After five long days away, I’m back home to get back to work talking about sports! Don’t get me wrong, my mind was busy all through the trip, and with a downtown core lined by stadium after stadium, it wasn’t easy to “get away”. I was curious to see who the dominant fanbase in Seattle might be, and thus began to tally while spending time there.
I chose to watch for only the major teams, as I’m less familiar with college football. There was a massive NCAA football game happening while there between Washington and Washington State. If I were counting those jerseys, either of the NCAA teams would have surely won my tally, but alas, I’m very unfamiliar with college football. Instead, I chose to watch for Major League Soccer (Seattle Sounders), Major League Baseball (Seattle Mariners), National Football League (Seattle Seahawks), National Hockey League (Seattle Kraken). I also watched for other teams in these specified leagues. I asked my followers on ‘x’ (formerly known as Twitter), to predict which team I would see the most:
As you can see, the Seattle Kraken from the National Hockey League had a rather lop-sided preference, but that could be due to my personal profile being primarily based around hockey. Still, the Seattle Kraken had a much higher vote count than the second place Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. Next, the Seattle Mariners with just under 20% of popular vote. In last place, favoured less than 10% in this survey, are the Major League Soccer team: The Seattle Sounders.
While I was in Seattle, the Kraken were on a road trip, but the rest of the teams played at least one game in their respective home arena. Unfortunately, this may have skewed the frequency of Kraken merchandise I may have seen.
In terms of non-Seattle jerseys, the San Francisco 49er’s was the most common jersey I saw, with a tally of 10. Not far behind were the Washington Commanders and the Los Angeles Angels, tied at 7. Coming in fourth place was the Chicago White Sox at 6. New York Yankees fell just behind at 5, and the Las Vegas Raiders had 4. The Houston Astros and Dallas Cowboys both had 3, the Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers both with two. Finally, I saw the following each represented once: Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, and the one I was most surprised by, the Montreal Canadiens. If I could count myself, there would be a single tally for the Calgary Flames as well. (2 if you count the guy who had a flame pattern toque.)
Finally, the Seattle based teams! As predicted, the Seattle Sounders from Major League Soccer were my lowest tally, with seven. The Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball was the second-least represented sports brand at 17. Not far ahead, but enough to make second place were the National Hockey League’s newest team, the Seattle Kraken with 21. By far, the majority of the jerseys, and any apparel for that matter, were that of the Seattle Seahawks. 52 jerseys in 4 days.
I don’t even particularly like the jersey, the neon green on navy blue is an ick. Granted, there was a game in Seattle, and I’m sure that brought out more jerseys, but I was amazed by how sport driven Seattle is. In Calgary, we see Flames hats and toques, the occasional sweater on the weekends. Going out for drinks, you’d see the Flames merch represented. In Seattle? Whole families were wrapped in team merch anywhere I went. Didn’t matter if it was gameday, or if game day was a week from now. That college football game I mentioned earlier, proved that to me. As I boarded a passenger ferry from Bremerton to Seattle, so did a swarm of college football fans of both teams. The sheer mass of people ready to go watch the 2023 Apple Cup was astounding to me, and I could sense a lot of pride from the sports fans in Seattle. It was a fun atmosphere to witness, and I’d love to go back… maybe see a game next time too.
I’m also starting to understand why people like football so much. I’m beginning to enjoy it myself 🙂
(Go Dolphins)
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