(Captions shaded in gray mean the photo can be clicked to bring up a much larger version on the photo)

Click here to read the match report for the Whitecaps/Sounders match with 12 photos

On June 19, 1997, Washington state voters had been asked to vote on a referendum to fund $300 Million towards a new stadium for the NFL Seahawks, a vote that was likely to determine whether the team stayed in Seattle or moved to Los Angeles. The stadium measure narrowly passed, with a 51.5% vote, largely driven by voters in the Seattle area. While the stadium referendum was touted as a Football/Soccer facility with natural grass, in the end the Seahawks demanded, and got, Field Turf instead. And while this may put Seahawks Stadium's future as a mecca for soccer in doubt, the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps were more than willing to put it through it's paces as the A-League teams were set to christen the new facility on July 28, 2002; 1,865 days after the referendum had passed.

But it appeared for awhile that the weather was set to dampen this historic day. Heavy rains were hitting the Seattle area in the early afternoon, and while the rain does not affect the turf very much, and most of the crowd is under a roof at the new stadium, it could keep some of the expected crowd of over 20,000 away. As it turned out, after the early afternoon downpour moved through, only sporadic light rain would fall for the rest of the night, almost unnoticed in the excitement of the opening of the new stadium.

Lots of activity in the West Plaza

I arrived at the stadium at about 3pm, two hours before the women's game between the Vancouver Breakers and Seattle Sounders Select Women was set to kick off. Although the 8pm men's game between the Sounders and Whitecaps was touted as the first event at the new stadium, it would in fact be the women who would play the first competitive game on the 110x66 yard pitch.

Entering at the northwest gate, I was surprised to find the plaza level already quite busy with activity, as a number of companies had set up booths under the stands. There were already several hundred fans mingling at the booths, including at least 30 or 40 people crowded around the Sounders merchandise booth. For a team that has struggled this year with attendance despite having the best season in the team's history, this seemed to indicate to me that the interest for the team is still there, even if it hasn't resulted in fans in the bleachers at Memorial Stadium.

The Columbia Center shrouded in clouds

After walking through the booths and making my way to the Southwest tunnel, I went out onto the field, which was filled with members of local youth soccer teams, running drills, playing mini-games, and waving to their families in the stands. A few hundred fans were already in the stands, mostly parents of the kids on the field of course. But for me, the experience was quite surrealistic.

Having been a Seahawks season ticket holder since 1997 and a fan for 20 years before that, I had followed the stadium construction closely, mostly through Susan Dennis' daily pictures that she had posted on her website, and of course had seen the computer renderings. And from my somewhat sporadic participation on the Seahawks.Net message board ,I had seen the pictures of the tours that some fans had been taking and of the stadium open house which had taken place the previous week. But the real thing put all of that to shame. My first impression was that the seats were much closer to the field than I had thought. Even the far corners of the upper deck (which is where my seat will be) seemed very close. Clearly that had been the intent of the architect, and they accomplished it very well. The roofs over the east and west side stands reminded me of some European soccer stadiums, though the opening at the north end of the stadium, with it's triangular bleachers at the bottom and tall skinny tower, was unlike anything I had ever seen. Fog was crawling over the top of the Columbia Center, the tallest building west of the Mississippi visible beyond the north tower, and it made an already surreal experience seem even more so.

Panorama of Seahawks Stadium

The Breakers and Sounders Select Women prepare to play

I eventually found my way up to the press box, where Bart Wiley and Alan Douglas, the Communication Directors for the Sounders and Whitecaps respectively, were already getting ready for the day's events. I talked for a little while with Alan, and then grabbed a copy of the game program and the World Football Pages magazine (out of Vancouver, a magazine I had heard of but had never read) and sat down to glance through them. A few pages into the magazine I happened to come across a picture of the Portland Rain women's team, a team who I just happen to do a web page for as well. Seeing that there made me smile, and feel like the planets were aligning right that day. Days like that are rare, and you have to appreciate them when they happen.

After wandering around some of the various parts of the stadium, including the club level on the west side, and up to the suite level on the east side (where I was promptly chased back down the stairs by a very stern lecture from an usher about not being allowed there, even on the outside terrace), I settled into a seat to watch the kickoff of the women's game. By midway through the second half I was crouching behind the south goal taking pictures. I was joined by a man I had seen briefly in the press box, but whom I did not know. After exchanging a brief hello, I found out he was Chris J. Vaughan Griffiths, who was the editor of the World Football Pages, and who recognized my name and knew of my work with the Timbers and a-league.com.

Rachel Roderick marked by Katie Lee

We talked for a few minutes about the stadium, the A-League, and the PCSL (the league the Rain plays in, with most of the league's teams being in B.C.). It was nice to have made contact with another person in the Northwest soccer community, something that seems to happen quite often on my trips around the Northwest.

The Breakers vs. Sounders Select match on the field was producing lots of goals, even though I was managing to miss all of them, either through fiddling with my camera, or by talking to people. By this time there were a few thousand fans in the stands, and they seemed to be enjoying the match, and the spectacular setting. It was also obvious there were glitches in the stadium that were still being worked out. The video screen at the north end had red and green boxes flashing on it from time to time, and occasionally the x-y crosshairs would show up. The clock also locked up at 15 minutes into the match, and then some incomprehensible numbers showed on the clock before it was cleared about 10 minutes later.

Sara Maglio pushes into the 18 yard box

At halftime I wandered back up to the press box and grabbed one of the press lunches, and sat in the top row of the press box eating and watching the second half. I noticed that only the south video screens are visible from this top row, and the scoreboards that run along the bottom of the upper deck (and were actually the only place the game score was being displayed) were not. I had to crouch down to be able to see the scoreboard to confirm the score. There was some good-natured banter going on between the Sounders and Whitecaps staff in the press box, sometimes shouting at the referees as if the game was on TV: "Offside! Offside! Oh come on!!" Some people may think the press box at a sporting event is a quiet office-like environment where everyone just gets down to their work. But "quiet" would definitely not be the word to describe it, at least in the events that I have been in the press box for. I also probably have a different perspective than most people in the press box, being a Unix Network Administrator posing as a reporter and photographer for the day.

Later in the women's game, two roars went up from the supporters inside the press box, first from the Vancouver contingent when the Breakers evened the score at 3-3 in the 90th minute, and a second about 15 minutes later when the home team ended Vancouver's perfect regular season when Jodi Campbell slotted a low shot into the left side of the goal three minutes into extra time.

View of the pitch from the pressbox

Immediately after the first game ended, the Sounders and Whitecaps took the field to warm up, so I went back down the press elevator to field level, and went in behind the south goal again. Some of the members of the Sounders supporters group "The Pod" had begun to assemble behind the south goal, and I recognized some of them so I said hello to them, and then had to put up with a few minutes of them mocking my hometown Timbers, which was quite expected and quite alright. I mentioned to a few of them that I knew exactly how I could really stir them up, and when they asked me how, I quickly yanked out the Timbers jersey I had conveniently stuffed in my camera bag and started waving it in front of them, provoking a chant of "Celtic ripoff!" from the Sounders faithful. I had actually considered wearing the jersey, which probably wouldn't have been a good idea, but I made sure I had it with me, just in case.

I wandered back up to the press box briefly to get the match rosters, and exchanged a quick hello with Ron Stickney, a fellow a-league.com match reporter. Once the women's game had run late, the Sounders/Whitecaps match was announced as being pushed back to an 8:20 start, even though when all of the pre-game festivities were over, it wouldn't actually start until 8:40. The crowd was filling in nicely, and by the scheduled start time, most of the lower bowl was full, as well as a scattering of fans in the bleachers on the north tower. The upper deck was completely closed off for this match.

Close up of the HawkVisition screen at the south end

The players on each team were announced individually as they ran out of the tunnel at the southeast corner of the stadium, and once the national anthems were finished (each anthem must have reached near-record lengths, the Canadian anthem having a very low, almost dirge-like arrangement while the American anthem featured some lines being repeated over and over again). But finally at 8:40, Darren Sawatzky tapped the ball a few inches forward to Brian Ching, and the historic match was on.

Click here to read the actual match report

Club Lounge on the west side

I started out crowded behind the boards at the south end, which seems to be my favorite spot for non-Timbers related events (I spent the entire US vs. Honduras match behind the south goal, at Safeco Field, which is just next door to Seahawks Stadium). But the Whitecaps were not putting on much of an attack, so in pursuit of better pictures, I wandered up the nearest sideline, which was on the west side. I then realized that I'd have to go behind the team benches and wasn't sure this was such a good idea. So I checked with an usher first (this one was pretty nice and made no move to chase me away), and he said it was okay so I moved up the sideline to the north end, the goal that the Sounders were attacking in the first half.

I had a very quick lesson on standing too close to the sideline, something I rarely do. Near the corners, the wall is no more than 15 feet back from the sideline, and when a Vancouver defender chased a ball to the sideline right in front of me, he reached it just before an attacking Sounder and blasted it up into the crowd. With me standing a few feet out from the wall, the ball went directly over my head so closely that it actually lifted my bangs as it flew back into the crowd. A few inches lower and I would have been out cold, or suffered a broken nose, or both. I decided that maybe I should be back a few more feet, and crouch down a bit.

The Seahawks Stadium press box

A few minutes later, my persistence to stay in the same spot paid off when I managed to get a great series of shots of Andrew Gregor's goal, the first of the match. I had just waited for the Brian Ching cross to get into the box, then holding down the shutter to spool pictures into memory as the ball flew towards Gregor, I snapped the shot just as the ball trickled past Vancouver goalkeeper Alex Marques. The sound of the crowd as my viewfinder went temporarily black indicated that the ball had indeed gone in, and quickly checking the screen on the back of my camera, confirmed that I had gotten six shots, from just before the ball got to Gregor, to just before the ball went into the net. The best shot was clearly the third, with Marques down with a grimace on his face, Gregor jumping over him, and the ball tricking into the net. Sometimes there is something to be said getting lucky, but as I said earlier, the planets seemed aligned right this night.

Not too long afterwards, the Sounders were awarded a penalty kick and I moved back along the sideline a few feet to catch this one. I had the pictures spooling again and clicked as the ball went into the net. Six shots: from just before the ball was struck to it just hitting the back of the net. That one was easy.

The scoreboards had their share of glitches this day

I happened to run into Daryl Hickman, the Sounders Director of Operations a few minutes later as I moved to the north side of the pitch, and quickly flipped the image on the mini-screen on my camera back to show him the Gregor goal. Showing off a little bit? Perhaps, but sometimes the excitement of getting a great shot is something that you want to share, immediately, to anyone who happens to walk by. In absence of anyone else, Daryl did just fine.

A few minutes later I crouched down behind the boards at the north end, and shortly afterwards, I heard a cry of "Allison!" come down from somewhere above and behind me. I looked back over my head and saw someone waving down to me from the Whitecaps supporters section. I didn't recognize the person, but he yelled down "It is you, I recognize your picture from a-league.com". Someone else then yelled down something about liking my pictures, and I yelled back a thank you and waved and went back to my picture taking. This was getting pretty weird, I thought.

The Seahawks Stadium crowd at the start of the match

It was halftime shortly afterwards and I noticed they were going to introduce Timbers coach Bobby Howe along with about 20 other former Sounders, so I wandered out on the field and took a picture of Bobby as he was recognized, though I'm sure he didn't know I was there at the time. But I stayed around long enough to congratulate him as he left the field, and he gave me a big hug and thank you in return. Little rewards like that make giving your all to support the team (or the league) worth all of the long hours.

I decided I should probably be courteous and go up into the Whitecaps section to say hello to whomever had yelled down to me, so I quickly made my exit and up the stairs to the main level, and slipped down into the Whitecaps supporters section just as the second half began.

It had been "whitecaps79" from the USL Discussions Board who had yelled down, and I crouched down beside him and his wife (whose name is also Allison) and chatted with them for a little bit, trying to catch some pictures from this angle at the same time. On a Jeff Clarke corner, I just happened to be pointing at the right spot when Dave Morris headed in a goal from close-in, and for the third straight time that night, I had snapped a picture of a goal. 3-for-3 on this night, I was hitting on all cylinders! I showed the picture to them both, and after a few more minutes, made my way back up onto the concourse.

I spent most of the rest of the match moving clockwise around the concourse back to the south end, missing the third Seattle goal when my camera wouldn't come out of sleep mode quickly enough, and missing the final goal when I had snapped a badly out of focus picture just before Viet Nguyen had redirected the Brian Ching shot into the net. But my camera was showing low batteries anyway, so I shut it off and sat back.

For the rest of the match, I sat behind the goal at the south end, trying to absorb the whole experience. It wasn't a Timbers or Thunder match (the teams I have supported going back to 1994), or the United States team, but 25,000 fans in the stands for an A-League game is a great thing for the league, for the sport, and for soccer in the Northwest. The league record for fans at a match (regular season or post-season) had been shattered by a good 10,000 fans, and with the attention on the spectacular new facility; the Sounders, the Whitecaps, the A-League, and soccer in general were all shining in their full glory on this night, and I felt privileged to have been there to see it.

A still-lighted stadium in the dark night

On my way out of the stadium, I pulled out my camera with my nearly dead batteries and snapped a few more pictures of the stadium, still bathed in full spotlight, from the northern parking lot. There were no touching scenes of parents and children in their different-era Sounders uniforms to be had, which might have made a nice picture had I had enough power left to fire off the flash. It was just the stadium and me this time. I never did get up to the upper deck to see my seat for the Seahawks games, but I could look up and see the notch in the upper deck where it will be, and it didn't bother me. Football would be for later; this was soccer's night.

I got one last picture as I walked along 4th Avenue to my parking garage. I got a picture of the backlit "Seahawks Stadium" sign just before my batteries finally gave out.