Sounders verify they’ll play all 2026 dwelling video games at Lumen

Somewhat buried within the announcement concerning the new MLS calendar had been some sneakily notable particulars about how this impacts the Seattle Sounders within the close to future. Under the heading “Unchanged in 2026” is the seemingly innocuous line about “All 17 of our MLS home matches will be played at Lumen Field, including some on grass.”

In some other 12 months, this is able to be a complete nothingburger; after all all of the Sounders’ MLS dwelling video games can be performed at Lumen Field, they’ve by no means not been.

Unsaid within the blurb was that for a very long time, 2026 seemed prefer it was going to be totally different. As Sounder at Heart has reported many occasions, FIFA will likely be taking up Lumen Field as quickly because the Seattle Seahawks’ season ends with a purpose to lay the “permanent” grass floor forward of the World Cup. It has been identified that there can be a interval after its set up the place no occasions had been to be held with a purpose to permit it to settle. There can even be a interval earlier than the World Cup the place the sector must be left alone with a purpose to guarantee optimum circumstances.

Until not too long ago, there was a really actual chance that these two timeframes would converge in a method that successfully left Lumen Field unavailable to the Sounders and Reign till after the World Cup. With MLS taking off the complete World Cup subsequent summer season, that might have meant Lumen Field was unavailable till after July 19. In 2025, the Sounders performed their twenty fourth recreation of the season on July 26.

While it’s not unprecedented for MLS groups to start out the season with lengthy highway journeys for a wide range of causes — the longest being when the Portland Timbers opened 2019 with 12 consecutive highway video games — it could be actually unimaginable to backload the schedule sufficient to accommodate greater than 17 highway video games. That would have required the Sounders to seek out another venue for not less than a number of dwelling video games early within the 12 months, which sources throughout the workforce instructed Sounder at Heart that that they had been scrambling to seek out.

Now, it appears as if the Sounders will have the ability to play not less than a handful of early-season video games at Lumen Field throughout the stretch of time between the World Cup pitch being put in and FIFA taking up operations for the event.

That’s clearly excellent news, particularly for the Sounders, who would have needed to discover artistic methods to deal with season-ticket holders if some video games had been moved to a different stadium.

What’s unsaid within the launch, nonetheless, is what is going to occur to any Sounders dwelling matches in Concacaf Champions Cup. Thanks to successful the Leagues Cup, the Sounders get a bye into the Round of 16 and are scheduled to host the second leg the week of March 17-19. That is sort of actually sooner than they are going to be allowed again into Lumen, that means an alternate dwelling venue will nearly actually be required.

A 12 months in the past, Lumen Field would have been unavailable if the Sounders had superior to the CCC quarterfinals they usually had been planning to journey throughout the state to make use of One Spokane Stadium. March temperatures in Spokane typically hover round freezing at evening, probably appearing as a little bit of a preview of the brand new MLS calendar if that’s the place the Sounders find yourself enjoying and even offering the potential for the primary orange-ball dwelling recreation in membership historical past.