San Francisco: The Socceroos arrive at Seattle’s Lumen Field for their crunch Group D clash against a US national team which is unbeaten at the venue – thanks in large part to a not-so-secret weapon.
Lumen, the home of current Super Bowl champions the Seattle Seahawks and temporarily renamed Seattle Stadium for the World Cup, is known worldwide as one of the noisiest stadiums in sport. For a time, it held the Guinness World Record for the loudest noise recorded at an outdoor stadium, when the roar of the crowd measured 137 decibels.
That is about the level you’d get from standing near a jet as it took off, louder than an ambulance siren and well above the level that is comfortable for a human ear. And the ground, built in 2002, was specifically designed that way.
It is best known for the “Beast Quake” in January 2011, when Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch scored a 67-yard touchdown, breaking nine tackles along the way in an iconic NFL moment. The crowd’s reaction to the fourth quarter play was so loud and intense it triggered local seismic sensors near the stadium, which was recorded by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
“If you wasn’t in this stadium to see it and to hear it, I feel that you’re bein’ shortchanged by watching the video. It was that damn loud,” Lynch later told ESPN of the moment.
Taylor Swift fans did the same at the venue during the 2023 Eras tour, when a local seismologist confirmed screaming “Swifties” had created seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
The volume doesn’t just add to the atmosphere – it can also have a material impact on a game. Players have regularly expressed how difficult it is to communicate over the din from the stands at the venue, and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he was forced to abandon play calls and switch to hand signals when he played there.
The United States have an unbeaten record at the stadium, having played there six times – although that last match was a decade ago, in a 2-1 Copa América match against Ecuador.
Of the three Australian squad members who play in America’s MLS, 18-year-old Lucas Herrington is the only to have played at Lumen, on debut for the Colorado Rapids against the Seattle Sounders. The stadium, which will have a capacity crowd of 69,000 in attendance for the Socceroos match, was less than half-full that day.
Built for noise
Paul Allen, the late Seahawks owner and co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates, played a major role in designing Lumen Field to ensure it created maximum crowd noise despite being an open-aired structure.
Despite its large capacity, it sits on one of the smallest footprints of all NFL stadiums, with the seats close to the field, stacked steeply and designed to direct the noise from the stands directly onto the pitch.
About 70 per cent of the seating is covered by large, curved canopies that bounce the sound down rather than allowing it to escape the stadium, and it is chock-full of harsh surfaces. The concrete walls and aluminum seats cause sound to reverberate around the ground.
What a win at Lumen Field could mean for each side?
The Athletic’s World Cup predictor rates the Socceroos an 84 per cent change to progress out of the group stage. And while this is already a highly anticipated contest, a win for either side in Seattle could see them secure first place in Group D with a game still to play.
If Australia defeat the United States and Paraguay either draw or lose to Turkey, the Socceroos take top spot. It would mean Australia would get the pathway into the knockout stages that had been intended for the US, and the team would stay in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they have been set up since May 31. That game would be on July 2 (AEST) against one of the third-placed teams who get through the group stage.
Similarly, if the US win and Turkey either draw or lose to Paraguay, they will claim top spot. A draw in the US and Socceroos match would put both teams on four points – a tally that historically has always been enough to advance through to the knockout rounds, either as a top-two finisher or one of the eight best third-placed teams.
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Nick Ralston is the deputy editor and investigations editor for The Sydney Morning Herald. He has previously spent time as news editor, justice editor and world editor.Connect via X or email.
