Puyallup Tribe of Indians buys Lumen Field pitch naming rights

Playing surface will now be known Emerald Queen Casino Pitch at Lumen Field, starting on Saturday.

In an expansion of their current relationship with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, the Seattle Sounders announced that the playing surface will now be branded the Emerald Queen Casino Pitch at Lumen Field, starting with Saturday’s match against Austin FC. The Puyallup Tribe and Emerald Queen Casino were already the Sounders’ sleeve sponsor. New branding will now be visible on the center circle before the match, the player tunnel and upper-level seating.

The new sponsorship expands an existing relationship between the Sounders and the Puyallup Tribe that stretches beyond the field that includes various community programs.

“Deals like this find the most success when both parties not only have similar goals for the partnership itself, but when they are also aligned similarly with deeper core values, and we feel like we couldn’t have found a better match on that front,” Sounders President of Business Operations Peter Tomozawa said in a media release. “Sounders FC, the Puyallup Tribe and EQC all recognize the power that our respective organizations have to empower and provide for our region, and especially youth. We look forward to utilizing this partnership to actively better the community together through our co-designed Career Development Program.”

As part of the celebration, hundreds of members of the Puyallup Tribe will be in attendance at Saturday’s match, which will include a pitch blessing during the opening ceremonies.

The pitch had been without a sponsor since XBox ended its relationship with the Sounders before the start of the 2019 season. From 2009-2018, the pitch-naming rights had been rolled into a suite of other sponsorships that also included the shirt, but that was decoupled after the XBox relationship ended. Zulily has been the team’s main shirt sponsor since then.