The Seattle Sounders hosted the Portland Timbers last night, and it was no ordinary match. It was the nationally televised home debut of newest Sounder Clint Dempsey, and it was held in a sold-out CenturyLink Field. So the home faithful pulled out all the stops.
The Emerald City Supporters unveiled this massive tifo before the opening whistle, portraying Seattle's "four horsemen": Eddie Johnson, Michael Gspurning, Ozzie Alonso, and Brad Evans. On their site, ECS explain just how the project came into being.
This choreo took 3 weeks to “make”. And that is just the sewing, drawing, and painting. The conceptual phase took much longer. In truth, we were kicking around this idea for months, constantly revising the image, before we started production. Anywhere from 10-20 people helped each day we sewed/drew/painted. Over 25 people helped set up the choreo and almost 50 helped with deployment.
The total size is approximately 37,000 sqft. Around 70 gallons of paint were used for 100% coverage of all 6 segments. Almost 3,000 cards were used in the wing sections of the Brougham End to help “blank” those sections and focus attention back on the display. We used 35 ropes to hoist the curtains.
Tifo is a labor of love. Tifo nights are very long and they bleed together into very longs weeks. Typically everyone goes and makes a living at their day job, and then we all meet up around 5pm and work until 10pm or later each weekday, weekends we usually start at noon.
The night was a smashing success for Seattle, even beyond the 1-0 victory. The crowd of 67,385 was the second-largest ever for an MLS, trailing only the Los Angeles Galaxy's opener against the MetroStars at the Rose Bowl in MLS's inaugural season. But the excitement for the regional rivalry did not translate to television: ESPN2 pulled a 0.3 overnight for the broadcast.