by Lars Lifrak

I could see it in MLS Commissioner Don Garber’s eyes as I asked him my one on one questions.

“Who is this clown?” he seemed to be thinking, “And how did he get into this press conference?”

At the presser to officially announce the MLS is coming to Seattle in 2009, I decided to find out if anyone shared my opinion that the new team should just keep the name Sounders.  After all, it’s a team name that’s meant professional soccer in these parts for more than 30 years. 

“The Sounders are a great brand, but that’s balanced with the fact that they’ve been a minor league team.  As opposed to being an emotional call, we want it to be a strategic call”, Garber said, probably wondering if I had wiped green and blue Sounders face paint off before walking into the Columbia Tower Club for the announcement. 

I probably did sound like a lifelong Sounders fan, but that’s actually not true.  I moved to Seattle four years ago from New York.  I’d never even thought about the team before then.  I will admit to liking soccer and wanting to see it succeed in this city and in this country and I think keeping the Sounders brand alive will help.

“In some respects there might be a bias to show people that this is a whole other level”, said Tod Leiweke, the CEO of the Seattle Seahawks, who represents Paul Allen’s interests with the MLS team.  “The casual fans or non-fans might wonder, ‘What’s different here?’  There is a lot different.  You can create that this franchise when it steps on the field for its first game has the feeling of a big time franchise.”

But while the Sounders currently reside in the minor league USL, there was a time that soccer was a big time sport in the Emerald City.  Longtime Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley remembers.

“They drew 60,000 (in the Kingdome) here and that’s the side that they forget”, Kelly pointed out referring to a game between the NASL version of the Sounders and Pele’s New York Cosmos in 1976.

“My vote would be to keep the name”, says current Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer.  “That’s actually the number one question I get asked about, ‘Are they going to keep the name?’.  I’ve got Sounder blood running through me.  It was my first team as a seventeen year old (player).”

And of course, it wouldn’t be Seattle without a website to weigh in on the matter.  Saveoursounders.com is up and has already gotten hundreds of people supporting the name.

One of the main voices in this decision making process will be minority owner and general manager Adrian Hanauer.

“I grew up as a Sounder fan”, Hanauer said.  “But I also have thought through all of the arguments for and against.  Ultimately we’ll make a good decision.  It will be a “soccer-centric” name and it will be something the city is proud of.”

I’m guessing the name Sounders is not “soccer-centric”.  But is that kind of a name the reason anyone outside of a specific city roots for a team?  I’ll guarantee not many soccer fans in this country know what the United in Manchester United or the Real in Real Madrid means, but both teams have plenty of supporters in the United States.

And there’s something else, Seattle is a little bit different than most professional sports cities.  For one thing, it’s so far removed geographically from the rest of the country there’s a feeling that things that happen here occur in a sports vacuum.  When the Seahawks reached the Super Bowl a few years ago, part of the fan’s excitement was that the rest of the country was going to learn about “our team”.

The USL-1st division version of the Sounders will exist for the 2008 season, and with territorial rights, any player from that team will be there for the picking when the MLS roster is put together.  If the Sounders name remains it will be the closest thing soccer in America has ever had to a promotion.  One of the things that makes soccer in Europe work so well is the promotion and relegation process.  When the fans of Watford get to support a Premier League team, a lot of the passion comes from getting to see “their boys” compete against the best.  Well right now the soccer fans in this city consider the Sounders “their boys”.  Keeping the name and even a couple of the current players will give this city another chance to show the rest of the country what Seattle is all about.

HAVE YOUR SAY…
Should Seattle keep the Sounders name or make a change with the move to MLS?  Send your emails to soccer365opinions@365-inc.com