WWTBAM Bored

Seattle will have a team in Major League Soccer next season. Yesterday they unveiled their jersey and jersey sponsor. Microsoft is paying $20 million to be the jersey sponsor for the next 5 years.



15,000 people have already put down deposits on season tickets for next year in Seattle. It looks like they might get off to the same type of start as Toronto FC. Toronto came into the league last year and has sold out every home game since they have been in the league. Their stadium only holds 20,000 but it is still a big accomplishment.

Philadelphia will be entering the league in 2010. No team name or colors announced yet.

Reminds me of my days back in Major League Curling. You can probably guess which position I played, but the crowds were just as enthusiastic as they are for futbol....

<SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP> <SWEEP>

Is there a team name yet?



*****nevermind**********

I just looked at the title to the thread.

cindy.wellman wrote:Is there a team name yet?



*****nevermind**********

I just looked at the title to the thread.

Nevermind the title. From looking at that shirt, the team name is obviously the "XBOX 360".

Soccer must be a more violent sport than I thought, since there seems to be a need to indicate whether a team member is "Live" or "Dead".

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.

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.

andrewjackson wrote:

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.

There had been "iniital talks" of "promoting" the Rochester Rhinos in a similar way, several years ago. There is a town that loves their soccer team.