FC Seattle / Seattle Storm

Western Soccer Alliance (1985-1988)
Western Soccer League (1989)
American Professional Soccer League (1990)

Background

FC Seattle was a semi-pro (and later professional) soccer club that formed in 1983 following the financial implosion and closure of the popular Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League (NASL). The club was originally known simply as Football Club (“FC”) Seattle in 1984 and 1985. Prior to the 1986 Western Soccer Alliance season, the club adjusted its name to FC Seattle Storm.

In contrast to the Sounders before them, who leaned heavily on late career English imports to fill out their roster, FC Seattle was explicitly formed to provide high-level playing opportunities for American-born players from the Pacific Northwest.

Exhibition Years

FC Seattle announced their arrival with the FC Seattle Challenge Cup in the summer of 1984. The club lured in the Minnesota Strikers, New York Cosmos, Vancouver Whitecaps and the U.S. Olympic Team for a summer long series of exhibitions. Though the fledgling club posted a record of just 1-3-1 in these contests, Seattle was competitive. At the opening match at Memorial Stadium on June 10th, 1984, a crowd of 5,984 watched FC Seattle draw the NASL’s Whitecaps 2-2.  Though the team was officially and proudly amateur, it featured some studs, including 31-year old former Sounders and Cosmos goalkeeper Jack Brand, the NASL’s 1980 North American Player of the Year.

On July 6th, 1984, Seattle played the famed (but declining) Cosmos to a tight 2-1 loss before 7,691 at Memorial Stadium in a moral victory. The team’s first actual victory came the following month in a road re-match with the Whitecaps at Vancouver’s B.C. Place. FC Seattle returned home with a 2-1 victory.

By early 1985, FC Seattle had a $1.3 million budget and an office staff of 14 people, along with plans to turn professional by offering its player $250 per game.⁵NO BYLINE. “FC Seattle cuts salaries”. The Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, WA). June 15, 1985 The team planned a 12-game exhibition schedule against foreign clubs including Santos of Brazil, Dundee of Scotland and Universidad de Guadalajara of Mexico. With the NASL now of out business and the independent Cosmos about to give up on their own doomed exhibition schedule, FC Seattle was arguably the best funded and strongest outdoor soccer team left standing in the United States in the summer of 1985.

In July, FC Seattle joined clubs from Portland, San Jose and Victoria, British Columbia for another tournament challenge series. Known as the Western Soccer Alliance Challenge Series, this cycle of games would form the basis for the formation of the Western Soccer Alliance as a semi-professional league in 1986.

League Years

In 1986 FC Seattle changed its name to FC Seattle Storm and participated in the Western Soccer Alliance league season. Former Seattle Sounders NASL manager Jim Gabriel took over as the Storm’s manager.

The Storm had their finest season in 1988, posting an 11-2 record under manager Tom Jenkins. The Storm hosted the Western Soccer Alliance championship game against the San Jose Earthquakes on July 30th, 1988. Spurred by a pair of early goals from Bobby Bruch, the Storm destroyed the ‘Quakes 5-0 before an estimated crowd of 4,800.⁶NO BYLINE. “Bruch’s quick goals brew up Storm title”. The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA). July 31, 1988 Two days later, the team departed for a post-season tour of England.

In 1989, the Western Soccer Alliance changed its name to the Western Soccer League. The Storm signed 30-year old midfielder Rick Davis, the most capped player in U.S. National Team history. Davis had played nothing but indoor soccer for the past five years, which was where all of the money was in the U.S. game at the time. Many of the Storm’s other top players of the 80’s were also stars in the indoor game, including Bernie James, Peter Hattrup and the Schmetzer brothers: Andy, Brian and Walt.

One the club’s youngest finds was teenage Chris Henderson of Edmonds, Washington, who joined in 1989. Henderson took advantage of the Western Soccer League’s semi-professional status to play for the Storm in 1989 before playing collegiately at UCLA. He would later go on earn 79 caps for the U.S. National Team between 1990 and 2001 and become one of the top early American-born players in Major League Soccer between 1996 and 2006.

End of the Road

In early 1990, the Western Soccer League announced plans to merge with the East Coast-based American Soccer League to form the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) that summer. The merger nominally created a nationwide pro outdoor league for the first time since the NASL went out of business at the end of 1984. But in practice, the Storm and the rest of the former WSL clubs continued to play a regional schedule in 1990, while the Eastern clubs played amongst their own division, with the two leagues-within-a-league only meeting in the APSL championship game in September.

Nevertheless, the increased professionalism and costs of the new arrangement burdened many of the Western clubs. At the end of the 1990 season, the entire Western group folded except for the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks.

The Storm were among the casualties. Owner Bud Greer announced that the club would sit out the 1991 APSL season. In February 1992, Greer made it official that the Storm would disband instead of returning to professional soccer.⁷Smith, Craig. “Curtain Closes on Seattle Storm – Owner Decides To Fold Soccer Team”. The Seattle Times. February 21, 1992

FC Seattle Storm Shop

Downloads

8-30-1988 Western Soccer Alliance Championship Game Program vs. San Jose Earthquakes

1989 Seattle Storm Media Guide (.pdf)

Links

Western Soccer Alliance / League Programs

American Professional Soccer League Media Guides

American Professional Soccer League Programs

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