For the fourth time in their history, the Seattle Sounders are holding a vote that will decide the job status of their general manager. This is something that no other pro sports team in North America does, and the responsibility should not be taken lightly.
Before I get into how I will be voting, it should be said that I’m more interested in encouraging everyone to vote than swaying how they’ll vote. Of all the ideas that Drew Carey brought to the Sounders when he signed on as a minority owner in 2007, the concept of ‘Democracy in sports’ is the one that I believe has helped the Sounders feel different. I know that there are elements of this that fall short and critics have plenty of ammunition to suggest that it’s more of a marketing ploy, but I tend to think that we’ve just started to take so much of what it means for granted that we don’t realize how much is there.
If there’s a danger, it’s that we start to act like none of this matters. The Annual Business Meeting, induction into Eternal Sounders Circle of Legends, and most importantly, the GM vote, are all opportunities for season-ticket holders to interact with the club in ways that most fans can only dream. The only way those things lose value is if we let them. So however you feel, please vote.
That said, I’ll be voting to retain Craig Waibel as Sounders GM.
I’ll admit that I don’t think the case is as open and shut as it was in the three previous votes when fans overwhelmingly retained Adrian Hanauer (2012) and Garth Lagerwey (2018 and 2022). I also don’t think Waibel will breeze through this process quite so easily, either.
Unlike Hanauer, Waibel did not oversee a team that took MLS by storm by winning three U.S. Open Cup out of the gate. He also can’t match the trophy haul of Lagerwey, who guided the Sounders to two MLS Cups and the Concacaf Champions League crown. The only trophy the Sounders have won during Waibel's tenure is last year's Leagues Cup. I don’t think that should be discounted, but I do recognize that it doesn't feel as monumental as those previous titles.
But I also think the degree to which the Sounders have fallen off has been greatly exaggerated. During Waibel's four seasons, the Sounders have gone 77–53–45 with a +50 goal difference across all competitions. That equates to 1.58 points per game.
That's not quite as good as the Sounders’ record during Hanauer's first four years (1.75 ppg) or Lagerwey's second four-year stint (1.63), but it’s actually better than Lagerwey's first four years (1.56).
It’s a very similar story when you look at the number of goals the team has scored during each four-year stretch. While Waibel has been in charge, the Sounders have scored an average of 1.50 goals per game across all competitions. That's the same as during Hanauer's first four years and better than Lagerwey's first four-year run. Only the four-year stretch from 2019–2022 was better (1.66).
In fact, you can dice the team-performance data in almost any way and come up with similar results. During the regular season, the Sounders have averaged 1.58 points per game under Waibel; only Hanauer's regular seasons were better (1.67). The Sounders’ regular-season scoring under Waibel is 1.45 goals per game; only Lagerwey's second stint is better (1.58). In the playoffs, Waibel has out-performed Hanauer's teams; in Concacaf only Lagerwey's second stint was better on a per-game basis; and even in the Open Cup Waibel's teams have been better than all but Hanauer's.
Looking more broadly at the league, the Sounders haven’t really fallen off there, either. The Sounders have the fifth-most points (1.58), the fifth-most expected points (1.53), the eighth-best goal difference (.28), the second-fewest goals allowed (1.11) and the fifth-best expected goal-difference (.24). The only area where they lag is in goal-scoring, where they are 19th in goals per game (1.39) and 17th in xG (1.52), according to American Soccer Analysis.
I understand that the main criticism of Waibel is the relative inactivity on the transfer market. On this subject, I agree – I wish the Sounders were more active. I am less sure that Waibel is the main culprit, though. For one, his remit is to bring in players that the coaching staff wants to use. If the coaches are inclined to keep the roster intact, Waibel is doing an admirable job doing just that.
In terms of his intra-league signings, I appreciate that Waibel's moves have been a mixed bag. The biggest moves he made were in the 2025 offseason, when he brought in Jesús Ferreira and Paul Arriola. When they’ve been healthy, both have looked like solid additions on reasonable price tags. Danny Musovski, too, has been plenty productive when you consider that he was brought in to be a backup forward and makes a commensurate salary. Hassani Dotson is another intra-league signing that has been up and down, but right now seems to be fitting in nicely now that he’s healthy and playing alongside his intended partner.
The louder complaints seem to be about how the Sounders have used their Designated Player spots. To a large degree, this is a matter of budget. Waibel has not been given anything like a blank check to sign whoever he wants and often is working with almost no new budget. That he was able to make a deal for Dejan Joveljić this summer was a virtual masterstroke and that seems to be an absolute home-run signing.
Before Joveljić's signing, the Sounders’ season appeared to be spiraling out of control. I might have been convinced to vote ’no confidence' in Waibel if that had continued. It has not, and it now looks like the Sounders might even be postseason contenders.
The other DP moves are all, admittedly, less glorious, but not necessarily bad. Giving Jordan Morris a DP escalator hasn’t worked out particularly well, but mostly because he’s been hurt a lot of the time since he triggered it. But his first two years as a non-DP were very productive, as he racked up 32 goals and eight assists across all competitions.
Waibel's signing of Albert Rusnák remains, weirdly, underrated. The midfielder is now on the verge of his third consecutive season with 20 goal contributions, something only previously accomplished by Fredy Montero for the Sounders.
The Pedro de la Vega signing – his highest profile move – is not looking as great. But I think anyone can see the talent that made de la Vega an intriguing target, even if you think his injury struggles were reasonably foreseeable.
To the degree these are all somewhat underwhelming, I tend to believe that's more of a product of the budget. Waibel does not get to decide how much money he can spend and gains nothing by allowing cap space, GAM or transfer budget to go unused. If the Sounders are to start making bigger moves on the transfer market, that's something likely dictated by the discretionary funds majority owner Adrian Hanauer makes available. The reality is the Sounders have spent less discretionary money during Waibel's tenure than any other MLS team.
I fully appreciate that there are many fans who feel like the GM vote is an opportunity to send that exact message to front office: That the way the Sounders have been doing business is not living up to the standard they set. I’m sympathetic to that position.
Winning aside, the Sounders’ original brand promise was about excitement and striving to be the best. Under Waibel, especially, it feels as though simply being competitive has become enough. Fans, understandably, want to see the players leave it all out on the pitch, but they also want to believe the front office has done everything possible to give the team the best chance to win. Whatever may be going on behind closed doors, there’s not as much evidence of that on public display.
I’m just not convinced that firing Waibel is an appropriate way to send that message. Waibel has overseen a very competitive team that has put up results as good or better than his predecessors and peers. Firing him for that kind of performance would be unfair, at the very least.
