'A great sign for Washington soccer': Sounders play for sold-out crowd in Spokane
Mar. 19—While Spokane's official nickname is "Hooptown USA," it's also home to extremely passionate soccer fans — as proven by the crowd that appeared on Wednesday for the first Major League Soccer game played in the city. That passion was evidenced by the endless sea of green, black, blue and white adorned by the 5,126 spectators that sold out ONE Spokane Stadium on Wednesday night to watch the Seattle Sounders defeat the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 (5-1 aggregate) in the second leg of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football Champions Cup Round of 16, and advance to the quarterfinals.
Local Sounders fans are typically forced to trek roughly 279 miles to experience the exhilaration of watching their favorite Sounders players. But Seattle's primary home, Lumen Field, is in the middle of renovations for the upcoming 2026 World Cup that begins in June. So, for one night, Seattle came to them.
And Spokane responded, setting a record for the highest-attended CONCACAF Champions Cup match in the state played outside of Seattle. Craig Waibel, Seattle's general manager and a Lewis and Clark High School alum, said prior to the game that the only thing the organization was looking for when it planned its trip to Spokane was "support. " It was the "one thing we asked for ...
and tonight we're getting it," he said. Local Sounders fan Brandon Aldaco said that he has loved the club his whole life. It was his fifth time seeing them compete in person.
He was excited to see that his favorite Major League Soccer team would be playing just 15 minutes away from his apartment. "I got tickets right as soon as they came out," Aldaco said. The stadium wasn't just filled with Sounders fanatics, though.
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