The Oregonian on Friday named Seattle, not its home base of Portland, as “Soccer City, USA.”
The Rose City has had the “Soccer City” moniker since 1975 when the Portland Timbers joined the NASL, but after analyzing 16 cities across the country, its rival neighbor to the north was found as soccer’s No. 1 hotbed.
According to the report, The Oregonian used 10 categories to determine “interest and viability” for soccer in all 16 U.S. cities that have Major League Soccer teams. It focused on attendance, TV ratings and team success. The categories that were weighted the highest were “2015 local TV ratings for MLS clubs, average 2015 MLS attendance numbers, MLS titles and MLS Homegrown signings.”
“Seattle has been an incredible soccer market for a long time, beginning in the 1970s when the Sounders were part of the North American Soccer League,” Seattle Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer said. “Even before we entered MLS, there was this unbelievable foundation for soccer support in Seattle.”
Seattle finished with a total of 598 points out of a possible 1,000, according to the findings. Portland came in second with 433 followed by Kansas City (383), Orlando (372) and New York City (336) to round out the top five. Chester, Pa., where the Philadelphia Union play, came in last with 78 points.
