Photo credit: Bettina Hansen, The Seattle Times
Can the Sounders sell out CenturyLink Field for an MLS game?
Well, they might have a chance in a couple weeks. According to a team spokesman, more than 60,000 tickets have been sold for an Oct. 7 home game against the Portland Timbers.
The rivalry bout was included in four-game ticket packages earlier this year that went in conjunction with opening up more sections of CenturyLink Field; single-game tickets remain on sale through all the usual outlets, including the team website.
The Portland game will assuredly be the most attended game so far this season (60,908 came for the Galaxy game on Aug. 5).
The highest-attended MLS game in team history was the 64,140 that attended Kasey Keller‘s farewell game last year against San Jose.
The largest crowd ever for any Sounders game — well, the largest in Pacific Northwest history for that matter — was the 67,052 that attended the Manchester United friendly in the summer of 2011.
The MLS record for attendance in a game not part of a doubleheader, according to this Soccer America story, was the 69,225 for the Galaxy league opener in 1996. That is followed by the 66,237 that watch David Beckham‘s first game with the Galaxy in New York’s Giants Stadium. The aforementioned Keller game ranks third all-time.
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What do you think? Will the Sounders be able to fill the entire stadium for the Timbers game?