Paul G. Allen helped bring major league soccer to the northwest when his Vulcan Sports and Entertainment joined the ownership group behind the Sounders FC. The announcement in 2007 was the result of years of work and enthusiasm on behalf of Seattle soccer fans.

Allen had visions of world-class soccer in his hometown soon after purchasing the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. Allen bought the club to save pro football in Seattle after the former owners threatened to move the team to southern California.

On June 17, 1997 the voters of Washington State approved “Referendum 48” to authorize a public/private partnership to construct a stadium, exhibition center, and parking facilities. One of the keys to the success of the vote was statewide support from the soccer community and its hope to one day see professional soccer, played at the highest level, return to the northwest.

Growing up in the Seattle, Allen’s passion for sports began when he’d attended University of Washington football games with his father, he later became a basketball fan watching to Seattle Supersonics win the 1979 NBA Championship.

Allen bought the Seahawks in 1996 after community leaders asked him to save the team from being moved to Los Angeles.

“From the beginning of this process, my goals have been to work with the community to create a lasting asset for our future; and to ensure the long-term success of the Seahawks,” said Allen at the time of purchasing the franchise. He also wanted to “create a world-class facility for the state of Washington.”

That became a reality in 2002 with the opening of the Seahawks Stadium and Exhibition Center, renamed Qwest Field and Qwest Field Event Center in 2004. An open air facility which many critics argue is the best venue in the National Football League, Qwest Field is home to over 300 events annually ranging from soccer, to Supercross, concerts, graduation ceremonies, and trade shows.

“It exceeds the vision we had originally,” Allen said shortly after the opening of the stadium. “We had a bunch of goals about trying to create a really intimate stadium that would be great for the fans, to have elegant architecture, and I think we’ve ended up with a fantastic facility.”

Allen is one of the nation’s best-known and generous philanthropists. He co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1976 and continues to be an innovator in the world of business and technology. He is founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., which oversees his philanthropy and business interests and owner of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers.

Allen has been named one of the top philanthropists in America - with lifetime giving totaling more than $1 billion - and is committed to leaving a majority of his estate to support communities throughout the northwest and internationally. Allen gives back to the community through The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which strengthens communities and supports vulnerable populations in the areas of arts and culture, human services, opportunities for youth, and scientific advancement. He also gives directly, including $256 million in 2010 to Washington State University’s School for Global Animal Health. In 2003 he pledged $100 million for creation of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. The nonprofit Allen Institute was founded as an innovative and unprecedented resource for neuroscientists around the world. In 2006 the Allen Institute completed its inaugural project, the Allen Brain Atlas—Mouse Brain. The mouse brain atlas is a Web-based, three-dimensional map of gene expression in the mouse brain which is freely accessible online and available at no cost. Detailing more than 21,000 genes at the cellular level, the Atlas continues to help lead scientists to new insights about neurological function and disease. In 2008 the Allen Institute announced three new major atlas projects -- the Allen Brain Atlas (ABA)—Human Brain, ABA—Developing Mouse Brain, and ABA—Mouse Spinal Cord. The new atlases are designed to accelerate brain, and spinal cord research, dramatically advancing the field of neuroscience.

Inspired by growing up in the era of the “space race,” with its Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, Allen underscored his passion for rocketry by sponsoring the development of SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded spacecraft to successfully attain suborbital space. He founded the Experience Music Project, Seattle’s critically acclaimed interactive music museum; the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame; Flying Heritage Collection -- a collection of rare World War II aircraft restored to flying condition; and, Vulcan Productions, the independent film production company behind feature films like Hard Candy and Far From Heaven, and documentaries and PBS series, including This Emotional Life, Evolution, the Emmy Award-winning Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge; and the Peabody Award-winning Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, and The Blues, executive-produced by Martin Scorsese in conjunction with Allen and Jo Lynn Allen.