The Seattle Seahawks are one of the most electric franchises in the National Football League. Through the years, teams have found it difficult to face the Seahawks at their home ground, in the Lumen Field stadium. The facility is regarded as one of the toughest stadiums to play football, not just because of fan support but how the stadium was architecturally built.
Seattle Seahawks Home Venue
The Lumen Field stadium is the home of the Seattle Seahawks franchise of the National Football League. Opened in 2002, the Lumen Field stadium is located in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
Apart from being the home for the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL, the Lumen Field also serves as the home ground for the Major League Soccer franchise Sounders FC, XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons and the NWSL franchise OL Reign.
The multi-purpose stadium is also a famous facility to host various consumer shows, concerts and trade shows, along with sporting events.
Lumen Field Stadium Capacity
The Lumen Field stadium can hold up to a total of 68,740 people for the NFL games. The seating can further be expanded to 72,000, given the nature of the multi-purpose stadium, hosting different concerts and shows.
While the size of the Lumen Field stadium, built on 30 acres, is relatively small when compared to the other NFL franchise’s facilities, the Seattle Seahawks home stadium ranks as the 16th largest NFL stadium in the United States with the seating capacity.
The Lumen Field has 7000 club seats and 111 executive seats. The facility also holds 1578 special seats for the disabled. The highest attendance at the Lumen Field happened during Ed Sheeran’s concert in 2023, drawing a record audience of 77,286.
Lumen Field Stadium History
Originally named the Seahawks Stadium in 2002, the facility has gone through several name changes over the course of two decades before finally landing with the Lumen Field stadium. In 2004, the stadium went through a rebranding process after telecommunication company Qwest purchased the naming rights. The facility was then named as the Qwest Field.
In 2011, CenturyLink acquired Qwest and the stadium went through another rebrand. It was now called the CenturyLink field. In the year 2017, when CenturyLink rebranded to Lumen Technologies, the name was changed again to Lumen Field.
The Seattle Seahawks played their first game in Lumen Field (then Seahawks Stadium) in the year 2002. The result was a 28-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the preseason game. After finishing their first season in the new stadium with a 7-9 record, they went undefeated at home in the next season to reach the playoffs.
The Lumen Field stadium has been a vital cog for Seattle Seahawks’ dominance at home. The stadium is electric and gets very loud which forces the opponents to make mistakes. The cheers from the fans and the loud noises get bounced off the roof into the stadium making it a hard environment to play football.
The Lumen Field stadium has resulted in two Guinness world records for the loudest roar in an outdoor stadium. The first one was in 2013 with a measurement of 136.6 decibels and the next in 2014 with 137.6 decibels.
Lumen Field Stadium Construction and Cost
The previous home stadium of the Seattle Seahawks was the Kingdome. Since the inception of the franchise in 1976, Kingdome was the home until 1999. When a proposal for the remodeling of the stadium in 1997 failed, the then owner Ken Behring warned to move the franchise.
In 1997, Paul Allen purchased the team from Behring. After the voters approved public funding to build a new stadium, the Washington State Public Stadium Authority was created to look after the ownership of the facility.
The inspiration to build the Lumen Field came from Paul Allen’s appeal with the Husky Stadium of the University of Washington. He wanted to build a very similar atmosphere with the new facility.
The 1.5 million square feet project of Lumen Field stadium was built on a 30-acre site, designed by the architectural firms Ellerbe Becket, LMN Architects and Streeter & Associates.
The $430 million Lumen Field stadium is owned by the public and was built on a public-private funded cooperation. $130 million was initially invested by Paul Allen and the public investment was concealed at $300 million for the construction of the stadium.
In 2000, Kingdome was demolished by implosion in under 20 seconds. This made way for the construction of the new Lumen Field stadium
Lumen Field Stadium Seating Chart
The Lumen Field stadium has three levels of seating. The lower level or the 100s level, which is nearer to the sidelines, goes from sections 101 to 151. This section generally has 15-24 seats per row.
The bench of the home team, the Seattle Seahawks runs from section 133-137. And the visiting team’s bench runs from 108-110.
The club level, which goes from section 203 to 241, usually has 18-20 seats in each row. The upper level seats run through sections 300-344 with 15-25 seats per row on this level.
What to bring to Lumen Field Stadium?
The Lumen Field stadium is high on security and safety of the fans that come to attend the games. Hence there are restrictions on the things that can be carried to the ground during games. Here is the list of permitted and prohibited items in the Lumen Field stadium.
The items that are prohibited in the facility include:
Cameras
Glass and metal containers
Alcohol
Flag poles
Outside beverages
Laptops
Motorcycle helmets
Weapons
Sirens and horns
The items that are permitted in the Lumen Field stadium include:
Blankets
Children’s juice boxes
Bags that are not greater than 12” x 6” x 12”
Clutch Purse less than the size of 4.5” x 6.5”
Bicycle helmets
Binoculars
Plastic sports bottles that are empty
Completely sealed water bottles
What is the parking cost at Lumen Field Stadium?
The Lumen Field stadium’s $26 million parking garage has the capacity for 2000 parking spaces. 3100 automobiles can be accommodated onsite in the facility along with accommodating 8400 automobiles in the surrounding spaces and 15000 more in the nearby spaces.
The parking costs at the Lumen Field stadium are as follows:
Parking Facility | Average Gameday Rate |
Union Station Parking Garage - 820 4th Ave. S | $40 |
Union Station Parking Garage - 550 4th Ave. S | $40 |
Stadium Innovation Center Garage - 57 S Atlantic St | $30 |
Home Plate Garage - 1521 1st Ave S | $32 |
714 1st Ave. Garage | $20 |
Lumen Field Stadium Parking Map
FAQs
A. The Lumen Field stadium is located at 800 Occidental Ave S, Seattle, WA 98134, USA. The home of the Seattle Seahawks is in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
A. The Lumen Field stadium is not built on natural grass. The facility has FieldTurf installed which allows the stadium to host multiple sporting events with flexibility.
A. The reason why the Lumen Field stadium is so loud is because of the way the facility was built. The noise and cheer from the crowd are reflected back into the stadium because of the roofs and the seating decks.
A. A. CenturyLink's rebranding to Lumen Technologies resulted in the name of Lumen Field for the facility. In 2017, CenturyLink purchased the naming rights for the facility from 2019 to 2033 for $162.7 million.
A. Unfortunately, the Lumen Field stadium has never hosted a Super Bowl.