Stars Off the Field

How the new Sounders FC organization built its business.

By Mike Lewis |   October 2009   |  FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Photograph by Brian Smale

As general manager of the Seattle Sounders, Adrian Hanauer succeeded in selling the new team to the public with a variety of techniques, including putting his own job to a vote among the season ticket holders.

It could have been the scarves. Or perhaps it was the marching band, the pub-based advertising, the signing of a Swedish star most locals hadn't heard of, or the local boy who made the big time in Europe. Or maybe it was the fan vote for a general manager. It's hard to say.

No one assumes, of course, that marketing alone explains the Seattle Sounders' league-leading attendance and popularity.

That's because much of the structure for success for Major League Soccer (MLS) in Seattle already was in place. There was the original Sounders of the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 1970s, establishing the name. Later, there was the successful United Soccer League's team of the same name. Add in the fact that western Washington has one of the highest rates of youth soccer league participation, and the loss of the Sonics creating a vacancy in professional sports fandom, and you have a city that was primed and ready for some fútbol.

These things existed independently from the professional sports ownership ambitions of Joe Roth, Adrian Hanauer, Paul Allen and Drew Carey. But the Sounders' owners rightly can claim responsibility for what many in the industry have called one of the most effective marketing pushes in modern professional sports.

Indeed, it was one of the few growth businesses in Seattle in 2009.

Gary Wright, Sounders senior vice president of business, says it all started with a willingness to listen. "We invited people to speak their minds," he said. "And we listened to the fans."

Some of that listening was done in local pubs, such as the George & Dragon, the Fremont British bar that serves as soccer central in Seattle. Wright says everyone involved in the Sounders marketing push realized the group needed to do two things. One was to make existing fans of high-caliber soccer, such as the English Premier League (considered the best in the world), think that Major League Soccer was worth watching.

For them, the team made scarves, a longtime English tradition, in Seattle blue and green. They also signed former Arsenal star and Swedish national captain Fredrik Ljungberg and Washington native Kasey Keller, who was the first American goalkeeper to play in the Premier League; they encouraged singing, chanting, noisy fan clubs such as the Brougham Boys '74 and North End Supporters; they brought in world-famous teams for friendly matches such as Chelsea FC and Barcelona FC; and they advertised heavily in

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