CenturyLink Field is located within a mile of Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. It was built between the year 2000-2002 on the site of King County Multipurpose Domed Stadium (Kings Dome).
The stadium is the home field for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL) and Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer (MLS). The stadium complex includes an Event Center with the Washington Music Theater, a parking garage, and a public plaza.
CenturyLink stadium has a seating capacity of 67,000 which is expandable to 72,000. The Seahawker team’s first season in the year 2002 was the match that first held at the stadium.
History
The stadium was built after voters approved funding for its construction at the demolished site of Kings Dome in a statewide election held in June 1997. This vote also created the Washington State Public Stadium Authority to oversee public ownership of the venue.
The owner of the Seahawks, Paul Allen, formed First & Goal Inc. to develop and operate the new facilities. Presently, First & Goal keeps all revenue from the stadium and parking garage and as per the agreements, the Public Stadium Authority receives $850,000 a year.
The stadium was originally called Seahawks Stadium, which became as Qwest Field in June 2004, after the telecommunications carrier Qwest acquired the naming rights of the stadium.
It received its current name in June 2011 after Qwest's acquisition by CenturyLink, an American telecommunications company. In 2002, CenturyLink Field became the first stadium in the NFL to install a FieldTurf artificial field.
Major Matches
Since 2002, the Seahawks team host its season games in the stadium. Between 2002 and 2005, the Seahawks won 24 of their 32 regular season games at the stadium.
In 2006, the Seahawks had a 9–7 record and hosted the Dallas Cowboys in the wild card round of the playoffs. A year later, the team won seven of their eight home games and in 2008, the Seahawks went 4–12 and had only two home wins in the stadium. Although the team has struggled in 2008 and 2009, CenturyLink Field often sells out for Seahawks games held.
Apart from football matches, the stadium also has capacity to hold soccer matches. The stadium meets FIFA sight line requirements and provides separate locker rooms for soccer teams.
The 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group B opening round between the national teams of the United States, Costa Rica, Canada, and Cuba was held at the stadium. The stadium has also hosted two matches of the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup opening round.
Controversies
Shaking and seismic activities were detected at the stadium by PNSN instruments during a Seattle football game on January 8, 2011 and it was named as “Beast Quake” after the player Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch for exciting crowd enough to create the quake.
A shaking was detected at the stadium after a 90-yard touchdown run during a 2015 playoff game, and dubbed a "Kam Quake" for the player making the run, Kam Chancellor. Biggest shaking event of all was the "Dance Quake", which was caused by the all the jumping and dancing that followed Marshawn Lynch's touchdown.
