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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Seattle Seahawks were prepared to move to Los Angeles in 1996 after they couldn't secure a deal for a new stadium in Washington, but a soccer fan placed a call to Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen and helped keep the Seahawks in Seattle, according to a story in &lt;em&gt;The Guardian&lt;/em&gt;.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Allen did not yet own the team in 1996, but he promised to buy the Seahawks if he could secure $300 million in public funding for a new football stadium. \"Together, we can leave something for future generations,\" he said in a commercial at the time.&amp;nbsp; The Mariners, a more successful and popular team than the Seahawks at the time, were also embroiled in their own negotiation for a new, publicly-financed ballpark.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Allen's struggle to secure funding for a stadium meant the team was in danger of moving to Los Angeles, but soccer fan and attorney Fred Mendoza called Allen to suggest the city build a football&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;and&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;soccer stadium, to capitalize on the market's love for the other kind of football, according to the story by Les Carpenter. That led to meetings between Allen and Mendoza, a scramble to change stadium blueprints and on-the-ground campaigning for votes.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 Seismic activity recorded after Kam Chancellor interception return for touchdown&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Soon, Major League Soccer promised the city a franchise if a stadium was built in advance. The efforts created strong public support for both football and soccer, and Allen was able to secure funding via a statewide referendum to build CenturyLink Field. Twelve years after the agreement was struck, Seattle got its MLS franchise in 2009, the Sounders, led by American star Clint Dempsey.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 2014, both the Seahawks and Sounders have arguably the best home-field advantage in their respective sport. And Seattle is hosting the NFC Championship game for the second year in a row.&amp;nbsp;&lt;em &gt;- Rohan&amp;nbsp;Nadkarni&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/01/15/seattle-seahawks-sounders-los-angeles-nfl-mls>