Imagine...

Imagine MLS Seattle
It isn't hard to do
We'd have a team to die for
We'd win some trophies too
Imagine thirty thousand people
Cheering in the stands...

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And cheer for our team as one

So with about 16 months to go until MLS Seattle kicks off, over TEN THOUSAND deposits have been made for season tickets. And it's not like all the soccer fans in the city have signed up already, either... many are waiting on the team name and/or ticket prices to be released. This begs the question... how high can we go? Would 20K be all that far-fetched? With 20 thousand season ticket holders, the lower bowl could get sellouts frequently, and the atmosphere would surely be the best for any soccer team in the United States. The lower bowl with the 'Hawks Nest' added probably could hold nearly thirty thousand people. Imagine...

Sounders 2008 home games to be played in Siberia

Tukwila, Siberia, same thing. If you want to see local pro soccer next year, be prepared to drive.

The Seattle Tukwila Sounders will play their home games at 2,000 seat Starfire Sports Complex.

The team played some home games there last year, including the USL final where they stomped Atlanta, 4-0. It's a cool place and all, but... seriously, it's tiny, and it's going to limit the amount of people who will catch a game next season. Imagine the Mariners moving to Everett
Memorial Stadium.

The only way this makes sense is to make people forget about the Sounders, so when the MLS team rolls into town in 2009, those people will be like "OMG we have soccer now!" But even that doesn't really make sense. Hey, we tried.

For those hardcore enough to still want tickets, or the lucky few living in that area, season tickets will be on sale November 27 November 30 sometime before the season begins, and should be a bargain at less than $200.

We'll be waiting for a friendly match of some sort to come to Qwest, thanks.

The Bigger Picture

So to partially fill this off-season we're going to be doing a series on the popularity, acceptance and development of soccer in the United States. This will be called



We're going to be talking to various people around the U.S. and Seattle soccer scene to see what they think of the current and future states of American soccer. The basic question, of course, is "how popular will soccer be in the near future?' There are some differing opinions:

Danny Jackson (former MLS and current Sounders player) - "I do think it will get there, but it will take time. When this next generation of supporter arrives at the stadium, the generation which grew up playing the game, who will vividly remember Beckham arriving, Sounders winning a championship, feeling pain and hurt when their team loses, and when we are on prime time TV, we will be on the right track."

Adrian 'Man of the Hour' Hanauer (owner of Sounders and future MLS franchise) - "The trend is definitely going the right direction, and I believe that we will continue to see increased support for soccer on every level, over the next 10-20 years."

Larry Stone (Seattle Times sportswriter) - "I don't think soccer will ever become a mainstream sport. It's simply not part of our culture, and it never will be. When I was little, I heard people say that soccer would be huge once all the kids who play youth soccer became adult consumers. Never happened, and it won't happen, I believe. Soccer will remain a niche sport -- hugely popular among the fanatics, but not on par with NFL, MLB, or NBA. It might catch NHL."

...so what do y'all think?