Appa23 wrote:I love that they decided to keep the NASL name.
For the older folk here, you might recall that the Sounders faced and lost to the New York Cosmos in Soccer Bowl '77 and Soccer Bowl '82.
Some of the more famous players from the NASL era include Geoff Hurst, Alan Hudson, and Bobby Moore.
And Sounders is the current USL team name.
(NASL) Seattle Sounders - 1974 through 1983
(A-League/USL) Seattle Sounders - 1994 to 2008
(MLS) Seattle Sounders FC - 2009 onward
That's 25 years of history in Seattle for the name, Sounders. They won 4 titles in the A-League/USL.
It is interesting that the ownership did not want to name the new team Sounders. They had a public poll on the name of the new team and originally only had Seattle F.C., Seattle Republic and Seattle Alliance as the choices. A barrage of phone calls and emails to the team and in the press in Seattle got the team to add the choice of writing in a name. Sounders got 50% of the total votes as a write-in. It really was the people's choice name.
The league is also going to allow the new Sounders FC to sign any of the current Sounders who are not already under contract to an MLS team. This is different than the usual practice which have any USL players first signing with the league and then either being drafted or allocated to various MLS teams. In effect the current Sounders team is being "promoted" to MLS but the new Sounders FC will also be able to use an expansion draft to select 10 players from existing MLS rosters.
No matter where you go, there you are.
