I’ve had some thoughts about t.v., MLS and the nature of the league. So, I thought the best place to share it was Big Soccer.
Let’s see what they think. Click through. just to see the map though.
Category: Soccer (Page 3 of 6)
I was going to make this point in this post, but I decided to start a new one because I think this point stands on its own.
There are plenty of actual definitions of “sounder,” but none that actually make sense for the name of a professional sports franchise. Over at the Goal Seattle Museum, a story from 1974 asks the question “what is a Sounder?” without actually answering it.
So, lacking a better definition, and using as the image of the franchise a symbol that is more geographic than anything else, a Sounder is someone from Puget Sound.
What is a Sounder? I’m a Sounder. We are Sounders.
Maybe its fitting that at a time when we’re bidding a long goodbye to the Sonics, a team that by name is tied to our industrial Boeing past, we’re also saying hello to the new Seattle Sounders FC, which use the Space Needle as their central totem.
The Sonics were like the Detroit Pistons (car industry) or the Green Bay Packer (meat packing), they referred back to a past that was relevant when the team was named. Not so much relevant now. Since the Sonics, we’ve had the Mariners (sailors, we still have sailors, don’t we?) and Seahawks (an imaginary sea bird).
While the Sounder are the second oldest surviving name in Seattle pro-sports history (Mariners and Seahawks came after the 1974 original Sounders), its a name vague enough to stand rebranding. And, it was rebranded in a very interesting, post-Microsoft, 1990s Seattle way.
Read this section of Selling Seattle for my back up. If you are marketing Seattle, and you need a quick imagery reference to tell people that you’re in Seattle, you use the Needle. You don’t use Mt. Rainier (not enough people know that mountain from any other mountain) and you don’t use ferries or just a shot of the Sound. Might was well be UP Michigan.
So, as the Needle is an image of Seattle, the nature of the team, its identity is sort of open for definition. What is a Sounder, anyway?
1. While I defended the Seattle Republic, I’m going to vote Seattle Sounders tomorrow and through the rest of the week. And, so should you.
2. Watching Cork City tie with Derry City over the next few days. The game was played last Friday, but is still available for streaming over at RTE.
3. Might watch the Charleston Cup over at USL Live, but I was really hoping to download it and watch it on the ol’Ipod. But, seems like they made some security enhancements this year, so downloading seems to be out.
4. Just realized last night that I am the Beckham effect. Kartik at the US Soccer Show went on a very good rant at the end of the podcast about the impact of Beckham: soccer commercials during the NCAAs and MLS having higher ratings than the EPL in the United States.
I’m probably in the demographic that MLS wants to see. I played soccer in high school, but slowly stopped following soccer at the same time the MLS was building. I watched World Cup games, but only out of patriotism. Only after Beckham signed (ten years later) did my interest get stoked again. Also, having a DVR and Ipod helped.
Listen to Kartik’s show here.
Being so close to Easter, St. Patrick’s Day stuff on the mind:
This Sunday not being this Sunday.
And, a little less serious:
Reasons for hope: Setanta Sports Cup and the “A” Championship.
There have been other North/South cup competitions in the past, but because of recent political work and a pretty good sponsor, this one seems to be a bit more permanent.
Also, there have been Northern Ireland clubs competing in Republican leagues (Derry City, for example), but broad cross pollination at the non-league level across the entire island can only be a good thing.
Well, baseball likes America (or Australia) less than Benefica likes America.
Comment over there.
Really?
That’s supposed to be the name of our new MLS team in Seattle?
I was reserved to living with Seattle FC or even Emerald City FC, but I was really hoping they’d stay with Sounders.
Emerald City Greens?
Eat your greens.
UPDATE: I’m not going to say its growing on me, but my instant reaction is mellowing.
Here’s the discussion over at GS, which is less mellow.
1. Big reason: My Football Club didn’t ask for money up front.
I was tempted to join MFC when they were asking for folks to say that at some point they’d pay $70 to be a part of the project. I eventually didn’t, but I might eventually.
I don’t think I’ll ever pay the $50 MSC is asking, especially since they’re asking for it up front, even before there is enough people to say they would join.
By not asking for money up front, but rather a show of support and an indication that you would eventually pay to join, MFC was creating a sense of urgency as we saw the number of members move upwards each week and created a sense that they weren’t just out trying to steal your money.
2. MFC was a fan thing, not just a soccer/football thing. The folks behind MFC wanted to change sports ownership, it just so happened that the country they lived in (as most of the world) was a soccer/football country.
If this experiment happened in the United States first, I could see them doing it with an independent baseball team (United League, Golden League) before a soccer team. I’m a big soccer fan, but I also live in a baseball country.
The folks behind MSC seem to have taken the idea too literally.
3. There is already a tradition of fan-owned teams in the UK.
MFC was revolutionary not because fans would own a team, but because the fans would be connected through the web in order to manage the team. Fan owned teams are a not uncommon, if not popular, model in Europe and especially in England.
Starting a fan owned soccer team would be a big deal in America and especially if it were a web-based effort. The fans of the California Victory tried to save their team by following a similar path as many other fan-owned teams in England, but they failed.
Jumping to a MFC effort in England was probably a much smaller jump than trying to make the entire leap in America.
4. General trust issues based on behavior
In addition to asking for the money up front, the behavior of the folks behind MSC has been shady. Example here.
I heard Trevor Hayward, one of the guys behind MSC, interviewed on MLS Talk a few months back, and I got the impression that Trevor didn’t know what he was talking about.
5. General trust issues based on background
Will Brooks may not be famous, but he is a known quantity in football/soccer circles in England. A former journalist, he knew the lay of the land, and people knew him.
Who the hell are the guys behind MSC?
But, don’t worry. If MSC isn’t going to work out, there will eventually be other web based sporting team projects out there. I’m probably never going to join MFC, but the idea is too good to die.
Thank you MLS Seattle! Word on the street is that folks from MLS Seattle got on the phone when they found out that the MLS Cup wouldn’t be airing in the Seattle market.
Sounds pretty realistic to me, co-owner Joe Roth is known to call up EPSN when he gets a bur under his saddle about soccer. The only part of the press conference last Tuesday that I was able to catch on streaming video was him telling a story about calling up the president of ESPN to complain about a couple of EPSN Radio guys that were trashing soccer.
Good on you guys!
Emmett O'Connell
@emmettoconnell@olympiatime.com
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