Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium will see a taste of MLS action this month, when Seattle Sounders FC hosts Portland Timbers in a U.S. Open Cup match.
Primarily the home of Minor League Baseball’s Tacoma Rainiers (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League), Cheney Stadium has also become something of a hub for professional soccer in recent years. The current Tacoma Defiance of USL Championship began playing home matches there in 2018, and are joined at the venue this season by the NWSL’s Reign FC.
Cheney Stadium will now get a turn at MLS action, as the Sounders and Timbers will meet there on June 12 for their fourth-round match in the U.S. Open Cup. More from The News Tribune:
On June 12, they’ll do it again in the fourth-round of the U.S. Open Cup in Tacoma at Cheney Stadium. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
In a coin-flip, Seattle won home field advantage and elected to play in Tacoma. It will be the first time the Seattle Sounders will play a game in Cheney Stadium, home to the Sounders USL franchise, Tacoma Defiance.
“We are excited to not only open another Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup campaign, facing one of our historic rivals in the Portland Timbers, but also to further deepen our connections to the South Sound and the City of Tacoma with this fourth round matchup,” Sounders GM Garth Lagerwey said in a press release.
The long-term plan could see Reign FC and the Defiance move into a new soccer-specific stadium that is being explored for a site adjacent to Cheney Stadium, should that proposal come to fruition. Our own Jon Bruning took a closer look at Reign FC’s shift to Tacoma, the addition of new investors in the club, and the plans for a soccer-specific stadium in a Soccer Stadium Digest feature published in February.
Image of Cheney Stadium in soccer configuration courtesy Reign FC.