"Destination: Goal" by Seattlest Flickr contributor jaycoxfilm The City Council has approved Arena Sports' proposal to renovate Hangar 27 at Magnuson Park. The project, which is entirely privately funded (are you listening basketball fans?) will begin immediately, and the facility will open in 2009. The city retains ownership of the structure, however, Arena Sports will receive free rent up to the value of the improvements. Additionally, Arena Sports will offer free programs and scholarships. Nearly......

"jonas" by Seattlest Flickr contributor Doug Felts It could be worse. Somehow. We guess SoDo could have been swallowed up in a giant sinkhole. Or the Mariners could keep playing for another three months. Thankfully, their season ended Sunday, bumbling to a 61-101 record, and our long civic nightmare appears to be over, or at least delayed for a few months. Huskies: When the one superstar athlete on your team is less healthy than a......

"Willingham at Husky Photo Day" by C Syverson In the 11th grade, we busted our Mom's lava lamp playing soccer in the house. (Yeah, she had a lava lamp. Whatever.) Our seemed-like-a-good-idea solution was to vacuum the two quarts of red oily goo with the family's shiny new Electrolux. About a week later, an odd smell started emanating from the storage closet where the vacuum was kept and we were grounded for two weeks. On......

The Seattle Sounders fell to the Charleston Battery tonight in the semifinal of the US Open Cup, succumbing during penalty kicks 4-3. Regulation time ended with a 1-1 tie, and the teams failed to break the deadlock during the extra period. The Battery advance to play DC United in the final on Sept. 3. The Sounders resume USL play on Friday at the Starfire Sports Complex.......

The Seattle Sounders face MLS-club Kansas City Wizards in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup tonight at Qwest Field. The tournament pits top professional and amateur clubs from across the country. The Seattle Times is reporting that KC may be planning to field a reserve squad, due to scheduling considerations. Tickets are still available. Kick-off is 7 p.m.......

For the second time in less than a year, the Seattle Sounders have upset MLS-side Chivas USA in the US Open Cup, defeating the top-flight team 2-0 in last night's third round action at the Starfire Sports Complex in Renton. MLS-bound Sebastien Le Toux and Taylor Graham scored in the contest. The Sounders next face the Kansas City Wizards (another MLS squad) in the quarterfinals at Qwest Field next Tuesday night.......

We were mid-bite on our Bratwurst Sandwich mit Pommes Frittes ($8) when Spain's Fernando Torres scored the sole goal, and we celebrated quietly with a swig of Franziskaner Dunkel Weissbier. A friend of ours whooped and threw her hands up in the air. She suddenly felt very alone, she mentioned later. Not surprisingly, the crowd at Feierabend, the German-style bar down the street from REI, was solidly in Germany's corner. At least we assumed......

A few weeks ago, we watched the first half of the Champions League Final at Pyramid. Each shot or diving save was met with indifference by the lunch crowd—we quickly found the game slow and boring. For the second half we moved to the Owl and Thistle and wedged our way into a seat around those in jerseys and scarves. Their oohs, awws, and referee death threats made for a much more exciting second half.......

photo courtesy of Seattlest Flickr contributor Jeanine Anderson While the rest of the world was glued to soccer shoot-outs on the field, Lakewood, Wash., police were investigating the deaths of two men from a soccer related shoot-out off field. While the names of the victims have yet to be released, KOMO News is reporting two young men were killed after a soccer dispute escalated into gunfire on Saturday night. Police have said that one of......

SALMAN RUSHDIE: He'll be hitting Town Hall tonight to read from his latest effort, The Enchantress of Florence. According to the press release, it sounds like it's one of those quasi-fictional tales pitting opposites against each other (and, possibly, in the process, showing how opposites attract?). Tickets are available at University Bookstore for $5 a pop, or you can just buy a copy of the novel and use that as your entry. 7:30 p.m.......

The Euro Cup starts this weekend-- it's just like the World Cup except there is more overt racism, and the fans have free health care. All of the games will be shown at the George and Dragon, Café Presse, and in your living room via the ESPN family of networks. The Kangaroo and Kiwi will open at 11am to show the late morning game live, and then they will show a replay of the early......

Brazil vs. Canada at Qwest Field Soccer Comes to Seattle: Seattlest was lucky enough, to catch the international friendly between Brazil and Canada at Qwest Field Saturday evening. Seeing an explosive game between well-matched teams, from some truly great seats, got us even more excited for the inaugural season of the Seattle Sounders FC. We hope the Sounders inspire a dedicated drum section like the Brazil team brought along. We don't know if we've ever......

NOT REINVENTING THE WHEEL: If you're considering quitting your corporate job--you know, the one with benefits and a customer lunch expense account--to build your own business from the ground up, you're crazy. Have you read the financial pages in the newspapers of late? Sometimes, however, it takes exactly that edge of craziness to make your dreams come true. In that case, let us direct you to the Six Hour Start-Up Conference this weekend. Your bucks......

Seattle's new Major League Soccer team, Seattle Sounders FC, has signed its first player: Sebastien Le Toux. Le Toux, a 24 year old French national, is a forward. He's not Thierry Henry, but he is a start! Le Toux is not unknown to Sounders staff or fans, he is a member of the current Seattle Sounders team in the United Soccer League, where he has excelled. Every whisper of a new player, and now......

As we told you yesterday, the MLS will announce the name of the city's new soccer franchise, set to start play in 2009. We think the league learned their lesson from Houston when they named that franchise Houston 1836, the year that city was founded. This, however, was also the year that Texas won its independence from Mexico, and the name didn't sit well with many Mexican-Americans in the area who the team would be......

Seattleites and soccer fans alike are abuzz at the possibility of Seattle's yet-to-be-named Major League Soccer team being led by one of international soccer's biggest stars. Thierry Henry is an international sensation, having played for the World Cup-winning French national team and a number of Europe's best professional teams (including Arsenal and FC Barcelona). Speculation that Henry might be making his way to Seattle lit up sports blogs last month. A number of sites......

Saturday, Tera will give herself a VIP tour at the opening of Aritzia. She will follow this potentially hectic event by introducing a friend to her newest wine obsession - Twisted Cork. Sunday she will trek to Qwest and root for Chicago, uh, eh, oops...Seattle. Yes, root for the Seahawks. Jack's heading to the Showbox proper tonight to see Canadian indie pop band Stars. Sunday, he's hoping to see Rex Grossman slip into old......

We're getting a new Major League Soccer team and everyone either is or should be excited. Drew Carey's walking around town, season tickets are flying off the shelves and the MLS Cup is approaching this weekend. On the field Houston faces New England, but there's sure to be a lot of talk during the broadcast about Seattle, our new team and the interesting ideas that have been associated with it. Unfortunately, no one in Seattle......

Few details in this report by the Seattle Times' Larry Stone, but he confirms that we'll have an MLS team in '09. Press conference on Tuesday. Says Seattlest David: "Best of all, no David Stern."......

Is there any women's sports franchise that's tied to a men's sports franchise in Seattle that has yet to get screwed over by the guys? The Storm--the WNBA contingent of the Super Sonics, and arguably the most passionately-followed team in the city--are dangling on a finer thread than the Sonics themselves under owners who want nothing more than to move the whole franchise to Oklahoma City. The Seattle Sounders soccer team has a much brighter......

City youth soccer, by Jeanine Anderson. Fresh from our Flickr pool. Thanks for sharing!......

Sometime this week it's going to be announced that Seattle's soccer team the Seattle Sounders will be entering the MLS. GOALSeattle says tomorrow. Our friend in Chicago who knows about these things says it'll be announced at MLS Cup, which isn't until November 18, so we'll discount that and say tomorrow. It seems pointless, by now, to argue whether or not it will be announced. The Sounders aren't selling 2008 season tickets, Paul Allen......

So we've developed this routine of biking over to Cafe Presse on Sunday afternoons to read our New Yorker; there's coffee-and-a-croissant involved, usually a soccer game on, and then maybe an afternoon Stella starts to sound good. On a good day, three hours go by like that and we emerge happily over-caffeinated and edified -- or slightly wobbly and rooting for Manchester United. Enter the Seattle Times to ruin everything with a glowing review. (The......

Seattle a sports town? After this weekend, sure. Hawks win! Huskies win! Mariners win! Cougs win! Shit, everybody wins. Ah, not so fast. Mustn't forget soccer. Saturday's World-Cup rematch between France and Italy brings together a couple dozen Seattle restaurateurs to root raucously for les Bleus...or cheer boisterously for gli Azzuri. The venue is a plasma TV at Sorrentino's, on Queen Anne, hallowed ground of sorts, since Mamma Enza comes as close as anyone in......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Rachel Hynes is a former barista and yet still enjoys spending time in espresso places. She will review them. This is her first such review. We've got a morning to kill and Broadway is hot and dirty. We spurn the main drag and stroll up shady, tree-lined Harvard to Joe Bar, right across the street from the Harvard Exit. The shop's unusual layout--there are two separate balconies that overlook the rest of the store--charms us,......

Jesus, this is embarrassing. Bastille Day celebrates the liberation of a particularly pungent batch of cheese from the dungeons of the old prison in 1789 (along with seven prisoners) on the 14th of July (le Quatorze). Except here -- where as usual we're a day late and a euro short -- the Seattle Bastille Day festivities are being held on Sunday the 15th at the Seattle Center. What fun is that? The ideal would be......

As we were saying last week, the new Cafe Presse (just south of Madison on 12th Ave) is everyone's instant crush. It's the Julie Delpy of French cafes, beautiful but approachable, even when encountering the Ethan Hawkes of the world. We were in for lunch again today and noticed there's a chalkboard schedule of soccer games. Research indicates they're televising games from the Copa America, which runs tomorrow through July 15. At 5:45pm, Presse is......

So much new stuff! Food critic Bethany over at the Slog tipped us off about Cafe Presse opening not far from our office so we sauntered over for a lunchtime look-see. We spotted it easily because of the yellow sign. It's on the west side of 12th Avenue, on the block south of Madison, forming a French triangle (un triangle français) with Licorous and Lark. Maybe they can all field a soccer team against......

Got this email from reader Beth earlier in the week:Hey Seth - do you know of anywhere to watch the Finals at 7am on Saturday? I only know of the George & Dragon, which is sold out, and Fado, who have an unreasonable $20 cover.After a brief flash of confusion, during which we wondered how we'd missed two weeks of the NBA playoffs, and why the Finals were starting at 7am, we realized Beth was......