This hardly seems like the start of MLS All-Star week, with the Sounders just hours past their big league win against Colorado and just hours from beginning training for their CONCACAF Champions League opener against Metapan.
But as All-Star week begins, not only are the Sounders absent from the game, they apparently also are absent from the mind of commissioner Don Garber as he gives this state-of-the-league interview to the Houston Chronicle, somehow without ever mentioning the league’s best-supported franchise.
Among the highlights, Garber:
* Talks about the league’s designated players without mentioning either Freddie Ljungberg or Blaise Nkufo.
* Praises the league’s increasing numbers of soccer-specific stadiums without mentioning the league’s No. 1 success story at Qwest Field.
* Says the “new era” of the league began with the expansions to “Salt Lake and Los Angeles, continued in San Jose and then Toronto and then obviously thereafter.” (So I guess there’s his mention of Seattle … “obviously thereafter.”)
* Lists the top three developments in league history as soccer-specific stadiums, games in hi-def and “the continual improvement of the quality of play.”
Pretty typical of most sports I’ve seen. Seattle seems to get left out of the discussion regardless of how much of the league’s salary the fan base is paying for (and in this case, it’s a lot). Didn’t even mention the awful officiating.. Though, it the past few weeks, it seems to have been better.
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Why would he praise playing on a plastic pitch in a stadium owned by another sport? That’s exactly what the league has been trying so hard to get away from for a decade.
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@Dan
Probably because the “plastic pitch” brings in more money for the MLS than all the other teams combined (give or take). Even stars like Beckham and Donovan can’t fill seats in LA but Seattle is consistently sold out. You’re hinting at the MLS providing an “authentic” international feel to the league but when half the teams are drawing 10,000 or less per match (again, give or take), well, that’s not very authentic. Though, it has nothing to do with money. It’s about the experience. And I can tell you’ve never actually been to a Sounders game. Seattle provides an experience like nothing else in the MLS.
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I don’t know in what way Qwest Field is “owned by another sport.” However, I think what MLS really has been trying to get away from are small crowds made up mostly of families who care more about the concession stands than the game results.
The Sounders — and certainly to a degree Toronto — were crucial to adding “urban” to the MLS success formula. The worst attendance in the league comes from soccer-specific stadiums — and yes, with grass pitches — in the suburbs of Dallas and Denver. Seattle showed how a downtown stadium affects the size and passion of the fan base. And it’s not much of a coincidence that next season’s MLS newcomers — Portland and Vancouver — will both be playing in their respective downtowns.
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Playing on a plastic pitch is detrimental to player health and gameplay. That’s why it’s universally hated by soccer teams (see any team going to Saprissa in Costa Rica or European teams traveling to Russia).
And giving away team ownership to NFL owners to use their field makes your league look like a leech, rather than like a successful league.
Neither of these are things the commissioner, or any soccer fan, wants to happen to their league.
But your non-sequitur about Seattle being special was informative.
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32,525 fans per game makes the Sounders special. That said, there is no doubt that a grass pitch would improve the experience for both players and fans.
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The chances of us getting grass is zero…. might as well wish for pixie dust. We all wish it weren’t so… but it is what it is.
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Alas, if it weren’t for the fake grass, then fans from other teams would have to find something else to try to complain about in a feeble attempt at hiding their jealousy…
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Our little blog has grown up. We have our very first opponent troll.
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@Dan…
Have you ever played or even stepped on the so-called “plastic pitch”? It’s not the “astro-turf” that you grew up on in the 70′s…
It’s called Field Turf, and it is amazing. The ball bounces perfect, the field is soft and great on the players knees. Get out of your man-cave and experience the science of the future.
As for the commissioner not mentioning the sounders, what’s new? Seattle has always been in the background for every sport. We’ll continue keeping the MLS out of the red, and cheer our rears off in the mean time.
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