Seattle Dragons promise unique experience for CenturyLink debut

Last week saw the debut of the XFL across the country, with the newly-minted Seattle Dragons opening the season across the country in Washington, D.C. Returning west for their home debut, the team is telling fans to expect a live experience unlike anything it’s seen before at CenturyLink Field.

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“We’re going to try some new things,” Dragons President Ryan Gustafson told Seattle’s Morning News on KIRO Radio. “When you’re at the game tomorrow, you might hear something that you’ve never heard at a football game before.”

The team has sold roughly 25,000 tickets to the Seattle home opener against the Tampa Bay Vipers, where it hopes to continue the proud tradition of raucous crowds at both Sounders and Seahawks games at CenturyLink.

“There’s such a great culture of what game day looks like [in Seattle] — we want to build on that and put a little bit of a uniqueness to it,” Gustafson described.

That’s been seen in the league’s efforts to devise new rules, changing everything from kickoffs to the extra point process.

“We all want to do things a bit different,” he noted.

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For those watching at home, the larger, overarching goal remains the same as it was to start the season: Making the game more accessible, no matter where you are.

“We want fans to be closer to the game than they’ve ever been before … that’s a key tenet of our league,” said Gustafson. “I’m entertained by this; you saw it in the TV ratings [last week] as well. That was a great football game that people were excited to watch and they’re going be excited to be there tomorrow.”

Saturday’s game at CenturyLink kicks off at 2 p.m.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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