![]() ![]() The Stars and their league shut down in 1992.Ī team called at first FC Seattle and later FC Seattle Storm operated from 1984 to 1990. But the MISL suffered from the same problem as the North American Soccer League: Costs exceeded revenue. Hinton coached them from 1985 to 1990, including 1987 when they drew an indoor-soccer record crowd of 21,728 for Game 7 of the 1987 league championship series, won by the Dallas Sidekicks in overtime. The Stars were formed in 1983 and played in the Tacoma Dome. Looking for work, some Sounders players joined the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League. The Sounders folded on September 6, 1983, and the league went out of business the next year. Coluccio sold the team after the 1982 season. Attendance declined over the next two years as the number of teams dropped from 24 to 13. Player salaries and travel costs contributed to rising debts. The NASL and the Sounders peaked in popularity that season. 1950) scored a league-best 25 goals and was named the league's Most Valuable Player, and Hinton was named its top coach. They won a league-record 25 games forward Roger Davies (b. Their best season was 1980, their first with Hinton as head coach and Frank Coluccio (1930-2007) as owner. 1942) - but lost both times to the Cosmos. The Sounders reached Soccer Bowl, the North American Soccer League's championship game, twice - in 1977 under Gabriel and in 1982 under Alan Hinton (b. 1957), who was signed as a 19-year-old and was named 1977 NASL Rookie of the Year, and Tacoma's Mark Peterson (1960-2011), the team's all-time leader in goals. Original coach John Best, from 1974 to 1976, and his successor Jimmy Gabriel, 1977 to 1979, formed the league's first reserve program, which produced such players as West Seattle's Jimmy McAlister (b. The Sounders were adept at cultivating young local talent, which helped endear them to fans. ![]() Over the next five seasons, the Sounders averaged crowds of about 23,000, generally outdrawing the Kingdome's other non-football tenants - Major League Baseball's Mariners and the National Basketball Association's Sonics. They were part of that building's first sporting event, an exhibition match against the New York Cosmos and Brazilian star Pele that drew 58,128, at that time the biggest soccer crowd in U.S. In 1976, the Sounders moved into the newly completed Kingdome. They drew 12,132 for their first home game and midway through their debut season attracted the first league's capacity crowd, about 13,000. The Lads, as the Sounders came to be called, played their first two years in Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center, where they were quickly adopted by enthusiastic fans. They taught Seattle fans to call the soccer field a pitch and to appreciate the subtle intricacies of the game. Meanwhile, the Sounders emerged in 1974 as a hard-working, hard-playing team dominated initially by veteran English players. A group of prominent Seattle businessmen hoping to get a football team was steered toward the North American Soccer League (NASL), which offered them an expansion franchise in 1973. The original Sounders sprang from efforts to land a National Football League (NFL) franchise for Seattle. Fans played a vital part, turning out in record numbers and creating a stadium atmosphere unrivaled in North America. The MLS Sounders made waves with some early signings and then a big splash with a debut season that was hailed as a model for all professional teams. That early team folded in 1983, and pro soccer in Seattle went into a holding period of less ambitious clubs and fast-changing leagues before landing an MLS expansion franchise that began play in 2009. The name, however, dates back to 1974 with the birth of the North American Soccer League's Seattle Sounders. Seattle Sounders FC is a Major League Soccer (MLS) team that began play in 2009.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |