What do you think?
Rate this book
Heartbreak City: Seattle Sports and the Unmet Promise of Urban Progress
To cities, sports have never been just entertainment. Progressive urbanites across the United States have used athletics to address persistent problems in city the fights for racial justice, workers' rights, equality for women and LGBTQ+ city dwellers, and environmental conservation. In Seattle, sports initiatives have powered meaningful reforms, such as popular stadium projects that promoted investments in public housing and mass transit. At the same time, conservative forces also used sports to consolidate their power and mobilize against the civic good. In Heartbreak City Shaun Scott takes the reader through 170 years of Seattle history, chronicling both well-known and long-forgotten events, like the establishment of racially segregated golf courses and neighborhoods in the regressive 1920s and the 1987 Seahawks players' strike that galvanized organized labor. At every step of the journey, he uncovers how sports have both united Seattle in pursuit of triumph and revealed its most profound political divides. Deep archival research and analysis combine in this people's history of a great American city's quest to become even greater―if only it could get out of its own way.
Heartbreak City was made possible in part by a grant from 4Culture's Heritage Program.
A Michael J. Repass Book
Heartbreak City was made possible in part by a grant from 4Culture's Heritage Program.
A Michael J. Repass Book
312 pages, Hardcover
Published November 28, 2023
12 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 20, 2024
I loved the idea of a political history of sports in Seattle - like a hyperlocal Dave Zirin take - but the connections between the political and sports narratives often felt forced. In the later chapters, many recent non-sports-related events felt like they were thrown in because the author had strong opinions about them rather than because they advanced the book’s thesis. (And the sudden injection of a first person account of running for city council seemed out of place in the narrative.) The book was deeply researched but would have benefited from stronger editing.
April 16, 2024
So much promise, such deranged execution.
The good: it’s an expertly researched survey of all Seattle sports. As a sports fan, a (near) native son and history enthusiast, this book is a beautiful tale of what has happened on our courts, in our rinks, on our fields. I learned a ton. The sports pieces are so well done we can forgive the misstatement of when Storm seasons take place, when Ichiro joined Mariners, and even the dark page/white print section that printer simply failed to finish printing.
The bad: as a liberal/progressive in Seattle, whatever that means, I’m inclined to share many of the views of the author. At minimum, we are likely to vote the same in any national election, and most local, I’d estimate. That said, the barrage of thinly connected, unsupported statements of “fact”, is jarring. The author seems to have lined-up whatever his utopian society would have looked like, and anything short of that must be disparaged via giant leaps of assumption and/or imagination. Valuable points are made at times; but most of the book the reader (even sympathetic-to-his-politics ones) is left to roll their eyes and move on to the next anecdote or sporting endeavor. I won’t name them all; it’s a book worth reading if one is inclined to do so. But by the time I stumbled to the comedic indictment of corporate America for classifying middle management jobs as, well, “middle management”, it was time to mark this one complete 10-12 pages before actually finishing it.
The ugly: despite the weird slant this book is written from, it never once seems to actually answer the statement in its subtitle. It’s the left’s equivalent of those garbage tomes churned-out by Fox News personalities pretending to be historical non-fiction that are instead an excuse to toss out some events from the past and drape their POV over them whether it fits reality or not.
The good: it’s an expertly researched survey of all Seattle sports. As a sports fan, a (near) native son and history enthusiast, this book is a beautiful tale of what has happened on our courts, in our rinks, on our fields. I learned a ton. The sports pieces are so well done we can forgive the misstatement of when Storm seasons take place, when Ichiro joined Mariners, and even the dark page/white print section that printer simply failed to finish printing.
The bad: as a liberal/progressive in Seattle, whatever that means, I’m inclined to share many of the views of the author. At minimum, we are likely to vote the same in any national election, and most local, I’d estimate. That said, the barrage of thinly connected, unsupported statements of “fact”, is jarring. The author seems to have lined-up whatever his utopian society would have looked like, and anything short of that must be disparaged via giant leaps of assumption and/or imagination. Valuable points are made at times; but most of the book the reader (even sympathetic-to-his-politics ones) is left to roll their eyes and move on to the next anecdote or sporting endeavor. I won’t name them all; it’s a book worth reading if one is inclined to do so. But by the time I stumbled to the comedic indictment of corporate America for classifying middle management jobs as, well, “middle management”, it was time to mark this one complete 10-12 pages before actually finishing it.
The ugly: despite the weird slant this book is written from, it never once seems to actually answer the statement in its subtitle. It’s the left’s equivalent of those garbage tomes churned-out by Fox News personalities pretending to be historical non-fiction that are instead an excuse to toss out some events from the past and drape their POV over them whether it fits reality or not.
January 26, 2025
I lived in greater Seattle in 1978, the year that the Seattle Supersonics basketball team reached the NBA finals, only to lose to the Washington Bullets in a 7th-game heartbreaker. I had moved from the Seattle area but still lived in Washington state in 1979, when the Sonics exacted revenge, this time defeating the Bullets in the NBA finals 4 games to 1.
I remember the exhilaration of “my” team winning the NBA championship that year, as well as the utter dismay I felt when the team was sold in 2006 to some Oklahoma oilmen, who wasted little time in relocating them to Oklahoma City and rebranding them the Thunder.
What I DIDN’T know, until reading “Heartbreak City,” Shaun Scott’s remarkable recounting of professional sports in Seattle over a history of more than 100 years, was that the Sonics’ relocation was part of then-NBA Commissioner David Stern’s determination to maximize the league’s “red state appeal” by placing more league franchises in politically conservative markets.
I did not know that the Oklahoma oilmen who bought the Sonics were right-wingers with big roles in opposing gay marriage, and slandering Democratic candidate John Kerry’s military service, in the 2000 presidential election; nor that the Sonics’ lead seller, Starbucks coffee magnate Howard Schultz, also sold the WNBA’s Seattle Storm to the Oklahoma contingent — who didn’t bother to relocate that franchise as well because, back then, who cared about a fledgling women’s league?
The subtitle of Scott’s book is “Seattle Sports and The Unmet Promise of Urban Progress.” It was great fun for me to relive the occasional glories and more-frequent missteps of the Mariners, Seahawks, Sonics, Sounders, Huskies and their athletic predecessors — all through an urban lens focused on the halting progressivism, cutthroat capitalism, racism, sexism, corruption and disputed dreams of what the “Emerald City” could and should become.
Scott wrote this finely researched book, mostly at home and alone, during the covid years of 2020-22 — and we are the richer for it. It’s a two-fer: a great sports read AND a thoughtful dissertation on why U.S. cities everywhere insist on accommodating and cheering the teams that bear their municipal names.
(My thanks to daughter Leah, whose childhood includes plenty of highs and lows associated with Seattle sports teams, and who today lives in greater Seattle herself, for presenting this book to me under last month’s Christmas tree.)
I remember the exhilaration of “my” team winning the NBA championship that year, as well as the utter dismay I felt when the team was sold in 2006 to some Oklahoma oilmen, who wasted little time in relocating them to Oklahoma City and rebranding them the Thunder.
What I DIDN’T know, until reading “Heartbreak City,” Shaun Scott’s remarkable recounting of professional sports in Seattle over a history of more than 100 years, was that the Sonics’ relocation was part of then-NBA Commissioner David Stern’s determination to maximize the league’s “red state appeal” by placing more league franchises in politically conservative markets.
I did not know that the Oklahoma oilmen who bought the Sonics were right-wingers with big roles in opposing gay marriage, and slandering Democratic candidate John Kerry’s military service, in the 2000 presidential election; nor that the Sonics’ lead seller, Starbucks coffee magnate Howard Schultz, also sold the WNBA’s Seattle Storm to the Oklahoma contingent — who didn’t bother to relocate that franchise as well because, back then, who cared about a fledgling women’s league?
The subtitle of Scott’s book is “Seattle Sports and The Unmet Promise of Urban Progress.” It was great fun for me to relive the occasional glories and more-frequent missteps of the Mariners, Seahawks, Sonics, Sounders, Huskies and their athletic predecessors — all through an urban lens focused on the halting progressivism, cutthroat capitalism, racism, sexism, corruption and disputed dreams of what the “Emerald City” could and should become.
Scott wrote this finely researched book, mostly at home and alone, during the covid years of 2020-22 — and we are the richer for it. It’s a two-fer: a great sports read AND a thoughtful dissertation on why U.S. cities everywhere insist on accommodating and cheering the teams that bear their municipal names.
(My thanks to daughter Leah, whose childhood includes plenty of highs and lows associated with Seattle sports teams, and who today lives in greater Seattle herself, for presenting this book to me under last month’s Christmas tree.)
June 24, 2024
Well, while I agree with Shaun Scott's final "thesis," I do have mixed feeling about this book.
I know if you start out with an objective, especially an historical one, there can be a tendency to see/use some of your research information as "fitting" that purpose. The alternative is to research the areas of concern and then see what if tells you. I feel the author was leaning more toward the former, as I found, at times, personal opinions (fitting the narrative) based on minimal facts and a few times on (what I thought were) misrepresentations of events or situations.
While I appreciate his voluminous research, I did find errors which, even though minor, strengthened his viewpoints.
I also found some of "looking back with 20-20 hindsight" type of comments, which were not fully put in historical context, and therefore can create a kind of self-satisfying finger-wagging about past events.
Regardless, Mr. Scott created a unique viewpoint to look at the Seattle area, tying together politics and sports. He does a good job of putting together a lot of information about the history of Seattle in a somewhat consistent narrative.
I know if you start out with an objective, especially an historical one, there can be a tendency to see/use some of your research information as "fitting" that purpose. The alternative is to research the areas of concern and then see what if tells you. I feel the author was leaning more toward the former, as I found, at times, personal opinions (fitting the narrative) based on minimal facts and a few times on (what I thought were) misrepresentations of events or situations.
While I appreciate his voluminous research, I did find errors which, even though minor, strengthened his viewpoints.
I also found some of "looking back with 20-20 hindsight" type of comments, which were not fully put in historical context, and therefore can create a kind of self-satisfying finger-wagging about past events.
Regardless, Mr. Scott created a unique viewpoint to look at the Seattle area, tying together politics and sports. He does a good job of putting together a lot of information about the history of Seattle in a somewhat consistent narrative.
January 6, 2025
A look at Seattle’s progressive (and not so progressive) history told through the lens of its sports teams. Similar stories could be written about many cities, and really drives home the fact that a community shows what it cares about by how it spends its money. Seattle’s a fantastic city, but as this book shows, varying big monied interests past and present have prevented it from reaching its full potential.
Highly recommend for political junkies or sports fans. I even learned some things about Seattle sports I didn’t know!
Highly recommend for political junkies or sports fans. I even learned some things about Seattle sports I didn’t know!
December 13, 2024
I really enjoyed this historical account of Seattle from a sports perspective. As a Seattle transplant, it really was a fascinating read. Just wish more attention had been given to one of the most successful teams in the area, the Sounders. Glaring omission of their recent decade of success, even on the world stage.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews