Earlier this week the Alliance Council had our monthly conference call with Bart Wiley (Director of Business Development) and we discussed many things (I have to leave it at that because our blog entry at the team site is going up soon).
The thing that concerned me the most was a conversation about where Sounders FC should play its US Open Cup matches next year. The result of that decision will likely be the answer if SSFC is lucky enough to make the CCL next season as well.
If we look at DC United's efforts to get their MLS average crowd, we can see how one team would make the attempt to get 15,000 fans or more.
David Gregory
Ted Leonis
Ryan Zimmerman
Jose Romero had commenters suggest what stars would show support to fill Qwest for a Cup Final. There was talk of Mariners, or rock stars, or business leaders.
But there is something different going on here in Seattle. Our team markets the GAME, the TEAM and the PLAYERS.
We don't need Edgar Martinez to tell us how important it is to support the Sounders. We would see Nate Jaqua, Fredy Montero, Freddie Ljungberg.
We don't need Chuck Armstrong begging us to support a club. We have Adrian Hanauer do that.
We don't need a Joel McHale (national media personality) telling us that he's always been a Sounders fan. We have our neighbors in section 214 doing that.
So when I think about marketing this game, in this city at this time I think Seattle Sounders FC gets it right. Sure I would love to get 1996 prices for the US Open Cup next season. 12 dollar seats with 2$ beer/hotdogs would get a ton of people to matches even against a Hollywood United.
But you know what would get more?
Defending the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Trophy.
Seattle Sounders FC - Passion|Community|Courage|Excellence
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There are no needs for gimmicks here.