The Seattle Orcas are looking to establish their brand in Major League Cricket. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
The Seattle Orcas, the only small market in Major League Cricket’s six-team league, have bold plans to build their brand.
In honor of the Dallas Cowboys, the most profitable sports team in the world ForbesThe Orcas are aiming to become “America’s Team” in the MLC, a lucrative professional T20 league that is just getting started in its crucial second season.
“We’re really thinking long term,” Orcas co-owner Soma Somaseghar said in a phone interview. “We’re not thinking about the next five years of MLC, we’re just saying, ‘Let’s get the value up and move on.'”
“This doesn’t have to be limited to Seattle or the Pacific Northwest.”
Like Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders, of which Sommersegar is part of the ownership group, Orcas encourages passionate fans to get together and form “pod squads.”
“This team is our expression of wanting to bring together people who are excited about Seattle Orcas,” says Somaseghar, who has lived in Seattle for more than 30 years, “and we believe that ‘Pod Squads’ should exist not just in Seattle, but across the country.”
“A guy from the Bay Area contacted us recently and said he’s been watching MLC since it started. He said, ‘I’m so impressed with how inclusive you all are, I’m a bigger fan of your team than any other team. I love what you do and I want to be a part of it.'”
“That’s what we want to do, that’s what it means for us to be ‘America’s Team.'”
Major League Cricket is building blocks (AP Photo/LM Otero)
While ingenuity has helped Orcas stand out among the emerging competition for now, putting down strong roots in the northwestern port city will be essential to the franchise’s long-term success.
Orcas is an outlier compared to other franchises based in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington DC and Dallas (Texas).
Seattle completed the inaugural slate of teams by beating out Atlanta and Chicago, who, as I recently reported, are set to join an expanded MLC next season and are also in talks to move to Canada.
Regionalism works to Orcas’ advantage, as evidenced by the fact that they receive more media coverage than their rivals because they are located in a smaller market. Exposure may come a little easier for Orcas, but the higher-ups are keen to nurture cricket from the ground up.
“We need to put a lot of effort into the community to not only get the right level of interest and excitement about the sport but also to show kids that cricket can be an option,” said Somaseghar, a venture capitalist at Madrona Venture Group who spent 27 years working at Microsoft.
“We have a concept called ‘Cricket in a Box’ where we go into schools and teach the fundamentals of cricket. We are already seeing results. Our aim is to have cricket programmes in schools.”
“We need to develop cricket all year round, that’s what it takes for the sport to have any chance of going mainstream in the long term.”
As with the first year, when the MLC raked in more revenue than expected, the tournament will only be played in smaller stadiums in Dallas, America’s cricket capital, and Morrisville, North Carolina.
Grande Prairie Cricket Stadium is the epicenter of cricket in the United States (Photo: Robert Cianfrone/Getty) … [+]
With the expansion of the MLC, which is played in a home-and-away format, there are plans for each franchise to have their own cricket stadium.
The Orcas’ home stadium is planned for Marymoor Park in King County, about 15 miles outside of Seattle, and is expected to seat about 6,000 to 8,000 fans.
It is hoped that it will be completed in time for the 2026 season and will host the Los Angeles 2028 Games, when cricket will be an Olympic sport for the first time since 1900.
“Seattle has as much potential as any country to host Olympic (cricket) events, so hopefully the stadium will be completed and operational by then,” Somaseghar said. “It will be a unique opportunity to showcase the sport in the country.”
The Orcas had hopes of going further after losing to Michigan-New York in last year’s finals, but lost the rematch in the season opener this year.
Like other teams, the Orcas have a mix of international stars and local talent, with big names including South African sluggers Heinrich Klaassen and Quinton de Kock, and American sensation Aaron Jones, who was a standout performer at the T20 World Cup.
Aaron Jones was a hero at the T20 World Cup (Photo: Robert Cianfrone/Getty Images)
For the Indian-born Somaseghar, building the foundation of a cricket team in his adopted homeland has been a dream come true.
“I grew up with cricket and have gotten a lot of joy from it in my life,” he said. “The majority of people in the United States have never experienced cricket, so this is about building a sport from the ground up, and I’m really excited about that.”
“Seattle has some of the most passionate and engaged sports fans in the country. There’s a lot of great things happening here in tech and we’re close to some of the biggest global companies.”
“It’s a fantastic place for cricket and I’m happy to have played a small part in the journey.”
