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You may remember about this time last year, there was some speculation that Adrian Hanauer was giving up his role as general manager in part to focus his energies on getting the Seattle Sounders their own stadium. We used that an excuse to do a rather exhaustive series looking at places the Sounders might actually consider moving.
It turned out to be a mostly mental exercise. Shortly after the start of the 2015 season, the Sounders signed a 10-year lease extension that guarantees them a home through at least 2028.
But just in case you thought we were totally chasing our tails, MLS Commissioner Don Garber recently confirmed that the Sounders had at least explored the possibility of building their own home. Garber made those comments during BlazerCon (the entirety of his interview is honestly worth reading).
"Seattle looked at maybe getting out of CenturyLink [Field, its current home which is shared with the NFL's Seahawks], and maybe building a stadium. They were looking at a 40,000-seat stadium. In order to do that, they've got to tell season ticket-holders that they can't have seats."
It does not appear those discussions got very far, though. In a separate interview, Sounders part owner Joe Roth said what many have thought all along, that building a stadium considerably smaller than the current demand doesn't make a ton of sense.
"Well, we talk about it all the time, and I can't get past the math. We're going to have 45,000, we're going to have 50,000 people a game, right? To build a soccer-specific stadium like they have in Europe, they have 30,000 or 35,000 or 27,000. What am I going to do? I don't want to double the prices, and tell 20,000 people that they can't come anymore. It's just not the Sounders' way."
Obviously, Roth is being a little obtuse. The Sounders could obviously build a stadium larger than the ones he's talking about. Of course, the logistical problems are well documented and the reality is that it might never be possible for the Sounders to find a better home than CenturyLink Field. At least we know it's something they think about, though.