It’s a rare and wonderful thing in American pro sports to have a business meeting where the owners and leaders share what’s working and what’s not with the fans. The Sounders Annual Business Meeting is a week out.
While the club will do its best to focus on what they’re doing well, they cannot merely talk about those topics. MLS didn’t get an attendance bump from the US and Canada hosting the World Cup – that’s bad. The Sounders season ticket renewals are likely among their worst ever – that’s bad.
On the pitch, normally not an issue for the business meeting, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the team makes the playoffs – that’s really bad. There’s been no movement on finding a significant minority owner through divestment, nor explicit interest in the Allen Estate shares of the club despite billions of dollars of interest in owning parts of other Seattle-area sports teams – that’s bad.
This ABM is not the time for “the state of our club is strong.”
It’s time to answer some harder questions and move Seattle Sounders (and Reign, as the speakers at the ABM are also the operators of Seattle Reign) forward past their old highs to new ones, as the region is clearly more soccer mad than it was when attendance was over 40k per match.
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Alliance Annual Business Meeting
Where: West Club Level of Lumen Field
When: Sept. 26 from 2–4 PM (before the Sounders-Minnesota United match)
Who: Adrian Hanauer, Majority Owner; Craig Waibel, General Manager and Chief Soccer Officer; Courtney Carter, Chief Revenue Officer; Sean Coury, Chief Financial Officer
How is spending on the roster connected to interest in the team?
Whether or not spending is directly correlated to winning, there’s little doubt that big spending drives an energy around the conversations regarding a sports team. Being connected to significant players and roster rebuilds that intend to push a team towards trophies is a marketing effort almost as much as the on-field impact.
Rather than have summer spending (or coming soon, winter spending) fuel energy in the fan base there is stagnation. The leadership needs to explain how they understand the relationship between buzz and the roster – and how they can amplify that.
What did the club learn from the region hosting the Men’s World Cup?
It shouldn’t be hard to remember the 100s of thousands of people that visited Seattle over the summer. The stadium and surroundings were bumping.
And then domestic soccer returned.
People didn’t show up. A team that used to get 66,000 for the Portland Timbers edged 35,000. Despite more eyes on soccer locally than were on the team when it won MLS Cups, there was little movement towards converting those visitors to become Sounders or Reign fans.
Seattle will get a chance again in 2031, almost certainly. The org cannot miss the moment again.
Is the future of Sounders and Reign in downtown Seattle?
This better be a simple yes. A city that can host World Cups can host its domestic trophy winners. The fan experience when surrounded by the vibrant atmosphere of a downtown stadium is undeniable. No suburb can replace that.
How are talks going with the new Seahawks ownership group to repair a relationship that once helped Sounders thrive in Lumen Field?
The Khosla family hasn’t expressed interest in being a direct part of a soccer organization, but they do now own First & Goal. As they’ll be the ones operating Lumen Field, what can the soccer group do to get back to a more familial relationship with Seahawks ownership to increase fan experiences and revenue for all parties?
What’s the next step towards improving Longacres for the club and community?
Part of the announcement of the Longacres project was an intent towards being part of the real-estate investment there with housing, retail and offices. Is there still an intent to do that? Or is the organization focused on expanding their soccer presence for Reign, Defiance or the first team?
Ticket prices increased similar to the inflation for sports and entertainment since the team joined MLS, but that’s also much more than the local inflation rate. Has the fan experience increased enough to justify this increase?
In 2009 the average wage in the Seattle metro area per the BLS was slightly over $51k. You could get a decent but not great Sounders season ticket for under $20 per match. The average wage is now over $76k per the same measure. That same seat is nearly $50. This price increase is typical within the sports and entertainment industry.
It’s hard to think that the fan experience has grown by more than 100%. What is the club doing to reconnect to the working and middle class fanbase that once had an affordable local soccer option, but are now priced out?
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Catching up on Sounder at Heart
Here’s what you missed on the site this week.
Sounders
Next match: Saturday at Colorado Rapids at 6:30 pm PT on Apple TV.
Reign
Next match: Saturday at Denver Summit at 5:45 pm PT on ION TV (33 in Seattle)
Defiance
Next match: Sunday hosting Timbers 2 at 2 pm PT on OneFootball and YouTube.
Defiance qualify for the playoffs with an outright win, or by earning more points than North Texas or San Jose in a shootout, or a San Jose loss.
Looking back at the news
Everything else you need to know
Furious fans, peeved parents and side gigs: Why would anyone want to be a ref? (ESPN)
