If you're one of those Seattle Sounders fans who thinks the team's biggest failure is an unwillingness to spend big money on the best players, this may be the offseason for you.
Speaking at the End of Year Business Meeting on Friday, majority owner Joe Roth made it clear that money would be no object as the team continues the pursuit of the MLS Cup.
These things are not surprises. Joe Roth has said for some time that he does not feel that the Sounders have a sell-out streak as long as tarps remain on the upper deck. He reiterated that to Ruiz and Mayers. It also is not news that the Seattle Sounders are looking to expand the revenue from their jersey sponsorship - they hired an agency to do just that.
The Seattle Sounders will host Chelsea on July 18th at CenturyLink Field, the club announced on
Monday. "We welcome a return visit from one of the premier teams and leaders in the football world
with Chelsea FC," Sounders owner Joe Roth said. "I'm looking forward to an unprecedented match day
experience not only for Chelsea FC but also for LA, Vancouver and Portland.
First rumored on February 29th, the Seattle Sounders FC will face Chelsea FC in this year's
midseason friendly on Wednesday 18 July 2012. This will be Chelsea's third trip to Seattle in the
past nine years, and second facing the Sounders. Also in the press release announcing the friendly
is that the club will sell a four-pack of tickets that includes the Portland Timbers, Vancouver
Whitecaps and the August 5th visit by the LA Galaxy, their second.
A home opener has never meant so much. That statement demonstrates the odd nature of scheduling
and success that led to Seattle Sounders FC competing in the CONCACAF Champions League to start
their 2012 multiple-tournament season. One could even say that this match against Santos Laguna is
the result of the 2010 Sounders success, as it was their Open Cup trophy that year that qualified
them for the current tournament.
Players for Seattle Sounders FC know that despite playing in 16 previous CONCACAF Champions
League games in the past two years the broad fanbase may not yet know how massive the Wednesday
night match against Santos Laguna is. They also know that for they and the ownership it is one of
the most important games of the year.
From Joe Roth to Adrian Hanauer to Sigi Schmid to players like Mike Fucito Seattle Sounders FC
has been quite clear about their goals for this year. Another US Open Cup title will not be enough.
It is a consistent organizational chorus that started at the End of Year Business Meeting and is
hinted at in most conversations about the upcoming season.
US Soccer has named Clint Dempsey as the 2011 Male Athlete of the Year. And Brek Shea was named the
Young Male Athlete of the Year.
dN
Richie Williams, the original Ankle Biter, has been named the new head coach of the USA U17 team.
He had been serving as coach of the U18s, so I guess they are looking for a new boss now.
Arlo White did not come to the Seattle Sounders with expectations of becoming an icon. Surely,
he had expectations that he would be successful, but any hopes were far exceeded, as he said in
Part 1 of our rather lengthy interview.
In Part 2 of the interview, we delve a little deeper into his relationship with the team and the
fans and how that turned a virtual "no-brainer" decision to join NBC into what that required far
more thought.
Any dreams that Seattle Sounders fans had that the Arlo White to MLS on NBC thing was going to
fall apart is gone. The loss for the Seattle Sounders and its fans will be the gain of MLS and the
United States national team. White's comments on twitter today clearly show an appreciation for the
team, the players and the fans.
NBC Sports announced today that it has hired Arlo White as the play-by-play voice of its MLS
coverage starting in 2012. White had served as the voice of the Seattle Sounders the past two
seasons.
His first broadcast with NBC Sports will be March 11 on opening weekend.
"It is a tremendous honor for me to join the NBC Sports Group, an organization that I have
revered from afar for many years," said White in a news release.
The bright blue leaked kit is in fact the official third kit for the Seattle Sounders. Today the
team announced that the "super cyan" and "electricity yellow" kit will be the primary kit used in
CONCACAF Champions League, US Open Cup and Friendlies. It will be worn in a cyan-cyan-cyan system
from top to bottom.
When Joe Roth announced the Seattle Sounders Football Club he said that he wanted to compete on
the international stage. In just two short years they showed up on that stage, and were crushed.
Now, in just their third year the advance to the CONCACAF Champions League Championship Round after
a 2-2 draw against CSD Comunicaciones of Guatemala.
The long-rumored friendly against Manchester United has been made official. The Seattle Sounders
will play the Red Devils at Qwest Field on July 20, a team release announced:
"Our fans deserve the best and we have provided a blockbuster match," Sounders majority owner
Joe Roth said.
The supporters groups from the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps have
spoken, and Major League Soccer apparently listened.
The league approved a plan for hardcore fans of the three Cascadia MLS clubs to purchase up to
500 tickets for away matches against each other in 2011, the three teams announced Wednesday.
While there has still been no official announcement that Faryd Mondragon will be joining the
Union, this news from Germany seems to be another unofficial confirmation: former FC Köln keeper
Markus Proll is on trial with the club to see if he is a suitable replacement for Mondragon.
Prost Amerika tabs Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Juan Pablo Angel as the top choices in today's
second round of the Re-Entry Draft.
Drew Williams is a Junior at Maryville University in St. Louis.  As part of his Sports
Business Management major, Drew has been following Footiebusiness for a class project. As part of
that project, he prepared a blog piece about the Seattle Sounders. His post is below. Drew is
also on the Maryville soccer team.
Football is nothing without fans
EFW covered the incredible rise of Seattle Sounders last season with interviews and their
attendance figures are indeed impressive. When we did so, we were also inundated by Portland
Timbers fans who left us in no doubt as to the intensity of the football rivalry, showing us that
the Americans at least get that bit.
This a large look, at a complex issue. It reviews how an issue has gone from simmer to
nearly boiling, but ideally will include new data, new opinions, and a way that we in this region
of over 10 Million people can continue to move forward in our love of sport.
About a month ago an article was published which claimed that Away fans would be forbidden from
attending matches amongst the Cascadian teams in MLS beyond the MLS-mandated 150 tickets.
16 days ago: SEATTLE - OCTOBER 02: Fans of the Seattle Sounders FC cheer during
the game against Toronto FC on October 2 2010 at Qwest Field in Seattle Washington.
A recent tweet says that the season ticket package will be 17 MLS league matches with one major
friendly against a top 5 club in the world. This slightly differs from what Joe Roth had said at
the last Alliance Council meeting, where he had indicated a preference for 17 league games, 1 major
friendly and a ticket for each of the US Open Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League.
Monterrey visita por la noche al Seattle Sounders en la
segunda fecha de la Concacaf Liga Campeones. Parece un partido a modo para nuestro
equipo, pero eso en el fútbol no cuenta. Recordamos que Sounders perdió 2-1 en su primer partido
contra el Marathón.
hello... i am yamsmos. i am one of the editors of www.gosounders.com....
if you have never checked us out, put it on your blogroll and come visit after you get your SAH
fix. while dave commands the analytical spectrum of the sounders blogosphere, we tend to dabble in
the news aggregation (mike) and general fan view (me).
Freddie Ljungberg's days in Seattle were numbered as soon as he was allowed to explore the
possibility of going to another team.
Those days in limbo came to an end Friday when Sounders FC dealt Ljungberg, Seattle's first
designated player in franchise history, to the Chicago Fire for a conditional draft pick in 2011 or
2012.
When the Alliance Council asked for a larger role in the planning and execution of the End of
Year Business Meeting the goal was for a more streamlined event, less repetitive Q&A and an
increase in participation overall. On those three goals we probably got 2.5 right. This recap is
built from the team's official live blog, my tweets from backstage and my memory of the event.
So if there is one thing I learned last night at the end-of-year Alliance "Business" meeting it
is that it apparently takes two years for adidas to scour the globe to look for the most hideous
color combinations of highlighter shades to use in our 3rd kits... well, that and the fact that the
Sounder training staff doesn't give "happy endings" and Drew Carey likes pain killers (but who
doesn't?
Click on the title/link above to vote. I've made the case for yes, but I beg you
vote.
If you are an Alliance member you may also be interested in the Alliance End of Year Meeting.
Speakers include Drew Carey, Joe Roth, Gary Wright and Adrian Hanauer.
I'm taking a break from my tactics writing to address something which is also important to me.
This is the desire to sell out Qwest field for a regular-season MLS match.
There are currently some 30,000 (give or take a few hundred) seats at Qwest which are covered
with tarps and unavailable for purchase.
Some of you may have missed this in your emails, but it is a pretty significant deal and I
wanted to get it out there so that everyone who could possibly want to go and qualify knows about
it.
This meeting will not be a party. It will be designed much like a shareholder meeting. There
will be recaps of how each business unit for the team did over the past season and what they are
looking to do in the future.
