Financially, however, that was an impossible task in the lean, early days of the NWSL. Playing at Lumen Field has been a goal for Predmore, who with wife Teresa was the founding co-owner of the franchise in late 2012, since the beginning. Throughout our history, that has been a continual challenge.” “I will say, I have always envied the clubs that didn’t have to worry about that, that it occupied 0% of their time to make sure they had a great place for their team to play. “I think from day one, where we play our home games has been a huge challenge for us,” Reign CEO Bill Predmore told The Equalizer. Moving to Lumen Field - which is home to the NFL’s Seahawks and MLS’ Sounders, who have long been at or near the top of league attendance - gets the Reign out of the NWSL’s worst remaining venue and into a stadium whose atmosphere is among the best in American soccer. It is a change which will see one of the NWSL’s original franchises solve an existential problem regarding a permanent, suitable venue, an issue which drove the Reign to Tacoma in 2019 and which still hung over its head at Cheney Stadium. On Wednesday, the club announced Lumen Field as its new home venue beginning in 2022, leaving behind the converted baseball field at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma for a return to Seattle. Now, OL Reign will play all National Women’s Soccer League home matches at the 68,000-plus seat stadium going forward.
It took over eight years for the Reign franchise to play its first game in Seattle’s crown-jewel stadium, the downtown venue currently known as Lumen Field.
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