Seattle's Pre-Sounders Soccer History Aplenty

• Tacoma News Tribune, Thursday, March 19, 2009 4:15 PM

Using history to remind us that the buzz around the Sounders' MLS debut isn't the first time that the city of Seattle has been soccer-crazy, Tacoma News Tribune writer John McGrath tells of the times "before Qwest Field replaced the Kingdome, before an indoor soccer attendance record was set in the Tacoma Dome."

Delving back into the 1970s when the incarnation of the Sounders had a mere 900 season-ticket holders, McGrath documents in chronological order the "10 events that helped soccer's rise from a club-sport curiosity to the galvanizing force behind a Sounders season-ticket base of 22,000."

From the 58,000 fans that packed the Kingdome to watch Pele's New York Cosmos in 1976, to 2003's three-hour sell-off of tickets for an exhibition between Celtic and Manchester United, McGrath provides proof that the sport's "foothold in the Puget Sound region is deeper than its rocky history of failed franchises and bankrupt leagues might indicate."

Read the whole story at Tacoma News Tribune »