Details were not made clear, but Carey was sold on the idea when Roth told him Seattle MLS would like to use ‘the Barcelona model’ of letting fans own part of the club and have voting shares. I am sure we’ll hear more about that soon.
And here’s another radical idea: Fans will be able to buy membership in the team, which will give them the power to vote out the general manager. That, too, came from Carey
Greg Roth on BigSoccer:
One of his stipuations is that the fans will own a small piece of the team very much like the current FC Barcelona model. The fans will have the opportunity to become members of the club. Fans can pay in (an mount to be detrmined). In return, fans would get T Shirts, discounts on tickets, special events etc. Every 4 years the fans or club members will have a vote on who should be the team chairman.
The Sounders would be the only major league team, outside of the famed Green Bay Packers, that have turned over any portion of the team to the fans.
In some ways, the way this entire thing is turning out, with the MLS coming to Seattle, with the announcement that the team will, in part, be fan owned, seems strange to me. While on one hand we have this caustic drama with the Sonics that is sapping the souls of any basketball fan in Seattle.
On the other hand, we have this hope-filled world opening up. Feels good.
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