I have a harder and harder time justifying my sports fandom as the years go by.  In fact, the reasons to not really care about professional or big-time sports severely outweigh the reasons to care, or at least it often seems that way.  I have many friends who couldn't care less and I find myself almost wishing I could join them.

A big part of sports fandom is nostalgia, at least to most of those who have a genuine passion for their teams.  In many cases it is the team they grew up pulling for, for whatever reason, and they still do so today.  It is a mistake to think of nostalgia as "good memories," as they are indeed just powerful memories.  Watching and enjoying sports has provided many of us with a plethora of these powerful, emotional memories, and this feeds the nostalgia which keeps it all coming.  

But this isn't a treatise on what makes a fan, I would really like to leave it at the fact that there are fans, for whatever reason, and move on from there.

The Sounders, although claiming a history back to 1974 through various iterations, are in reality a brand spanking new sports entity.  They have been fortunate to immediately connect with many supporters in the region despite this dubious history, for a variety of reasons which have been explored at length over the last year, in many outlets.  But again, lets just accept that the chord has been struck, for whatever reason, and move on.

What we have here, and now in this city, with the Sounders and its Supporters, is a unique opportunity  to get things right.  The fans and supporters are the consumer of big-time and professional sports, and yet they are the most abused and overlooked party in the equation.  This is due in no small part to the fact that the fans/supporters have ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN TO THEMSELVES, and owners, commissioners, and players have been all too willing to abuse this largely unrequited love for their own personal gain.  

In the American soccer community there is a stated resistance to repeat these old habits, and at the forefront of this movement is the Sounders and its Supporters.  As such, we have the opportunity to create a community in which the Supporters matter, and the club organization listens... really listens, not just pretends to listen.  The apparatus have been put into place, there is an Alliance Council, there are active and vibrant supporter groups, and there is a Front Office that PURPORTS to want to listen to the Supporters.  So lets do this!

I have long envisioned the "club membership" model in American professional sports.  (I would like to see public ownership, but this may be a pipe dream, so this is certainly the next best thing.)  I would like to see "club members," or season ticket holders be treated as true SHAREHOLDERS in the interest of the club.  Again, the nominal apparatus are in place for this to happen with the Sounders, so let's make this happen!  Let's not put up with the same old excuses, the tired obfuscation from alleged "businessmen" who tend to hold too much sway within sporting organizations.  

I am encouraged with what I have seen in my first year as a Sounders FC Supporter, but I am also struck that we are only part-way there.  This will be a process that may take a few years... in fact, in my efforts this season, i always had it in my head that this is all "Project 2011" giving us all 2 solid years to get our shit together and become one of the great sporting clubs on the planet.  (Beyond that, 2011 will be rocking when Vancouver and Portland join in!  Let's give them something the Really be jealous of!)

Seattle is a town of innovators, and has been for an entire century.  we revolutionized air travel, computers, and coffee, just to name a few.  Now, lets revolutionize sports fandom in America!

Jake Reeder