Reign FC announces move to Tacoma, rebranding for 2019
Jan 30, 2019, 4:35 PM | Updated: 4:39 pm
Seattle’s premier women soccer team will have a new home in 2019, rebranding simply to Reign FC, and playing all future home games at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma.
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Reign FC will share Cheney Stadium with the Seattle Sounders’ developmental USL team, renamed Wednesday from “Sounders 2” to the Tacoma Defiance. Also calling Cheney Stadium home is the Mariners’ AAA affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers.
“This is a special day for Tacoma, and speaks to what’s possible with great partners, and we should be proud of that,” said Tacoma Rainiers President Aaron Artman in a Wednesday press conference. “The addition of Reign FC to Tacoma matters, and shows the power behind great partnerships. We look forward to an exciting, and busy, 2019 in Cheney Stadium.”
Plans remain in place to consider building a new soccer stadium in Heidelberg/Davis Park housing roughly 5,000 fans, and playing home to the Defiance and Reign FC should it be completed sometime in the near future.
The Defiance will also feature its first ever kit sponsor in 2019 in MultiCare, a non-profit health organization based out of Tacoma. Zulily — the new kit sponsor for the Sounders — will sponsor Reign FC.
The team’s ownership group will see a shakeup as well. The group that owns the Rainiers and Defiance, Adrian Hanauer, and Lenore Hanauer, will now assume a minority ownership stake in Reign FC.
