How soccer in Seattle prevented NFL football in Los Angeles

How close was former Seahawks owner Ken Behring to moving the team from Seattle to Los Angeles in 1996?

Moving vans had already hauled some of the team’s equipment to California before Paul Allen purchased the team on the condition CenturyLink field be constructed in Seattle.

If a vote for a new stadium in Seattle didn’t pass by a razor thin margin in 1997, the current defending Super Bowl champions would be L.A.’s NFL franchise. It was the promise of a Seattle MLS franchise in 1997 that pushed the vote through by a 1 percent margin, according to this story in The Guardian.

Allen’s attempt to pass a vote approving $300 million of taxpayer money toward a new stadium for a middling franchise wasn’t particularly popular at the time, considering he was the seventh-richest man in the world. It wasn’t until a soccer fan called his office and pitched the idea for a stadium that could house both soccer and football that the campaign swung.

The vote that approved CenturyLink Field in 1997 and prevented the Seahawks’ move to L.A. passed by a 51 to 49 percent margin.
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