The team generally used blue and white jerseys. They played atMemorial Stadium and various small venues from 1994 until their move toQwest Field (now Lumen Field) in 2003. The Sounders played their last season at theStarfire Sports Complex inTukwila, Washington, which would become the training facility for the MLS team. Their head coach from 2002 to 2008 wasBrian Schmetzer, who had played for the NASL Sounders and later coached the MLS team. A sister organization, theSeattle Sounders Women, played in the women'sUSL W-League from 2001 to 2015.
A bid for a new APSL team, to be named the Sounders and owned by formerMicrosoft executivesScott Oki and Neil Farnsworth, was announced in September 1993.[3] The bid's approval was announced byUnited States Soccer Federation secretary generalHank Steinbrecher on January 30, 1994, during a men's internationalfriendly match between theUnited States andRussia at theKingdome that was attended by 43,651 spectators.[6] The reborn Sounders competed with a rival group that aimed to create a Seattle franchise forMajor League Soccer, the new top-level soccer league for the United States.[7] Hinton was named club president and later appointed himself as head coach prior to the inaugural season.[8]
The Sounders played their inaugural season at theTacoma Dome andMemorial Stadium.[7] The team decided against playing at theKingdome andHusky Stadium due to their high rents, and foundCheney Stadium in Tacoma to be unsuitable for soccer use.[9] 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 theColorado Foxes.[10] Hinton resigned as head coach and club president in 1996 and transferred the rights to the Sounders name to Oki.[7] The Sounders played in the1996 CONCACAF Champions' Cup and advanced to the final round inGuatemala 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 theSeattle Mitre Eagles in the1988 edition, who also lost toCruz Azul.[11]
For the 1999 season, the team played atRenton Memorial Stadium, a 6,500-seat suburban venue inRenton, while Memorial Stadium in Seattle underwent renovations.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]
The Sounders earned four A-League championships, winning the playoffs in 1995, 1996, 2005, and 2007.[15] Seattle finished with the best regular season record in the league in 1994, 2002, and 2007.[16] In addition to their titles, the Sounders finished as runners-up in the league championship to theMontreal Impact in 2004.[17] Seattle drew theRichmond Kickers 1–1 atQwest Field before claiming the 2005 championship 4–3 in a penalty shootout.[18] In 2007, the Sounders defeated theAtlanta Silverbacks 4–0 to claim their fourth championship title, an A-League/USL-1 record.[19]
The team primarily played at Memorial Stadium, which was aging and in need of repairs,[20] and later Seahawks Stadium (Qwest Field) beginning in 2003 despite their low average attendance.[21] Seahawks Stadium had been designed to be used by a future MLS team, but an expansion team had not been granted after it opened.[22] In the early 2000s, the team considered plans to build asoccer-specific stadium with approximately 15,000 to 20,000 seats and a complex of fields in various suburbs, includingFife andKent.[23][24] In 2006, the Sounders proposed a stadium at theKitsap County Faigrounds inBremerton, one of Seattle's western suburbs inKitsap County.[25] A 6,500-seat stadium was proposed again in 2007 as the home of a possible Major League Soccer franchise.[26] 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.[27]
The Sounders looked to earn an MLSexpansion 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.[28] 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".[29] Later ownerAdrian Hanauer also made a bid for a 2005 expansion slot that was instead awarded toReal Salt Lake.[30] On November 13, 2007, Major League Soccer (MLS) announced that it had selected Seattle as the recipient of anexpansion team that would begin play atQwest Field in 2009. USL Sounders ownerAdrian Hanauer would become one of the team's owners, along withDrew Carey,Paul Allen and majority ownerJoe Roth.[31]
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 theStarfire Sports Complex inTukwila.[31][32] The Sounders made their second consecutive appearance in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, where they lost to fellow USL-1 clubCharleston Battery in a penalty shootout.[33] 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.[34] 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.[35] They won all six matches, which also served as a tryout for the MLS team for the existing members of the USL team.[36]
The Sounders adopted a new logo in 1994 that featured anorca jumping from the wordmark tohead a soccer ball.[37] It was replaced by the original logo from the NASL team at the beginning of the 2003 season.[38]
^abcThe USISL A-League used divisions as their equivalent to conferences from 1997 to 1999 before reorganizing them under conferences beginning in the 2000 season.[39]
^abcdFrom 1999 to 2002, the A-League awarded a bonuspoint to teams that scored three or more goals in a match.[52] The Sounders earned 10 bonus points in 1999, 10 bonus points in 2000, 4 bonus points in 2001, and 14 bonus points in 2002.[39]
The Sounders originally played atMemorial Stadium, with select matches at other venues such as theTacoma Dome, and moved toQwest 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.[77] For Sounders matches, Qwest Field was limited to a capacity of 8,500 seats on the east side of the lower bowl.[78] After opening the 2008 season at Qwest Field, the Sounders played their remaining 14 league home fixtures atStarfire Sports Complex.[79]
Various exhibition matches against A-League and MLS opponents were played at local high schools, includingMarysville Pilchuck in 1998 andMount Vernon in 1999.[80][81]
In 2007, the team had eight owners: general managerAdrian 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.[82]
During their first years in the USISL/USL, the Sounders were affiliated with theColorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.[90] Their assigned affiliation was changed to theSan Jose Earthquakes in 2001.[91] The Sounders formed a partnership with the German sideWerder 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.[citation needed] The also formed a partnership with English sideCambridge United in 2006 due to the shared involvement of Adrian Hanauer, who bought the Sounders in 2002.[citation needed]
The Sounders founded a developmentalUSL Premier Development League (PDL) team, namedSeattle Sounders Select, in 1999. They replaced theSeattle BigFoot, an independent team who had been considered an unofficial development squad.[92][93] In the second round of the2001 U.S. Open Cup, they eliminated MLS sideDallas Burn and advanced further than their parent club, losing to theLos Angeles Galaxy in the third round.[94] The team had financial troubles and folded after the 2002 season after failing to pay for its $85,000 budget.[95] The Sounders later formed a relationship with a new PDL franchise, theTacoma Tides, which was established in 2006.[27]
A women's team, namedSeattle Sounders Select Women, began play in 2000 and moved to theUSL W-League the following year.[96][97] The team was rebranded as Seattle Sounders Women in 2003 and was sold in 2008 to Tacoma Tides owner Mike Jennings as part of preparations for the USL–MLS transition.[98][99] The Sounders Women was temporarily home to severalnational team players in 2012 following the collapse ofWomen's Professional Soccer.[97] The Sounders Women left the W-League when it folded in 2015 and moved to theWomen's Premier Soccer League, where they won their first national championship in 2018.[100] The team terminated their branding agreement with the MLS Sounders in January 2020 and were renamed Sound FC.[101]
The Sounders had local two rivals—thePortland Timbers to the south and theVancouver Whitecaps to the north. All three teams were successors to their respective NASL teams that competed in the 1970s and 1980s.[102][103] They competed in the annualCascadia Cup, which was established by fan organizations in 2004 and has been contested by the teams' MLS successors since 2011. The Sounders won the trophy in 2006 and 2007.[104][105]
The original Seattle Sounders were supported by the Seattle Sounders Booster Club in the 1970s and early 1980s.[citation needed] A small group named "The Pod", named for the Sounders'orca mascot, formed to support the second incarnation of the club in the 1990s. TheEmerald City Supporters were formed in 2005 to organize fans and perform songs, chants, and displays during matches. They remained with the club when the Sounders moved to MLS in 2009.[106][107] The Sounders organization created an officialfan club, named the Sounders Legion, in 2007.[82]
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^Miller, Andrew (August 13, 2008). "Battery stuffs Sounders".The Post and Courier. p. C1.
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^Litterer, David (January 29, 2006)."The Year in American Soccer, 1994". Society for American Soccer History.Archived from the original on May 1, 2025. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2025.
^abLitterer, David (October 25, 2003)."USA 1995". RSSSF.Archived from the original on December 6, 2025. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2025.
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^Litterer, David (October 25, 2003)."USA 1997". RSSSF.Archived from the original on November 30, 2023. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2025.
^Litterer, David (April 11, 2010)."The Year in American Soccer, 1997". Society for American Soccer History.Archived from the original on December 7, 2025. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2025.
^Litterer, David (May 30, 2008)."The Year in American Soccer, 1998". Society for American Soccer History.Archived from the original on November 30, 2025. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2025.
^Dunning, James (November 18, 2002). "PDL Soccer: League Nixes Bonus Points, Only Wins, Ties Will Count in Standings".Yakima Herald-Republic. p. D1.
^"US Open Cup 1999". RSSSF. September 2, 2010.Archived from the original on December 7, 2025. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2025.
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^Goloboy, James (September 2, 2010)."US Open Cup 2000". RSSSF.Archived from the original on January 14, 2026. RetrievedSeptember 29, 2025.
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