Seattle University's student newspaper since 1933

The Spectator

Seattle University's student newspaper since 1933

The Spectator

Seattle University's student newspaper since 1933

The Spectator

Seattle’s Pro-Rugby Team gets First Franchise Win

Seattle officially has its own professional rugby team—the Seawolves. The Seattle Seawolves organization was a part of the founding group that created Major League Rugby. Seattleites Adrian Balfour and Shane Skinner are the owners of the newly formed franchised team. The Seawolves play at Starfire Stadium., which is also home to the Seattle Sounders, Seattle’s major league soccer team. The Sounders primarily practice at this facility.

With very excited Seattle fans, season tickets are already sold-out and a waiting list for 2019 season tickets is currently out and ready for people to be added. The team is expected to continuously sell out their games at Starfire Stadium.

The club was officially founded in 2017, but wasn’t able to take the pitch until 2018 which is when the inaugural MLR season kicked off. There are currently seven teams who are in the league. These new teams include Austin Elite a club that is based down in Austin, Texas; Glendale Raptors who call Denver, Colo. their home base; Houston Sabercats is a club in Houston, Texas; New Orleans Gold who are in New Orleans, La.; San Diego Legion joins the league as they are down in San Diego; the Utah Warriors that are down in Salt Lake City, Utah and finally our Seattle Seawolves who call Starfire stadium their home facility.

The team started off their inaugural season against San Diego Legion on April 22, where the team’s first season win came along with capturing the club’s first win. They won with a score of 39-23 at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, where they played in front of a sold-out crowd of 3,500 fans.

The team had their second match of the season against the Glendale Raptors at Starfire stadium in front of another sold-out crowd on April 28. The Seawolves honored the local rugby community by having Pacific Northwest Rugby Night. Unfortunately, the results didn’t go in the Seawolves favor, as the team fell short with a close 19-15 loss against the Raptors.

The Seawolves travel down to New Orleans to take on the New Orleans Gold for their third match of the season. The Seawolves have two home games remaining. The team is back in action in Tukwila on May 20 with a sold-out stadium seating—overflow seating is currently still available. The Seawolves last home game is Sunday May 27 against the New Orleans Gold with stadium seating sold-out, but with overflow seating still available.

Caylah may be reached at
[email protected]

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