Update: Epic fail on my part.  It turns out this was just a mistake.  Jeremiah has confirmed (and commented below) that the Hawks Nest is not opening up this season.  Just to show I'm not a liar though, this is the image I pulled from my browser cache: http://twitpic.com/4085ay Bummer...

So I'm poking around on SoundersFC.com this morning and I come accross a new seating chart with a very obvious change.  Three new sections where added: 146, 147, 149, and 150.  These sections are commonly known as "the Hawks Nest".  It looks like these sections will be priced the same as the end zone sections that surround the ECS ($22/game).

I've posted previously on the significance of opening the Hawks Nest.  It represents an increase of about 3,000 seats.  It also means that the advertising portion of the contract that Sounders FC has with Microsoft probably had to be reworked a bit. 

Jeremiah has posted on this where he analyzed a quote from Joe Roth which forshadowed this change back in October.  Is this perhaps early proof of at least an incremental increase in season ticket sales again this season?

Finally, the entire lower bowl of Qwest Field will be available for Sounders FC home league matches.  How much will would this improve the already electric atmosphere on gameday?  How much louder do you think we can get?  Do you think we'll we would have any difficulty selling out ~3,000 additional tickets for every game?