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Nos Audietis, Episode 322: Adrian Hanauer
62 Plays5 years ago
We usually meet with Sounders majority owner Adrian Hanauer a couple times a year. The last time we talked, the global coronavirus pandemic was just setting in. Now several months later there are still many questions around how this will all affect the Sounders. One effect we do know about is the decision to close the 300s to season-ticket holders. We talked about man of those things in this episode.
This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fulpel's unique writing styles applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving, turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Sounders Highlights
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:49
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Steph and Fry? Here come three deers through the middle to crowd it for Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of when they take a little Tigers in? It's the Sounders, M-N-S-Cup. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:17
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle Like a beautiful child growing up
Interview with Adrian Hanauer
00:01:34
Speaker
Welcome to a special edition of No Sadietes and the Sounder Heart Podcast. I am Jeremiah O'Shan, joined by Sounders Majority Owner, Adrian Hanauer. Good to catch up with you again, Adrian.
00:01:49
Speaker
Great to be with you. I get this feeling that you always say a special edition, and it always makes me feel special. And then I'm like, wait, I think he said that last time he opened this up. Well, we're releasing this on two different channels, so that's what makes this one particularly special.
00:02:10
Speaker
It's not like a limited edition, all plated. Not this time. We don't have that yet. One of these days we're going to get around to there. But I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. As it turns out, some very timely, a very timely interview. By the time this will have come out, you guys will have announced that Todd Lewicki has rejoined the Sounders organization, bringing you guys back to some of those 2009 roots.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we're super excited. Todd, his wife, Tara, their family joining the ownership group, which is already an amazing group of
00:02:58
Speaker
Obviously, successful people in our community, but more than anything, just really, really good people who care about Seattle, our community, the Sounders.
00:03:15
Speaker
And some of the owners that we brought on a while back, I've become friends with and grown to really love and respect. And others like Todd and Tara, I've known for, I think I went back, I think for 17 years and
00:03:36
Speaker
You know, again, I just I love I love Todd and Tara and, you know, Todd.
00:03:45
Speaker
sort of think of Todd as a, um, a mentor, um, someone I look up to, um, you know, hope to operate a, a business, a sports franchise half as half as well as, uh, as he does. Um, and hopefully I've picked up a few things over, over time. And, uh, for those that haven't now he's around to, uh, to make sure I'm, I'm not screwing things up. Yeah. He's had quite a, uh,
00:04:15
Speaker
Well, beauty of this was getting a phone call. So the he's had quite a bit of success everywhere he's going. It's got Super Bowl rings. He's got I guess he doesn't have an MLS Cup title, but he I believe he's been to the NHL Stanley Cup, at least.
00:04:32
Speaker
with the Lightning. He was COO, I guess, of the NFL at one point. And most recently he's been with the Kraken. I know you're in the ownership group of the Kraken. Is this speak to any additional synergies to use a word that I'm sure you love? Or is this not really have anything to do with the Kraken?
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't say it has anything to do with the Kraken. Although, again, I am involved in the ownership group. A bunch of the local owners of Kraken are my friends. They're friends with all of them.
00:05:16
Speaker
the sounder's ownership. So there's a lot of ideas exchanged. We are super collaborative, cooperative in the market. If we need a favor, we know who to call, vice versa. So nothing formal, but definitely another great partner in the community.
00:05:41
Speaker
I will go back to you mentioning the success of the Lightning, the Seahawks, and the Sounders. And I'd be remiss if I didn't suggest that
00:06:01
Speaker
Todd may be the best culture carrier of any executive I've ever worked with. And it is not coincidental that the Seahawks are thriving. By the way, he was the one who brought Pete Carroll and John Schneider to the Seahawks.
00:06:29
Speaker
Similarly in Tampa, that group of executives and hockey leadership are the leftovers of Todd's handiwork. And a lot of the people that are
00:06:47
Speaker
you know, whatever piece to the puzzle of the Sounders being successful over these years. You know, Todd had his fingerprints on. So and you know, you and I have talked a lot. I'm a I'm a big believer in culture and and that organizations are successful. It's not individuals. And, you know, I think
00:07:11
Speaker
You know, Todd is certainly someone who I've who I've watched sort of live that live that value. So this is his his joining the ownership group comes at a at an interesting time, obviously, in the sports world, I guess the release actually said that the announcement was delayed because of what's going on in the world, that he's actually been involved with the ownership group other than this past week where everything was right normal.
00:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, this last week where somehow every week seems like we joke about how one week is really like the equivalent of one month and then one day is the equivalent of one. And now it seems like one hour is the equivalent of one month. But, you know, it is something that's very much on our minds.
Impact of COVID-19 on Sports
00:08:00
Speaker
Do you have a sense of how likely Sounders fans are to be coming back to CenturyLink and what kind of changes they might expect if you have fans next year?
00:08:14
Speaker
Oh, you're next year. You're already on to next year. Oh, I'm already on to. Do you think this year? I mean, I don't know. Is there any chance of hands being there? I mean, look, I you know, I was I thought you might ask about this year and I have my answer prepared. I'm like, dude, it's October already. And I've given up on it already. Yeah. So, you know, look, if we're talking about next year,
00:08:41
Speaker
Look, to your point about weeks, feeling like months, I don't want to speculate too much. I think that there is progress. Obviously, we're learning a lot more about this disease.
00:08:59
Speaker
Um, testing is getting better, although not maybe at the pace that a lot of us would have thought, uh, you know, when we started talking about it six months ago, um, therapeutics, uh, definitely getting better, um, uh, vaccine on the horizon and, and, you know, showing encouraging signs. Um, uh, you know,
00:09:29
Speaker
hopefully one day maybe the deep politicization of wearing a mask and being respectful of the people around you. But at least in our community, that seems to be a little less political
00:09:50
Speaker
you know, hopefully hand washing isn't political social distancing. Can't put anything past anyone these days. Yeah. But, you know, I think that and then, you know, certainly with this much time in advance, we have scheduling, you know, we can
00:10:15
Speaker
we can certainly try to optimize our schedule for next year for when we think things may be back to normal or close to back to normal. What that means for fans coming to games, what I might have said to you, well, I probably did say to you several months ago is probably different than I would today.
00:10:41
Speaker
But I don't know. Taking people's temperatures was kind of the hot idea several months ago. I'm not sure that that actually is quite as hot today because I think we've seen that
00:11:02
Speaker
you can not have a temperature and still be positive for the virus and still be contagious.
00:11:13
Speaker
Uh, so I don't, I don't know what, what it'll look like next year. Um, you know, I'm cautiously optimistic that some to all of next year will start to get us back to normal. And, and, you know, I think I'm, you know, the way I look at the world 2022 is, you know, it's probably the year in which
00:11:36
Speaker
maybe we all saw a giant sigh of relief and start to go back about our lives in a 99% more normal way. Adrian's crystal ball. So I'll just throw a theory out there and you can certainly feel free to do with it what you will. But I've kind of been putting out this idea that it doesn't seem totally out of
00:12:06
Speaker
the realm of possibility that we could live in a world next year where there's enough rapid testing that you need to basically show proof of a negative test in order to go into a big public space. Is that something that you think is possible?
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, I do think that's possible. I actually have a friend who has a company that has developed a not I'm not the only one. There are lots of them out there, you know, a one minute.
00:12:42
Speaker
a one-minute COVID test, one of those $5, $7 things going for emergency use authorization. So I do think the technology will exist to do that. Again, the cynical part of me, Jeremiah, is that
00:13:09
Speaker
And this is sort of my cynical and my fear is that as a nation, we can't convince everyone that wearing a mask is a way to avoid getting the virus or giving it to someone. How we're gonna convince people to either go get a vaccine
00:13:33
Speaker
or install an app on their iPhone that actually is going to track. I'm hopeful, but I'm also certainly concerned that we may not
00:13:55
Speaker
Well, I know we're not all on the same page as a country in terms of what is appropriate and what isn't. So, you know, but we'll just we'll just take it a week at a time and and, you know, obviously we'll see what happens in November in the election. And hopefully, you know, as a nation, we start coming together, whatever, you know, whatever the outcome is, because
00:14:24
Speaker
I do know that that we need more people in the boat rowing in the same direction to be a high functioning society.
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah. And so how, I have to imagine this all makes planning for 2021 very complicated. I would imagine in some ways 2020 has maybe become easier because you now at least just accept, like you can kind of pencil in the losses and you know what you're in for, but how much does it complicate 2021 and how has it impacted, how does the
00:15:01
Speaker
what's already happened, but also the unknowns of what's kind of coming down the pike for 2021 affected things.
00:15:09
Speaker
Well, I mean, the first thing I'll say is our staff has been unbelievable, resilient, pliable, selfless, you know, collaborative,
00:15:35
Speaker
innovative, you know, this, I mean, 2020 has been difficult. And, you know, whether it's the senior team, everybody down to, you know, the players, medical staff, you know, everybody in the organization has been awesome to get us this far.
00:16:01
Speaker
I would say the only area where I'll disagree, we're so used to the unknown and the difficulty in terms of planning and preparing that I think that it's kind of become a bit of a strength of ours organizationally that
00:16:23
Speaker
We just know that next week is going to bring something new. And we're going to have to pivot and find a solution. So I'm no more worried about 2021 and the preparation. I'm actually not worried about it, given how well the team has performed.
00:16:51
Speaker
doesn't mean that I have any idea what's going to happen, but I just know that we're going to we're going to figure out how to get through it, whatever, whatever is thrown our way. So, you know, as far as there must be some impacts and maybe I don't know, maybe there is an impact. But what can you say about, you know,
00:17:10
Speaker
This time last year, I feel like there was all these things on the table of things that you had hoped to do. And it was around the same time that the ownership, this is around this time last year, I guess, that the ownership team was unveiled. But in three big ones that I wanted to get any updates on are the stadium in Tacoma, the training facility, and any preparations for a 2026 World Cup bid.
00:17:41
Speaker
Okay, so look, I for sure COVID and social justice issues definitely put a speed bump up on all three of those.
00:17:59
Speaker
The stadium, you know, there are lots of different constituents involved. And so that one, the stadium Tacoma is, you know, is is complicated further by, you know, our partnership with the Rainier's city parks, city of Tacoma or
00:18:22
Speaker
And so, sorry, I think it's county parks. I should know that. But. And so that one, I would say, is is still, you know,
00:18:41
Speaker
That one has not really been reactivated, if you will. Which is to say that it's kind of where it was last time we talked. Yeah, it's out there, but everyone has basically been
00:18:58
Speaker
rightfully focused on other priorities. The training facility has, you know, we've sort of rekindled conversations on that. You know, we see some glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and sort of getting back to normal. You know, there are
00:19:24
Speaker
there are even, even, even then, um, you know, there are things happening in terms of, uh, um, things affecting our needs. Um, you know, it wasn't more than three or four months ago that us soccer, um, got out of the development Academy MLS created MLS next, which is,
00:19:51
Speaker
Not completely defined, which could have a knock on effect on our needs in terms of a training facility and so I don't want to say that that.
00:20:05
Speaker
that it was a positive thing that we put the brakes on. But what we end up needing, wanting, coming out the other end of this could be modified by some of the changes happening in the development space.
00:20:24
Speaker
But again, we're starting to talk to various communities and people that control land and our partners at Starfire about
00:20:38
Speaker
what we want going forward. And in terms of the World Cup, again, the brakes were put on, but recently, I think it was probably two months ago, we made a presentation to FIFA and US soccer. And that
00:21:02
Speaker
has sort of, again, been rekindled and, you know, I know some site visits are starting to be planned by FIFA, US Soccer, again, you know, assuming
00:21:20
Speaker
physical visits are possible and quarantines aren't in place and so on and so forth. We remain cautiously optimistic that we can earn the right to host World Cup games here in Seattle. And we do believe that the World Cup
00:21:44
Speaker
in 2026, whether in Seattle or not, will be a force magnifier that it will help to continue the growth of this game in this country and in Seattle at a time when probably coming out of a global pandemic, a little shot in the arm would be helpful.
00:22:13
Speaker
And it might be too early to speak to this, but what kind of like assuming Seattle is part of the bid, I would assume that there's going to be some something as part of that bid that would affect the sounders, whether it be, you know, a temporary or even I suppose a permanent grass field at CenturyLink. I mean, what are some of the kind of the
00:22:38
Speaker
The elements of the bid, if you can share, that might affect the sounders if they get, assuming that you guys get the bid.
00:22:50
Speaker
the elements that will affect the sounders. Or maybe there's not. I don't know. Yeah, no, I mean. Let's present what you have now and say this is what we got. Yeah, I mean, I think you're for sure there will be a grass pitch for the World Cup if it's in Seattle. That'll be a requirement. The technology is good enough, though, to do a temporary field. And maybe the sounders play a few games on that grass field.
00:23:20
Speaker
You know, FIFA has been good about leaving, you know, legacy projects behind, whether that's, you know, some pitches, you know, pitches in underserved communities. You know, there are, you know, infrastructure projects on the horizon. You know, the obviously the timing of the World Cup with the
00:23:50
Speaker
the waterfront, the Seattle Waterfront Project and having the viaduct gone. And again, for sure COVID has gotten in the way of some development there, but there should be an amazing connection by then between the waterfront and the stadium.
00:24:13
Speaker
But, you know, I think that I think that more than anything, it's just the awareness and the attention to the sport that a World Cup brings. It brings new people, new fans to our sport who hopefully, you know, decide to support the Sounders coming out the other end. And so
00:24:38
Speaker
And I realize that timelines are tough to nail down right now, but it sounds like from what you're saying, the timeline on the Tacoma Stadium has probably been pushed back just as a product of there not being a lot of movement during this time, but maybe it's not.
Fan Experience Adjustments
00:24:55
Speaker
You can certainly clarify that. And then I would assume that to the degree that there was ever a hardened, I don't know that there certainly has never been a public timeline for any sort of training facility upgrade or change.
00:25:09
Speaker
Is that still kind of it sounds like maybe that's coinciding with World Cup potentially even I think they're those are independent. I mean, we we
00:25:22
Speaker
No, we need to make improvements to our training facility or or or build a new training facility. So but that is, you know, it's definitely independent of the World Cup. I imagine that whatever we do would be the World Cup in Seattle would be a beneficiary of. And and I mean, but I think it's safe to say that
00:25:52
Speaker
the training facility, stadium Tacoma, and the decisions that FIFA US soccer are making about World Cup have all been delayed by COVID. And to date, they've probably been delayed by about the length of time from the beginning of March. And depending on
00:26:19
Speaker
how the world evolves in the next months, it'll either be delayed further or not. But I guess the one thing we can say is none of those have been shelved indefinitely. They've just been delayed. Correct. Yep.
00:26:33
Speaker
So so the other element that you have that the team has already announced that has that is a change that is potentially coming next year is Assuming that there are fans in the stands is that you made a decision to not have season ticket holders up in the 300 section and I know that at least on sounder at heart that's been met with some pretty loud and I would even say
00:26:59
Speaker
close to universal frustration. What was behind the decision? And we can kind of get into that a little bit more. Sure.
00:27:07
Speaker
Um, well, first thing I'll say is that, you know, that is something that, well, going back in time, um, we didn't have season ticket holders in the upper level for a bunch of years. Um, and, uh, and then, you know, even like as, as, as far back as a couple of years ago, we started discussing this. Um, and,
00:27:34
Speaker
Again, it may sound counterintuitive, although it doesn't to me, but the genesis of those conversations was continuing to drive value into the season ticket holder.
00:27:54
Speaker
uh value you know in this particular case hasn't you know i would say is fairly significantly correlated with our season ticket holders being able to resell their their tickets when they you know when they're not able to attend.
00:28:14
Speaker
We believe that the lower level experience is better for our fans. Now, again, some of our fans in the upper level would disagree, obviously.
00:28:32
Speaker
We like it when our fans are on top of our players and we just think that that energy derived from that proximity is what helps drive the team.
00:28:54
Speaker
And so, again, it was a combination of factors, but really, ultimately, it was to try to drive value into the season ticket holder hands.
00:29:06
Speaker
We, you know, just as a data point, we had I think about 800-ish accounts up there representing a couple thousand
00:29:25
Speaker
tickets. We have lost today either 11 or 12 accounts, which we don't want to do, which we're going to fight like hell to get back. But that's one and a half percent. We have added an equal number of new tickets
00:29:54
Speaker
people moving downstairs who didn't really realize that they could and that they could add on.
00:30:03
Speaker
I know that there are some people who were upset about this, but we believe that we have given our fans that we're up there a good alternative. We've worked with them on location pricing and we are hopeful that a year of
00:30:29
Speaker
of being in those seats and they will love it and not miss their seats upstairs. And so and Jeremiah, I'll just also say, you know, this was something that we had talked about. Certainly, I think that this pandemic has, you know, and to your point,
00:30:53
Speaker
not knowing what next year is going to bring and, you know, and what does 22 look like? And, you know, I would say that that also maybe put us over the, you know, maybe put us over the edge in terms of finally making that decision. And one of the one of the ideas I've seen put out there and I'll just let you speak to it is that there was a
00:31:22
Speaker
a higher number of available, like the renewal rate this year was not, people were speculating that maybe the renewal rate was not so high this year. And so there was more room in the lower bowl. And I'll just let you speak. Is that part of it? Yeah, no, no. I mean, our renewal rate has been super consistent for like,
00:31:51
Speaker
Not coincidentally, well, or maybe coincidentally, Jeremiah, our renewal rate was higher
00:32:02
Speaker
until we opened the upper level. And then our renewal rate dropped and all, you know, again, all I'm going to, I'm sure someone will yell at me for giving numbers, but our, you know, our renewal rate has, has dropped from the
00:32:22
Speaker
I would say the low to mid 90% numbers into the high 80s. You know, high 80s pushing towards 90.
00:32:39
Speaker
five, six, seven percent on a big number is a big number. Right. And so we believe that the best way to continue to grow our base and and to continue to grow our overall audience over time is to renew our season ticket holders in the mid 90s and add on top of that
00:33:09
Speaker
which will then grow the base. And look, this closing the upper level for season ticket holders does not preclude us from opening the upper level for some big events every year. And it doesn't preclude us from
00:33:31
Speaker
from ultimately opening up the upper level for season ticket holders again someday and certainly offering first opportunity to those who, you know, who we've displaced. You know, this is
00:33:49
Speaker
We still have the same ambition to ultimately sell out CenturyLink Field, but we do believe that getting there is going to be heavily focused on taking care of our base season ticket fans. And if the natural path to selling out CenturyLink Field every year
00:34:18
Speaker
would have, you know, was just opening the upper level all the time. You know, we we we would have. We would have like continued down that path, but that's just not the the that's not what we believe. And, you know, again, people may say we're wrong and that's certainly I mean, that's an argument I'm willing to have. And I may be right. We may be right. We may be wrong.
00:34:46
Speaker
Well, and I'll just, uh, one other follow-up I had on that is, uh, what has the process been like for people who were displaced that wanted to, that were open to the idea of relocating, which it sounds like most of them were. And it sounds like some of them even decided to buy more tickets as a result of this. I mean, what, what, like, where were they in line? How was the, how did that process get worked? What kind of feedback did you hear from people? Um, you know, I'm hearing one thing, but I'm sure you're hearing another.
00:35:16
Speaker
Sorry, when you say where were they in line? Did they get first access to, were they able to move, were they ahead of people that wanted, like if I had sick to get some 131 and I wanted to move to 135?
00:35:32
Speaker
I have one place in line as opposed to someone who's in 313 and wants to move down to 135. Presumably, we don't all have access to relocation time. Now you've stumped me, Jeremiah. Well, I guess the question more broadly is what efforts were made to accommodate
00:35:56
Speaker
uh people that were i mean look we we called everybody individually obviously you know it wasn't like we just sent an email and said hey you've got till tomorrow to you know
00:36:08
Speaker
We worked with people on price, we worked with them to find whatever fit for them. And again, we know that going into a new year that we were going to lose some number of season ticket holders
00:36:34
Speaker
uh for 2021 just always happens so we knew that there was the inventory available to take care of uh take care of these things so i i
00:36:49
Speaker
someone knows the answer to exactly where. I think that answers broadly what I was. I was just kind of more curious about what accommodations were made for them. Not so much. I didn't need to get into the specifics of it. I'm sure many people had different experiences regardless, but it sounds like you went you made an effort to go above and beyond in terms of working with people. Look, I hope that our fans mean most of our fans
00:37:14
Speaker
believe that we care about them. We want them to love us, have a great experience. Feel like we're in this together. We're trying to and and and and that doesn't mean that every single decision we make, everyone is going to love. But hopefully, you know, fans who've been with us long enough know that
00:37:39
Speaker
We're really trying to make them want to be Sounders fans and not hate us and have an excuse to cancel season tickets. And again, whether we execute perfectly all the time, I'm sure we don't. But we didn't make this decision to try to anger a bunch of people and have them stop being fans.
00:38:03
Speaker
Well, and I think the other aspect of this is, you know, there's the individual aspect of people being personally affected. And then there's the other aspect which
00:38:13
Speaker
I'm curious, your thoughts on is as a fan base, you know, we've been told time and time again that part of our strength is in our numbers that, you know, the sounders are able to kind of like, I know, uh, Garth has used this analogy before that you're kind of able to, um, out hit your average essentially by, like you can, you can be a bigger club by having a bigger fan base, essentially like kind of be bigger than your market would suggest that you can be. Um, and I think that,
00:38:41
Speaker
There's a pride aspect that a lot of Sounders fans take in being, you know, even if we're not number one anymore, we're still.
00:38:49
Speaker
we're still very clearly number two in terms of average attendance. And so what is the anticipated hit in this area? And I guess more broadly, what kind of message do you think it's sending to people that a couple of years ago, and you mentioned it now, that the goal was to sell out CenturyLink, and this is at least temporarily a step back, it seems like.
00:39:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, look, I get how someone might interpret it that way. Our goal is still to sell out CenturyLink. Our goal is to be number one, not number two. I think our strength is in numbers. Our numbers will still be strong and hopefully will grow, but will grow from our base being
00:39:42
Speaker
you know, even more committed and feeling the value even greater than they already do. But, you know, I will readily admit this is hard. You know, if it was easy, you'd open up
00:40:05
Speaker
stadiums and people would just show up and you'd be sold out ever again. But it just doesn't happen that way. And it's not like we've sucked on the field. So we know that it's not necessarily about the quality of the product. We think that the game day presentation is great. TV ratings are fantastic. Our new partnership with Amazon has started strong.
00:40:35
Speaker
But we've talked about this before. You know, people are busy. People are busy. They've got a lot of choices. They have to decide where to spend their money. Sitting on the couch watching games. Not only our sport, every sport is getting better and better. Traffic is getting worse and worse.
00:41:02
Speaker
trips to the stadium are getting worse, now you layer in an infectious disease. It is selling tickets, getting butts in seats, and even once you've sold the tickets, getting the butts in seats.
00:41:21
Speaker
It's not easy. It's not for the faint of heart. So we just feel like, again, making sure that that base of whatever, call it 30,000, is a sounder's army that is
00:41:43
Speaker
devoted to our team and that we are doing our part to give back to them in a way that says we value your commitment, your annual commitment to us, you know, thereby, you know, and value Jeremiah isn't necessarily only in the form of
00:42:09
Speaker
being able to resell your tickets, right? I mean, it is, you know, we wanna continue to build more and more benefits into the season ticket package membership to make sure our base knows we love them. Yeah, that all makes sense.
00:42:29
Speaker
Is there a, do you know a sense of, of like what, like assuming you're, again, this is, you were making big assumptions that there's going to be anyone there, right? Um, but is it, do you have a sense of like what the, what the average attendance may end up looking like? It, could it be ultimately unaffected because of other things you do, or is it going to be a significantly lower number than, you know, I guess we were at around 40.
00:42:55
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the the lower bowl and the green zone and the suite, I think I think that's about thirty five thousand high thirty four or something like something in there. Thirty four to thirty five. But to your point, if you layered in one game where you opened up the entire stadium and had sixty five thousand people in the stadium,
00:43:25
Speaker
That raises the average quickly. You do that twice. That is certainly the plan, is to grow next year.
00:43:43
Speaker
pandemic or no pandemic, I think it's unlikely that we're going to grow. And 22 might be the same thing. I think that's yet to be determined. But long term, we do think that it's the right thing to do to grow from whatever 21 and 22 bring. And is CenturyLink still the place where it feels the best place for you guys to be?
00:44:15
Speaker
Um, I mean, like, does this suddenly make a new state, like a, your own stadium more by more like, does this a signal of that?
00:44:23
Speaker
No, for me, it isn't. We have 12 or 13 years left at CenturyLink. We think it's a spectacular location for us. And we do, again, we do think that there is growth ahead
00:44:48
Speaker
ahead of us. But, you know, it was never going to be, you know, a a straight line slanted up to the up to the right. You know, it's going to come with fits and starts. And and I mean, you see that in pro sports everywhere. Maybe Arusha Dorman might not see that, but you know, it it
00:45:19
Speaker
And, you know, I think the sports world is going to continue to evolve. And so. And so how is this all built into like you're presumably in the process of building budgets and kind of planning for
Sounders Financial Strategy
00:45:35
Speaker
next year? Is this like how has this whole situation affected the way that the league is going to be spending, that the Sounders are going to be spending on on their team going forward?
00:45:48
Speaker
Uh, you know, let's see, how do I answer? So, you know, going back in time, it's funny, you and I had a conversation way early in COVID world. And I threw out some big numbers and got in trouble with some of my homeowners.
00:46:11
Speaker
Yeah, for being hyperbolic and turns out I wasn't so hyperbolic and it's just that
00:46:24
Speaker
my partners hadn't quite, you know, this thing hadn't reached the entire country. And so, so, you know, look, COVID is going to leave a dent on all sports, but I am
00:46:45
Speaker
super confident in our league in, in the other owners around the league and in my ownership group, um, that, you know, our best days are in front of us and that we are going to continue to spend and invest to improve the product year after year after year. Um, and that, you know, we're in this for the long haul. Um, and, uh,
00:47:18
Speaker
And that's just kind of what we have to do to continue to grow the sport and grow our league in this country. And so you feel, it doesn't sound like the plan is to dramatically cut back spending and
00:47:34
Speaker
And have you been pretty happy? Like what's the sense of how, you know, obviously most teams aren't having any fans. A few teams have had a few thousand fans at games. Um, you know, you alluded to losses in hundreds of millions of dollars in this previous conversation just now, but, um, has the, how do you feel like the league has come through? Like, does it seem like, like people are getting cold feet? Does it seem like it sounds like maybe just the opposite?
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah, look, I'm not sure that I would say it's just the opposite that everybody's, you know, more excited today than they were six months ago or eight months ago. But, you know, owners, owners, my partners, owners around the league didn't get into this for, you know, to make a short term buck there, you know, most of them
00:48:31
Speaker
obviously are rich enough where it's not going to affect their lifestyle, um, to, you know, to lose millions and millions and millions of dollars. Um, uh, most of them are doing this for love of the sport and love of their community and that they're super competitive and, uh, and you know, I'm no different and, and,
00:48:58
Speaker
You know, so so there is a, you know, there is a full on commitment to seeing this through. Again, I'd be remiss if I didn't if I didn't bring the league up as well as as an entity that has
00:49:17
Speaker
gone above and beyond during this time to keep their people safe, try to keep connecting with our fans.
00:49:33
Speaker
trying to promote the sport and keep the sport going in a very difficult time when there are a lot of different pressures from different places. And we were able to pull off the Orlando tournament in a safe way. I think in a lot of ways that MLS was sort of a leader in bringing sport back.
00:50:03
Speaker
And again, I know that, you know, in the middle of a pandemic, it's not necessarily. You know, you can certainly have two different perspectives, you know, should we even be playing sports today? But but I do do believe that we have got to get our country
00:50:27
Speaker
back into a more normalized way. And we just have to. There's no alternative. It may take a while, but we have to get there. And I'm proud of our league for, you know, doing its part safely to bring soccer back.
00:50:52
Speaker
And so have you been happy with the way that the home stadium portion of this has gone where you have, you know, everyone's flying on charters and playing and, you know, showing up the day of the game and... Yeah.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think we've done we've made as many. Look, I'm sure we're getting some decisions wrong, but I but I am a huge proponent of the fly in the day of the game, play the game, get out, avoid as much risk as possible. I think that we've been able to deliver
00:51:34
Speaker
deliver a good, not as good of a TV product as having a stadium packed with fans, but it's been a good TV product with some access to audio that
00:51:51
Speaker
sometimes might not be appropriate but has been entertaining. I think the virtual signage has been a positive and is a learning for us as a league. I think we've been able to engage with fans in
00:52:16
Speaker
to some degree, you know, again, nowhere near being in person and high-fiving and hugging and feeling the experience together. But the in-stadium experience is definitely lacking. By definition, almost, I suppose. But we're making do with
00:52:45
Speaker
you know, with the, the, the, the, the hand we've been dealt and, uh, and we'll continue to try to, to do the best possible to deliver, to deliver a safe environment for our, for our players, staff coaches, you know, deliver up a good entertaining product for bands. Has there been any positive like things that you've learned from this whole experience that maybe are, are things that you would have,
00:53:14
Speaker
you were forced to try that maybe you're glad you had to try? Yeah, I think so, Jeremiah.
00:53:25
Speaker
Look, we're not the only ones, but I think just about all of us are maybe surprised by how much you can do remotely through video conferencing. And my personal belief is that whether it's Teams, Zoom, BlueJeans,
00:53:53
Speaker
It's the tip of the iceberg in terms of how we use technology to work remotely.
00:54:11
Speaker
Again, I mentioned the virtual signage. Some of those learnings have been helpful. I think that some of the protocol, just sort of health awareness protocol, probably
00:54:38
Speaker
has been a learning that wouldn't have come without a crisis like this. I'm hopeful that, and again, this isn't just for the sounders, but hopefully as a society, we learn that if you're sick,
00:54:55
Speaker
you probably shouldn't go out and infect a bunch of other people. Maybe it's better to stay home. You know, maybe we become at least willing to wear masks as a culture, probably wash your hands more often, sanitize, you know, maybe social distancing at times. You know, so look, it's hard to say that there are lots of great positives that have come out of this, but
00:55:24
Speaker
And I'm not even sure that I'd say they're positive, but I do think that our society will be changed coming out the other end of COVID. So one thing I wanted to close out probably on this is just to get an update on what's going on with the Sounders Relief Fund and you speaking of some of the changes that are going to come out of this, like how
Community Support and Social Justice
00:55:49
Speaker
you know, what you see as the prospects for life down and by the stadium.
00:55:58
Speaker
ended up raising more than a million dollars and distributing more than a million dollars. It is not flush with cash at this point. I think we're close to the end of this cycle. I actually, again, when we started it, I anticipated it being sort of a two to three month bridge
00:56:32
Speaker
But obviously, this has dragged on a lot longer than I think we all would have anticipated. You know, to have to have been able to help people out for six, seven, eight months is a positive.
00:56:46
Speaker
Um, uh, you know, I know that it's what we did was a drop in the bucket. Um, there are many people struggling still around the stadium, um, and, and obviously everywhere, uh, in our community, in our country and in the world. Um, uh,
00:57:06
Speaker
I don't imagine that life will be back to normal around the stadium for a while. We'll continue to do whatever we can as the sounders to add a positive, a little something positive to people's lives.
00:57:29
Speaker
The other thing I've mentioned, Jeremiah, is some of the work we've done, some of our community work and various platforms, including our social justice platform, with a heavy emphasis on getting all of our players, staff, fans to get out and vote.
00:57:53
Speaker
that, you know, there's nothing more important that we can do as as citizens as vote about your census. What's that? And fill out the census and fill out the census. Very true. So but, you know, I think you're going to you're going to see us continue to be active in in the social justice space. Speaking out against racism, bigotry,
00:58:24
Speaker
fascism, you know, a bunch of evil in our society. So and again, I'm proud, you know, proud that our organization, our league has taken taken an active role in that, you know, black players for change.
00:58:44
Speaker
I think has been a really positive addition to our overall entity.
Conclusion and Season Success
00:58:58
Speaker
Well, Adrian, I've taken up plenty of your time and I really appreciate you once again being so generous with it. It's been great having you on. I also wanted to make sure to congratulate you on so far what has been a pretty impressive season from an on-field perspective, all things being considered. Yeah, seriously, dude, I get all the hard things mentioned. I don't get to talk about
00:59:27
Speaker
and bring Brad Smith home. And I know, I know. I feel, I feel bad that you only get the, you don't get to talk about any of that stuff. That's what you get for, for stepping down as GM, I guess. No, it's been, you know, look at just to finish, I mean, for me, you know, again, for everybody, it's been a rough year. 2020 has been, has been difficult on all of us and, uh,
00:59:55
Speaker
You know, watching some good soccer has been, you know, is one of my very few joys, you know, that I get on a weekly basis. So I'm appreciative to our coaches, players, staff that are keeping our players healthy.
01:00:17
Speaker
and for our staff that works, well, that used to work in Pioneer Square. And, you know, continuing to keep the trains running on time, if you will. I know, I've said this a couple times in my columns, but it's worth noting, you guys are on pace to have a, you know, like as good as LAFC was last year in the regular season,
01:00:44
Speaker
The numbers you guys are putting up are very much on that level. I understand why it's not getting the attention that it was getting, but it is funny that it's coming at a time like this. I would like to think that people are watching on TV at least and tuning into streams.
01:01:06
Speaker
Getting to see a lot of really entertaining, fun soccer. It's been, you know, I've written about it a couple of times, but it's it's been a real, you know, I would say at least since MLS is back in the in the games you've played since then, it's been it's been really remarkable. Yeah. Great. Well, and thanks again for your your support, Jeremiah. Hopefully we'll see you and your readers and all of our fans soon in the country.
01:01:33
Speaker
All right. Well, uh, thanks again. Uh, that's it. Uh, this is, I'm Jeremiah Shan signing off for Adrian Hanauer. This is a simulcast of the sounder at heart and, uh, no study at this podcast. So see you next time.
01:01:49
Speaker
Alright.
01:02:05
Speaker
Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. We love you. Let's win another one!