Thanks to Major League Baseball, the NFL’s Seahawks will play as scheduled this weekend.
The Seahawks announced Wednesday their game Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Lumen Field will begin at the originally scheduled time of 1:05 p.m.
That’s because MLB gave the Mariners a 5:03 p.m. Sunday first-pitch time for Game 2 of the American League Division Series across the street at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
Had MLB put the Mariners in the earlier game slot Sunday, just after 1 p.m., the Seahawks and Buccaneers were prepared to change their kickoff time.
“That’s awesome for our city, and it’s going to be a really exciting Sunday,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said.
There will be more than 115,000 fans coming and going in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle to and from the two sold-out games next door to each other Sunday. The Mariners’ capacity is about 47,000 and the Seahawks’ is 68,000.
This is the second consecutive baseball postseason a West Coast team gets the later Sunday game for the second game of a division series.
Last season when MLB had two games in one league on a Sunday for game twos of the division series, the start times were 1:08 p.m. and 5:03 p.m. Philadelphia hosted the New York Mets in the early game. The Los Angeles Dodgers hosted San Diego in the later one.
Like the Mariners are this baseball postseason, the Dodgers were the only West Coast team in the National and American Leagues who hosted games one and two of the 2024 division series.
This the second time in four Octobers the Seahawks have prepared to move a home game time for a Mariners playoff game.
The Seahawks have had recent experience preparing for this kind of switch. When the Mariners made the 2022 American League playoffs for the first time in 21 years, they had Game 4 of the ALDS scheduled for Sunday in Seattle. The Seahawks had a home game that day they were prepared to move the start time of.
But then the Houston Astros swept the M’s in three games. A Game 4 never happened. The Seahawks played just after 1 p.m., as scheduled.
Mariners’ Game 1 time Saturday
As for the start time for the Mariners’ first game of the division series Saturday at T-Mobile Park, the television-ratings kings the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees determine that.
The Red Sox or Yankees, meeting in a wild-card series that began Tuesday, will be playing the other AL Division Series Game 2 Sunday, at Toronto. MLB announced Wednesday the Mariners’ Game 1 will be 1:08 p.m. Saturday if Boston advances and 5:38 p.m. if New York advances.
