American Ninja Warrior announced the 2019 taping dates and locations on Valentine’s Day. The news included that Ninja will be showing a little love to a part of the country the show hasn’t visited before: The Pacific Northwest.

American Ninja Warrior will visit Seattle/Tacoma, Washington, May 11-12 at the Tacoma Dome. Competing Ninjas and attending fans alike should get excited about this news. It will the first time ever that American Ninja Warrior has taped indoors!

We got a little nervous thinking about the Pacific Northwest in the springtime. It’s not exactly famous for being a dry climate. But this time, we won’t have to pack eight waterproof layers and three umbrellas!

The Tacoma Dome is famous for being “one of the largest wood domed structures in the world.” The location’s website includes some impressive stats, like:

“The unique configurations mean the Tacoma Dome can accommodate 1,000 to 23,000 patrons, making it the largest indoor venue in the state of Washington.”

“The Tacoma Dome is 530 feet in diameter and 152 feet tall.”

“The Tacoma Dome’s aluminum super-grid is one of the world’s largest at 384’ x 160’. The total cable length is approximately 47,661’ or just over nine miles. There are over 275 support points on the Dome and the grid includes an estimated 2.5 miles of welding.”

Yup, that seems big enough to handle American Ninja Warrior.

Since the Pacific Northwest is an entirely new region for the show, we’re particularly keen to learn more about the Ninjas who will be called to compete at this location, and those that join the walk-on line.

Generally speaking, the only location that close to the West Coast has been Los Angeles. So even Ninjas like Nick Hanson from Alaska needed to come pretty far south to take part. We’re honestly not quite sure how the participants will be divided up.

We know that Ninjas like Brian Kretsch and Anna Shumaker already got the call for Los Angeles, and they’re based in Northern California, so they COULD have been candidates for Washington. We imagine the the Texas-area Ninjas will head to Oklahoma City. Maybe the Denver/Colorado area Ninjas will be sent to Tacoma? (Hmmm, but Oklahoma City would be a much shorter flight for them.)

But that’s just taking into consideration the Ninja Warrior hubs we’re all familiar with. We’re pretty sure the Oregon, Idaho, and Montana areas are pretty excited that their journey won’t be as long this season!

Specifically, Lance Pekus will probably be pretty happy about it. (He’s based in Idaho and has always had quite a trek to take part in the show.)

The walk-on line in each location usually brings in dedicated athletes who travel all over the country trying for their shot at the course. But it also brings out the local flavor. We’re very excited to be introduced to the talents of the Seattle/Tacoma area community.

Ninja Warrior loves to integrate itself with the local environment, especially through their sports teams. The show tends to invite out players from major teams and their mascots to have a little fun on the course. This means we should probably keep our eyes peeled for the Seattle Mariners (MLB), Seattle Seahawks (NFL), Seattle Storm (WNBA) and the Seattle Sounders (MLS).

Who else has ideas about what we can expect from the Seattle/Tacoma stop on American Ninja Warrior’s 2019 tour? Tell us all that you know about it!

Update: Some very intriguing modifications have been made to the Seattle/Tacoma listing on On-Camera-Audiences.Com (where you can sign up for tickets to the live tapings). It looks like the audience will be brought in much earlier, indicating that maybe this is NOT an overnight taping! That’s something else that sets this location apart from the rest of the season.