Story by Jamie Goldberg & Natasha Rausch

We like to call ourselves, Soccer City, USA.

The name has a nice ring to it. And winning the MLS Cup in 2015 helped solidify the thinking.

But brace yourself, Rose City. By most measures the title belongs to ...

Seattle.

The Oregonian/OregonLive analyzed 10 categories to determine interest and viability for soccer in all 16 U.S. cities that have Major League Soccer teams (New York has two teams). The analysis looked at factors like attendance, TV ratings and team success.

Portland isn't far from the throne.

The city of Portland embraced the nickname "Soccer City, USA" back in 1975 when the Portland Timbers joined the old North American Soccer League and Timbers executive Don Paul first used the term to describe the Rose City. The club drew more than 31,000 fans to their quarterfinal playoff match against the Seattle Sounders that season and an incredible 33,503 fans crowded into then-Civic Stadium for the semifinal game against the St. Louis Stars, setting an NASL attendance record.

But while Portland may be the original "Soccer City, USA," it is definitely not the only hotbed for soccer in United States today.

Portland finished second. Kansas City came in third, with Orlando and New York City finishing close behind.

But Seattle remained on top.

"Seattle has been an incredible soccer market for a long time, beginning in the 1970s when the Sounders were part of the North American Soccer League," Seattle Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer said. "Even before we entered MLS, there was this unbelievable foundation for soccer support in Seattle."

Seattle finished first in a few important categories in The Oregonian/OregonLive rankings, including average MLS attendance and MLS TV ratings.

Not only have the Sounders led MLS in attendance since joining the league in 2009, their 2015 average attendance of 44,247 ranked 28th worldwide among professional soccer clubs.

Unlike other expansion teams, the Sounders did not enter MLS in 2009 with a soccer-specific stadium, something that has turned out to be a benefit for the club. The club plays at CenturyLink Field, which can seat roughly 67,000 fans. That has allowed Seattle to post incredible attendance numbers, and also host a number of national team games, international tournaments -- like the Copa America -- and international friendlies.

"In 2006, we had a friendly game in Seattle between Real Madrid and DC United and we sold it out," Hanauer said. "That was one of those early indicators of how much pent up demand there was for soccer in Seattle. Now, our aspiration is to average 67,000 fans a game for Sounders games."

The Sounders have also consistently been an MLS leader in TV ratings, which is particularly impressive since they are in a market with both a successful NFL team in the Seattle Seahawks and an MLB team in the Seattle Mariners. In 2015, the club increased its local TV viewership by 11 percent year-over-year and led MLS in local TV ratings by a considerable amount.

"The biggest thing with Seattle that's blown everyone away is that in this major media market where you have a lot of competition, where you have a really popular NFL team and an MLB team, MLS is still really popular," Fox play-by-play announcer John Strong said. "That doesn't happen anywhere else. What Seattle fans have done with the Sounders, to draw 40,000 fans on average and peak around 60,000 in some games, is unprecedented."

The categories in the Oregonian/OregonLive analysis were weighted based on their relative significance in creating a "soccer city."

The categories that were weighted the highest were the 2015 local TV ratings for MLS clubs, average 2015 MLS attendance numbers, MLS titles and MLS homegrown signings. The presence of women's soccer and NWSL attendance was given moderate emphasis.

While Seattle shot to the top of our rankings due in large part to its unparalleled attendance numbers and consistently strong TV ratings, Portland stood out in a few important categories.

The Rose City is unrivaled in its support for women's soccer. The Portland Thorns are not only the most well-attended team in the NWSL, they are the most popular women's team in the world. The Thorns have 10,500 season ticket holders and averaged a league-leading 15,639 fans per game in 2015. This year, they've consistently drawn over 15,000 fans per game, even for matches when their national team stars have been away on international duty.

"I think the supporters culture is more deeply rooted and vibrant here," Timbers owner Merritt Paulson said. "The atmosphere and fan support in Portland is unique. I also think there's a pretty demonstrable gap in the way our city has embraced women's soccer at the professional level versus anywhere else."

On the MLS side, Portland has distinguished itself due to the passionate and dedicated supporters in the Timbers Army. Still, in growing its broader audience, the club is somewhat handicapped by the size of its stadium. While the Timbers have sold out every single game since entering MLS in 2011, Providence Park fits just 21,144 fans, something that has prompted the club to continue to look into ways to expand the stadium.

But there are signs that Portland's fan base is growing.

After finishing second in MLS local TV ratings in 2015 (the data we used for this project), the Timbers were leading MLS in 2016 local TV ratings as of mid-July, thanks in part to the bump they received from winning the 2015 MLS Cup.

"We benefit with every year we have in this market," Paulson said. "Even though we have the long history with the NASL, our MLS era didn't start until 2011 and we will build a bigger fan base over time."

Behind Seattle and Portland, Kansas City has also recently developed into a significant soccer market. Things started to take off for the city in 2011, when the Kansas City Wizards moved to a soccer-specific stadium and were rebranded into Sporting Kansas City. Two years later, the club won the MLS Cup.

Since then, Sporting Kansas City has worked to continue to grow the presence of soccer in the city. SKC has sold out 84-straight games at Children's Mercy Park. The club also announced in July that it was partnering with U.S. Soccer to build a national training and coaching development center.

"It's a place where a couple years ago you would never have experienced big-time soccer," Strong said. "In a very short amount of time, they've turned it around."

Along with Seattle, Portland and Kansas City, there are a handful of other MLS cities that are quickly growing into soccer hubs, and the league is continuing to expand to new markets.

Orlando, which finished fourth in our rankings, is quickly developing into a hotbed for both men's and women's soccer. Orlando City SC entered MLS as an expansion team in 2015 and recorded an amazing average attendance of 34,535 in its inaugural year. The Orlando Pride, which are owned by Orlando City SC, joined the NWSL this year and are averaging 9,201 fans per game, which ranks second only to the Thorns.

"It wasn't too long ago that there weren't many cities that wanted to be called Soccer City, USA," Paulson said. "I think the fact that there are people arguing over that title shows how far the sport has come."

Methodology: The Oregonian/OregonLive ranked the 16 U.S. cities with MLS teams based on their performance in 10 different categories. Since New York has two MLS teams, the data from New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls were combined or averaged as appropriate in the analysis. The categories were weighted based on their relative significance in creating a "soccer city." The categories that were weighted the highest were the 2015 local TV ratings for MLS clubs, average 2015 MLS attendance numbers, MLS titles and MLS homegrown signings. The categories that were given a moderate emphasis were the presence of an NWSL team and average NWSL attendances numbers. The categories that were weighted the lowest were NWSL titles, national team events hosted since 2000, USL titles and NCAA Division I soccer titles. In most cases, data from the most recent full season was used. The one exception was NWSL attendance numbers, where the Orlando Pride's 2016 attendance numbers were used because they entered the NWSL this year.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg