Mike Salk’s top 10 things that make Seattle a great sports city

During the in-between time while the Mariners prep for a run at the playoffs and the Seahawks build for another run at the Super Bowl, it’s a good time to reflect on the positive aspects of Seattle athletics.

After listing the top 10 ways Seattle could improve the city’s current sports’ scene , 710 ESPN Seattle’s Mike Salk listed his top reasons Seattle is already a great sports city.

1.Seahawks owner Paul Allen, coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider: “The holy triumvirate. Those three guys are in the most important spots on the most important team in town. Paul Allen is as wealthy as they get, Pete Carroll is as good a coach as you are going to find and John Schneider has done a fantastic job and is as good an executive, even if he never wins the Executive of the Year award. Having those three guys in place is the No. 1 best thing about this team right now.”

2. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson: “What’s the next impossible thing to find after that? It’s a quarterback. No. 2 on my list is obvious … It’s not as interesting to talk about all the time, but it’s a whole lot better for the future of your franchise.”

3. Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez: “Hopefully he’s still in the same spot that he’s been in the last few years. I think Felix is that special. When Felix is on, and everything that surrounds him – Felix Day and the King’s Court – and watching him completely dominate people. When Felix is Felix, he is right there near the top of this list. He is a unique and special superstar athlete here in Seattle, who, by the way, is homegrown, been here since the beginning.”

4. CenturyLink Field: “CenturyLink has a couple things: 1. The design for noise. The cantilever design and the way that it pushes all of the sound toward the field – the noise at CenturyLink Field is phenomenal. 2. The atmosphere for Seahawks games right now is fantastic. 3. The atmosphere and everything they do for Sounders games, I think that puts it over the top for No. 4 on this list.”

5. Safeco Field: “A sunny day, King’s Court, all the food options – it is one of the jewels. It may not be the best stadium in baseball but it is in the list of that five to eight range.”

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6. Husky Stadium: “We actually have pretty good infrastructure in this town, don’t you think? Husky Stadium is by the lake, you’ve got the sailgating and the whole deal. Isn’t that one of the better things about the town’s sports scene?”

7. Hope: “It’s the idea that for all of the teams in town, other than the Seahawks, you’ve either never done it or haven’t done it in so long nobody remembers. And there’s nothing like the first time. There was nothing like how it felt in 2013 when the Seahawks won. There’s nothing like that. The first time your team wins is always the best one.”

8. Access to tickets and parking: “It’s always the upside of bad teams. It’s not true with the Seahawks, it’s true everywhere else. You want to go to a Mariners game, you can go. You want to park near Safeco Field, you can go. And one day this team will be rocking the way they were in the late 90s and early 2000s and selling out every day, and you’re going to complain, ‘All I want to do is go to a baseball game. How come I can’t get tickets? I’ve got to spend $75 to go to a baseball game?’ Take advantage of the best thing going right now, which is the fact that any time you want to go to a ballgame … go ahead.”

9. Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz’s home run swing: “It’s beautiful. When Nelson Cruz hits bombs, it is really pretty.”

10. UW football coach Chris Peterson/WSU football coach Mike Leach/High school basketball pipeline: “I don’t know which one comes in 10th. Those are sort of the next grouping of three on my list.”

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