BOOK REVIEW: Sounders FC: AUTHENTIC MASTERPIECE: The Inside Story Of The Best Franchise Launch In American Sports History, by Mike Gastineau

ISBN 978-1491068342

$15.21 paperback and $9.99 Kindle

http://www.huntingtonnews.

Mike Gastineau

http://www.huntingtonnews.net/77288

Reviewed by Rene A. Henry

Author Mike Gastineau gives the reader an inside look at how the launch of the Seattle Sounders FC professional soccer team was one of the most successful in U.S. sports franchise history. This is a book many sports fans, and especially those who love soccer, will enjoy. I also believe it should be a must read for anyone in sports management or sports marketing and for the owners and all senior management of the new Major League Soccer franchises.

. According to Gastineau, from the very beginning the Sounders were not like any other sports franchise. The initial investors were Adrian Hanauer, a minor-league sports executive who had a love for soccer at an early age; Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, one of the richest men in the world who also owned the NFL Seattle Seahawks and NBA Portland Trailblazers; comedian and television game show host Drew Carey; and Joe Roth, Hollywood movie producer and director who headed 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney Studios before forming his own Revolution Studios.

Considered one of the icons of Seattle sports radio for more than two decades and affectionately known by his listeners as “The Gasman,” Mike Gastineau interviewed scores of key executives, athletes and fans. He tells the story leading up to the successful launch of the team and the expansion franchise in Major League Soccer.

Hanauer is from an old Seattle family known for its love of soccer and philanthropy in arts and education. In 2001 he invested $100,000 in the Sounders who then were playing in the minor league USL and losing $1 million a year. Paul Allen’s involvement brought a working relationship with the Seahawks and management, marketing, sales and promotional support. The telephones were answered “Thank you for calling the Seattle Seahawks and Sounders FC.” The Sounders combined area soccer fans with football fans to secure a new professional football stadium in Seattle.

In 2008 Seattle sports fans saw the University of Washington football team go winless in 12 games, the Mariners became the first team in baseball history to lose 100 games while spending more than $100 million on salaries, and the NBA Seattle Supersonics move to Oklahoma. The Sounders first season in 2009 was a tremendous success and the new owner-management team turned a money-losing soccer club from the minor leagues to Major League Soccer selling out home games and regularly topping 50,000 attendance. International friendly matches against the biggest names in soccer – FC Barcelona, Boca Juniors, and Manchester United – drew huge crowds.

Hanauer, Allen, Roth and Carey, with support from Seahawks General Manager Tod Leiweke, took an approach contrary to other soccer franchises. They first convinced the leadership of MLS to play home games in an NFL stadium. Then they disregarded traditional MLS marketing ideas and reached out to a huge part of an underserved Seattle sports scene.

One unique idea to keep the fans involved in important management decisions came from Carey. When he was doing a TV show for The Travel Channel and was in Barcelona he learned that local Barça fans could vote out the team’s president. He liked the concept and wanted to do it with a team in the U.S. Roth took Carey’s idea to Hanauer and they realized this was a way to empower the fans and build loyalty.

Other professional sports teams owners and presidents thought they were crazy to let the fans make such important decisions. As Gastineau points out in his book, this again made the Sounders very different from other sports franchises. A structure was put in place – Sounders Football Club Alliance – with membership open to all season ticket holders. Those who didn’t buy season tickets could pay a small yearly fee to join. All Alliance members can petition for a vote at any time, have a say in determining some of the club’s charitable partners and programs, and can attend the team’s annual meeting. In December 2012, 96% of the more than 13,000 voting, voted to retain Hanauer.

The author cites yet another example the importance the Sounders place on their fans. After a 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy, Hanauer was so upset he told Leiweke that he wanted refunds for the 32,000 fans who attended the match – not a coupon for a hot dog or soft drink – but cash refunds. Other sports teams again thought the Sounders were crazy. According to Gastineau, Hanauer said if you’re a successful and healthy business you can afford to take risks. The ticket refund is a dramatic example of another huge reason for the Sounders success. It forged interactions with fans different from anything that had been seen in American professional sports. Can you imagine any professional major league team in any sport doing this?

Salaries for soccer coaches don’t begin to compare with those for even college football and basketball coaches. But again the Sounders wanted the best and paid the MLS Columbus Crew $100,000 just for the right to sign Sigi Schmid. This was unheard of even in the MLS. Schmid, who has been the Sounders only coach since joining the league had won the MLS cup in both Los Angeles and Columbus and had considerable international experience coaching several national teams. When he coached UCLA, the Bruins dominated college soccer for 20 years, went to 16 consecutive NCAA tournaments, won three national championships and he posted 322 wins.

Gastineau profiles a number of the leading players and details how that soccer subculture directly impacted one of the biggest deals in MLS history with the signing of superstar Clint Dempsey in 2013.

Rene A. Henry lives in Seattle and had authored nine books, three of which were on sports. His experience in sports spans five decades and at all levels including recreational, college, professional, Olympic and international sports. In soccer he consulted both the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the U.S. Soccer Federation and was involved in the 1982 and 1994 FIFA World Cups. He was Chief Operating Officer and Tournament Director and in five months organized the 1980 FIFA World Youth Cup CONCACAF Championships, at that time the largest soccer tournament held in the U.S. He structured it as a model for the U.S. 1994 World Cup bid.

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