Seattle » When commissioner Don Garber looked out into the stadium as Major League Soccer's newest team began its inaugural season last week, he could hardly believe what he saw. Thousands of roaring fans joyously waving green-and-blue flags and scarves and banners and falling instantly in love with their hometown Seattle Sounders.

"I have to tell you, that was one of the most spectacular sporting events that I've ever been to," Garber said. "It brought tears to my eyes, literally. It was an emotional moment for me."

Even Garber could not have foreseen such a spectacular debut for the team that Real Salt Lake will visit for its season-opener at Qwest Field on Saturday night.

Not only did the Sounders rout the reigning league runner-up New York Red Bulls 3-0 in a game that made an instant celebrity of young striker Fredy Montero -- the 21-year-old who used to play with RSL's Jamison Olave for Deportivo Cali in their native Colombia scored twice and assisted on a third goal -- but the crowd of 32,000 set a staggering new standard for the league.

"What happened in Seattle was surprising to us -- I'd even say shocking to us," Garber said. "I believe that if they opened up the stadium to 60,000, they would have sold all of those seats."

The scene was hardly lost on RSL, either.

Goalkeeper Nick Rimando said it was "great for the league" to see such an outpouring of support, even if RSL can fairly expect to face the same kind of crowd Saturday, screaming for it to lose to the Sounders. RSL has never won a season-opener in its previous four seasons, but is hoping to finally break through by containing an attack that defender Nat Borchers said can "burn" opponents because of its speed.

"It's going to be tough for us in the back," Borchers said.

Yet Seattle might be only the beginning.

The league announced last week plans to expand further, with teams launching in nearby Vancouver and Portland for the 2011 season (after Philadelphia joins the league next year), giving the league 18 teams and potentially creating a center of raucous soccer rivalry in the Pacific Northwest. The ownership group in Vancouver said it sold its first block of 5,000 season-ticket deposits within 48 hours.

"The response we have received from the community has been phenomenal," team president Bob Lenarduzzi said in a statement.

That's no surprise, Garber said.

The commissioner credited Toronto FC with proving that North Americans "will connect themselves" to local soccer teams if "you give them the right brand, you put them in the right stadium and in many ways you hope and dream to have the right product on the field." Toronto is widely acknowledged as having the largest and most enthusiastic fan base in the league, setting a standard to which new teams can aspire.

"Clearly, the league has been able to move forward over the last decade," Garber said, "and that has created some pent-up demand in new markets. And the success in places like Seattle [is] a combination of the right market that loves the game and is showing that they will come out to support the sport ... the downtown location I think helps a lot, and we have an absolutely world-class ownership group" that includes comedian Drew Carey and the owners of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, in whose stadium the team plays.

"This didn't happen by accident," Garber added.

mcl@sltrib.com