MLS sets second expansion-study Portland visit

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by MLS1FAN, Oct 17, 2007.

  1. KnucklesBuchanan

    Jul 12, 2007
    Section 149
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Tell that to Toronto. All attendance in USL-1 means is how many people are willing to come out and support a minor league team. Do you honestly think that the Beavers attendance is indicative in any way of what attendance would be like if PDX had a major league baseball team? I sure as hell don't, and I'm pretty damn certain that MLB doesn't view it that way either.

    Seriously, you know little to nothing about Hanauer's role with the Sounders. Who do you think scouted all the players? Who do you think signed them? The architects of the two championship teams under Hanauer's ownership are Hanauer and Schmetzer.

    Don't get me wrong, it pisses me off that there has been little to no marketing of this team. It pisses off every single Sounder fan in the city. What makes it worse, is that this is a conscious choice of Hanauer's, not him being a boob. He's anything but. However, it has worked financially for Hanauer, and he's now on the verge of landing an MLS franchise.
     
  2. bright

    bright Member

    Dec 28, 2000
    Central District
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    He was the GM for the team until this year. In that role, he focused his time and energy on personnel. The reason the team was so successful on the field was because of his efforts in acquiring players with barely any support staff. He worked hard in that regard and wasn't lazy.

    He also brought down the losses to a reasonable level while at the same time fielding a championship team. Before he came on board, the team was in trouble financially. I am sure this played a part in his unease at throwing money into marketing.

    The lack of marketing has always been a sore point for Sounders fans. We always wondered what the rationale behind that was. However, it's all paid off in the end, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I am pretty optimistic that he won't bring the shoe-string marketing strategy to MLS, especially with Joe Roth as 50% owner.

    - Paul
     
  3. KnucklesBuchanan

    Jul 12, 2007
    Section 149
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    I think his rationale was that spending money on marketing a minor league franchise in a major league town is an uncertain investment at best. He hadn't seen any appreciable results from the efforts of the previous ownership, and didn't want to go down that path himself. Again, I found an interview he gave to the Business Journal that covered a fair amount of those questions, but I'll be damned if I can find it again.

    Paul: Also, while he's no longer the GM officially, he's still very involved in player acquisition. He's the one responsible for signing LeToux, having scouted him in France and then staying in contact with him while he tried out for FC Dallas.
     
  4. GOALSeattle

    GOALSeattle Member

    Oct 13, 2007
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yes.

    Remember Hanauer's mantra about ROI: return on investment. He at one time told it like this: the USL Sounders could spend 10k on advertising, but he felt that because it was the minors, the club might only make 6-7k in tickets from that advertising, thus actually losing 3-4k, so no ROI.

    That argument has plenty of holes, including what sustained marketing would eventually do, but he pretty much stood by that scenario as his reason.

    I also have hopes that the bigger investment in MLS will mean a bigger advertising budget. However, as recent as 2005 I talked with Adrian about the very subject and he said he wouldn't change much about the way he advertised an MLS club (over the USL one)...but the exposure would automatically increase from news media and also ESPN/FSC coverage.

    That's a scary flashback that I hope does not come true. I'm with bright, I hope Joe Roth uses his "Hollywood" to blanket Puget Sound.
     
  5. KnucklesBuchanan

    Jul 12, 2007
    Section 149
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Word.
     
  6. Hierarchyfive

    Hierarchyfive Member

    Sep 17, 2005
    Portland
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    How did the thread "MLS sets second expansion-study Portland visit" get turned into a Seattle thread?
     
  7. bright

    bright Member

    Dec 28, 2000
    Central District
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A certain Alcoholics Anonymous attendee decided to compare Portland to Seattle by saying Portland doesn't need MLS but Seattle needs MLS (here's some attendance stats), and then we had two pages about Seattle.

    - Paul
     

Share This Page