; tech executive Rick Cantu; and investor Tor Taylor. The Sounders had been unprofitable for most of their existence in the second division of American soccer.
Head coaches Note: A-League/USL First Division did not have draws until 2000. NameNationTenureRecord Alan Hinton April 6, 1994 – January 22, 1996 37 15 – Neil Megson March 1, 1996 – April 19, 2001 89 47 3 Bernie James April 19, 2001 – November 9, 2001 (interim) 13 12 1 Brian Schmetzer November 28, 2001 – 2008 122 69 46
Affiliated teams
During their first years in the USISL/USL, the Sounders were affiliated with the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Their assigned affiliation was changed to the San Jose Earthquakes in 2001. The Sounders formed a partnership with the German side Werder Bremen in 1998 due to Sounders USL-PDL player Andrew Dallman's involvement with the German side via US indoor soccer legends Fernando Clavijo, Raffaele Ruotolo, and Jean Willrich. The also formed a partnership with English side Cambridge United in 2006 due to the shared involvement of Adrian Hanauer, who bought the Sounders in 2002.