David Falk has followed soccer in the Puget Sound region since 1974. This blog covers Sounders FC, local college soccer, Seattle Wolves FC, Tacoma Tide FC and Kitsap Pumas. Send tips or comments to: goalseattle@gmail.com
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Seattle Soccer Examiner

Seattle Soccer Examiner

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Happy Birthday, Seattle Sounders FC


Can you believe a year has passed since Major League Soccer awarded a team to Seattle?

November 12, 2007 Drew Carey showed up at The George and Dragon pub to tell fans he was about to become a part-owner in Seattle MLS. The next day, November 13, 2007, MLS officially announced Seattle as a 2009 expansion club high above the Seattle city streets in the Columbia Tower.


Grade the Sounders on their first year of preparation for MLS in this poll at the GS forums.


A lot has happened since then, and you can reflect or catch up here.

2007 was a great year for the Sounders and for Seattle soccer supporters. The USL Sounders won nearly everything in sight, and then to top it off we were given the prize of a bright future in MLS. I wrote this at the end of my 2007 yearly review:

"Finally on Friday November 9th the Seattle Times ran a story confirming that Major League Soccer would be holding a press conference the following Tuesday November 13th to announce that Seattle would be joining MLS. Fans arrived a day early on November 12th at The George and Dragon Pub to see comedian Drew Carey get the ball rolling and announce his minority ownership in the new club.

The official press conference the next day was watched by thousands of fans live over the internet. Seattle MLS would play at Qwest Field starting in 2009. It would have a dynamic ownership group of Hollywood movie mogul Joe Roth, Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, local soccer champion Adrian Hanauer and funny man Drew Carey. After a wait lasting over a decade long Seattle soccer was going "up."


As 2007 wound to a close longtime Sounders fans were left to ponder the most amazing season in club history as well as the future of the club and the club name. The MLS press conference had revealed that the "Seattle Sounders" would play one final season in the USL-1 in 2008. The name "Sounders" could move with the club to the Kitsap Peninsula, fold with the club, or be adopted by Seattle MLS. Meanwhile the new MLS club had already sold over 10,000 season ticket deposits in its first month."



1 comment:

  1. Yes, a year already and what a first year it has been. Was Freddie our birthday present?

    Anyway, great coverage here. Can I chuck my tuppence in and invite you for a chronological trip to go here http://www.prostamerika.com/MLS.html and start at the BOTTOM of the page and work your way up.

    Starts with the press speculation and follows the path through.

    ReplyDelete

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