History UsefulNotes / Seattle

Don't fret, though! The city is still very known for sports notoriety, mainly because of the [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Seattle Mariners]], an expansion team created in the wake of the original team, the Pilots, being moved after their first season to Milwaukee (a lawsuit was also involved). They didn't have a winning season for the first fourteen years of their existence. They nearly got moved to Florida before a miracle rally and their first playoff appearance saved the team, though they eventually lost to the New York Yankees. They won 116 games in 2001, matching a regular-season record, but not only fell to the Yankees in the playoffs but didn't make the playoffs for 21 years until 2022. In the process, they had a year where they spent $100 million on payroll and still managed to lose over 100 games. Also, with the Washington Nationals making it to (and even winning) the World Series in 2019, the Mariners remain the sole MLB team with nary a single trip to the Fall Classic. One would not be surprised to find them pushing a boulder alongside Sisyphus.

Not helping matters is the fact that the city is famous for rain, which is decidedly at odds with the interests of the typical sports fan. The sports fans who ''do'' call the area home responded to the aforementioned pirating of their NBA franchise by latching onto Seattle Sounders FC of [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer MLS]], and making it one of the few teams in the league to regularly sell out the stadium. Lumen Field (formerly Qwest Field and [=CenturyLink=] Field), the home stadium to the Sounders and Seahawks, was from 2007 to 2010 true to the city's rebellious spirit by being the only stadium in the NFL to serve neither Pepsi ''nor'' Coca-Cola beverages on its grounds, [[TakeAThirdOption having instead]] awarded its concession to the locally-based Jones Soda Company. The rights have since been granted to Coca-Cola, which definitely makes going to Sounders games a lot less fun. In 2022, Lumen Field became home to a [[RuleOfThree third team]], namely OL Reign of the National Women's Soccer League. That team returned to Seattle after a three-season interlude in Tacoma.[[note]]The "OL" comes from prominent French soccer club Olympique Lyonnais, which bought a majority stake in the team in the 2019–20 offseason. The team had previously been Seattle Reign FC and Reign FC.[[/note]]

Until the 2013 [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Seahawks]] team and their "12th Man" fan-brigade finally broke the drought, the city trailed only UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} in being the ButtMonkey of the US sports world due to its spotty track record in regards to major league sports. (Six championships in the entire city's modern history) In recent years, the situation had been particularly grim, with even the once-powerful [[UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferences University of Washington]] Huskies UsefulNotes/{{NCAA}} [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball football team]] [[SeasonalRot having the worst single season record in history]] and the Seattle [=SuperSonics=] NBA team being spirited away to ''Oklahoma City'' in 2008, becoming the Thunder.

Until the 2013 [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Seahawks]] team and their "12th Man" fan-brigade finally broke the drought, the city trailed only UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} in being the ButtMonkey of the US sports world due to its spotty track record in regards to major league sports. (Six championships in the entire city's modern history) In recent years, the situation had been particularly grim, with even the once-powerful [[UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferneces University of Washington]] Huskies UsefulNotes/{{NCAA}} [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball football team]] [[SeasonalRot having the worst single season record in history]] and the Seattle [=SuperSonics=] NBA team being spirited away to ''Oklahoma City'' in 2008, becoming the Thunder.

Until the 2013 [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Seahawks]] team and their "12th Man" fan-brigade finally broke the drought, the city trailed only UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} in being the ButtMonkey of the US sports world due to its spotty track record in regards to major league sports. (Six championships in the entire city's modern history) In recent years, the situation had been particularly grim, with even the once-powerful University of Washington Huskies NCAA football team [[SeasonalRot having the worst single season record in history]] and the Seattle [=SuperSonics=] NBA team being spirited away to ''Oklahoma City''.

* ''Literature/HollowKingdom2019'' takes place in Seattle and its surrounding metropolitan area in the aftermath of a ZombieApocalypse that only affected humans.

And about half an hour to the south is the city of Tacoma. It used to be a fairly industrial town, infamous for the horrible "Tacoma Aroma" produced by the city's paper mills, but has undergone revitalization in recent years due to increased port traffic, various downtown renewal projects, and an influx of consumer dollars from troops stationed at the burgeoning Joint Base Lewis-[=McChord=], an Army/Air Force facility just to its south. Even the former site of the ASARCO smelting plant is being turned into luxury housing (why anyone would want to live over a former toxic waste site is another question). Its most famous son is arguably the one-eyed glass artist Dale Chihuly, whose works are all over the city (from Seattle's Benaroya Hall to one of the UsefulNotes/McDonalds). Unlike Seattle, Tacoma hosts no major league teams of its own, though the Mariners' triple-A affiliate (the Tacoma Rainiers) is regionally popular, and the Tacoma Dome (in addition to being an occasional Wrestling/{{WWE}} venue) has occasionally hosted Seattle's teams while their home venues were being renovated. Its other famous piece of architecture is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_High_School Stadium High School]], most famous for being where Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou was shot, and for looking like a castle. About 10 miles southeast of Tacoma is the smaller city of Puyallup, a local shibboleth (in case you're curious, the correct pronunciation is something like "Pew-AL-up.") The Puyallup Fair was recently renamed the Washington State Fair, to mixed reception, and regularly ranks among the ten largest fairs in the country. And a little bit ''further'' southwest, at the very end of Puget Sound, you come to the state capitol of Olympia, which marks the unofficial southern end of the Seattle metroplex.

Tacoma is also the source the "Tac" in [=SeaTac=], the universally-used nickname for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which has grown to become a large regional airport as it is both the home to Alaska Airlines as well as Atlanta based Delta Airline’s largest Western hub. There's also an officially incorporated town of [=SeaTac=], which, yes, surrounds the airport.

And about half an hour to the south is the city of Tacoma. It used to be a fairly industrial town, infamous for the horrible "Tacoma Aroma" produced by the city's paper mills, but has undergone revitalization in recent years due to increased port traffic, various downtown renewal projects, and an influx of consumer dollars from troops stationed at the burgeoning Joint Base Lewis-[=McChord=], an Army/Air Force facility just to its south. Even the former site of the ASARCO smelting plant is being turned into luxury housing (why anyone would want to live over a former toxic waste site is another question). Its most famous son is arguably the one-eyed glass artist Dale Chihuly, whose works are all over the city (from Seattle's Benaroya Hall to one of the UsefulNotes/McDonalds). Unlike Seattle, Tacoma hosts no major league teams of its own, though the Mariners' triple-A affiliate (the Tacoma Rainiers) is regionally popular, and the Tacoma Dome (in addition to being an occasional Wrestling/{{WWE}} venue) has occasionally hosted Seattle's teams while their home venues were being renovated. Its other famous piece of architecture is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_High_School Stadium High School]], most famous for being where Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou was shot, and for looking like a castle. About 10 miles southeast of Tacoma is the smaller city of Puyallup, a local shibboleth (in case you're curious, the correct pronunciation is something like "Pew-AL-up.") The Puyallup Fair was recently renamed the Washington State Fair, to mixed reception, and regularly ranks among the ten largest fairs in the country. And a little bit ''further'' down the road, at the very end of Puget Sound, you come to the state capitol of Olympia, which marks the unofficial southern end of the Seattle metroplex.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hate}}'': During the first half of the 1990s timeline, Buddy resides in the Pacific Northwest. He later moves back to his native UsefulNotes/NewJersey.

* Some boats features on ''Series/DeadliestCatch'' are homeported in Seattle, such as Sig Hansen's ''Northwestern'' and Keith Colburn's ''Wizard.'' For the captains and crew alike, big football games involving the Seattle Seahawks are also SeriousBusiness.

* ''Series/HereComeTheBrides'' is set in the 1860s, when Seattle was a small logging town. Its theme song is "Seattle," a tribute to the city, and Perry Como's version became a top 40 hit.

Don't fret, though! The city is still very known for sports notoriety, mainly because of the [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Seattle Mariners]], an expansion team created in the wake of the original team, the Pilots, being moved after their first season to Milwaukee (a lawsuit was also involved). They didn't have a winning season for the first fourteen years of their existence. They nearly got moved to Florida before a miracle rally and their first playoff appearance saved the team, though they eventually lost to the New York Yankees. They won 116 games in 2001, matching a regular-season record, but not only fell to the Yankees in the playoffs but haven't even been to the playoffs since then. In the process, they had a year where they spent $100 million on payroll and still managed to lose over 100 games. Also, with the Washington Nationals making it to (and even winning) the World Series in 2019, the Mariners remain the sole MLB team with nary a single trip to the Fall Classic. One would not be surprised to find them pushing a boulder alongside Sisyphus.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' takes place in Forks, over on the Olympic Peninsula, but Bella does visit Seattle.

About half an hour to the south is the city of Tacoma (the "Tac" in [=SeaTac=], which is a geographic area as well as the nickname for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which has grown to become a large regional airport as it is both the home to Alaska Airlines as well as Atlanta based Delta Airline’s largest Western hub. Tacoma used to be a fairly industrial town, infamous for the horrible "Tacoma Aroma" produced by the city's paper mills, but has undergone revitalization in recent years due to increased port traffic, various downtown renewal projects, and an influx of consumer dollars from troops stationed at the burgeoning Joint Base Lewis-[=McChord=], an Army/Air Force facility just to its south. Even the former site of the ASARCO smelting plant is being turned into luxury housing (why anyone would want to live over a former toxic waste site is another question). Its most famous son is arguably the one-eyed glass artist Dale Chihuly, whose works are all over the city (from Seattle's Benaroya Hall to one of the UsefulNotes/McDonalds). Unlike Seattle, Tacoma hosts no major league teams of its own, though the Mariners' triple-A affiliate (the Tacoma Rainiers) is regionally popular, and the Tacoma Dome (in addition to being an occasional Wrestling/{{WWE}} venue) has occasionally hosted Seattle's teams while their home venues were being renovated. Its other famous piece of architecture is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_High_School Stadium High School]], most famous for being where Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou was shot, and for looking like a castle. About 10 miles southeast of Tacoma is the smaller city of Puyallup, a local shibboleth (in case you're curious, the correct pronunciation is something like "Pew-AL-up.") The Puyallup Fair was recently renamed the Washington State Fair, to mixed reception, and regularly ranks among the ten largest fairs in the country.

Just to the east of Lake Washington is "the Eastside", which covers Bellevue, Redmond, Renton, Kirkland, Issaquah, Medina, and other assorted cities and towns. If you hear someone from this area mention the Eastside, this is what they're talking about--not Central and Eastern Washington, on the eastern side of the mountains.

About half an hour to the south is the city of Tacoma (the "Tac" in [=SeaTac=], which is a geographic area as well as the nickname for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport). [=SeaTac=] has grown to become a large regional airport as it is both the home to Alaska Airlines as well as Atlanta based Delta Airline’s largest Western hub. It used to be a fairly industrial town, infamous for the horrible "Tacoma Aroma" produced by the city's paper mills, but has undergone revitalization in recent years due to increased port traffic, various downtown renewal projects, and an influx of consumer dollars from troops stationed at the burgeoning Joint Base Lewis-[=McChord=], an Army/Air Force facility just to its south. Even the former site of the ASARCO smelting plant is being turned into luxury housing (why anyone would want to live over a former toxic waste site is another question). Its most famous son is arguably the one-eyed glass artist Dale Chihuly, whose works are all over the city (from Seattle's Benaroya Hall to one of the UsefulNotes/McDonalds). Unlike Seattle, Tacoma hosts no major league teams of its own, though the Mariners' triple-A affiliate (the Tacoma Rainiers) is regionally popular, and the Tacoma Dome (in addition to being an occasional Wrestling/{{WWE}} venue) has occasionally hosted Seattle's teams while their home venues were being renovated. Its other famous piece of architecture is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_High_School Stadium High School]], most famous for being where Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou was shot, and for looking like a castle. About 10 miles southeast of Tacoma is the smaller city of Puyallup, a local shibboleth (in case you're curious, the correct pronunciation is something like "Pew-AL-up.") The Puyallup Fair was recently renamed the Washington State Fair, to mixed reception, and regularly ranks among the ten largest fairs in the country.

About half an hour to the south is the city of Tacoma (the "Tac" in [=SeaTac=], which is a geographic area as well as the nickname for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport). It used to be a fairly industrial town, infamous for the horrible "Tacoma Aroma" produced by the city's paper mills, but has undergone revitalization in recent years due to increased port traffic, various downtown renewal projects, and an influx of consumer dollars from troops stationed at the burgeoning Joint Base Lewis-[=McChord=], an Army/Air Force facility just to its south. Even the former site of the ASARCO smelting plant is being turned into luxury housing (why anyone would want to live over a former toxic waste site is another question). Its most famous son is arguably the one-eyed glass artist Dale Chihuly, whose works are all over the city (from Seattle's Benaroya Hall to one of the UsefulNotes/McDonalds). Unlike Seattle, Tacoma hosts no major league teams of its own, though the Mariners' triple-A affiliate (the Tacoma Rainiers) is regionally popular, and the Tacoma Dome (in addition to being an occasional Wrestling/{{WWE}} venue) has occasionally hosted Seattle's teams while their home venues were being renovated. Its other famous piece of architecture is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_High_School Stadium High School]], most famous for being where Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou was shot, and for looking like a castle. About 10 miles southeast of Tacoma is the smaller city of Puyallup, a local shibboleth (in case you're curious, the correct pronunciation is something like "Pew-AL-up.") The Puyallup Fair was recently renamed the Washington State Fair, to mixed reception, and regularly ranks among the ten largest fairs in the country.

The city's tumultuous history with hockey should also be mentioned. The Seattle Metropolitans were the very first American team to win the UsefulNotes/StanleyCup in 1915, but the team folded two years later. Various attempts to bring pro hockey back to Seattle were made in the 1970s and the 1990s, but such attempts never left DevelopmentHell due to various issues. After the [=SuperSonics=] left for Oklahoma City, interest began picking up in having an [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL]] expansion team. The Phoenix Coyotes almost moved to Seattle, but ultimately stayed where they were. Progress finally began when the Seattle City Council approved renovations to the former home of the [=SuperSonics=], [=KeyArena=], to make it more suitable for hockey (which had been one of the factors in previous attempts floundering). A new ownership group, with Creator/JerryBruckheimer at the helm, is in charge (and is also looking into potentially reviving the [=SuperSonics=]), perhaps even by having them play in their former home (now named Climate Pledge Arena). The name was announced in July 2020... the ''[[AwesomeMcCoolName Seattle]]'' '''[[KrakenAndLeviathan Kraken]]'''! And yes, [[https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/release-kraken-seattle-s-new-hockey-team-will-have-catchy-n1234753 they announced it]] [[Film/ClashOfTheTitans1981 exactly the way you'd think they would]]. The name was chosen to honor both Seattle's maritime heritage, and the native [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Pacific_octopus Giant Pacific octopus]]. The team's logo is [[https://cms.nhl.bamgrid.com/images/photos/317603398/1024x576/cut.png suitably badass]], as well.

* ''Film/StayTuned'': The main protagonists reside in Seattle.

* The third Allied mission of the ''Yuri's Revenge'' expansion of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' takes place in Seattle, with Yuri attempting to gain war funds by holding the city hostage to nuclear weapons and besieging the headquarters of MegaCorp [[BlandNameProduct MassiveSoft]]. A citywide sniper duel breaks out after each side's superpower damages each other's bases, leaving only infantry barracks intact a race to secure enough power stations to get their respective superweapons back online to finish the other off.

In addition to the monorail, Seattle is the hub of the largest passenger and automobile ferry fleet in the world, as measured by number of vehicles carried. Its unique car ferries are almost always featured in media from Seattle. It's also home to three of the five longest floating bridges in the world: the 520 bridge, officially known as the [[OverlyLongName SR 520 Albert D. Rosellini Evergreen Point Floating Bridge]] (which replaced the original Evergreen Point Floating Bridge in 2016) being the absolute longest at 7,710 ft (2,350 m); the eastbound I-90 bridge, officially known as the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge, being the second-longest at 6,620 ft (2,020 m); and the westbound I-90 bridge (Homer Hadley Memorial Bridge) at 5,811 feet (1,171 meters) - and the second widest, beat only by the aforementioned 520 bridge[[note]]not to mention soon to be the first floating bridge to carry light rail[[/note]]. The third-longest floating bridge, the Hood Canal bridge[[note]]officially William A. Bugge Bridge, and the longest floating bridge located in a saltwater tidal basin at (floating portion) 6,521 feet (1,988 m) (full length 7,869 feet (2,398 m))[[/note]], is around thirty miles northwest of the first two.

In addition to the monorail, Seattle is the hub of the largest passenger and automobile ferry fleet in the world, as measured by number of vehicles carried. Its unique car ferries are almost always featured in media from Seattle. It's also home to the two longest floating bridges in the world: the 520 bridge, officially known as the [[OverlyLongName SR 520 Albert D. Rosellini Evergreen Point Floating Bridge]] (which replaced the original Evergreen Point Floating Bridge in 2016) being the absolute longest at 7,710 ft (2,350 m), and the eastbound I-90 bridge, officially known as the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge, being the second-longest at 6,620 ft (2,020 m). The I-90 bridge is actually two bridges colloquially grouped together; the westbound bridge is the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, 5,811 ft (1,771 m) long, spanning Lake Washington to Mercer Island east of the city. The third-longest floating bridge, the Hood Canal bridge[[note]]officially William A. Bugge Bridge, and the longest floating bridge located in a saltwater tidal basin at (floating portion) 6,521 feet (1,988 m) (full length 7,869 feet (2,398 m))[[/note]], is around thirty miles northwest of the first two.

* Music/{{Heart}}

* Music/{{Soundgarden}} (Tacoma; named after a musical kinetic sculpture in Sand Point, Seattle, which due to it being on federal land, almost no one has been able to view since 9/11)

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines2'' is conformed to be set in Seatle, with the games insisting incident being a mass creation of new vampires happening in foggy Pioneer Square.
* ''VideoGame/BritannicPatronessOfTheMediterranean'' - and the Third Demo for currently indevelopment game Titanic Honor and Glory - both feature a Player Character named Robin, who yearns to leave the dreary life of Edwardian Britain and move to far distant Seattle.

Not helping matters is the fact that the city is famous for rain, which is decidedly at odds with the interests of the typical sports fan. The sports fans who ''do'' call the area home responded to the aforementioned pirating of their NBA franchise by latching onto Seattle Sounders FC of [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer MLS]], and making it one of the few teams in the league to regularly sell out the stadium. Lumen Field (formerly Qwest Field and [=CenturyLink=] Field), the home stadium to the Sounders and Seahawks, was from 2007 to 2010 true to the city's rebellious spirit by being the only stadium in the NFL to serve neither Pepsi ''nor'' Coca-Cola beverages on its grounds, [[TakeAThirdOption having instead]] awarded its concession to the locally-based Jones Soda Company. The rights have since been granted to Coca-Cola, which definitely makes going to Sounders games a lot less fun. In 2022, Lumen Field will become home to a [[RuleOfThree third team]], namely OL Reign of the National Women's Soccer League. That team is returning to Seattle after a three-season interlude in Tacoma.[[note]]The "OL" comes from prominent French soccer club Olympique Lyonnais, which bought a majority stake in the team in the 2019–20 offseason. The team had previously been Seattle Reign FC and Reign FC.[[/note]]