Top facts about Lumen Field, the big boy of Seattle

The main subject of top facts about Lumen Field, located in Seattle, Washington, is a multi-purpose stadium. It is the home field of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL), the

of Major League Soccer (MLS), and the OL Reign of the National Women's Soccer League.

It is located in the city's SoDo area.

Originally known as Seahawks Stadium, it was renamed Qwest Field in June 2004 after the naming rights were purchased by the telecommunications company Qwest.

It was renamed CenturyLink Field in June 2011 following CenturyLink's acquisition of Qwest, and it was renamed Lumen Technologies Field in November 2020 following CenturyLink's rebranding to Lumen Technologies.

It's a contemporary stadium with views of the Seattle skyline with a capacity of 68,740 for

and 37,722 for most MLS matches. The Event Center, which houses the Washington Music Theater (WAMU Theater), a parking garage, and a public plaza are all part of the property.

Along with athletic events, the arena holds concerts, trade exhibitions, and consumer displays. The stadium lies within a mile (1.6 km) of downtown Seattle and is accessible through various highways and modes of public transportation.

The stadium was erected on the site of the Kingdome between 2000 and 2002 after voters approved funds for the project in a statewide election in June 1997.

The Washington State Public Stadium Authority was established as a result of this referendum to supervise public ownership of the stadium. Paul Allen, the Seahawks' owner, established First & Goal Inc. to design and run the new facilities.

Allen was heavily involved in the planning and design process, emphasizing the significance of an open-air venue with a cozy feel.

A rendezvous to talk about top facts about Lumen Field, the big boy of Seattle

In this article of top facts about Lumen Field, we will first talk about the history of this field, then we will describe the structure for those who are eager to see the field but have never got the chance to do so.

Additionally, some formation about the capacity, other uses, and different facilities will be provided in the later parts of the

top facts about Lumen Field

. Now buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Lumen Field history

Let us start from the beginning with the

top facts about Lumen Field

just to prevent any fact loss.

The Seattle Seahawks played their home games in the Kingdome from 1976 to 1999, sharing the stadium with the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball and the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association.

Local millionaire Paul Allen vowed to buy the team in 1997 if a new stadium could be built, claiming that the team would not be viable unless it left the Kingdome.

He requested a special statewide referendum on a plan to fund a new stadium from the state legislature. The lawmakers approved after Allen pledged to cover the $4 million cost. It was approved on June 17, 1997, with 820,364 votes in favor and 783,584 votes against.

The referendum's passage resulted in the formation of a public-private partnership.

The Washington State Public Stadium Authority was established to supervise the stadium, exposition center, and parking garage complex, which are all owned by the state. Allen bought the Seahawks and established First & Goal Inc. to develop and run the stadium. The project has a $430 million budget.

First & Goal negotiated a 30-year stadium lease in September 1998, with options to extend for another 20 years. According to the agreement, First and Goal pays the Public Stadium Authority $850,000 per year (inflation-adjusted), while First and Goal keeps all earnings from the stadium and parking garage.

The exposition center generates 80% of the revenue for the corporation, with the other 20% going to a state education fund. First & Goal is responsible for all operational and maintenance expenditures, which are estimated to total $6 million per year, as well as maintaining the facilities in "first-class" shape.

Lumen Field construction

The construction process took almost 4 years but we have covered it in one single section of top facts about Lumen Field.

Construction on the new exhibition center and parking garage began in September 1998. The exposition facility was open and holding events by October 1999.

The Kingdome was demolished on March 26, 2000, to make space for the stadium, in the world's greatest implosion of a single concrete edifice. Almost all of the Kingdome debris was recycled, with about half of it being utilized in the construction of the new stadium.

The fragile soil at the site, which was a tidal marsh until public works efforts in the early twentieth century raised the waterline of neighboring Elliott Bay, presented a problem to the designers.

The top layer is a soft fill that was salvaged from grading work that flattened parts of Seattle's hills. To cater for the fragile soil, the complex is built on approximately 2,200 pilings that are driven 50 to 70 feet (15 to 21 meters) below ground level to form a foundation pier.

To accommodate for soil issues, temperature impacts, and the possibility of earthquakes, eight independently linked parts were erected. The exhibition center and parking garage adjacent to the stadium are distinct facilities that are not part of the eight-section complex.

Lumen Field naming rights

As mentioned before the field has multiple names and if you have developed the question that why it should be this way, we have the answer here right for you in this section of top facts about Lumen Field.

Seahawks Stadium was the initial name of the stadium. In June 2004, the name was changed to Qwest Field when the telecommunications carrier purchased the naming rights for $75 million for a 15-year period.

On June 23, 2011, the stadium was renamed CenturyLink Field as a consequence of CenturyLink's takeover of Qwest. CenturyLink's name rights contract was extended in 2017, with the company paying $162.7 million for the stadium's naming rights from 2019 to 2033.

Despite the fact that CenturyLink's corporate name was changed to Lumen Technologies in September 2020, the stadium was to keep the CenturyLink Field name owing to a contract clause that allows for a one-time name change only if the company is acquired.

Despite this stipulation, the name of the stadium was changed to Lumen Field on November 19 when the Washington State Public Stadium Authority approved the alteration.

Fans and media sources speculated on possible nicknames for the stadium when it was renamed for CenturyLink in 2011.

The Seattle Times ran an informal reader survey and found that "The Clink" was a popular choice. As part of a sponsorship contract with Microsoft, the pitch was dubbed "The Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field" for Sounders FC matches.

Since Zulily took over the Sounders FC sponsorship before the start of the 2019 season, the field has been kept unidentified; the arrangement with Zulily did not include naming rights to the field.

Lumen Field building

The 1.5 million square foot (140,000 m2) complex was designed by Ellerbe Becket in collaboration with Loschky Marquardt & Nesholm Architects of Seattle. Lumen Field is designed in the style of a U, with an open north end that provides vistas of downtown Seattle and the big north plaza.

From the partially open south end, you can view T-Mobile Park's massive retractable roof as well as Mount Rainier to the southeast. Concourses in the stadium were designed to be broad and allow extra views of the surrounding region. At the north end of the stadium, a 13-story tower was built to compliment the Seattle skyline.

The scoreboard in the tower is vertically oriented, making it the first of its sort in the NFL. The "Hawks' Nest," which seats 3,000 people, is located at the base. Field-level luxury suites placed just behind the north end zone are another innovation not seen before in the NFL.

The lack of a retractable roof exposed it to the weather, improved vistas, and lowered the project's overall cost. The 200,000 sq ft (19,000 m2) roof covers 70% of the seats while leaving the field open. Between concrete pylon supports at the stadium's north and south ends, the roof spans 720 feet (220 meters).

Trusses support the two large parts from below. Two arches with extra supports rise 200 feet (61 meters) above the field from above. To accomplish its final shape and location, post-tensioned wires were utilized.

Another secret of top facts about Lumen Field is that the roof was initially painted white to set it out from T-Mobile Park and the surrounding industrial area.

Lumen Field capacity

Lumen Field is the smallest of those NFL stadium sites being developed. To fit into the limited area, the top floors were cantilevered over the lower parts.

This, along with the slant of the seats and the location of the lower sections closer to the field, allowed for a 67,000-seat capacity and a greater view of the field than is generally seen around the country. For special events, space is available to extend the overall capacity to 72,000. There are 111 suites and nearly 7,000 club seats available.

The Toyota Fan Deck, which includes a new 12 Flag raising platform, was added to the stadium in 2015. The Seahawks paid for the expansion themselves, and the 1,000 additional seats were made available for purchase by current season ticket holders on the Blue Pride waiting list.

The stadium's capacity was increased to 68,740 people as a result of the new seats. Additional seats may be added to the stadium for special events, bringing the total capacity to 72,000. If necessary, the stadium was built to expand seating portions in phases.

Following repeated sellouts, further sections were added, bringing the total capacity to 32,400. The Sounders established an MLS record with an average home attendance of 30,943 spectators in their inaugural season. After the 2009 season, the official capacity was expanded to 35,700.

The Sounders had the highest average attendance in the league in 2011, with 38,496 fans. With the inauguration of the Hawk's Nest for the 2012 season, the official capacity was boosted to 38,500. In the 2015 MLS season, the squad had an all-time high attendance of 44,247 fans.

Lumen Field's regular-season MLS capacity is listed as 37,722 seats as of 2019, with four matches slated to utilize the stadium's bigger sections.

Lumen Field field

The most important part of the field is its playing ground and the grass type. So important that FIFA has various testing methods to determine if the field meets the requirements of hosting events or not. That is why we will talk about the field of this stadium in this section of top facts about Lumen Field.

According to the Public Stadium Authority, the stadium was first given to voters with a natural grass field, but FieldTurf was not an option when the stadium was first presented to voters.

Artificial turf was chosen over natural grass because it was easier to maintain.

The surface was particularly intriguing because of the possible harm to a natural grass field caused by Seattle's regular rain. A $1.8 million irrigation and heating system would have been necessary to keep a grass field resilient under heavy football play during late autumn and early winter storms.

Seahawks Stadium was the first NFL stadium to receive a FieldTurf artificial field in 2002.

Plastic fibers anchored in a combination of crushed rubber and sand form the surface. After testing revealed that sand and rubber compression increased the danger of player injuries, the field was replaced in early 2008. FieldTurf won the bid for the second installation over Polytan.

A one-inch (two-and-a-half-centimeter) poured rubber base was placed on the new surface to prevent the compression from repeating. In February 2016, before the 2016 Sounders season, a new grass field was built utilizing the FieldTurf Revolution 360.

Lumen Field other uses

Besides football and soccer, the field has also been utilized for other purposes which we will talk about in this section of top facts about Lumen Field.

In 2005, the stadium became an annual venue for Supercross competitions. Since the event was held at the Kingdome in 1999, Seattle has been omitted from the circuit.

The track for the event, which attracts roughly 50,000 spectators, requires more than 650 truckloads of dirt. The stadium has also been used as a venue for public speaking. On April 12, 2008, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, gave a 28-minute address before 50,817 individuals.

The Lumen Field Event Center, which has two exposition halls, a meeting room, and a concourse, is connected to the stadium's west field plaza. Pre-game festivities for the Seahawks and Mariners are held in the center.

The Event Center had previously been referred to as "the worst venue in town" for concerts, but in 2006, AEG Live and First & Goal partnered to build a new theater within the Event Center. The "WaMu Theater" was given the name rights to the new theater by Washington Mutual.

The Event Center was hired as a field hospital during the early weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The temporary hospital, which has 250 beds, was built in April 2020 under the supervision of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Because the pandemic's spread in Washington had halted, the state administration stated on April 8 that the field hospital would be demolished and transported by the federal government to another state.

The Event Site was turned into a mass vaccination center in March 2021, with the potential to deliver 4,000 to 5,000 doses per week, by the local administration in collaboration with First & Goal and Swedish Health Services.

Lumen Field quick facts and records

For the last section of

top facts about Lumen Field

let us review some quick facts and recap what has been said previously. Seahawks supporters at Lumen Field have held the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd shout at an outdoor stadium twice, the first time in 2013 at 136.6 decibels and again in 2014 at 137.6 dB.

With an increase in false starts (movement by an offensive player prior to the play) and delay of game (failure of the offense to snap the ball before the play clock expires) penalties against visiting teams, the team's home field advantage has grown.

The stadium was the first in the NFL to have a FieldTurf artificial grass field installed.

The stadium has also hosted several collegiates and high school football games, including a two-year run for the Washington Huskies during the reconstruction of Husky Stadium from 2011 to 2012. Lumen Field hosted the Seattle Dragons of the XFL in 2020.

Lumen Field is also a soccer field. A match between the Seattle Sounders of the United Soccer Leagues (USL) was the first sporting event held. In 2003, the USL squad began playing home games at the stadium on a regular basis.

The stadium hosted the debut season of the

expansion team Seattle Sounders FC in 2009. In 2009 and 2019, Lumen Field hosted the MLS Cup.

The arena also held the U.S. Open Cup event finals in 2010 and 2011. The Sounders FC won both times, and each year at Lumen Field, new attendance records were set. When the Sounders played the Portland Timbers in August 2013, they set a new home field attendance record with 67,385 people in attendance.

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