By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The 2022 season has been one for the history books for the OL Reign. From beginning their residency at Seattle’s Lumen Field, breaking standalone attendance records multiple times, to winning their third NWSL Shield. With the recent announcement that the Reign will begin using Starfire sports complex as their new training ground, the club continues to improve in numerous aspects, and the city is taking notice. To give an idea of how Seattle is showing out, this Sunday’s match is within a couple hundred tickets of surpassing the total number of tickets sold for all four of their prior home playoff games combined. The Reign are back where they belong, and they seem ready to continue to establish themselves as must-watch.
Megan Rapinoe, Jess Fishlock, Lu Barnes, and Laura Harvey prepare to raise the Reign flag atop the Space Needle (Photo by Melissa Levin)
Back where it started, in more ways than one.
The Reign, formerly the Seattle Reign, returning to Seattle was a wrong being righted. After spending their first four years in the Emerald City and playing at Memorial Stadium, the Reign moved to Tacoma from 2019 to 2021, calling Cheney Stadium home. Outside of the 2020 COVID season, the Reign remained somewhat successful, reaching the semifinal round both times but failing to make it past that both times. The wonderful announcement in December of 2021 that the Reign were heading back to Seattle was the first domino in a collectively great year for the club, to this point. The multi-year contract gives the Reign, as the club says, “a World Class venue for World Class players.”
Returning back to Seattle has seen the Reign take their NWSL Challenge Cup to the semifinal round. Break their standalone attendance record four times (not including this Sunday’s semifinal). Add incredibly talented players, younger and older, that will help the club succeed for years to come. Secure their third NWSL Shield in club history, and first since 2015. The latest step in the magical season was the club raising their flag atop the iconic Space Needle for the first-time ever. They did so, right above Memorial Stadium, where this franchise started. It seems that things have come full circle, in a way.
The Reign flag flies high atop the Space Needle (Photo by Melissa Levin)
Work still remains ahead
While the historic marks and new digs are great, in addition to the incredible product on the pitch, the Reign have work to do. They were in a somewhat similar position last year, having secured the second overall seed in the NWSL only to fall in the semifinal (that they hosted at Cheney Stadium) to the eventual champion Washington Spirit. While the playoff model has changed and rosters have seen some turnover, games need to be taken one at a time.
The Kansas City Current are the first step in the playoff run towards a piece of hardware that the Reign have yet to acquire, the NWSL Title. The club has made five playoff appearances in their existence, two times making the title match, and three times seeing their run end in the semifinal. This Reign roster is primed and ready to send themselves to the NWSL title match in Washington D.C. and achieve the highest mark possible for the club.
(Photo by Melissa Levin)
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