Seattle MLS Ownership Thread

[sounderfan]

The current group of owners seeking a Seattle MLS franchise are lead by Adrian Hanauer, a local business owner who is part of the Hanauer clan which owns/ runs the Pacific Coast Feather Co.:

http://www.pacificcoast.com/

The Hanauers have owned this Co. for many decades and have built their fortune off of it.

Adrian Hanauer currently acts as a partner (owner) and GM of the Seattle Sounders of the A-League. He has run the Sounders since 2001.

During his tenure the team has increased its sponsorship base 500%, its attendance 85% and the club have managed to move to Qwest Field after playing years in decrepit Memorial Stadium.

The Sounders have also created a radio broadcast deal for all 28 matches, home AND away.

More on Hanauer:

http://www.soccer365.com/_365_Interviews/page_123_73940.shtml

http://www.kcts.org/productions/seriousmoney/archive/episode_242.htm
(INCLUDES LINK TO A VIDEO of HANUAER talking about the SOUNDERS)

http://www.artificialturf.org/display.cfm?newsID=239

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2001968568_mlsseattle30.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2001978919_mls14.html

http://www.mi-reporter.com/sited/story/html/107214

[sounderfan]

Hanauer is also an excellent poker player!

http://www.pokerpages.com/tournament/result9709.htm

[sounderfan]

It would seem the best way to insure Seattle MLS success would be to enlist Paul Allen, owner of the Seahawks and Qwest Field, as an owner of the soccer team.

Hanauer has stated many times that Paul Allen is not interested. Still, the delays on bidding for a 2005 team at times sounded like delays based on bringing in a huge-money contributor who had lots of complicated legal issues to overcome.

365: Anytime you mention a potential owner and a need for money in Seattle, the name Paul Allen (Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers owner) pops into people’s minds. What are the chances of him or his company, 1st and Goal, getting involved?

AH: I think the chances of Paul Allen being an investor in the team are slim to none. Where Paul Allen and the Seahawks will be an investor in the team is that they will be a partner of ours in the stadium. They are willing to basically create a scenario where we can have some success, whether that’s lower rent or sharing concessions and parking. I think there is no cash that they’re going to want to put in, but they want to see it here. They’d love to have the stadium filled for more dates and they’re willing to do it by not making a lot of money, which is a big commitment. So, there are dozens of people in town who have gazillions of dollars and everybody always says “well what about that person”. It just turns out, there aren’t that many people with gazillions of dollars who are passionate about soccer.


Since Paul Allen has not publicly denied an interest in Seattle pro soccer at Qwest Field, the rumors about his possible involvement will likely continue.

Some History:

http://seattlepitch.tripod.com/news/stadium5.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/othersports/79196_socc19.shtml

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116939

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/sports/sside31.shtml

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=260

http://boston.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2002/07/22/focus4.html

[sounderfan]

Hanauer's vision is a departure from the 2001 dreams of the Sounders and MLS:

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2000/09/04/story2.html

C. Neil Farnsworth, co-owner and chief executive of the Seattle Sounders soccer team, has ambitious plans to help boost soccer to the elusive "next level" of popularity in the United States.


Farnsworth is aggressively pursuing "tens of millions" of dollars in financing to establish the Seattle Soccer Academy, a professional club modeled after those in Europe where professional soccer teams take financial responsibility for training and developing young athletes.

As part of the academy, Farnsworth's plans call for buying some 80 acres and building a $20 million-plus soccer training facility, one that would include some 20 soccer fields and a 5,000-seat stadium that could be expanded to 15,000 seats.

"We haven't finalized a site at this point," Farnsworth said, declining to reveal many details of his plan until the funding closes. "We're negotiating on two sites right now."

One of those sites is Fife, a Tacoma suburb, where city officials have acknowledged the proposed soccer park.

With the Seattle Soccer Academy, Farnsworth hopes to create an organization "that can train young athletes in the sport of soccer and give them the opportunity to develop," regardless of their income levels, he said.

The organization will field girls' and boys' youth teams as well as semipro and professional teams. In addition to the existing A-League team, the Seattle Sounders, Farnsworth hopes to field a Major League Soccer professional team and a women's professional team. The Sounders, based in Bellevue, compete in the United Soccer League, a minor league professional division.

That new Major League Soccer team, in which Farnsworth and Sounder co-owner Scott Oki would hold a minority stake, will most likely take on the Sounders name.

"I'm working on trying to assemble an investment group that can fund this project we have in mind," Farnsworth said. "But until we get funding, I can't say much."


This dream ended, and Farnsworth surrendered his position on the club to Hanauer in late 2001.

[Geoduck]

How Amazon.com survived, thrived and turned a profit (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/158315_amazon28.html ) Seattle businessman Nick Hanauer, an early investor who is credited with persuading Bezos to move to Seattle in the summer of 1994, knew the company would one day turn a profit.

"What few people understood was that the reason that they didn't make money was that for the previous five years every time there was a trade-off between making more money or growing faster, we grew faster," said Hanauer, whose $40,000 investment in Amazon once was valued at $250 million. "It wasn't that there weren't lots of opportunities to make money. It was just that we had consciously foregone those opportunities to reach scale and make it impossible to duplicate what we had done. And voila!" PILLOW FIGHT: How a domestic rival knocked the stuffing out of Pillowtex. (http://www.businessnc.com/archives/2003/12/pillowtex.html ) (The author is writing a book about the Hanauers.)

Economy fouls Pacific Coast Feather's competition (http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/06/28/focus10.html?t=printable )

[GMan Eric]

PILLOW FIGHT: How a domestic rival knocked the stuffing out of Pillowtex. (http://www.businessnc.com/archives/2003/12/pillowtex.html ) (The author is writing a book about the Hanauers.)



Shoot, I thought this was going to be about the pillow fight promotion in Rochester :D

[Geoduck]

Everyone's favorite MLS non-investor, Paul Allen, is claiming credit for the survival of the Sounders (http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/columnists/peter_callaghan/story/5629051p-5559743c.html).

Now Allen has sent a memo to state legislative leaders suggesting that if they force him to obey state law and publicly report the team's profit and loss statement, the existence of the Seahawks in Seattle is at risk.

Allen, the memo states, would never have bought the team had he known the stadium legislation specifically required him to report the team's finances. And if he hadn't bought the team?

"The state would have lost the Seahawks to California, King County would have been burdened with Kingdome debt with no revenue sources to repay it, and the many tenants of the facility - the Seattle Sounders, the Home Show, the Boat Show, NCAA football teams, Major League Lacrosse, and high school sports - would have had no facility in which to play."

[Joe Stoker]

Everyone's favorite MLS non-investor, Paul Allen, is claiming credit for the survival of the Sounders (http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/columnists/peter_callaghan/story/5629051p-5559743c.html).

"The state would have lost the Seahawks to California, King County would have been burdened with Kingdome debt with no revenue sources to repay it, and the many tenants of the facility - the Seattle Sounders, the Home Show, the Boat Show, NCAA football teams, Major League Lacrosse, and high school sports - would have had no facility in which to play."[/font][/indent]

Seems Allen is more interested in his human bottle-rocket (SpaceShipOne) project than anything sportswise. Wonder how big a cut of the 10 million X Prize he'll pocket? The Sounders have as much chance tapping into that money as the do the state tax collectors. Nada. Hanauer better keep saving Subway stamps.

[Geoduck]

Thought this should be brought up in light of the latest scuttlebutt.

Cup has not run over for Sounders (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/vecsey/77760_vecs09.shtml); Seattle P-I; Tuesday, July 9, 2002
The 14-2 Sounders, bobbing along on the passion of a few, just below the radar of too many, have leaned heavily on the kindness of a few well-heeled soccer enthusiasts.

Besides Oki (who has moved on to new enterprises) and Farnsworth, others paying to keep the Sounders afloat are Paul Barry, who owns Europe Express; Robin Waite of Inovest Properties; former Microsoft executive Josef Vascovitz; and Rick Cantu, whose Redapt is a business technology company.

Paul Barry is also an investor in Cambridge United.

U's Net » Features » On The Spot Archives » EXTRA with Paul Barry (http://www.cambridgeunited.com/features/000413otse.html); July 18, 2000

Barry backing Hon takeover (http://w3.cambridge-news.co.uk/sport/story.asp?StoryID=68735); Cambridge Evening News; February 3, 2005

[sounderfan]

Great links as always, Geoduck.

Paul Barry. Hmmm. Could be a "Paul" helping Seattle to MLS after all... ;)

[sounderfan]

Europe Express, based in Bothell, Washington, is under the direction of Paul Barry, CFO, and Chirstopher Ford, president. In business for ten years, the company markets independent and custom-designed packages to Europe. Products range from self-drive vacations, biking and walking vacations, river and canal barge cruises, to rail vacations. The company is headquartered at 19021 120th Avenue Northeast, Bothell Washington, 98011, (425) 487-6711 phone (425) 487-3750 fax. For more information see the company’s website: http://www.europeexpress.com.


Now called EEI Travel.

[sounderfan]

Has Seattle "solved" the ownership issue yet? This 2003 article points out that 2 out of 3...aint good enough...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/othersports/123900_mlsmoment28.html

[GMan Eric]

The stadium issue is probably going to be more of an issue going forward than the ownership. Have a feeling the Hanauers can sort the ownership group (and may have already), but the stadium issues with MLS are another matter altogether.

[Geoduck]

http://www.mlsdiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=684

Do you think the Hanauers & co. would be willing to pay $20 million to get into MLS?

[sounderfan]

http://www.mlsdiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=684

Do you think the Hanauers & co. would be willing to pay $20 million to get into MLS?

No. This is why relocation looks so good right now. And target #1 are the KC Wizards.

You know, I'm not sure I'd even *want* Hanauer to blow 20 million on a franchise fee...unless it could be 500,000 over 40 years... :rolleyes: