The current season features two new teams (Portland Timbers and Vancouver FC), a revamped playoff format, and more sponsorship dollars coming in than ever before.
Quiz any true Sounders fans about what gets their competitive juices flowing, and they will talk at length about the passions ignited by their intense rivalry with their Pacific Northwestern neighbours the PortlandTimbers.
It's the 20-somethings and early-30-somethings who lead the marches through downtown Seattle for home games and line up early for the prime seats at the Timbers' stadium in Portland, Ore.