Seattle’s identity as a sports city runs deeper than most visitors expect. Most people know the Seahawks, maybe the Mariners. Few realize the city’s relationship with major professional sports dates to 1917, when a hockey team called the Metropolitans became the first U.S.-based club to win the Stanley Cup. From that championship to the Kraken’s arrival more than a century later, the story is longer, and harder, than it looks from the outside.
The Foundation: Ice and Baseball
The Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup against the Montreal Canadiens with a 9-1 victory in Game 4 on March 26, 1917. Forward Bernie Morris scored six goals in the clinching game and 14 during the four-game series. Seattle won the best-of-five series three games to one, becoming the first U.S.-based team to capture the Stanley Cup. The Metropolitans remained one of the strongest teams in Pacific Coast Hockey Association history before folding in 1924.
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Professional baseball in Seattle dates to 1890, when the city’s first professional club played in the Pacific Northwest Baseball League. Decades later, the Seattle Rainiers became a fixture of the Pacific Coast League. Seattle’s first Major League Baseball team was the Seattle Pilots, who debuted in 1969, finished last in the American League West, and played only one season before relocating to Milwaukee and becoming the Brewers in 1970. The city, King County, and the state of Washington sued the American League over the move. With the case still being tried in January 1976, American League owners voted to award Seattle an expansion franchise for 1977. The lawsuit was suspended the following month, clearing the way for the Mariners.
The Three-Sport City Takes Shape
The SuperSonics arrived first, joining the NBA in 1967 as an expansion team, and delivered one of the city’s defining sports moments in 1979. On June 1, the Sonics defeated the Washington Bullets 97-93 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Landover, Maryland, winning the series four games to one. Gus Williams scored 23 points, and Jack Sikma grabbed 17 rebounds. It was Seattle’s first NBA championship and its first championship in one of today’s four major men’s professional sports leagues.
The Seattle Seahawks began play in the National Football League in 1976 and the Mariners joined Major League Baseball in 1977, giving the city three major-league franchises at once. The Seahawks and Mariners both made the Kingdome their home, while the SuperSonics also played there for several seasons. The city’s major sports footprint had suddenly become much larger.
1995: The Season That Saved Baseball in Seattle
Few seasons changed Seattle’s sports landscape as dramatically as the 1995 Mariners did. The franchise’s uncertain stadium situation had fueled fears that the team could eventually leave Seattle. Anchored by Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, and a young Alex Rodriguez, the Mariners erased a 13-game deficit in the American League West and defeated the California Angels 9-1 in a one-game tiebreaker for the division title.
Then came Game 5 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees, decided in the 11th inning when Edgar Martinez doubled down the left-field line to score Joey Cora and Griffey for a 6-5 victory. The postseason run transformed public and political momentum around the team. After a King County stadium funding measure had narrowly failed in September, the Washington Legislature approved a new ballpark funding package following the season. The stadium opened as Safeco Field in 1999 and is now T-Mobile Park.
The Storm Build a Championship Dynasty
The arrival of the Seattle Storm in 2000 added another major professional team to the city, and it did not take long for the franchise to establish itself. Led by stars including Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson, Seattle won its first WNBA championship in 2004, defeating the Connecticut Sun in three games. The Storm followed with another title in 2010, sweeping the Atlanta Dream behind Finals MVP Jackson.
A new championship core emerged later in the decade. With Bird joined by Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd, Seattle swept the Washington Mystics to win the 2018 WNBA Finals and then swept the Las Vegas Aces in 2020 for a fourth championship. Bird was part of all four title teams, while Stewart earned Finals MVP honors in both 2018 and 2020. The run made the Storm one of the WNBA’s most successful franchises and ensured that Seattle’s championship history was not limited to its men’s teams.
The Wound That Didn’t Heal
In 2008, after 41 seasons in Seattle, the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. Few sports decisions have stayed rawer in the city’s memory. The franchise that had given Seattle its only NBA championship was gone, and efforts to bring the league back have continued ever since. That possibility took a significant step forward in March 2026, when the NBA Board of Governors formally authorized the league to explore potential expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas. The process does not guarantee that either city will receive a team, but Seattle is officially under consideration.
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Soccer Finds a Massive Audience in Seattle
Seattle’s reputation as a soccer city exploded when the Sounders joined Major League Soccer in 2009. The club reached the playoffs in each of its first 13 MLS seasons and quickly filled its trophy case, winning U.S. Open Cups in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2014 along with the 2014 Supporters’ Shield. The biggest domestic breakthrough came in 2016, when Seattle defeated Toronto FC in a penalty shootout to win its first MLS Cup. Three years later, the Sounders beat Toronto again, this time 3-1 before 69,274 fans at CenturyLink Field, to capture a second league championship.
The club reached an even bigger milestone in 2022. Seattle defeated Mexico’s Pumas UNAM 5-2 on aggregate to win the Concacaf Champions League, capped by a 3-0 victory at Lumen Field before a tournament-record crowd of 68,741. The Sounders became the first MLS club to win the competition in its modern Champions League era and earned a place in the FIFA Club World Cup.
Seattle’s soccer story is not limited to the Sounders. Seattle Reign FC was one of the founding clubs of the National Women’s Soccer League when play began in 2013. The Reign have won three NWSL Shields, in 2014, 2015, and 2022, and reached the NWSL Championship match three times. Together, the Sounders and Reign helped turn Seattle into one of the country’s most established professional soccer markets.
Two Super Bowls and a Full Roster
The Seahawks eventually gave Seattle another championship team. Under Pete Carroll, they assembled one of the most feared defenses in NFL history, known as the Legion of Boom, and defeated the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. Twelve years later, a Seahawks team coached by Mike Macdonald won it all again. Seattle went 14-3 during the 2025 regular season, beat the San Francisco 49ers 41-6 in the divisional round and the Los Angeles Rams 31-27 in the NFC Championship Game, then defeated the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium on February 8, 2026. Kicker Jason Myers made a Super Bowl-record five field goals in the victory.
The Kraken Bring Major-League Hockey Back
The Seattle Kraken began NHL play in 2021, bringing the league to a city whose top-level hockey history stretched back more than a century. Climate Pledge Arena, rebuilt on the site of the former Seattle Center Coliseum and KeyArena, gave the expansion franchise a home in the heart of the city. The Kraken finished near the bottom of the NHL standings in their inaugural season, but the turnaround came quickly.
In 2023, just their second season, the Kraken reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs and upset the defending champion Colorado Avalanche in seven games. Seattle became the first expansion team in NHL history to eliminate the reigning Stanley Cup champion in its first playoff series. The Kraken pushed the Dallas Stars to seven games in the next round before their postseason run ended, giving Seattle its first taste of NHL playoff hockey and adding another chapter to a story that began with the Metropolitans in 1917.
Seattle now fields major professional teams in football, baseball, hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s basketball. The Storm have built a four-championship legacy, the Sounders have won domestic and continental titles, the Kraken restored NHL hockey, and the Seahawks have twice reached the sport’s summit. The possibility of an NBA return remains open, and for the first time in years, the league is formally studying what expansion to Seattle could look like.
