I have started this site in an effort to encourage/enlighten/enlist the help, hope and hand of anyone who thinks keeping USL soccer in this part of the Northwest is important: http://www.TacomaProSoccer.com If Seattle ends its A-League club after 2004, then begins building an MLS entry for 2006, it will leave the Puget Sound Area with NO pro soccer for a time. Even after MLS comes in, if it does, the South Sound area could still support a team in the A-League.
I'd love it if the A-League Sounders headed south a bit. The Seattle MLS club wouldn't be too thrilled, though. And since one will become the other under a new name, my guess is that the current "Sounders" will not allow their name to be used by anyone else. But, they also won't use it themselves.
Depends on who owns the Sounders name. I know in Vancouver that the guy who owns the name "Whitecaps" only loaned it to that jerk of an owner who changed the teams name to Whitecaps from 86ers and then next season dumped the team. Under the agreement if the Whitecaps ever folded the ownership would revert back to the guy who loaned it out. That is why when the USL took over the team for the rest of that season the team did not become Team Vancouver or Vancouver FC, because the jackass of an owner who dumped the team never really owned the name.