For the fifth time, we’ve hosted something we lovingly dubbed YachtCon. Frankly, this one is going to be tough to top (which won’t stop us from trying).
Not only did we have an absolutely stellar panel of guests — Brian Schmetzer, Jess Fishlock, Bethany Balcer, Bill Predmore, Brad Evans, Will Bruin and Garth Lagerwey — but we finally had a venue that was all ours. Hale’s Palladium felt just about perfect and we have some amazing ideas that we think at least have the potential to smooth out any rough edges.
Among the highlights were Schmetzer talking about the “hazy” days of the CISL’s Seattle SeaDogs, the players all facing off in an epic game of “Line ‘em Up” and Lagerwey explaining some of the intricacies of the new CBA and the future of player development.
In addition to having wonderful guests, we also raised a significant amount of money. We’re still going through the full accounting of everything, but it’s looking very likely that when it’s all said and done that we’ll exceed our $10,000 fundraising goal. All of that money will go to the Seattle Children’s Autism Center, which they use on buying Big Red Safety Boxes for their families. If you’d like to contribute more to the cause, you can give a tax-deductible donation here. If you act quickly, you can still contribute by placing an order for one of our jerseys by filling out this order form: men’s, women’s.
On a more personal note, it should be said that for all the talk of MLS’s potential growth, events like this should be treasured. There might not be any teams in the world of the quality of the Seattle Sounders and Reign FC who are participating in a grassroots, fan-centric event like this. We also owe a big thank you to SB Nation, who agreed to cover most of our expenses this year and played a huge role in helping us reach our fundraising goal.
As important as those contributions are, it needs to also be said that this is a completely volunteer-run event. No one from Sounder at Heart or Nos Audietis gets paid to do this stuff, and there were nearly two dozen volunteers who made this event happen. Among them were LikkitP, Aaron Campeau, Susie Rantz, Jacob Cristobal and Emily Cummings, all of whom were so core to this event’s production that it would have been literally impossible to pull it off without them. There were also contributions from Tim Foss, Beth Mantle, Joe Towner, Kelly Stevens, Sara McNally, Steve Voght, Max Aquino, Marnie Oshan, Jeovana Oshan, Andrew Beck, Ben Harrison, Miki Turner and Lindsey Miller.
We should also thank the numerous companies and people who donated auction items. That includes Nos Audietis sponsor Full Pull Wines, the Seattle Sounders, Tacoma Defiance, Reign FC, James Woollard, Jonathan Campbell, Jane Gershovich, The Masonry, KEXP and Matt Pentz, as well as our hosts Hale’s Palladium.
But enough talk, If you weren’t able to attend and would prefer to watch the highlights, check out our YouTube page. Otherwise, you can listen to the podcast version of the show here.
Download | Duration 02:31:06 | iTunes | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS feed
This week’s music: Perry Como - “Seattle”, ”RVIVR - ”Ocean Song”, Woody Guthrie - “Roll On Columbia”, ”Your Journey Begins” - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
