Everything about Seattle Sounders FC, the Green Phoenix Club

is a professional soccer team headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and most importantly, the main subject of our everything about Seattle Sounders FC article.

The Sounders are a part of Major League Soccer's Western Conference (MLS). As an MLS expansion team, the club was founded on November 13, 2007, and began to play in 2009. The Sounders are a phoenix club that bears the same name as the first North American Soccer League franchise that existed from 1974 until 1983.

Adrian Hanauer owns the majority of the club, while the estate of Paul Allen, Drew Carey, and 14 families from the Seattle area comprise the minority. After Sigi Schmid's departure in July 2016, former USL Sounders coach and assistant coach Brian Schmetzer took over as head coach.

Lumen Field, where the Sounders play their home league games, has a limited capacity of 37,722 seats for most games.

At each home match, the club is supported by a 53-member marching band called "Sound Wave," as well as several organized organizations. Seattle has always had a rivalry with Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, two other Pacific Northwest clubs with whom it plays for the Cascadia Cup.

The Sounders won their first match 3–0 against the

on March 19, 2009. Seattle has been one of the most successful clubs in the league, having won the US Open Cup four times, the Supporters' Shield in 2014, and the MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019.

In each of the team's 12 seasons, it has qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs and has competed in the CONCACAF Champions League five times, reaching the semi-finals once. In each of its first five seasons, the team set a new MLS attendance record. The Seattle Sounders are one of North America's most valuable franchises.

A thorough article of everything about Seattle Sounders FC, the Green Phoenix Club

In this article of

everything about Seattle Sounders FC

, we will first take a look at its history, then will talk about its magnificent field, about which we have already prepared a full article.

After the mentioned sections, everything about this club will be presented briefly, so that we can contain various sections in this limited article about the green shirts. Now without any further introduction, let us hop into the article to see what we can find about this club.

Seattle Sounders FC history

As promised, let us start the article of everything about Seattle Sounders FC from their history.

Seattle was considered a suitable destination for a professional team even before the first cities in the United States were picked to host Major League Soccer teams.

More than 30 towns vied for the rights to an MLS team in 1994, as the United States prepared to host the FIFA World Cup. Seattle was one of them. Despite Seattle's large soccer fan base, the lack of a soccer-only stadium was a stumbling block to establishing an MLS team.

Seattle was not among the original seven cities to be awarded an

team in a June 14, 1994 announcement. In the end, Seattle was not one of the locations picked to host an MLS team during the inaugural season.

When Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen was working with the city to build a new football stadium for his team in 1996, the possibility of an MLS expansion team as a co-tenant boosted public support.

Many people in the state-backed the initiative to build Seahawks Stadium because it would also serve as a professional soccer venue.

Hanauer teamed up with Hollywood producer Joe Roth in 2007 to attempt another $30 million proposal for MLS expansion into Seattle. That same year, Paul Allen, whose First and Goal company managed Qwest Field (now

), joined the ownership group, making the bid for Seattle the most promising yet.

On November 13, 2007, it was revealed that Seattle had been given an expansion team at a news conference. For the first time since the collapse of Seattle's North American Soccer League (NASL) squad in 1983, top-level soccer has returned to the city. On April 7, 2008, the team name "Seattle Sounders FC" was announced.

Seattle Sounders FC stadium

Lumen Field, which also hosts the Seattle Seahawks, is the home of Seattle Sounders FC. The late Paul Allen, a former Sounders minority owner, was also the owner of the Seahawks, who have a 30-year lease on CenturyLink Field.

The Sounders were able to use Lumen Field without paying rent because of this connection.

The team announced in 2015 that they had extended their agreement with First & Goal Inc. for the usage of Lumen Field through the 2028 season. As part of a sponsorship contract with Microsoft, the field was previously known as "The Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field" for Sounders games.

Lumen Field, with a capacity of 69,000, was built for both teams. For MLS matches, the Sounders artificially reduce the stadium's capacity by covering specific seating areas with tarpaulins to create a "more personal environment." For international friendly matches and select league fixtures, the club does open the entire stadium.

One of the interesting facts about this field is that while the Sounders now play on FieldTurf, Lumen Field has previously hosted international soccer tournaments where temporary natural grass was planted.

A new FieldTurf surface was built in 2012, and FIFA awarded it a 2-star quality grade, the highest available. If an MLS rule change demands natural grass playing surfaces, the field will be replaced with natural grass on a permanent basis.

Following considerable degradation on the previous grass surface, a new turf surface based on FieldTurf's Revolution 360 brand was installed as part of the extended lease in early 2016.

Seattle Sounders FC ownership

As said in the introduction, the club is being managed by not 1 entity but three owners and 14 families about whom we will talk in this section of Everything about Seattle Sounders FC.

The club has three owners and a 14-family ownership group. Adrian Hanauer, a previous owner of the Seattle Sounders of the USL-1, is the majority owner of the squad.

The estate of Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers, and Drew Carey, comedian and game show host, are among the independent minority shareholders.

In January 2019, Hanauer and his mother Lenore Hanauer became minority owners of Tacoma-based Reign FC in the National Women's Soccer League, despite the fact that the two clubs had no affiliation; their association with the club ended the following year when OL Groupe gained the majority control.

The organization was able to share significant resources with the Seahawks as a result of Paul Allen's participation, including almost half of the full-time employees, as well as unified ticket, marketing, and finance operations.

The Sounders became a totally independent business organization on April 30, 2014, when this agreement expired. From 2007 to 2015, Joe Roth served as the principal owner, handing over the reins to Hanauer, who had been dismissed as general manager earlier that year.

In 2019, Roth stepped down from the club's board of directors. Seattle Futbol Club LLC, a group of eleven families, took his place. Tod Leiweke, president of the Seattle Kraken, and his wife, Tara, were named as new part-owners of the team in October 2020. The next month, Ken Griffey Jr., a retired baseball star, and his wife, Melissa, became members of the ownership group.

Seattle Sounders supporters

Enthusiastic supporters are all a team needs and everything about Seattle Sounders FC can’t be complete without a section about its lovers.

Drew Carey, a minority owner, requested the formation of the Sounders FC Alliance. Members of the Alliance have the authority to vote on the expulsion of the general manager and other team decisions, according to the FC Barcelona fan association.

Season ticket holders are automatically members of the Alliance, while non-season ticket holders can join for a charge. Voting privileges, an invitation to the annual meeting, and other team advantages are all included in membership benefits.

On a yearly basis, people can be elected to the Sounders FC Alliance Council by getting at least 25 nominations from other members.

Between October and December 2012, the first vote on whether to keep or replace Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer was set. Hanauer was re-elected by the Alliance after receiving 13,775 votes. The chairman of the Sounders FC Alliance is Drew Carey.

There are now four recognized, independent supporters groups supporting the Sounders, in addition to the Alliance.

The Emerald City Supporters (ECS), which was founded in 2005 to support the USL Sounders, is the largest fan group, with sections 121–123 in the stadium's south end. Eastside Supporters, often known as "The Pod," is a group that can be located in Section 150. Gorilla FC is a Sounders fan club that seats in Sections 119 and 120 of Lumen Field's south end.

Seattle Sounders FC sponsors

As we are unveiling everything about Seattle Sounders FC it is only right to talk about the sponsors too.

On May 28, 2008, the team's ownership unveiled the first Sounders shirt and announced Microsoft as the team's sponsor in a five-year, $20 million deal. Xbox branding appeared on the front of the Sounders' shirts and throughout the stadium as part of the deal, starting with the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live and eventually being replaced with the Xbox One (simply shown as "XBOX").

Despite employing a consultant in 2012 to look into new jersey agreements, the Microsoft sponsorship was repeatedly extended, with one-year contracts in 2013, for the following season, and 2014, which lasted through the end of the 2016 season.

The second extension followed reports that Emirates was considering sponsorship as part of its Seattle marketing push. The shirt has been altered multiple times to contain Xbox game promotions, such as Halo 5 and Gears of War 4.

In 2017, soon before the Microsoft contract expired, the Sounders hired talent agency WME-IMG to look into new jersey sponsorship and other advertising opportunities.

The team announced on January 17, 2019, that Zulily, a Seattle-based online store, would become the jersey sponsor in a multi-year arrangement for an unknown sum.

Zulily also took over sponsorship of the NWSL's Seattle Reign, but the name rights to CenturyLink Field's pitch were not included in the deal. WaFd Bank, the club's first sleeve patch sponsor, was revealed in July 2020, just in time for the MLS is Back Tournament.

The Puyallup Tribe of Indians signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement with the Sounders in 2021, featuring the Emerald Queen Casino on primary kits and the tribe's logo on secondary kits.

Seattle Sounders FC team colors

The symbol is designed to look like a heraldic shield and is made up of two layers that signify "the collaboration between ownership, community, players, and supporters." The Space Needle, a world-famous Seattle landmark, is featured in the logo.

The official team colors are Sounder Blue, which represents the Puget Sound, Rave Green, which represents the Pacific Northwest forests, and Cascade Shale, which represents the Cascade Range to the east of Seattle. In an online vote held between March 27 and March 31, 2008, fans chose a name for the team.

The Seattle Sounders were intentionally left off the initial list of choices, which included Seattle FC, Seattle Republic, and Seattle Alliance, in order to create a fresh start. The removal of the historic Sounders name enraged many in the Seattle community, despite the names being chosen by fan surveys and internal committees.

As a result of the outcry, the team added a fourth write-in option for the team name on the vote, allowing any name to be submitted. In the more than 14,500 votes cast for a new team name, 49 percent of the votes featured some variation of the term "Sounders."

Hanauer acknowledged the importance of sticking to tradition when introducing the club's name: "The highest-level team in our region has long been known as the Sounders.

With the new MLS franchise, we now have the opportunity to build a different and distinct identity, as we did with the NASL and later the USL 1st Division." On January 22, 1974, "Sounders" was announced as the winner of a public contest to name the NASL franchise.

Seattle Sounders FC current team

The team currently consists of 28 players, with one (Ethan Dobbelaere) being out for loan. The names of these players can be preserved in the list below in this section of Everything about Seattle Sounders FC.

• DF-Nouhou Tolo              

• MF-João Paulo 

• MF-Cristian Roldan

• FW-Raúl Ruidíaz               

• MF-Nicolás Lodeiro (captain)     

• FW-Jordan Morris

• FW-Samuel Adeniran

• DF-Alex Roldan

• FW-Will Bruin

• MF-Albert Rusnák

• MF-Reed Baker-Whiting

• MF-Kelyn Rowe

• MF-Léo Chú       

• GK-Stefan Frei

• GK-Andrew Thomas      

• DF-Yeimar Gómez Andrade        

• GK -Stefan Cleveland     

• MF-Obed Vargas             

• MF-Danny Leyva                

• MF-Josh Atencio             

• FW-Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez        

• DF-Abdoulaye Cissoko  

• DF-Jimmy Medranda     

• MF-Dylan Teves

• DF-Jackson Ragen

DF-

FW-

But what about the managerial team and overall club management group? Who are they and how many people does it consist of? Let us answer these questions in the next section of

everything about Seattle Sounders FC

.

Seattle Sounders FC managers

The Sounders' current head coach is Brian Schmetzer. After Sigi Schmid left the club on mutual grounds in July 2016, he was promoted to interim head coach from his position as an assistant coach. Schmetzer was named permanent head coach in November 2016 after the squad qualified for the playoffs that year.

Preki, Freddy Juarez, and Andy Rose are the club's assistant coaches; until 2021, Gonzalo Pineda (now the head coach of

) and Djimi Traore were the additional assistant coaches under Schmetzer. In 2008, the team recruited Tom Dutra as goalie coach.

Garth Lagerwey was hired as the club's general manager and President of Soccer in January 2015, replacing Adrian Hanauer. Chris Henderson, a former Major League Soccer player from Everett, Washington, was named technical director on January 24, 2009.

In January 2021, he departed the club to join Inter Miami CF and was replaced by Craig Waibel, a former Real Salt Lake player. Taylor Graham, a former Sounders defender, was named Vice President of Business Operations in 2012, succeeding longtime Seattle Seahawks executive Gary Wright.

The Sounders were placed first in the league in terms of annual revenues ($50 million) and operating profits ($10 million) in a Forbes research from 2015.

As a result, the Sounders were named the most valuable franchise in Major League Soccer ($245 million), a 717 percent increase over the league's expansion fee. The team's financial success is mostly due to their high attendance and popularity in the community.

Seattle Sounders FC affiliate teams

In this last section of everything about Seattle Sounders FC, we have gathered information about Seattle Sounders FC affiliate teams and also teams that are closely related to this amazing green phoenix.

The Sounders announced in January 2012 that they would rebrand the Tacoma Tide, an amateur squad in the USL Premier Development League, as Seattle Sounders FC U-23 and hire Darren Sawatzky as head coach. Former academy players would play for this club during their summers off from university teams. The Sounders canceled this branding arrangement in January 2020.

The Seattle Sounders were also linked with the Seattle Sounders Women, an amateur women's team that plays at Starfire Sports Complex. The Sounders also canceled this branding arrangement in January 2020.

Second team and youth system

In 2014, the Sounders announced that they would have a second-division reserve squad in the United Soccer League, which would be managed by the team and partially owned by fans.

Under the direction of former assistant coach Ezra Hendrickson, the team, originally known as Seattle Sounders FC 2 (S2), began to play at the Starfire Sports Complex in 2015.

The Sounders stated in 2017 that they would relocate to Cheney Facility in Tacoma, with business operations being handed to the Tacoma Rainiers baseball team, ahead of a planned rebrand and soccer-specific stadium set to open in 2020. Prior to the 2019 season, the squad was renamed the Tacoma Defiance.

In 2010, the Sounders formed an affiliated academy squad and recruited Dick McCormick as manager and Darren Sawatzky as technical director to help develop local talent. In the United States Soccer Development Academy system, the academy fields teams at four age groups and is linked with young clubs in Washington, North Carolina, and Central California.

DeAndre Yedlin, Sean Okoli, Jordan Morris, and Henry Wingo are among the academy products signed by the Sounders under the MLS Homegrown Player Rule.

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