martjs Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 After years of anticipation, professional football comes back to Seattle tonight. The newly formed MLS franchise named Seattle Sounders F.C. play their first match against New York Red Bulls at Qwest Field (home of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team). The 3rd tier of the 70,000 seater stadium is not being opened but over 30,000 fans are expected to attend. Me and a couple of mates are going tonight to see how it turns out. But we couldn't convince our Italian friend (Napoli fan) to come as he has seen enough MLS on telly! Local newspaper article http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/soun...sounders19.html Emerald City Supporters fan web site http://www.weareecs.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ackey Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Good Luck to them. Great City. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martjs Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 Good Luck to them. Great City. Cheers Ackey. Can you move my post to "General Football" forum? I meant to post it in that forum. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_b_100 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Great city great stadium .... great avatar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_ragg1984 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Are there any plans for Seattle to build their own stadium? One of the big problems with MLS is that 3 or 4 teams share with NFL or College teams, and bu September the pitch has all the American football marking...which is well annoying! Also, isnt it true that Seattle have sold more season tickets than any other team in MLS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martjs Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 Are there any plans for Seattle to build their own stadium? One of the big problems with MLS is that 3 or 4 teams share with NFL or College teams, and bu September the pitch has all the American football marking...which is well annoying! Also, isnt it true that Seattle have sold more season tickets than any other team in MLS? I think that's the long term plan. The irony is that Qwest Field was built by the City of Seattle with taxpayers' money with an agreement that the pitch would be grass so that both American and, er, English football (esp. World Cup quailifiers) could be played there. But then the Seahawks reneged on the agreement and put "field turf" down. They have brought grass in for some matches though. I thnk they have sold over 20,000 season tickets. Amazing really, but the region is supposed to be a "soccer hotbed". I've been in crowds of over 40,000 for the most meaningless friendly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_ragg1984 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I think that's the long term plan. The irony is that Qwest Field was built by the City of Seattle with taxpayers' money with an agreement that the pitch would be grass so that both American and, er, English football (esp. World Cup quailifiers) could be played there. But then the Seahawks reneged on the agreement and put "field turf" down. They have brought grass in for some matches though. I thnk they have sold over 20,000 season tickets. Amazing really, but the region is supposed to be a "soccer hotbed". I've been in crowds of over 40,000 for the most meaningless friendly. Is Freddie Ljungberg fit for tonight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martjs Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 Is Freddie Ljungberg fit for tonight? I think so Dave... Not heard much team news. I just read this article in the local paper http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/spor...sadvance19.html Didnt know it kicked off at 6.25pm - 25 mins more drinking time... Another article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29773107/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_ragg1984 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Pretty good start for Seattle, 3-0 win. What was the standard like? On TV it never looks too good, but its always different when you are at the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martjs Posted March 23, 2009 Author Share Posted March 23, 2009 Pretty good start for Seattle, 3-0 win. What was the standard like? On TV it never looks too good, but its always different when you are at the game. The standard wasn't great and a decent League One _or Two) team would have thrashed either side. I went with two Man City fans and a Man United fan. They thought it was pretty bad too as they're used to watching Prem football. I expected more from NYRB as they were runners-up in last season's MLS playoff final (a bit like rugby league's play-off thingy final). But I read they were "over-achievers" last season... There was hardly any movement off the ball by either team. I wonder how Freddy would have fared if he was fit. One of the most annoying things I find about attending American sporting events is that the game seems to be going on in the background for many people. People are in and out of their seats getting food and drinks and it's a constant interruption. End of rant! They are trying to recreate a "European" atmosphere in certain parts of the ground with a singing area and a brass band section - FFS, I dunno... We even had a "song sheet" - where "Sounders Til I Die" was supposed to be sang at the 74th minute (? equivalent to the 7th inning stretch in baseball?) but that was 'ruined' by Sounders scoring their 3rd goal right on around that time. One other thing I noticed was a lot of fans were standing for long periods of the match but there were no stewards going around forcing them to sit down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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