Seattle craved for a professional sports team but lacked a stadium big enough to hold the kinds of crowds that NFL and MLB games typically attract. The battle for the stadium and its tenants raged on for years but gradually Seattle began to come around on the subject. In one fell swoop, Seattle gained a baseball team, a football team and a stadium to call its own: the Kingdome.
Conception and Construction
It all began with David L. Cohn. In 1959, the President of Barb Restaurants Inc. dreamed of the day that his hometown would one day be home to major sports teams. Knowing how much it rained in the city, he asked the Seattle City Council for a 50,000 seat stadium with a roof. The Council approved a $15 million bond resolution but it was vetoed by voters in the 1960 election.
Three years later, two more proposals were on the table. Pacific Raceways Inc. proposed a privately funded sports complex in nearby Kent. That complex would have had everything. In addition to a stadium, it would also have a golf course, a swimming pool, a motel, a cocktail lounge, a bowling alley and a landing strip.
The more popular of the two proposals was floating stadium on Elliott Bay at the base of Harrison St. near Seattle Center. But ultimately, both proposals were rejected. Inspired by the recent AFL-NFL merger, Joseph E. Gandy began exploring financing for the long-sought venue with a 12 person committee.
In 1968, Seattle found its solution. A new initiative called "Forward Thrust" was approved. While its $815.2 million budget was many hundreds of millions more than the yet-to-be-built stadium, this initiative had much more to do than just sports. This was a sweeping plan on bettering Seattle. In addition to funding a $40 million stadium, Forward Thrust looked to improving Seattle's public transportation, parks and recreation as well as its community centers.
This was an exciting time for Seattle as not only wsa the stadium proposal given a thumbs up, but they were preparing to welcome their very own major league baseball team into the fold. Unfortunately, the Seattle Pilots were hamped with financial difficulties right from the start and barely survived their first and only year in appropriately named Sick's Stadium before fleeing the city for Milwaukee to become the Brewers. Their hearts shattered, Seattleites now needed a professional team to call their own more than ever.
And so, the planning went on. After an attempt to build on Seattle Center was rejected, the planners found and were approved of a site near King Street Station. Of course, many were concerned that the stadium would overwhelm the scale of the neighborhood, creating noise and light pollution while clogging the district with traffic and parking problems.
After breaking ground on November 2, 1972, construction was mostly smooth. Until the calendar turned. In January of the following year, steel towers forming the core of the stadium fell on a worker and toppled other concrete towers like dominoes.
The new building opened to a massive crowd of 54,000. All kinds of groups joined the party including both the Boys and Girls Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, color guards, classic car dealers, log rollers, drill teams and square dancers. Seattle area schools were well represented as well with a choral group of 1,717 from 23 schools and a band of 2,680 instruments from 32 schools. Yes, After a long wait, Seattle was ready to open their Kingdome
A Shortly Lived Life
Named after its residence, King County, the Kingdome opened its doors for the first time on April 9, 1976. That event, a match between the Seattle Sounders and the NEw York Cosmos, set a record for attendance at a soccer game in North America with 58,128 fans packed into the concrete venue. However, the Billy Graham Crusade a month later drew a larger crowd of more than 74,000.
Like most expansion teams, the Seahawks struggled mightily in those early years, losing to the 49ers 27-20 in their preseason debut and the Cardinals 30-24 in their regular season debut. They didn't win a game at home until November 7 against the lowly Atlanta Falcons, a 30-13 decision. The Seahawks would finish the year 2-12, but at that point their fans didn't care. They were still reveling in finally being a big league city.
The Mariners began playing at the Kingdome on April 6, 1977, losing to the California Angels 7-0 in front of a crowd of 57,000. It wasn't until two days later when they won their first game in the Kingdome by beating the Angels 7-6.
With a three-tiered grandstand and upper deck that extended from the left-field towards and around home plate and all the way to right-center field, the stadium was certainly impressive as a baseball venue. The most unique aspect of the ballpark (other than the roof) was the right field wall which stood 23 feet high and was affectionally named the "Walla Walla", a reference to the Washington town four hours south-east of Seattle.
The stadium was impressive enough that Major League Baseball decided to host its 50th All Star Game there. The 7-6 National League victory only brought the new stadium more publicity. It even hosted the NBA Finals when the Seattle Supersonics won it all in 1979.
Neither the Seahawks nor the Mariners enjoyed much success in the Kingdome, combining for six playoff appearances in the dome's lifetime. The Seahawk reached the postseason in 1983, beating the Patriots 24-6 in the season finale at the Kingdome. They followed that up by beating rookie John Elway and the AFC West Division rival Broncos 31-7, instantly bringing the Kingdome crowd into a frenzy. It can be pondered that it was at this moment that the 12's was born.
While the Seahawks were busy traveling to Miami (win, 27-0) and Los Angeles (lost 30-14) to finish their remarkable run to the AFC Championship Game, the Seahawks personnel began pondering the possibility of retiring their first number. Having listened to the crowd as they won their first playoff game, they could sense something special was brewing. Feeling that the crowd served as the 12 Man on the field, the Seahawks retired that jersey number on December 15, 1984.
The Seahawks would go on to defeat the defending Super Bowl champion Raiders in the first round of the playoffs in front of a rollicking crowd at the Kingdome but fell short to the piping-hot Miami Dolphins in the Divisional Round. The Kingdome wouldn't host another playoff game in any sport for more than a decade.
Meanwhile, the Mariners could never seem to get out of their own way. For much of their first 18 years of existence, they rested comfortably at the bottom of their division. But by 1994, it was becoming apparent that the building was starting to decay. That years, tiles fell from the roof and forced the Mariners to temporarily move. It almost made perfect sense as things were so bleak for the franchise that by 1995 there was talk of moving the team, even though they had two generational talents in pitcher Randy Johnson and centerfielder Ken Griffey Jr.
But that year, the players decided that something needed to change and began to save their team for their city. It wasn't pretty, but after beating the Angels 9-1 in a one-game playoff, the Mariners squeaked into the playoffs with a 79-66 record.
They fought hard against the dynasty-bound Yankees, making it all the way to the fifth and final game of the Divisional Series at the Kingdome. Back and forth the game went, all the way to the 11th inning. After the Yankees took a 4-3 lead, Seattle designated hitter Edgar Martinez hit a walk-off two run double to sending a giddy Griffey in for the game-winning run and the Mariners to Cleveland.
As Seattle rejoiced in the spoils of victory, Griffey could be seen under the dog pile at home plate, a grin stretching from ear to ear. Although the Mariners' magical run ended in Cleveland, the team had been saved for the city. The Mariners were there to stay.
The Death of a Stadium
The end was near for the 24-year old stadium. With America going full throttle into the tech age, concrete dual purpose stadiums were very quickly becoming a thing of the past. The Mariners moved first. After beating the Texas Rangers on July 27, 1999 at the Kingdome, the Mariners moved just down the road to their new ballpark, Safeco Field.
Now instead of being trapped by mostly concrete and an immovable roof (unless the tiles fell again), the Mariners now enjoyed the luxuries of modern ballplayers, complete with a retractable roof and many more luxury suites encased in a building made of steel and brick.
The Seahawks gave Seattle one last moment in the "old" stadium by making a surprise push for the playoffs. They finished their stay in their first home by losing to the Miami Dolphins in the Wild Card Round on January 9, 2000. The 20-17 loss would be Miami quarterback Dan Marino's final victory in his illustrious NFL career.
The Seahawks promptly moved to the University of Washington's Husky Stadium for the next two years while the Kingdome was demolished (3/26/2000) and a new stadium was erected in its place. By the Summer of 2002, the Seahawks returned to a glistening open-air stadium: Seattle Stadium.
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