Ρέιγκν ΦΚ Γυναίκες

Establishment

Although Seattle never had a professional women's soccer team in the Women's United Soccer Association nor Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) during either league's existence, the city was home to Seattle Sounders Women, a USL W-League team mainly composed of amateur players that was affiliated with Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer; following news of the imminent demise of WPS in January 2012, a handful of players from the United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) joined the Sounders Women for part of the 2012 W-League season. The Athletic cited the resulting close relationship between the Sounders Women and the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) in conditioning the USWNT players, along with significant fan interest generated during their stint with the team, as major factors that led the USSF to consider Seattle as a viable candidate for a team in a new professional league.

In response to the demise of WPS, the USSF announced in June that it would found a new professional women's soccer league (later named National Women's Soccer League) and invite prospective team owners to submit applications. Bill Predmore, founder and CEO of Seattle-based digital marketing agency, POP, submitted his application pitch for a team tentatively named Seattle Sirens FC. In November 2012, it was confirmed that Predmore's application had been accepted and there would be a Seattle-based women's professional soccer team in 2013. On December 19, 2012, the team name was unveiled as Seattle Reign FC, named in honor of the 1990s Seattle Reign women's basketball team. Amy Carnell, a former general manager of the Sounders Women and Sounders FC's director of youth programs, was named general manager of the Reign.

2013: Inaugural season

On December 21, 2012, the team announced Laura Harvey as its first head coach. Harvey was head coach of Arsenal L.F.C. from 2010–2012 after serving as an assistant for two years, assisted and then coached Birmingham City L.F.C. from 2002–2008, and served as an assistant coach for England's U-17, U-19 and U-23 women's national teams from 2005–2011. Before the regular season, Harvey took over as general manager after Amy Carnell resigned.

On January 11, 2013, Kaylyn Kyle, Teresa Noyola, Megan Rapinoe, Amy Rodriguez, Jenny Ruiz, Hope Solo, and Emily Zurrer were named to the team as part of the NWSL Player Allocation. On January 18, the Reign selected Christine Nairn, Mallory Schaffer, Kristen Meier, and Haley Kopmeyer at the 2013 NWSL College Draft. On February 4, 2013, it was announced that the team had signed four free agents: Kate Deines, Jess Fishlock, Tiffany Cameron, and Lindsay Taylor. During the 2013 NWSL Supplemental Draft, the team selected Nikki Krzysik, Lauren Barnes, Laura Heyboer, Liz Bogus, Michelle Betos and Kaley Fountain.

Leading into the preseason, it was learned that the Reign would be without all of their American allocated players for almost half of the season. Amy Rodriguez announced she was pregnant with her first child and would not be playing during the inaugural season. Hope Solo would be away for the first part of the season after recovering from wrist surgery and Megan Rapinoe had already signed with French club Olympique Lyonnais from January to June and would miss at least nine games. After traveling to Japan in the preseason to play matches against defending L. League champion INAC Kobe Leonessa, Fukuoka J. Anclas, and Nojima Stella Kanagawa, the Reign faced their first regular season match against the Chicago Red Stars at Benedictine University, in which Seattle's first college draft pick Christine Nairn scored the Reign's first goal of the season via a header off an assist from Liz Bogus. The point that Seattle earned in the game would be its only for the next nine games.

In June 2013, head coach Laura Harvey began making some trades and signing new international players. With the trades and the return of Solo and Rapinoe, the Reign began to turn the season around with a 1–1 tie against the Western New York Flash. The game would be the first of a six-game undefeated streak for the Reign with two ties and four wins. After losing to regional rival Portland Thorns FC 2–1 in the season finale in front of a sold-out crowd of 3,855, the Reign ended the 2013 NWSL season seventh in the league with a 5–14–3 record.

2014–18: Seattle years

2014 season

During the 2014 season, the Reign set a league record unbeaten streak of 16 games. During the 16-game stretch, the Reign compiled a 13–0–3 record. The streak came to an end July 12, 2014, in a match against the Chicago Red Stars that ended 1–0 in favor of the Red Stars. The team finished first in the regular season clinching the NWSL Shield for the first time. After defeating the Washington Spirit 2–1 in the playoff semifinals, the Reign was defeated 2–1 by FC Kansas City during the championship final. Following the regular season, the team earned several league awards. Kim Little won the Golden Boot and Most Valuable Player awards; Laura Harvey was named Coach of the Year; Kendall Fletcher, Jess Fishlock, Little and Nahomi Kawasumi were named to the NWSL Best XI team while goalkeeper Hope Solo and defenders Lauren Barnes and Stephanie Cox were named to the Second XI team.

2015 season

The Reign finished the 2015 season in first place clinching the NWSL Shield for the second consecutive time. After defeating the Washington Spirit 3–0 in a playoff semifinal, the Reign was defeated 1–0 by FC Kansas City during the championship final in Portland. Following the regular season, the team earned several league award nominations. Kim Little, Jess Fishlock, and Bev Yanez were nominated for league Most Valuable Player, Laura Harvey was nominated for Coach of the Year; and Lauren Barnes and Kendall Fletcher were nominated for Defender of the Year.

Laura Harvey was ultimately named Coach of the Year for a second consecutive year. Barnes, Little, Yanez, and Fishlock were named to the NWSL Best XI team while Kendall Fletcher, Stephanie Cox, Megan Rapinoe, and Keelin Winters were named to the Second XI team.

2016 season

The Reign finished the 2016 season in fifth place with a 8–6–8 record, narrowly missing a playoff spot by two points. The season was complicated by a number of players being unavailable during the early part of the season due to injury including Manon Melis, Jess Fishlock and Megan Rapinoe. In early July, Nahomi Kawasumi returned to the Reign for the first time since the 2014 season and scored a brace in her first match with the team. Rachel Corsie and Haley Kopmeyer suffered injuries during a match in July against the Western New York Flash that was controversially played on a baseball field. Schedule changes from previous years were announced in February that resulted in an imbalance amongst team matchups.

In late August, the Reign announced that Hope Solo was taking a leave of absence for the remainder of the season after being suspended from the U.S. national team. In September, four-year team captain Keelin Winters announced her retirement for the end of the season. On October 17, midfielder Kim Little announced that she would leave the Reign and return to Arsenal. Harvey said Little was given an "incredible offer" of a multi-year contract, though no other details were disclosed.

2017 season

Following the loss of core players Kim Little and Keelin Winters following the 2016 season, the Reign faced a bit of re-structuring for the 2017 season. Three 2017 NWSL College Draft rookies were signed including defender Maddie Bauer, forward Katie Johnson, and midfielder Kristen McNabb. With Kim Little moving back to Arsenal, the Reign re-signed attacking midfielder Christine Nairn, who had played for the team during its inaugural season. The team also signed Canadian international Diana Matheson and Australian international Larissa Crummer, though they spent the majority of the season injured, as well as New Zealand international defender Rebekah Stott. The Reign finished in fifth place for the second consecutive season narrowly missing a playoff spot after losing 1–0 to Kansas City. Megan Rapinoe was the team's leading scorer (and league's third highest) with 12 goals. Her season performance contributed to her nomination as FIFA World Player of the Year the following year.

2018 season

After two consecutive seasons of fifth-place finishes and thus outside of the playoffs, head coach and general manager Laura Harvey stepped down and was replaced by former rival Vlatko Andonovski as new head coach of the team. The amicable transition nonetheless led to new vision for the team and new players, with Andonovski bringing in 11 new players on the season-opening roster. Notably, Andonovski traded for US international Allie Long and Australian international Steph Catley, while English international Jodie Taylor and Danish international Theresa Nielsen joined on free transfers from abroad. The refreshed team performed well throughout the season and remained largely in second place behind a dominant North Carolina Courage team, until a loss to Cascadia rival Portland Thorns FC at the end of the regular season dropped it to third place. This set up a semi-final rematch with the Thorns FC away from home, which the team lost 2–1. Despite the late slide, Andonovski led the team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2015 in his first season in charge.

2019–2021: Relocation to Tacoma

On January 30, 2019, the team announced that it would relocate to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma for the 2019 season and re-brand itself as Reign FC. This relocation, as well as two new minority ownership groups (Mikal Thomsen, owner of the Tacoma Rainiers and Adrian Hanauer, owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, as well as his mother, philanthropist Lenore Hanauer), secured the team's long-term future by addressing long-standing stadium issues. A new soccer-specific 5,000 capacity stadium that would host Reign and Tacoma Defiance games was planned adjacent to Cheney Stadium.

2019 season

In their first season playing in Tacoma, the Reign finished 4th in the regular season, to qualify for the NWSL Playoffs but were knocked out by the North Carolina Courage in the semi-final.

2020 season

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular season was cancelled in 2020. Instead, the newly renamed OL Reign took part in the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup and the NWSL Fall Series.

2021 season

Head coach Farid Benstiti resigned in July for undisclosed reasons; a joint investigation by the league and the players' association in December 2022 found that he abused players by "weight-shaming" them. OL Reign finished 2nd in the regular season, led first by interim coach Sam Laity and then by Laura Harvey after her return. They fell once again in the semi-final, this time to the eventual champions Washington Spirit.

2022–present: Return to Seattle

2022 season

The club announced in December 2021 that it would be returning to Seattle with Lumen Field as their new home stadium while continuing to train and operate out of Tacoma. In the Challenge Cup, the Reign finished first in the West Division and earned the top seed overall but lost in the semifinal against the Washington Spirit in a penalty shoot-out. The team also won the mid-season invitational Women's Cup final against Louisville. In their final regular-season match, the Reign won the 2022 NWSL Shield, the team's third.

2023 season

The Reign moved their training facility to Starfire Sports. The club will become Starfire's main soccer tenant and operate out of there in 2024, after Seattle Sounders FC moves to their own facility. The team finished the 2023 season as runners-up in the NWSL Championship, losing 2–1 to NJ/NY Gotham FC. At the end of this season, forward Megan Rapinoe announced her retirement after eleven seasons with the club.