The 2026 calendar year has commenced with another sporting high for Seattle as its Seahawks have prevailed in dominant fashion over the New England Patriots in the 60th playing of the NFL’s Super Bowl.
Fittingly enough since Seahawks fans are known far and wide as 12s, it was 12 years since Seattle’s NFL team won its most recent Super Bowl prior to Feb 8. That took place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey when Seattle prevailed – also in dominant fashion – over the Denver Broncos.
When looking at the teams that have defined Seattle professional sports over the last 25 years, the Seahawks now with two Super Bowls have been one of those teams.
Another, of course, resides in the WNBA.
It goes without saying how passionate a basketball city Seattle is. That is why many a Seattleite can tell us exactly where they were that fateful day when the NBA’s Sonics were bought by Clay Bennett – an Oklahoma businessman – and moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder. The names of Bennett, Howard Schultz and the late former NBA commissioner David Stern are still cursed in the Emerald City to this day.
Many of those Seattle fans had to shield their eyes last year when the Thunder prevailed in the NBA Finals for its first championship since the relocation. The Sonics curse was no more.
Fortunately for Seattle sports fans, prior to that pact that led to the Sonics being purchased and relocated, a deal was struck for the Seattle Storm to remain in the Emerald City. At the time, the Storm had won one WNBA championship – in 2004 over the Connecticut Sun with Anne Donovan as head coach. That year, names such as Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird were relatively early in their WNBA careers.
That controversial deal involving the Sonics meant that the Storm had to carry the flag for Seattle professional basketball. Two years after that relocation, the Storm won its second championship in franchise history – and the first under its new ownership group. In addition to Jackson and Bird, Swin Cash was also part of the team in what would be the first of three championships she would win throughout her career.
That 2010 championship would see the Storm sweep away the Atlanta Dream – a franchise that joined the W only two years prior. Brian Agler was the coach at the time. Three consecutive years would take place where Seattle would suffer defeat in the conference semifinals. On two occasions, it was the Minnesota Lynx (also with four championships in its history) that ended the Storm’s season.
Following a dreadful 2014 season where the Storm finished 12-22, Seattle had the number one overall pick in the 2015 WNBA Draft. That pick would be used on a young phenom out of Notre Dame by the name of Jewell Loyd.
In 2015, the Storm finished 10-24 and had the number one overall selection again in the 2016 draft. With another young phenom from UConn by the name of Breanna Stewart available at the top of the draft board, the Storm welcomed Stewie to the Emerald City.
Stewie and the Gold Mamba – along with Bird – established a new big three for the Storm and the franchise hit paydirt once again in 2018. Seattle matched up against the Washington Mystics in the Finals that season and swept away a Washington team that had to play its lone “home” game of that Finals at George Mason University.
The Mystics, led by an Elena Delle Donne playing with three herniated discs in her back and the sharpshooting heroics of Emma Meesseman, would win the Finals the following season in a five-game thriller against the Sun.
The 2020 season was, of course, forced to move to Florida because of the pandemic. That year’s Finals would see Seattle clash with the Las Vegas Aces in what was the first Finals appearance for A’ja Wilson. The Storm would sweep the Aces that year but Las Vegas would respond in following years by establishing the WNBA’s current dynasty by virtue of Finals wins in 2022, 2023 and 2025.
By the way, in 2024, Stewie played a massive role in bringing her hometown New York Liberty its first championship in franchise history. Also in 2025, Loyd was part of that Aces version.
What has been especially impressive about Seattle was how much that city stuck by the Storm through thick and thin. The Storm have endured rebuilds, renovations to the former KeyArena that was reimagined as the current Climate Pledge Arena to welcome its current NHL tenant (Seattle Kraken) and its big three being no more.
Yet the Storm Crazies have established themselves as one of the most passionate, loyal and inclusive fanbases in the entire WNBA. Even in the days post-Sonics, Seattle’s passion and love for basketball has shined through via how packed Climate Pledge Arena is for Storm contests.
This past season saw the Storm contend once again, albeit with an entirely different cast of characters than what the Storm Crazies are used to. Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins, Gabby Williams, Ezi Magbegor and Dominique Malonga were among the names that ensured 2025 was another stellar campaign of professional women’s hoops in the Pacific Northwest.
Even though the Storm were eliminated by the eventual champion Aces in a three-game, first-round series, Seattle gave Las Vegas a massive scare that nearly ended the Aces’ championship aspirations for 2025.
In addition, per Across the Timeline, the Storm were fifth in average attendance throughout the WNBA last season, drawing nearly 12,000 fans per game to Climate Pledge Arena. Only the Los Angeles Sparks, Liberty, Indiana Fever and the expansion Golden State Valkyries had more fans go through its turnstiles on gamedays in 2025.
As unapologetically progressive a city as Seattle is, one would expect it to also be firmly behind its women’s sports teams across the board. That has also been the case with Seattle Reign FC of the NWSL. While Reign FC has yet to win a championship, it has claimed three NWSL Shields – bestowed upon the team with the best record. Those occurred in 2014, 2015 and 2022.
Reign FC has also advanced to the NWSL Championship in 2014, 2015 and 2023. The club were quarterfinalists last season. The women’s sports landscape of Seattle also now includes the PWHL’s Seattle Torrent which played its inaugural season last year and also stages its home games at Climate Pledge Arena.
The old saying certainly applies – to the victors belong the spoils and Seattle’s current professional sporting victors are on the gridiron. But when mentioning how Seattle sports have thrived in the 21st century, Seattle – in many ways – is a blueprint for what the professional athletic landscape of a city and region should be.
The success of franchises such as the Storm and Reign FC are testaments to that. The Storm can especially be seen as a success not only because of the championships it won after that period of uncertainty in the mid 2000s, but also it proves that a women-led ownership group like Force 10 Hoops can provide viable stewardship for a franchise.
Free agents want to play in Seattle because it has an ownership group ready to invest in its players to ensure they perform at their peak every time the Storm take to the court – home, away, night or day. That $64 million practice facility that exists in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood is a testament to that and the franchise now has a valuation of around $330 million. In fact, one of the Storm’s current investors is former Seahawks great Bobby Wagner.
Things are also looking up in terms of Seattle’s professional men’s franchises. The Seahawks are Super Bowl champions, the Mariners were in Major League Baseball’s American League Championship Series. The Seattle Sounders are also one of the top clubs in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference. and the Sonics are likely to return via NBA expansion.
Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News tweeted that Seattle and Las Vegas are frontrunners for NBA expansion and a vote by its Board of Governors could take place as soon as this summer.
While the Storm may not have the status of Original Eight franchise that the Liberty, Sparks, Aces (Utah Starzz) and Phoenix Mercury do, Seattle’s WNBA franchise was around for its humble beginnings and it is around currently as attention around the W has ascended to new heights.
But, perhaps, even more important than that, the Storm have been a massive Seattle sports success story. Women’s sports franchises such as the Storm and Reign FC tell us that when one wakes up and smells the coffee on investing in women athletes, one will not get left out in the rain.
