What has been a dream of mine for some time will come a little truer on Saturday. The Emerald City Supporters and Big Al's Brewing developed a beer together which will be served in 4 locations inside the stadium. I understand the need for mainstream beers, but I still don't understand why they are being called premium, nor why we are paying so much for beers that are amongst the cheapest in the region.

The demographics of the Sounders audience demand something different. I'm thrilled that the ECS found a way to get something done. Yes, Big Al's has been available, but somewhat hidden. Now we know exactly where it will be.

Below the break is the release from the ECS leadership.

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As the whole concept behind Democracy in Sports continues to be refined there are currently two ongoing votes for Sounders FC Alliance members.

The first is a continuation of the Alliance Council. Four more just recently reached the 25 vote minimum and 15 now serve.  Eleven of us wil be ending our term at the end of this season, while those elected this year will be done in 2011. We advised the club for longer terms because we had trouble learning the system and extent of influence. They agreed. All Alliance Members can vote this year, click here to do so.

When you visit there you will also be asked to vote on the future of the Golden Scarf ceremony. The three options are to give it only to fans of the team, only community icons or a mix of the two. Now, it isn't my job to tell you how to vote, but I think that this tradition will only be relevant if the people who get it are significant to a large segment of the fanbase. Yes, I got one, but I didn't get one because of who I am. Instead I was part of a group that got one to represent YOU. But a Scarf before each match to a fan, for just being a fan doesn't seem right.

It is notable that of the 15 people on the Council they break into following groups (some members of multiple groups)

Emerald City Supporters - 6
Gorilla FC - 4
Bloggers - 3
Women - 3

Both Supporter Groups are organizing to get more on the Council, and probably will. If you are a member of another Group it might be a good idea to get someone on the Council. If you feel that the SGs have too much representation you need to find someone who represents you.

If you are running and need more support, feel free to campaign in this thread or by using the FanShots/FanPosts.  

In this case it has taken about 18 months so far.  From a lone blogger with less than 40 readers in the first month to nearly 300 times that now. From subletting a kind man's host space, to joining a large network of blogs, Sounder at Heart has found ways to grow not just its audience, but our contributors as well.

Carlos was the first. Graham the second. Both are free to write at their will and leisure, but more importantly with this software, so are you. Through a FanPost you can write as much as you in your own personal blog entry. These will occasionally be promoted to the frontpage. With a FanShot you can share a link, image, or other media that you feel should be shared with the community.

When I talk about Democracy in Sports, I also meant the open nature of modern blogging. Part of the appeal of SBNation.com was that it would empower readers to be members of a community. This goes beyond reading and hopefully writing. You also have tools like "Flag" to notify us of something wrong, and "Rec" which will help let other people know of something which you agree. Matt at LookoutLanding.com has a great post summing up these two functions and how they help.

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Yeah, if you haven't heard, there's a party to thank Le Toux for his 3 years in Seattle.  It is today at 3PM at Elysian Fields.  It is NOT an autograph session, it is a thank you Le Toux session.

ECS led the organization of this event with Gorilla, Alliance Council  and North End Supporter help. It is an organic event, and while Front Office and other players may show, it is really about you letting know that Le Toux will be missed for what he's done in the community.

I will be there. You should be too.


Below the jump is the ECS posting on the event

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Recently Jimmy Conrad wrote a piece at ESPN's Soccernet about his vision for MLS.  He likens it to Linux, but honestly, his ideas are not in the mold of Linux.  Sure, he's willing to respond and listen to feedback, but he is not necessarily advocating adopting an Open Source and/or Democratic model for MLS, just for his own "blog" at Soccernet.

It would be much more dynamic if Major League Soccer, took the democracy ball that Sounders FC is only playing with and instead bent it into the net from about 40 yards out.  Open the league up to further input from Supporters and Fans and Bloggers.  Make decisions not with the input from focus groups, but instead people who represent constituencies and who want the same thing that the League and Clubs want - Financial and On Pitch success.

Elected Councils: The first step for the entire league is simple, take what the Sounders do and do it to.  Sure, it is a simple step, but it does give the fans the feeling of inclusion and some empowerment.  More importantly it gives the club access to people who not only care as much as the front offices but who also offer a different set of eyes and life experiences. In Seattle's case the Council has a graphic designer, an organizational engineer, a recruiter, a teacher, a coach, and more.  This is a level of diversity that most sports organizations can not, and should not have.  But in this case we can offer input that is outside of the normal frame of thinking, maybe one of those ideas makes the club some more money, maybe it helps sway a single player to sign here.

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The young movement in America has at its strongest example the light of Barcelona and Real Madrid. A regular fan (ok, not so regular they are always rich businessmen really) can be elected as the President. They can urge the manager to sign certain players (Henry) and free up funds in order to transfer said players onto the club.

But these aren't the only example. Notts County's experiment failed when the voters chose to sell-out to an unknown group for funding. They've lost their star player and may even lose their Director of Football Operations.

Today, at the BBC one of their bloggers goes deep into the issues of Supporters Trusts and Democracy in Sports. His suggested way to have an "English Barca" is for an EPL club to fail ala Lehman Brothers.

I would love to see an English Barca emerge - and I wish the trusts at Manchester United and Newcastle and the Liverpool fans' groups ShareLiverpoolFC and Spirit of Shankly all the best - but the finances of our biggest teams are now so complicated, so massive, a fans' buy-out is almost impossible to imagine. When Liverpool host United on Sunday their joint debt will be over £1bn - that's a lot of pledges on a website.

The only scenario that is going to bring about a Premier League Barca anytime soon is for a club to fail. And I mean really fail. Not just the company that owns it. A Lehman Brothers, a sacrificial lamb. That would wake up fans, the media and the governing bodies to the perils of short-termism, unregulated speculation and warped competition. Any volunteers?

In the meantime, the supporters' trust movement should just comfort itself with the knowledge that it is very probably right about most things, it's just that most people aren't ready to listen yet.

So as this first season of Sounders FC ends, and the term of the first 10 elected to the Alliance Council ends. I ask you, what rights and responsibilities should the Council have, what about the broader Alliance itself? How would this benefit the Sounders millionaire and billionaire owners? Drew Carey inspired many of us with a change in American sports, but what are the next steps for us on the Alliance Council and how do we get to become an American Barca?

We are about to send out our first press release, but here you can start to see what we are doing. Keep tabs on that site for more info.

You will notice that there is a spot to enter questions to ask the league and/or issues that supporters groups should address.

Lastly, any and ALL MLS Supporters Groups are invited (to include those in the future cities of MLS - yes the Timbers Army too)

From a public flikr

Maybe you've noticed the flags that line the Nest on the North End of Qwest above the NES. Maybe you've wondered "Why those flags?"

You might already know, if your memory is better than my own.

They are the 32 nations in the last World Cup in order of finish, with the one change being our national flag up top.

Personally, I think that they should be the flags of the 47 nations where MLS players originate. MLS is a club league, and so the nations that matter most are the two where clubs operate, and then the ones where the most players call home. This would increase fan identification with the league, if only a little bit.

Another idea for flags would be to borrow from baseball, and have the two Conferences and their standings represented in order of current standing. While this would diminish the attachment to the World's Game, it would increase attachment to the league.

Do any of these three concepts intrigue you?