OL Reign
| OL Reign | |||
| Basic data | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Seat | Tacoma , Washington | ||
| founding | 2012 | ||
| Colours | blue White | ||
| owner | OL Groupe (89.5%) Bill Predmore (7.5%) Tony Parker (3%) |
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| president | Bill Predmore | ||
| Website | olreign.com | ||
| First soccer team | |||
| Head coach | Farid Benstiti | ||
| Venue | Cheney Stadium | ||
| Places | 6,500 | ||
| league | National Women's Soccer League | ||
| 2019 |
Reg. Season : 4th place Play-offs: semi-finals |
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OL Reign (until 2018 Seattle Reign FC , 2019 Reign FC ) is a women's football franchise from the Seattle area . It was founded in 2012 and has played in the National Women's Soccer League , the highest division in women's football in the United States , since 2013 .
history
On November 24th, 2012 the founding of a new women's soccer professional league in the USA was announced, and that a team from Seattle will take part in it. On December 19, 2012, it was announced that the new Seattle franchise will be named Seattle Reign FC.
The first season of the NWSL closed Seattle with eight participating franchises in seventh place and thus missed the entry into the championship play-offs . The Reign remained without a win for the entire first half of the season and even had to concede at least one goal in each of the 22 season games.
In the 2014 season, Seattle was able to secure first place after the regular season. With a total of 16 wins from 24 games, they ended up having a 13 point lead over runners-up FC Kansas City . In the play-offs, the team reached the final with a victory over Washington Spirit , which it lost to Kansas with 1: 2.
Also in 2015 , the franchise took first place with 13 wins in 20 games after the regular season. In the semifinals, the team won over Washington Spirit as in the previous year, so that in the new edition of the previous year's final it came to a duel against Kansas City. However, this was lost again, with Amy Rodriguez being able to score the only goal for Kansas.
The season 2016 ended Seattle in fifth place after the regular season, making the move into the play-offs of the four best teams was narrowly missed. The same happened to the team in the following year 2017 , in which they again finished fifth.
The year 2018 was more successful , in which Seattle finished third after the regular season and returned to the play-offs for the first time in two years. There, however, the team lost to local rivals Portland Thorns FC in the semi-finals .
Prior to the 2019 season, the franchise moved to Tacoma, about 50 km from Seattle , and was renamed Reign FC. In addition, several minority owners took over shares in the franchise. The team ended the season in fourth place in the table and thus reached the play-offs again. In the semifinals, however, Reign FC lost to eventual winner North Carolina Courage . After the end of the season, coach Vlatko Andonovski resigned from his position in order to take over the US women's national soccer team .
In early 2020, the OL Groupe, the owner of Olympique Lyon , became the majority owner of Reign FC. Before the start of the 2020 season, the franchise was rebranded to OL Reign. In addition to the name, the colors and logo were also adapted in this context.
Stages
- Starfire Sports (4,500 seats); Tukwila , Washington (2013)
- Memorial Stadium (6,000 seats); Seattle , Washington (2014-2018)
- Cheney Stadium (6,500 seats); Tacoma , Washington (since 2019)
Seattle Reign FC played their home games in 2013 at Starfire Sports in Tukwila . The 2014 season saw the move to the larger and more centrally located Memorial Stadium . Since moving to Tacoma before the start of the 2019 season, the franchise has played its home games at Cheney Stadium .
owner
The sole owners of Reign FC were originally Bill and Teresa Predmore. Bill Predmore is the CEO of POP, a Seattle marketing agency. After working with the Seattle Sounders, he came up with the idea of starting his own soccer team. Because there was already a team from Seattle in Major League Soccer , he founded a women's soccer team. His wife Teresa played football at Oregon State University and developed a great passion for it.
In addition to the two main owners, the owners of the Tacoma Rainiers ( minor league baseball ) and Tacoma Defiance (until 2018 Seattle Sounders FC 2 ) ( USL Championship ) as well as the owner of the Seattle Sounders FC , Adrian Hanauer, and his mother, Lenore Hanauer , have held the ownership since 2019 , Minority interests in Reign FC.
At the end of 2019, the ownership rights were largely sold to the OL Groupe, the owners of Olympique Lyon . This now holds 89.5%, Bill Predmore still holds 7.5% and Tony Parker , Lyon's representative in the USA, 3%.
Fan groups
The largest fan group is the Royal Guard. It was founded in April 2013 by Matt Banks, Kiana Coleman, Stephanie Van Slageren and Alex Thomas, making it the first official fan club of a women's soccer club in Washington.
Trainer
- 2013-2017: Laura Harvey
- 2018–2019: Vlatko Andonovski
- since 2020: Farid Benstiti
Players
Current squad
As of October 29, 2019
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Coaching staff
- Sam Laity (Assistant Trainer)
- Milan Ivanovic (assistant coach)
- Ljupco Kmetovski-Rakush (goalkeeping coach)
successes
Season statistics
| year | league | Regular season | Play-offs | Average audience 1 | Most successful goalscorer 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | NWSL | 7th place | not qualified | 2,306 |
 Megan Rapinoe (5)
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| 2014 | NWSL | 1st place | final | 3,632 |
 Kim Little (16)
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| 2015 | NWSL | 1st place | final | 4,060 |
Kim Little (10)
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| 2016 | NWSL | 5th place | not qualified | 4,602 |
 Manon Melis (7)
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| 2017 | NWSL | 5th place | not qualified | 4.037 |
Megan Rapinoe (12)
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| 2018 | NWSL | 3rd place | Semifinals | 3,824 |
 Jodie Taylor (9)
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| 2019 | NWSL | 4th Place | Semifinals | 5,213 |
Bethany Balcer (6)
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Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ New women's football league founded in the USA - with a team from Seattle
- ↑ Seattle Reign FC is the name of the new professional women's soccer team from Seattle
- ↑ Big moves for Reign FC: New venue, new city, new minority owners. In: NWSL.com. January 30, 2019, accessed February 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Andonovski Departs Reign FC; Named USWNT Head Coach. In: reignfc.com. October 28, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019 .
- ^ Matthew Levine: OL Groupe to become majority owner of National Women's Soccer League's Reign FC. In: NWSL. December 19, 2019, accessed March 12, 2020 .
- ↑ NWSL: Reign FC is history. In: soccerdonna.de. March 7, 2020, accessed March 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Joshua Mayers: Reign FC confirms its new home will be Seattle Memorial Stadium ( English ) In: Sounders FC Blog . The Seattle Times . February 6, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
- ↑ Big moves for Reign FC: New venue, new city, new minority owners. In: NWSL.com. January 30, 2019, accessed February 1, 2019 .
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/12/19/sports/soccer/19reuters-soccer-women-nwsl.html
- ↑ OL Group takes over Reign FC. In: soccerdonna.de. December 19, 2019, accessed December 23, 2019 .
- ^ Laura Harvey Steps Down as Head Coach and GM; Vlatko Andonovski Named Head Coach of Reign FC. (No longer available online.) In: thebold.com. November 7, 2017, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 4, 2018 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Reign FC appoints Farid Benstiti as head coach. In: nwssoccer.com. January 21, 2020, accessed January 29, 2020 .
- ^ Reign FC: Roster. In: reignfc.com. Retrieved October 29, 2019 .
