Coluccio's land The property was/is on the east side of I-5 about 1/3 of the way up the hill there were 2 parcells about 60 acres in all. The sticker was Vince wanted to have the land annexed into Seatac but Tukwilla had priority. In order for it to work the sewer lines would have had to go up a hill requiring a pumping station creating an unreasonable cost to the project. As far as I know Vince still has the land. The biggest hurdle was an interum field, UW wasn't having any and MLS didn't want to use Memorial. I dare say if Seahawk stadium had just been completed then, we would be bitching about players, coach rather than possible expansion.
More on Jeff Stock and Booth Gardner Here's another Jeff Stock article: Get ready for the roller coaster wars: Area suddenly hot for theme parks Seattle Times; Sunday, June 24, 2001 http://www.themeparksonline.org/tponews.asp?ID=237 And several on Booth Gardner: UW College of Education - advisory board profile: http://www.educ.washington.edu/COEWebSite/about/profiles/Gardner.htm National Governor's Association profile: http://www.nga.org/governors/1,1169,C_GOVERNOR_INFO^D_294,00.html Anti-corporate website's profile of Weyerhauser http://www.endgame.org/weyerprofile.html Gardner enjoying life despite Parkinson's Seattle Times; Wednesday, May 31, 2000 {http://archives.seattletimes.nwsour...1m&date=20000531&query="booth+gardner"+soccer} Protesters blast Gardner's ties to lender Seattle Times; Saturday, August 31, 2002 {http://archives.seattletimes.nwsour...rotest31m&date=20020831&query="booth+gardner"} The great thing about Gardner is that while he may not be worth that much (possibly as "little" as $5 million, according to my research), but he has all the soccer, business, and political connections. The gov has owned 2 pro soccer teams, including one where Bruce Arena played; coached women's teams to several national finals in the '80s (at least 3 of his players, including Michelle Akers and Amy Allmann, became world champs in 1991); is an heir to the Weyerhauser company fortune, worth at least $1B; presided over the Tacoma Dome's construction as Pierce County exec; is an alumnus and current board member at the UW; and gave the current state attorney general her first state cabinet appointment. If the guy sets his mind to it, he can help to obtain MLS financing, to get stadiums built or renovated at the UW or in Tacoma, or to sic the state after Phil "Uncle Deadbeat" Anschutz and company. === Another possible investor is Matt Griffin, co-owner of the University Village shopping center, managing partner of Pine Street Development (involved in lots of downtown properties), and former CEO of Egghead Software. He plays soccer with Emory Bundy, the anti-Sound Transit spearhead who's also a college buddy of the gov. I'll post stuff about him when I get the chance (and if anyone is bothering to read these articles).
Well it is now official, Sounders are playing 2003 season in Seahawks Stadium, as reported on the Sounders supporters sites and both Seattle papers this morning.
New opportunity at Memorial With the current budget crisis in the Seattle Schools. They are looking to offload properties. Now is the time to try and wrestle control of Memorial Stadium away from them. With some renovation and the addition of grass it would be the perfect small soccer stadium that the Sounders, MLS and US national teams need. And We all know that the support is here! There is no way that the Sounders playing on turf at the football stadium is going to create any kind of atmosphere or buzz. Even the Women's national team won't play there this next month. Think Memorial stadium as the ideal location!
Re: New opportunity at Memorial Only if it is completely razed and rebuilt. There's too many "part time" supporters here who have too many negative images of Memorial to consider going back unless it is basically a new stadium. I agree with the smaller stadium part, but not to the point of going back to a lightly renovated dump.
Re.Re new opportunity at Memorial It seems to me, that it depends on who is playing there. Sometimes we must strike while the iron is hot. The Seattle schools are in deep financial trouble and need cash. The MLS is looking for small stadiums to make soccer specific and expand into. I am willing to bet that an mls expansion team with the possibility of US qualifiers would turn out a supportive crowd. How much renovation? Clearly as much as possible... but lets get the facility and the team and then quibble...
Re: Re.Re new opportunity at Memorial I don't think Eric emphasized enough the following point: Memorial would have to be torn down and rebuilt. This huge issue = money + politics. The city isn't going to let just anyone buy it and build whatever they want at that prime Seattle Center location (even a new stadium where a current stadium resides). I don't disagree that the location is sweet, though. I wonder if the Sounders are already aware of the financial situation of Memorial and also of their own financial situation, as well as the politics surrounding the acquisition of Memorial. - Paul
The U raised tons of money via the campaign for the student-athlete (originally set at $80M or so) over the past few years. But they've been continuing the campaign because they didn't finish what they set out to do. Namely, the baseball and soccer "stadiums" sit half finished, and have been like that for awhile. They started these projects before they redid Hec Ed. They're hoping for donars to drop significant dollars to receive naming rights for these facilities. I like the idea of combining soccer/track but I'm not sure how much room is left. They've already lost IMA fields because of various new projects. They may feel like they cannot use up anymore space devoted to IMA use. When there was talk of the Seahawks sharing Husky Stadium permanently, the plans included taking out the track and lowering the field. One issue was that the water table there was pretty high, and while they could/can dig lower, it may prove more costly than if the area wasn't basically on wetlands. Granted, the long term economic benefits may make up for the increased cost of such a project. With regards to local college soccer, I wish the local soccer community (Sounders/college/youth) would really promote the games between the local schools (I know, different NCAA levels) or when they face regional rivals (UW v UP). I'd put these games in whatever becomes the main soccer venue in the area. If it's Seahawks Stadium, let each school play a few rival games there each season and promote it to death. Pending First & Goal being rent friendly, of course. And to the themeparksonline.com article, I'd say Stock did well to keep his land and rent it to Six Flags. That must give him a healthy return. I sometimes wonder if all the significant soccer backers in the area know about each other's interest in the sport. Does Sounders ownership know about Gardner? Do either of them know about Coluccio? And does anyone from First & Goal speak to these people? And so on and so forth...
Greenway, Seattle Center has been trying to get rid of Memorial Stadium for at least 2 decades, so it might be difficult to acquire. They wanted to put the WA state convention center there in 1984, Disney tried to put an underground garage and grand entrance there in 1988, Paul Allen wanted the Hendrix/EMP museum there in 1993, and for the past 5 or so years the Center has targeted it for open space. For the Allen proposal, the school district nearly came to agreement with Seattle Center to trade its site for a parking lot east of 5th Avenue (which the school district would own instead of lease) to build a 6,000-seat stadium, possibly with a track. Either the museum designer decided the current site was better or the negotiations failed, but it never went through. Solid Center: At 40, city's 'family room' thrives George Erb; Puget Sound Business Journal; April 8, 2002 pugetsoundmls, I don't follow college soccer much, so thanks for explaining the UW situation. I didn't realize space was so tight there. (The donor list in the UW campaign link does include some of the Sounders' first owners or their kin, so there might be an angel or two there.) The Jeff Stock article said that he "still owns 68 acres along I-5 between Seattle and Portland" - does that phrasing mean the land is in a rural area or that it's in a prime location that he doesn't want to disclose? If it's the latter, put a stadium there! I wonder about communication too, because (from my non-insider POV) our community soccer efforts since the 1994 World Cup bid have not been well coordinated. Cliff McCrath likely has ties to all the groups, but he probably doesn't have time for gladhanding and working the phones. === Here's where real-estate developer Matt Griffin is mentioned as a soccer player. If any of you happen to play his team, LET THEM WIN! They may have people who fit the sports owner profile (i.e., rich egomaniac). On a crusade against light rail (scroll to near the bottom of the article) Andrew Garber, Seattle Times, January 28, 2001 Other Matt Griffin articles (about business, not soccer): 2000 DJC Commerical Real Estate Survey: Pine Street 1999 DJC Real Estate survey: Pine Street Development U Village may be sold: Morgan Stanley hired to assess tony center's fate (Joe Nabbefeld, Puget Sound Business Journal, October 29, 1999) Also, Booth Gardner may be much wealthier than I thought. His stepfather, Norton Clapp, was president and chairman of Weyerhauser in the 1960s; when he died in 1995, he was estimated to be worth $450 million. However, Clapp had 4 blood children and 4 stepchildren to split the inheritance. Lori Henry, one of the Seattle contingent on the 1991 world champion women's team, might be related to Gardner and Clapp. If she is a wealthy relative and lives in the area, she could be an investor. Finally, is Bud Greer, owner of FC Seattle during the post-NASL era, still interested in professional soccer?
memorial Having read that the center is interested in more parking, they could do something on the order of the Monaco stadium and build a field on top of parking. Might be a bit pricey though.
Wow, the author mentioned MLS's broken promise and alluded to our legal smacking of MLB. I think he's been reading this forum and my rants. Frank, follow my leads and start schmoozing these moneymen! (I even exposed where one of these guys lives, for God's sake!) I'm not enthralled with a Monaco-style stadium. Security better be X-raying cars in the garage if that happens, lest something similar to the first WTC attack occurs. === Stadiums face off over international soccer game Puget Sound Business Journal; October 25, 2002 (scroll slightly halfway down the web page) How brilliant are we to spend $1 billion on 2 stadiums that compete against each other for the same events?! It would be hilarious if the world's richest, most famous soccer club chose to play in the baseball park instead of the "football/soccer stadium." However, I predict that MU will go for Seahawks Stadium's larger capacity and orthodox stadium layout. Maybe they'll get First and Goal to waive the attendance clause for the grass overlay. My dream scenario is this: a record crowd sees a crackerjack match on a grass pitch, which ends up damaging the FieldTurf underneath so badly that F&G has to put the grass overlay back for the rest of the Sounders' and Seahawks' seasons. The natural turf becomes so popular with football fans that F&G is forced to remove the FieldTurf and install grass permanently. === Here's another possible investor: Phil Boguch. He's currently a member of the Safeco Field oversight board, but was formerly president of the NASL Colorado Caribou. He appears to be a close business associate of Booth Gardner, who invested in several of the companies Boguch worked for (e.g., the Caribou, Alpental, and probably the pie company), so whether Boguch is really a soccer fan is unknown. Unfortunately, there's little about him on the web, except mention of his being an independent stock and bond trader.
Sounders co-owner Rick Cantu Here's more business info, this time about one of the Sounders moneymen: Adapting for Success The Tech Boom may be over, but the brothers Cantu are still riding high, thanks to the adjustments they’ve made along the way—and their popular product: recycled computers. (Hispanic Trends, October 2002 cover story)
A few more investor candidates We can throw a couple more names into the investor list. Former Go2Net/Infospace execs Russell Horowitz and John Keister are keen soccer players. (Sorry about the numerous links, but there was a ton of juicy info out there.) How the Class of '84 Became the Class of '99; Seattle Times, Mar 21, 1999 Building a portal for broadband; Internet World, Dec 15, 1999 '99 Very Kind to Seattle-Area Tech Execs; Seattle Times, Jan 3, 2000 Cautious Hunter; Forbes, May 29, 2000 Follow-Through; Forbes, Aug 21, 2000 InfoSpace insiders sell in down market; CNET News.com, February 9, 2001 The Newsletter: Go2Net co-founder severes ties with InfoSpace; Seattle Times, Mar 8, 2001 A solid 21,522 attended yesterday's US-Panama match (Gold Cup, group stage). For any lurking Sounders or MLS staff, here's the e-mail address of Class of '69 alumnus Matt Griffin: Matt@PineSt.com. Incidentally, a connection exists between Griffin, Booth Gardner, and the 2 new prospects: like Bill Gates and Paul Allen, they're all graduates of Lakeside School. Other local ties: Rick Cantu = Kentridge High '92, Lori Henry = Shorewood High '84, Donny Marshall (former UConn hoops star, current NBA scrub) = Federal Way '92 - was also a standout HS soccer player, but does he make enough to be an investor? Is the Starbucks CEO a soccer fan? Maybe not, but read anyway: A fan's perspective: Sonics CEO Howard Schultz brings a unique outlook
A few years ago, the Sounders sported a Go2Net logo on their shirts. And when you said John Keister, all I could think of was the "Almost Live" host.
Just one other note, the reason the nags played at Safeco was because the Seabags had a home date at Seabags Stadium. I'm pretty sure that Seabags Stadium would be the preferred venue for soccer if available. (BTW, that had to be one of the most pathetic athletic events ever broadcast. Next time they should just play a blind, legless team of dwarfs, it'd probably be more competitive.) It'll be nice to see a football team (Sounders) actually win some games in that facility next year. The Seabags sure haven't been able to. Also, with Lou leaving and the Mariners looking shakier, possibly the Sounders can recapture some of the fan base that has been eroded. Who knows?
Speculative bitching and moaning I keep find interesting nuggets related to our soccer-loving ex-guv. The Laird Norton Company, the family business that Booth Gardner ran during the 1970s, was in the news today: Lanoga, which according to Forbes is the 173rd largest private company in the country, was spun off in 1978, when Booth was in charge. Another Laird Norton subsidiary is the multi-billion dollar Laird Norton Financial Group. An old Seattle Times profile of Gardner says he was the only realistic business successor in his loaded stepfather's family, so I suspect the future governor was given a large stake in Laird Norton. If that's the case and he's held on to his share, Booth might really be in the cash now. Unfortunately, his money is in a blind trust, so nobody knows his real net worth. === If Go2Net was a Sounders sponsor, the team owners might already know about Horowitz's and the Keister's interest in the sport. Or maybe not. I'm miffed that there are all these connections between rich people who are genuinely interested in soccer, yet we're still not close to a group that can bring MLS to town. (Not to mention that we shouldn't even have to worry about investors given what the league told us in 1997.) The Forbes article said that Horowitz was in Allen's "inner sanctum," watching movies and shooting hoops at the billionaire's house; did MLS ever come up as a topic? The stipulation requiring Allen to market the stadium to MLS may not extend to finding investors, but when a soccer-playing CEO worth $350 million at the time (with a $50M cohort as a teammate) is on your couch, wouldn't Allen want to drum up business for his building?! Also, Matt Griffin was senior-class president, had an interest in computers (Bill Gates helped him with a programming dilemma), and was only 2 grades above Allen at Lakeside, so they had to have known each other. Gardner was significantly older, but they must have run into other at school networking functions or when he was governor. Frustrating. On the other hand, could the Sounders be to blame? Does anyone else think strange their stance welcoming a possible MLS franchise, yet not trying to be part of an investor group, but saying that potential investors should go through them, while looking to finance its own stadium/dorm/training facility? I suppose there are sensible reasons why they should be the go-between, but wouldn't it be nice for them to tell candidates that "MLS is too rich for your blood, but we've got this great project you're sure to be interested in..."? Stadium board member Fred Mendoza is the Sounders lawyer; could that be why he didn't protest much when MLS reneged on its promise, even though he's in the right profession and the best position to act? Remember, the Colorado Foxes didn't last long in the area after the Rapids arrived. === Odds and ends: 10,079 were at Safeco Field for the semifinal doubleheader on Wednesday. Far-fetched investor possibilities: Kasey Keller - how much does he make at Tottenham? Michelle Akers - wasn't she earning $1 million per year in endorsements during the '90s? Jose Carreras - before raking in cash with the Three Tenors, the FC Barcelona fan stayed in Seattle for five months to cure his leukemia; he performed here last weekend to benefit the opera house and his leukemia foundation, which has a branch here. Jason Kidd - the conspiracy theory is that Howard Schultz will let Gary Payton go after his contract expires so that he can sign Kidd, who is a free agent after this season. Kidd played soccer as a kid (ha ha) and participated in one of MLS's celebrity soccer games.
Sounder Sales To this point the Sounders have sold 60 season tickets based on the announcement of playing in the new stadium, this is before renewalls are sent out and any marketing push at all. So it looks promising for next year. Maybe they'll outdraw KC?
60 new season ticket holders is all well and good, but I'd keep the champagne on ice until I see something like "season tickets up 80% over 2002", something that's a bit more substantial. It's really too small a drop in the bucket to start going overboard about.
Re: Speculative bitching and moaning Keller earns a cool $1.5m at Spurs and has settled nicely as one of the top 5 keepers in the EPL. I doubt he'd come back unless it was a last gasp attempt to save his career.
Re: 60 tickets From what I've gathered from comments from Adrian H. over the past year, I believe the season ticket base was in the neighborhood of 400 or so.