I remember reading complaints about how the Sounders did little to market the team and try to grow their attendance back in the USL days. Hanauer deserves some credit for sure. But he wasn't perfect and he definitely didn't have the money himself to run an MLS team.
Holy S***, dude. Just nut up and admit you were thinking about Paul Allen (a criticism I'd agree with you 100% on) and completely forgot that there WAS a guy who was willing to put his own money on the line to keep the sport alive in Seattle, and was willing to invest in MLS before it was the success that it was today. Or, you know, just continue putting words in my mouth. I guess when you're Respected BigSoccer Poster Bill Archer pesky little things like "responding to what people actually said" and "not moving the goalposts" don't apply to you. Right, and how many of them persisted, continued to work with the league, and were hands-on managaing the team both before and after getting into the league? Was the league wrong to turn down Hanauer and Seattle in 2004 in favor of Checketts and Salt Lake City? Probably not. Hanauer didn't control the stadium (although neither did Salt Lake...) and I don't know that Hanauer would have been able to shoulder the financial losses of 2004-era MLS without another wealthy partner. But if you honestly think that Hanauer deserves to be lumped in with those who had "no freakin clue", then YOU have no freakin' clue. Or you must think that Joe Roth has no freakin clue, because he was willing to partner with the Hanauer and let Hanauer take charge of running the team. Or you must think the league had no freakin clue, since they introduced Roth to Hanauer in the first place. I guess when you're Respected BigSoccer Poster Bill Archer it's totally cool to say " due respect for _____" and then promptly turn around and completely undercut thing you were supposedly giving respect for. Yes, USISL/USL owners meetings were chock full of guys willing to shoulder the financial burden of operating a minor league soccer team. What those meetings were NOT chock full of was guys willing to CONTINUE to shoulder that burden for several years instead of bailing out after a season or two. Marcos-era USISL/USL was famous for its franchise failure rate. Holy moving goal posts, Batman! Last time I checked, "keeping a team alive" did not mean the same thing as "found the club." But I guess when you're Respected BigSoccer Poster Bill Archer, words can mean whatever the flaming F*** you want, so long as you don't have to admit to getting something wrong when called out on it. The fact that you presume to tell a Sounders fan living in Seattle to look up the man known locally as "The Ambassador of Soccer" just shows how arrogant you truly are. Ah, and now you ignorance is showing. Please show me where Husky Stadium was ever mentioned as a possible venue in either expansion bid that Hanauer was involved in. And if Hanauer's such a carnival barker bullshit artist, why did Joe Roth partner with him, and why did the league point Roth in Hanauer's direction? Roth didn't have a specific market in mind when he approached the league, as far as I recall. There were plenty of other desirable markets that MLS could have pointed Roth to. Why point him to Hanauer if Hanauer was the clueless, empty-walleted, carnival barker bullshit artist that you make him out to be? The only one with a Hanauer fantasy here is your alternate reality where a man responsible for owning and managing a professional soccer team in a major-league city for over a decade is somehow a clueless garden variety soccer wannabe who weaseled his way into being a co-owner of an MLS team and, up until bringing Lagerwey last season, the team's General Manager as well. But I guess when you're Respected BigSoccer Poster Bill Archer, it's totally cool to wontonly slander and malign a man who has spent nearly a decade and half busting his ass to keep professional soccer alive in the city he calls home if it means not having to admit you got something wrong on the internet. As for your point about Seattle MLS circa 1994-1995, I never claimed that to be anything impressive. And in the interest of full disclosure, I was NOT one of the 1300 who sign a pledge to buy tickets. In my defense, I was a junior high student at the time. I never said Adrian Hanauer was the end-all-be-all of professional soccer in Seattle. That whole Saint Adrian schtick was entirely or your own creation. In fact, I clearly stated that the successful MLS expansion bid he was involved in was the one where he was part of an ownership group. But hey, I'm not a Respected BigSoccer Poster like the great Bill Archer, so what the f*** do I know, right?
Bill's got all of Donald Trump's humility but none of the charm. On the plus side of the ledger, Bill is nearly as smart as he thinks he is.
He's gonna be his VP pick. Seriously, Archer prolly does know more about the job than whoever is going to end up there. And believe me, it's gonna be great! Top, top people, and I know more about picking winners than anyone. Bill's a Crew fan, and they're the MLS Champions, so you know he's a winner. And lemmie tell you another thing, those clowns in FIFA won't know what hit 'em once I sic Bill on them, believe me!