Why Major League Soccer Is Never Coming To Seattle
Initiative 91 is one answer. We just voted against spending public moneys on sports stadiums. Major League Soccer wants all its teams to play in small, soccer-specific stadiums, but we don't currently have one of those laying around and one would be tough to build in the current environment. Too bad, because those are really cool stadiums that have great atmosphere and look sexy on TV and professional soccer at the highest (American) level would be great here. Initiative 91 doesn't actually forbid stadia from getting built with public money, it only cares if there's no return on the investment and since the MLS is largely owned by a bunch of really rich guys who love soccer the ROI tends to be shit.
Recently the commissioner of Major League Soccer had an online Q&A with fans during which he was asked about the league expanding to Seattle:
Frank from Seattle Qwest Field was built with the promise of an MLS team. Is a soccer-specific stadium now a deal breaker in awarding expansion teams?Don Garber
Seattle remains one of our true priority markets and we continue to have casual conversations with potential investors including two different groups that will join us here at MLS Cup this weekend. The right deal in a football stadium (think Gillette) can work temporarily as we develop plans on a soccer-specific stadium. And that's a plan that might make sense for us in Seattle.
What's really interesting about Garber's answer is his admission that there are two ownership groups pursuing a team in Seattle. Adrian Hanauer, aka the Seattle Sounders, aka the guy who failed to beat out Salt Lake City for a team in 2004, is one. No one knows who the other one is. Maybe he's talking about the One Wolf Soccer guys who are trying to bring a team to Portland, but, well, probably not. Unless he went to the DC United v Real Madrid game and had a change of heart, it isn't Paul Allen, which brings us to the real reason MLS soccer will never come to Seattle: Paul Allen.
Allen's whims have a strange habit of sprouting into physicality in ways that fundamentally change Seattle: Qwest Field, the EMP, South Lake Union, etc. And he's got the giant money bags MLS is looking for in an owner. Problem is the guy has absolutely no interest in soccer and even if he was into it another thing he's into is making Seattle pay for the shit that he's into. See Qwest Field. See SLU light rail.
See Initiative 91. It ain't happenin.
Who knows, the Hanauer ownership group could still make something work at the landfill site they have their eyes on in Kent, but it's kind of a longshot. And Paul Allen probably isn't the person the MLS commissioner mentions in the Q&A above which means there's some mystery interested party floating around out there, but we're not holding our breath for anything to happen this decade.
(Thanks Sounder Central)
Image courtesy of Mike Garcia.
