The Great Indoors
Play Inside in Seattle Southside
Worried about a little rain dampening your playing spirits? Fret not, because we've got fantastic indoor venue options for many sports in Seattle Southside.
Get your game on indoors so that you don't have to worry about what the elements have in store for you. Even some sports that aren't usually indoors can sometimes find an indoor home here in Seattle Southside
Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center
The Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center is a massive indoor aquatic complex suitable for swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming, and other aquatic sports...even underwater robotics! This 2,500 seat facility boasts a 50 meter 8 lane pool and diving platforms at 1, 3, 5, 7.5, and 10 meters! That's about the height of a three story building! In 2023, the aquatic center hosted the Pac 12’s Mens' Swimming and Diving Championships and Washington State Special Olympics Championship. Looking forward, they'll be playing host to the NCAA Men and Women’s Swim & Dive Championships in 2025.
With so many competitive pools being outdoors, it's a unique opportunity to be able to play inside!
Starfire Sports
While most people know Starfire Sports for their twelve outdoor fields, they also have an indoor sports complex with two Indoor AstroTurf fields, measuring 75 x 1175 feet with goals and full lighting. You can also use their lighted scoreboard or their locker rooms as add-ons to the experience. Considering this was the practice facility for the Seattle Sounders for many years and is the current home of the Seattle Seawolves, you'll find the accommodations fantastic for all field sports, from soccer to lacrosse to rugby.
accesso Showare Center
The accesso ShoWare Center in Kent is home to the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL, but is also a fantastic indoor venue for any sporting event where you may want spectators, including hockey, figure skating, cheerleading, gymnastics, arena football, dance competition, MMA or other martial arts, or even e-sports! With either 1 sheet of ice or 17,000 sqft of floor space, this 7,000 seat facility is a great fit for your large event!
Community Centers
Community Centers often have space available to play sports indoors. The SeaTac Community Center is home to regular indoor sporting events, including pickleball (3 courts worth!), badminton, futsol, karate, archery, and fencing! With a 4,644 square foot gymnasium, there's plenty of room for all kinds of sporting activities. The gym at the Tukwila Community Center has played host to Futsol, Volleyball (two courts), Kung Fu and Martial Arts, Basketball (one full sized court or two small), Pickleball (with 3 courts, plus they even have a drill/practice center coined the "pickle wall": a modified racquetball court space to practice and drill!)
Hotel Ballroom Spaces
You might not think of hotel ballrooms as a potential space to compete, but for some sports it's a tailor-made fit. Dance competitions, cheerleading, e-sports and VR, robotics competitions, and rhythmic gymnastics all work well in this sort of space. The Hilton Conference Center, with 40,000 sqft of space in total, has a largest continuous uninterrupted space clocking in at 11,000sqft with 18 ft high ceilings, and would be a great space for such events. Meanwhile, the DoubleTree Hilton Seattle Airport, which also offers 40,000 sqft of total meeting space, has their largest uninterrupted room clocking in at 13,600sqft with 14 ft high ceilings.
Virtual Spaces
Now this may seem like cheating, but using VR may just be the way of the future. Many sports now have software available to assist in training and warming up, and local VR experts at Dimension XR can offer both equipment and space to get your teams going. Legacy Gaming Community, meanwhile, offers packages to bring hardware to your event. These options are fully indoors and often take up less space than traditional setups for warming up. In VR baseball, for example, a batter can practice their swing without a full batting cage required!
Your Local Sports Experts
If you're looking for help in finding the right venue for your next sporting event, we can help! Cydney Marks-Nicholes, our Sports Business Development Manager, is here to help connect you with the right venue, lodging, and more to make your tournament, clinic, or event a smashing success.