On March 1, 1990, Seattle was still a few months away from being the global hub for sports with the Goodwill Games set to take over the region. Husky Stadium was set to be a center of activity with opening ceremonies and track and field taking place on the shore of Lake Washington.
But on this day, an event four years in the future was getting the attention on the UW campus. The World Cup was coming to the United States for the first time in 1994 and Seattle was at the forefront of cities under consideration to host matches. Husky Stadium was the venue being proposed to hold matches. It would be an idyllic image beamed around the world — the biggest sporting event on the globe in a stadium next to the lake with mountain peaks off in the distance.
As legendary broadcaster Keith Jackson once described of the venue, “I’d put it out there by itself as the grandest view in all of sports. I’ve hit most of the major stadiums in the world, and I don’t remember one that offers that.”
Ross Berlin oversaw the venue selection process for the 1994 World Cup. And on that March day four years before the tournament arrived, he seemed convinced the World Cup would be coming to the Pacific Northwest. And he believed Seattle should dream big.
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“I’d say Seattle ought to reach for the brass ring and bid for the World Cup final as well as matches before that,” Berlin was quoted as saying after making a site visit.
History tells us that didn’t happen.
In a different dimension of the soccer timeline, the FIFA Men’s World Cup would be coming to Seattle for a second time when the tournament gets underway Monday with Egypt and Belgium facing off.
When the World Cup first came to the U.S. in 1994 and changed the landscape of soccer in the country and across North America, the initial conversations put Seattle at the forefront of the plans for serving as a host site for the tournament. Seattle’s place in the hierarchy of American soccer was going to be solidified.
And then it all fell apart. A series of missteps, miscommunication, assumptions and a lack of funding ultimately left Seattle sitting as an aimless bystander while other parts of the country had a chance to experience the seminal event.
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The U.S. was never the favorite to host the 1994 tournament until the waning months leading to the final decision. Brazil was the favorite, followed by Morocco; the U.S. was a longshot. It had no top-flight professional league. At the time, the players on the national team were glorified amateurs. At the time of the vote in the summer of 1988, the U.S. hadn’t participated in a World Cup since 1950 and had yet to qualify for the 1990 tournament.
But when the date for the final vote was move from June 30, 1988 to July 4, 1988, it seemed a strong signal that the odds changed.
And when that final vote was cast — U.S. 10, Morocco 7, Brazil 2 — Seattle immediately jumped to the front of the list as a potential host city.
A year earlier, the University of Washington had signed a reservation agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation that allowed for Husky Stadium to be in consideration as a venue if the U.S. won the bid.
Initially, Husky Stadium was one of 26 cities and venues under consideration as a host. Along with Seattle was locations such as Annapolis, Maryland (Naval Academy), New Haven, Connecticut (Yale) and Corvallis, Oregon — yes, Corvallis, Oregon — locations that seem unfathomable now.
Eventually, the list was paired and some of the smaller cities and venues removed. Nineteen cities were identified as priority options in October 1991. Seattle was among the lead pack.
“We had a long flight from Ohio and I had a headache when we landed here this morning. But when we saw your site, Husky Stadium, I started feeling very, very well. It is one of the best sites to fit in with our plans,” Guido Tognoni, a member of FIFA’s inspection site team told The Seattle Times on Nov. 7, 1991. “We are extremely pleased with Seattle. The football stadium is the right size for our game. I cannot give you a ranking of sites we have seen, but Husky Stadium is in the upper half.”
Based on where things stood that day in November 1991, Seattle’s place seemed assured. Tognoni felt the need to sell the possibilities despite being in one of the more soccer aware regions of the country.
“The World Cup brings only goodwill and benefits, among them 30 million people watching on television. Soccer is fun. The World Cup is a party. You will see,” he said.
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No, Seattle did not see the party Tognoni presented.
So what went wrong? How did something that seemed like a lock completely fall apart?
In a word, money.
The numbers seem minuscule in the context of today’s costs, but the absence of about $2 million became the fulcrum that eventually tilted the bid in the direction of collapse.
“We’ve got a ways to go in Seattle, a long ways to go,” Berlin said in January 1992. “Other communities are pursuing us more aggressively, and that’s the direction we’re going.”
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There was never strong enough local leadership or sufficient funding to make the Seattle bid come to reality. The Sports Council of Seattle/King County didn’t take the lead on helping fund the bid. The state didn’t either, even with then-Gov. Booth Gardner serving as a chair of the local host committee. Ultimately, it was local soccer leaders who became the forces that kept Seattle’s hopes of being a host alive into 1992. The Washington State Youth Soccer Association had to front nearly $150,000 to keep the bid going; and eventually lost $77,000 in the process.
The final straw was the inability to reach a contract with UW for the use of Husky Stadium. The host committee anticipated costs of $3-5 million for operations of the event, including the installation of a grass field over the top of the turf at Husky Stadium. But UW’s estimates came in between $5-7 million. The school also wanted a 12% cut of ticket sales and a new turf installed after the tournament as conditions on the contract.
In late March 1992, final word came from tournament organizers in New York that the lack of a venue contract finally sunk Seattle’s hopes. Nine other cities were selected as hosts. Most sections of the country had a venue within reasonable distance — with the Rocky Mountain region and the Pacific Northwest the notable exceptions.
“It’s very unfortunate,” said Pam Copple, then the president of the Washington State Youth Soccer Association. “It’s very frustrating.”
Tim Booth: Tim Booth is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times, where he covers the Kraken and the ongoing story surrounding possible NBA expansion and helps with coverage of the Seahawks and Mariners.