Question for Seattle area sports fans

I'm just curious what the current sports climate is up there and who's the most popular. I'm not asking for who you like individually, but what the vibe of the whole city, and who the city supports. So put them in order of popularity in the city:

Seahawks
Husky hoops
Husky football
Sounders
Mariners

I'm asking because I had a debate with a buddy about whether the mariners or the sounders are more popular.

For me it's

Seahawks
UW football
UW basketball
Sounders
Rainiers
old sonics games on NBA tv
Professional lacross
Ultimate frisbee
Miniature golf
Bowling
Taking naps

Then if I'm really in a bind I root for teams who are playing against the Mariners.

This is a football town, IMO.

The Sounders are the reverse of the other pro teams in that the majority of their fans are in the city. I VERY rarely meet east side Sounder fans. They all live in Seattle. But they're third behind Seahawks/Husky football.

Then the Ms and Husky BB get attention when they're competitive, but not when they're bad like the other three you listed do.

Me, personally?

Seahawks
Mariners
Husky football

The rest don't really score

The Mariners probably have a larger overall die-hard fanbase, but the Sounders certainly have more raucous events.

Comparing baseball and any other sport in terms of attendance is tough, since there's so many games. The Mariners are also basically the least successful MLB franchise in existence, and after 13+ years of futility the second half of lost seasons can be a bit under-attended. But I guarantee a Mariners world series win would be more meaningful to more people than a Sounders championship.

For me, personally, in the order of which championships I care most about:
Mariners
Seahawks
UW football
UW basketball

In the order of which teams I have the most fun watching in the last 10 years:
Seahawks
UW football
Mariners
UW basketball

I root for the Seahawks and the Huskies. The rest can just go die. Especially the Mariners.

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Hawks
UW football
Sounders
Mariners


Though personally I'd put Mariners above Sounders but the M's are on my crap list as they threw roadblocks at the arena.

Seahawks
Seahawks
Seahawks
Seahawks

TBH, it is really just a football town now that the Sonics are gone. It's the Seahawks, and then everyone else. When we had the Sonics, I think it was a basketball town and then a football town. But to answer your question:

Seahawks
Husky Football
Mariners
Sounders
Husky Basketball

The Mariners stay relvevant because they're a Major League Baseball franchise. As much as we suck, people will still pay attention. Husky basketball was on the rise but has fallen off the last few years due to the program struggling. Could you imagine this town with the Seahawks and Sonics (Westbrook and Durant)? Wow.

Sonics
Husky football
Husky basketball
Seahawks
Whoever is playing the Ducks

As of today I am no longer a Mariners fan and am considering Oakland, SF and the Dodgers.

jkitsune":5351r6tk said:

The Mariners probably have a larger overall die-hard fanbase, but the Sounders certainly have more raucous events.

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This is pretty much what I was arguiing. That the mariners probably have a much larger fan base but that the sounders probably have a more hard core fan base at the moment. Basically are argument was whether soccer was a nationally popular sport or just a niche sport. And he was saying that the Sounders were probably second to the Seahawks up there.

I think down here its probably the Blazers/Ducks at the top. Then the Seahawks and beavers. Then the Timbers. I know a lot of people love the Timbers and follow them, but I honestly dont know any of them in my social circles.

You don't hear nearly as much about the Sounders as you did a few years ago. I think they also have a higher rate of transplant fans.

Hawks
Mariners
Sounders

Sounders are barely talked about at all on Sports radio, and that is usually a good barometer for what is popular in the area.

Another good way to look at it is this: How many players can the average sports fan name?


Hawks the average fan can probably name between 10-15 players.

Mariners are probably between 4-5 (Felix, Cano, Cruz, Seager - Probably)

Sounders are probably somewhere between 1 and 3 (Dempsey, Alonso, Morris).

Sounders
Seahawks
Husky Football
Mariners

One thing I will say in defense of the Mariners fanbase- they have longest currently playoff drought in baseball, yet they are currently 5th in revenue generated in the MLB. They also tend to fill up the stands pretty well when the team is non-horrible.

I think the culture of the northwest fits more with football / hockey / soccer though. Lots of passion, whereas I always think of baseball as being laid back.

Seahawks at the top.

Pretty meh about all the other teams.

Mariners can go kick rocks.

Smurf":tn5wwva4 said:

Sounders are barely talked about at all on Sports radio, and that is usually a good barometer for what is popular in the area..

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I don't know about that though, they get a passing mention at best on the radio but there are at least 40,000 people who go every second week and thousands more who watch on tv. Essentially the 3rd biggest professional sports team in the area.

I think sports radio here and across the US still treats soccer like the red headed step child despite its popularity in this region as it's out of the comfort zone of the radio hosts. e.g. Tom Wassell asking how a kid in Afghanistan would know about Messi, which shows that he doesn't know just how huge soccer is outwith the US It really is the world sport.

Listen to any of the 710 hosts talk about soccer and asking naive questions makes me shake my head. Michael Grey used to talk about it a bit until he left and Softy does a little on KJR.

I think in the coming years we'll see more talk of both the Sounders as MLS and soccer continues to grow outwith the pacific northwest and takes hold over the rest of the American mainstream and probably see a lot more Husky football talk if/when the team really start competing for Rose Bowls. For soccer especially, it will require a radio host who can go on a day time show and can talk about the Sounders as well as the hawks and mariners in equal measure instead of either sounding like an idiot talking about the sounders or only being able to talk about the sounders and not the hawks or mariners.

I would probably say that the Sounders are right behind the Seahawks (way behind). I think they have surpassed the Mariners, That being said you couldn't pay me to watch a soccer game (sorry, I mean match). A very fun game to play when I was a kid but the most boring sport I have ever watched.

JSeahawks":2lqo68jg said:

jkitsune":2lqo68jg said:

The Mariners probably have a larger overall die-hard fanbase, but the Sounders certainly have more raucous events.

Click to expand...

This is pretty much what I was arguiing. That the mariners probably have a much larger fan base but that the sounders probably have a more hard core fan base at the moment. Basically are argument was whether soccer was a nationally popular sport or just a niche sport. And he was saying that the Sounders were probably second to the Seahawks up there.

I think down here its probably the Blazers/Ducks at the top. Then the Seahawks and beavers. Then the Timbers. I know a lot of people love the Timbers and follow them, but I honestly dont know any of them in my social circles.

Click to expand...

I guess it depends what you mean by 'hard-core.' Certainly, Sounders fans have had more to cheer for since their creation, which helps a ton. But you have to be pretty 'hardcore' or 'diehard' or whatever you want to call it to continue to follow, root for, and get your hopes up over a team that has been as historically awful as the Mariners. Seattle fans tend to be most passionate about whichever team is the most exciting, which makes sense. Between '95 and '01 it was the Mariners, mostly. Since 2004 or so it's been the Seahawks. In the early to mid 90s it was the Sonics. I wasn't cognizant of sports before that, so I'll let others speak to the 80s and before.

peppersjap":632tddib said:

I would probably say that the Sounders are right behind the Seahawks (way behind). I think they have surpassed the Mariners, That being said you couldn't pay me to watch a soccer game (sorry, I mean match). A very fun game to play when I was a kid but the most boring sport I have ever watched.

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The irony of that is that many Europeans say the exact same thing about Baseball and how it is too long and many europeans see American football as a boring chess game.