Seattle Seawolves

The team was founded in 2017 by an investor group led by Adrian Balfour and Shane Skinner.^[1] The Seawolves won the inaugural MLR Grand Final in 2018,^[2] and defended the title in the 2019 Major League Rugby Championship. In the final on June 16, 2019, the Seattle Seawolves defeated San Diego Legion 26–23 at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego.^[3]

The Seawolves hired Kees Lensing as their head coach for the 2020 season and started with a 1–4 record. The season was cancelled in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and did not resume.^[4]

The Seattle Seawolves play at the main stadium at Starfire Sports, which has a seating capacity of 4,000, in the suburb of Tukwila.^[5] The team offered 1,800 season tickets for their inaugural season, which sold out prior to the first match.^[6] In 2024, Seawolves team president Tom Barden stated that the team was "in discussions" to move to the redeveloped Memorial Stadium on the Seattle Center campus. The stadium is planned to be rebuilt with a capacity of 6,500 to 8,000 seats.^[7]

The local broadcasts for the Seawolves were carried by Root Sports Northwest, a regional AT&T SportsNet affiliate, from 2019 to 2021.^[4][6] Dan Power and Kevin Swiryn were the on-air talent for the first season.^{[citation needed]} As of the 2024 season, national broadcasts were shown on Fox, FS1, and FS2; regional broadcasts were available on Root Sports and Fox 13+.^[8]

On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to fears surrounding the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic.^[13] It was cancelled the following week^[14]