 In 2017, the Sounders announced that the team would move to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, with business operations transferred to the Tacoma Rainiers baseball club, ahead of a planned rebrand and soccer-specific stadium to be built in 2020.The team became known as the Tacoma Defiance ahead of the 2019 season.The Sounders established their affiliated academy team in 2010, and hired manager Dick McCormick and technical director Darren Sawatzky to develop local players.