September 9th • 7 pm
Let’s pack Lumen Field for the tail end of the Reign’s inaugural season at their new home.
Seattle’s women’s soccer team OL Reign has recently been on a hot streak, winning the 2022 Women’s Cup and beating Orlando Pride. The Reign’s U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) players—Rapinoe, Rose Lavelle, Alana Cook, and Sofia Huerta—will be just returning to Seattle from two games against Nigeria. Several other top Reign players will also have just finished competing in international play, with Jordyn Huitema and Quinn playing for Canada, Jimena Lopez for Mexico, and Jess Fishlock for Wales.
If you aren’t sold on the sheer talent on our team, let me spell out some stakes. The Reign is ranked fourth going into this matchup against the fifth-place Red Stars, and they’re just a point behind the third-place Thorns. While the Reign doesn’t have to worry about making it into the playoffs, maintaining a fourth or third-place position guarantees a more-advantageous matchup in the first round.
The Reign are good and fun to watch, but Seattle sports fans have historically spurned them. In 2019, when their decrepit home at Memorial Stadium (yes, the field used for high school sports) was deemed uninhabitable, the Reign couldn’t find another Seattle venue to play in and relocated to Tacoma, where they were relegated next to a baseball field for years. Finally, just this year, the powers-that-be made the no-brainer decision to let the women of the Reign play at Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Sounders and Seahawks. This is their inaugural season at Lumen, and it’s genuinely such a good time.
My last point is that the Reign has a brass band and drumline, and I love them.
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