Sounders Vs. Santos Laguna Tickets Go On Sale Today
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jan 30, 2012 6:01 AM PST
in Sounders: CONCACAF Champions League
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The Seattle Sounders have played in three U.S. Open Cup title games and three MLS Cup playoff series, but the match against Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions League on March 7 may be the biggest match in franchise history. Not to be too much of a shill, but if you're enough of a fan of this team to be reading this blog, you probably should plan on being at Century Link Field that day. If you aren't a season-ticket holder, today's your chance to get tickets, as they go on sale at 10 a.m.
Just to put a little more added importance on this game, the Sounders' claim as kings of attendance is already being challenged by Toronto FC. When they last reported on ticket sales, they had surpassed 35,000 for their CCL quarterfinal against the LA Galaxy, which will be held indoors at Rogers Centre. The current capacity is 45,000.
It's not clear whether or not the Sounders plan on opening seating beyond the 38,500 that is the new "normal" capacity, but even if they don't a sellout would be a pretty strong message to send to the world about how we view CCL. Just imagine how cool it would be to say that more than 80,000 people attended CCL matches hosted by MLS teams on March 7. It's not UEFA Champions League, but it's the closest thing we have.
Just a small reminder: The away leg for this quarterfinal will be on Wednesday, March 14 at 5 p.m. Sounder at Heart is hosting a viewing party that day, at which we'll be handing out the 2012 scarves (still available for order). Whether or not you ordered a scarf, you are invited. We should have details finalized this week, but we can tell you that it looks like it will be all ages and be held at a facility in Capitol Hill.
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"Look at us, we're Toronto. We have 35k people show up for the most important match in our history."
“Hello, Toronto, we’re Seattle. We have 38.5k people show up to watch us play you.”
by Jackington on Jan 30, 2012 6:23 AM PST reply actions 11 recs
Lol'd in my cube
and got a funny look. Consider this your mobile rec.
by Iam333 on Jan 30, 2012 9:22 AM PST via Android app up reply actions
So, I was in Toronto all last week.
It was cold, it was snowing/hailing most of the time. Everybody was wearing scarves. I was wearing my 2012 ECS scarf. I didn’t see see a single Toronto FC scarf during the trip.
Two weeks ago when it was snowing in Seattle, it seemed every other person with a scarf on had a Sounders scarf.
Sounders 'til I die
by SounderJunkie on Jan 30, 2012 11:07 AM PST up reply actions
I spent about 7 days in Temecula area in Southern California (about 1.5 hours south of LA)
I saw 1 sounder jersey (in addition to mine) and 1 galaxy jersey in the time I was down there.
I like the optimism about attendance
But the fact of the matter is that the upper parts of the Brougham End were not open in the season ticket holder presale. Looks like they might plan for the same configuration that they had initially in 2009.
Of course if tickets sell well, they might open up those or other sections.
" It’s not UEFA Champions League, but it’s the closest thing we have."
Just my opinion, but we don’t need to apologize for watching soccer, very high quality soccer. I think the people that DON’T go to these games without a valid reason are the idiots.
Dirt cheap tickets, for a huge game and great soccer ? No brainer.
Toronto is thinking they will sell out the 45,000. I hope that Seattle does better.
It's all good, until you turn on the radio
I hope that Toronto sells out. It’s great for the league.
My guess is the Sounders will have a big crowd for the game. It’s been a long time since we played a game and I’m fired up, as I know everyone who reads this blog is as well.
That said, for the Sounders to continue their attendance pace they could really use some hype from the local media. I note that the near total blackout of the Sounders on our local sports talk radio is still in effect.
KJR* says they are “Live and Local” yet they can’t stop talking about the Super Bowl. Or they are talking about the Seahawks whose pre-season doesn’t start for 7 months, or the Mariners who are 2 years away from being competitive.
The fact that they are ignoring the Sounders’ fan base, which is a large and high income audience, is just odd. I honestly don’t get it. Maybe someone who knows someone over there can help me understand why they are ignoring the Sounders’ audience, and ignoring a franchise which sports professionals and journalists around the world are hailing as one of the best franchise launches EVER.
*I am aware that the Gasman did 30 minutes a week with Arlo during the season. It was great. I hope he resumes and expands that segment when Fletcher gets to town.
It is the week before the super bowl....
but last week they had discussions and interviews about Sounders on KJR. Gas and Elise spent most of a few segments on comparing the USOC cup to the Seahawks playoff win over the Saints as the best moment in 2011. I think you mean the grandpa station that ignores the Sounders which is funny because 710 is more connected to 97.3 FM which actually broadcasts the games. 97.3 does NOTHING.
Links for the interviews on 1/25
Here is an interview with Gary Wright.
And here is a link with Keller.
Gas has also already talked to Ross Fletcher on the air and it sounded like just a question of when not if, he would continue the 30 minutes Arlo did last season. Getting Arlo occasionally in addition to Ross would not be out of the cards either.
I am simply trying to show support for a station that appears to be trying a lot harder than you were giving credit.
Gas is the exception to the rule.
How many times have I headed off to go to RBP and wanted radio pregame on local station. No dice. I dont mean 15 mins before, I mean 2 hours. Like you’d have with NFL or Mariners.
KJR outside of Gastineau is useless and outright hostile to soccer. I remember the morning after winning a big match, possibly US Open Cup, and zero on-air talk in the AM about it. Just Levy and his usual predictable out of town east coast noise. He must do a show for expats from New England and Miami, because he sure isn’t doing a show for Seattle.
by luckystriker on Jan 30, 2012 4:10 PM PST up reply actions
I completely agree w/ chrisso
The ONLY thing you’re going to hear about on the radio this week is the Super Bowl.
KJR, which does not broadcast the Sounders, does a much better job with Sounders coverage IMO than KIRO does. And that’s sad, because KIRO is the Sounders broadcast station.
In fact, it’s striking if you open up KIRO’s live stream. On the 710 ESPN stream, they have a tab for both Seahawks and Mariners. That makes sense, as they carry those teams on that station. If you open up the KIRO FM stream, there is a tab there for “Sports”. No mention at all of the Sounders, even though they carry the Sounders on that station.
And don’t get me started on the positive v. negative comments/attitude on KJR v. KIRO regarding soccer.
by jonnyreno on Jan 30, 2012 9:54 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
It's actually quite simple
The hosts of most of these shows don’t know the first thing about soccer, and don’t want to. It’s why MMA is suddenly a big thing on Bob and Groz. Those guys cover what they know and what they like. And hey, I still like a lot of them, but damn it if the time between the end of the Super Bowl and the start of Spring Training isn’t going to be frustrating. Because it’s going to be wall-to-wall talk about Huskies basketball, with snippets of Mariners and Seahawks talk in the meantime…
We REALLY need some winter sports in this town. Hockey, Basketball, you can’t come (back) soon enough.
Honestly though
They don’t even really know a whole lot about sports they do like. I hit up KJR and ESPN maybe once a day and never hear Sounders talk. It’s disappointing because the fan base has to be at least as large as any other sport. If they don’t know what to talk about, I’m pretty sure they could call up any number of people to get insights, just like they did when catching up on Penn State child abuse.
I would like to think
the fan base is just as big as other sports but I do not think it is.
What do TV numbers tell us about fan base size?
Ahead of Mariners barely
waaaaaaaaay behind Seahawks and Husky football.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart | Follow Dave on Twitter @bedirthan
It seems to me...
that the Sounders fan base is generally less likely to listen to sports radio than Hawks/M’s/Husky fans.
Most Sounders fans who also follow mariners/huskies/hawks are already listening.
They are afraid of cannibalizing their current demographic (their bread/butter) while not guaranteeing an increase in listenership. Basically if they cover Sounders they predict that they will lose more Hawks/M’s/Husky fans than they will gain in Sounders fans (who weren’t already listening). Covering Sounders is a big risk for a business to take on given that they don’t care as much about promoting local sports as they do the bottom line. Any insight on this Dave?
by Stevo58 on Jan 31, 2012 11:03 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Again, not shocked.
I listen for a couple hours each day, even going as far as to occasionally reading the notes about what’s included in each podcast (to see what they talked about during their shows). The Sounders haven’t had a segment on any of the three 710 shows since the season ended, as far as I’ve seen. They’ve talked more about the possible sodo arena than the team we have here right now.
This must be what it feels like to be a hardcore Storm fan.
Speaking of Penn State, I was begging Calabro over the text toy to talk about something else. He spent a whole week essentially rehashing the same points over and over again. Something-anything else would have been nice.
Because "old media" is made up of ex jocks that think all soccer guys are not cool
Seriously. Go back 20, 30 years in high school and picture yourself a pack of football jocks or hangers on. Thats what you get in KJR. Soccer could sell 80,000 and they would still make “soccer is for girls” jokes. Mike Gastineau is the only one there who has tried, he’s had Arlo on and made other nice gestures. But that idiot Levy in the morning is soccer-stupid, fatty mc dawgpound in middays knows about two sports, Huskies and Unlimited Hydros, and the rest of the staff pretty much gets its information from ESPN East all day long. Local quit giving a rip the minute Hasselbeck left town, cutting off Millen from his insider sources of info.
by luckystriker on Jan 30, 2012 3:40 PM PST up reply actions
Softy used to have Gaschk on but it lost him listeners
Ian had James Riley on but quickly ran out of ways to compare the Sounders to a U12 Girls team.
Fain hasn’t had me on since the end of the season.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart | Follow Dave on Twitter @bedirthan
I anticipate a late marketing push in the 2 weeks leading up to the match.
Right now it appears they’re seeing how many they can sell through the Sounders/Seahawks email list and via inexpensive social channels like Twitter and Facebook. After that they’ll go for the casuals.
Super Cyan Email
Got an email from the team this morning announcing the ticket sales at 10 AM. Shows Mauro in Super Cyan taking a mid air shot at the ball and a killer slogan about this not being a time for friendlies.
Love the attitude and have to admit the Super Cyan uniform looked stunning with the matching socks and shorts. Can’t wait.
Got my tickets
Don’t get to go often. But I will be at this game. Stoked.
by Abbott Smith on Jan 30, 2012 10:47 AM PST up reply actions
Hopefully the Super Cyan will come in longsleeve
Personally, I like them. If they annoy everyone else in the league so be it. As for the slogan, it was true last year and it’s true now. Seeing a banner ad wont be the difference in someone attending or not.
Go banana!
Agree completely
I think most people who initially reacted negatively toward the super cyan were only able to see upper-body shots. Once you add the matching shorts and socks it gives it a whole new feel. Stoked to see the boys sporting the new jerseys!
This is true.
The whole outfit looks better than the jersey by itself.
I still greatly dislike the jersey and wish they would have toned down the yellow. Having yellow piping would have looked much better imo, rather than yellow patches.
I'm still not a fan of the cyan
But I really kinda want a pair of the socks. Hopefully they’ll have those like we had rave green & the electricity before. (Is there any other team in MLS that even sells team socks?)
The slogan is good
But they used it for the 2010 CCL matches too.
Maybe coming up with something fresh would be helpful, instead of just recycling an old marketing campaign.
At least it was a new picture....
But I hear you on this the second straight year. This isn’t one of them…and this isn’t one of them…oh and this one is definitely not one of them…
My idea
Marketing genius that I am. I think they need to point out how close to being World Champions they are. 5 teams stand in the way, or something like that. I doubt there are too many even at the Sounder’s games that know what Champions League is for.
THIS!
There’s so many better angles to market this from than just the old “friendlies” slogan, and yours is the most obvious one. And it really is just 3 teams, just we don’t know which of the 5 they are.
I’m not saying they need to abandon the old slogan completely (it IS a good slogan), but it alone does not take full advantage of the marketing potential for this match.
And for those following their marketing more carefully during the last few years, it sends a message that they do not bother to put a lot of effort into marketing the match.
Seriously I would buy a super Cyan shirt if they were available in an alternative to the $110 authentic.
You do all the work for us, Honey Badger, and we'll just eat whatever you find.
I personally bought 8 tickets during the STH presale last week and will be using them all
I challenge everyone on this blog to beat that number. It would make for a great game.
Sounders 'til I die
I passed on my 4 STH seats so that I could organize a group of 40 to go to the game. Just bought the group tickets this morning.
I gallenge everyone on this blog to beat that number. :)
by K61 on Jan 30, 2012 11:59 AM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Dude, if you're awesome enough to get 10 times the amount of tickets as normal for this, you deserve the right to create your own words.
You do all the work for us, Honey Badger, and we'll just eat whatever you find.
by mistuhp on Jan 30, 2012 12:08 PM PST up reply actions 3 recs
I bought 4
Probably could’ve gotten more, but I didn’t pre-plan, just got a couple extra that I could get friends to go with.
just got 10 tickets for me n friends
by alexyepz on Jan 30, 2012 12:02 PM PST via mobile reply actions
This game will be on TV in South America.
Chances are, it will be on in HD. ESPN here has been running generic ads for the CCL knockout round for at least a month now, during halftime and before/after soccer games (maybe other times, too, but honestly I only watch soccer on sports TV). The basic gist of the ad is that it is a computer animation flying over North America from El Salvador up, showing some defining feature of the cities with the final eight teams plus the badges (in LA it’s the Hollywood sign and for Seattle it’s the Space Needle).
The night of the game is a work night, and it will start pretty late for me. There will probably be students of mine watching it plus other friends/coworkers because they know how big a Sounders fan I am and they’re mostly a bit curious. If I find that people are interested, I may even have some over for it.
So this is me begging you… PLEASE get as many people as possible to go to the game with you. If you are a singer, teach them some of the songs. If you’re not, it’d be cool if you started, but no matter what, be there and be heard. It is not possible for me to go to this game, but it would be beyond amazing if a game like this made it perfectly obvious to a decent chunk of people on this continent how unbelievably awesome SSFC is. I want some future Montero/Presidente/Flaco/Rosales to see this game on tv and aspire to play for our club.
You do all the work for us, Honey Badger, and we'll just eat whatever you find.
Went looking for those ESPN ads you mentioned on Youtube, didn't find them.
Any idea of a good place to look?
Honestly I'd have no idea.
And I could be confused on the venue in which I see them, but they exist. I will keep an eye out and if all else fails maybe I’ll do a video of the screen when I see one.
Some group stage games were on TV, but it was pretty random which one we’d get. I think the group stage ones will all be available.
You do all the work for us, Honey Badger, and we'll just eat whatever you find.
My Quandary:
I want to drive up to this game from Vancouver WA, but my wife/PTO/wallet will only allow for one midweek match this season.
Should I wait for the finals or head up for this one?
This one.
You know this game is happening.
by Aaron Campeau on Jan 31, 2012 11:30 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
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