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Chris Daniels on how the World Cup has changed perceptions of Seattle
1 Playsin 15 hours
Chris Daniels (senior reporter, KOMO) joins Jeremiah to talk about post-World Cup Seattle; how the event has changed perceptions of what Seattle was and what that could mean for the future of the Sounders.
Follow Chris Daniels on BlueSky.
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Transcript
Introduction and New Roles
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go.
00:00:11
Speaker
Come
Seattle Sounders' MLS Cup Victory
00:00:12
Speaker
on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what a Where's my copy? got bunch of them How many do you cost them? 50 bucks.
00:01:08
Speaker
I'll deadline you.
Podcast Sponsorship and Guest Introduction
00:01:18
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
00:01:44
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of No Sarietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. I am Jeremiah O'Shan and joining me today, someone I am really, really excited to have on the podcast, Chris Daniels.
00:01:54
Speaker
You know him from Cairo. You know him from your TV, from everywhere these days. ah Chris, it is my pleasure to have you on. Welcome. Welcome to the show for the first time.
00:02:07
Speaker
Jeremiah, you know this, I've told you to your face. I'm a big fan of what you built with the the rise of the Sounders and have read your work for years. So i'm I'm honored to be with you. And yeah, I've worked at three of the four TV stations in town now. So I've almost hit for the cycle or touched all four corners or gone end to end or whatever sports analogy you want to use.
Career Transition and Investigative Work
00:02:30
Speaker
And you left in most recently, you left the market and came back, right? Yeah, when I left King in 2022, I went to Spotlight in America, which is our our company's flagship investigative franchise.
00:02:45
Speaker
Did that exclusively for six months and still do it on a monthly basis. In addition to the things I do locally for Como. Como, I blew it.
00:02:57
Speaker
I absolutely blew it. And I knew i was going to do that. And I apologize. So mea culpa. It's okay. work You got, you got the one station I haven't worked at.
00:03:08
Speaker
Oh, you did killing me. Uh, we'll fix it in post. No, okay we won't. I'm going to own that. I'm going to own that. God, I am. I am embarrassed. Thank you for calling me out on it though. In all seriousness, but this illustrates how, how of a robust of a, of a resume you have that i'm getting confused. So confused that I thought you worked everywhere and nowhere at once. Apparently anyway,
00:03:33
Speaker
ah The main reason I wanted to have you on is i have really enjoyed the coverage that you were doing of the World Cup.
Seattle's World Cup Success
00:03:43
Speaker
You also wrote a really interesting piece about the state of the of the Seahawks sale and how it impacts the Sounders. I think you're really well positioned to answer some questions that I think a lot of Sounders fans are interested in.
00:03:59
Speaker
But let's start with the World Cup. This was, look, I'm going to be, I've said this before. I'll say it again. i was really skeptical of the World Cup. I was, i just thought it was going to fall flat on its face. I thought these projections that it was going to be like six world, six Super Bowls were totally crazy.
00:04:17
Speaker
I thought the projections of 750,000 people coming to Seattle were just like numbers plucked out of the air. And I was telling everyone that would listen look, if you really want to go, just hold off on buying tickets because they're going to be giving these things away at some point.
00:04:32
Speaker
And boy, was I wrong. I agree with everything you just said. i mean, i I thought for sure we were going to see 40,000 people at a few of those games, especially the Iran-Egypt game on Pride Night.
00:04:48
Speaker
I didn't think that that would be a full house. The Bosnia-Herzegovina match. That was the one that I thought was going to just be a dog. I thought that that it would be half full.
00:04:58
Speaker
And i told people in advance, I was really worried about half-empty stadiums, especially in Seattle. And the the only match that was not technically a sellout was that first one. And that was only a couple of hundred shy, right? and they And we're going off FIFA numbers there when they they say something sold out or not.
00:05:21
Speaker
But you and I both know from being in the stadium, I think those were full stadiums. I think i think every game was a sellout. And I don't know what ultimately happened on the secondary market as we got closer and closer to match time on those those six events.
00:05:37
Speaker
But especially the last one in the in the knockout round, I didn't see any drop off in the ticket sale price. I thought I'd see something similar in Vancouver. I went to one of the matches up there, which was Egypt's first ever win in the World Cup against New Zealand.
00:05:53
Speaker
That was a sellout. 80% of the fans there, Egyptian, had clearly traveled from elsewhere, from outside North America. and It was a phenomenal scene, and a phenomenal scene afterwards outside in the the streets of Vancouver with the cheering and the dancing and Mo Salah on the back of ah another player. and and um yeah just I think what what I saw in Vancouver and primarily in Seattle was unlike...
00:06:23
Speaker
Anything I've seen before, fans that I talked to said they'd been to NFC championship games. They'd been to other you know major championships for the Sounders, and MLS Cup, Leagues Cup.
00:06:35
Speaker
Never saw anything like that. Thought it was better than the parade. The traffic that we saw in terms of sound transit was better than we saw for the Seahawks parade. So, yeah, I think there's some recency bias, and a lot of people have that right now based on how well the event went.
00:06:52
Speaker
But i think therere the thought was there were going to be complaints about attendance, going to be complaints about ah congestion, people getting to the stadium, getting in and out of the stadium, ah parking, security.
00:07:05
Speaker
We didn't hear any of those complaints. And I think that's that's what also surprises me after the event is is the lack of real complaints and the fact that there was so much civic pride and civic joy about how well it went.
00:07:22
Speaker
and And I say that objectively, being all over the city and walking with the American outlaws. And, you know, I, i at one point, Jeremiah, when I was covering it live and and streaming it live, the the the March to the Match on that knockout round on on July sixth i I stopped a couple of times and I said, just soak this up ah to myself.
00:07:47
Speaker
I don't know if there's another event in recent Seattle history where you can think that everybody was on the same page and happy and wanting to talk and waving the American flag and yeah the amount of American flags and the chants.
00:08:05
Speaker
and hitting the beach ball around. And, uh, you know, it, there was just no comparable March like that. And i think I even said on the air, I'm just going to get out of the way. And, and a good producer just gets out of the way and lets the pictures and the, and the sounds tell the story because it was, it was unlike anything that I can remember in Seattle.
Impact of World Cup on Future Events
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah. I had the same reaction, you know, and I come to this from, i don't, I don't know if I was, cynical about it or what I thought I was coming at it from just an open eye. Like I've seen big crowds before I've seen, you know I was at the, i went to the the Seahawks parade. i you know, I've been to leagues cup final. I've been to the champions league final. I've seen the centers host MLS cup.
00:08:48
Speaker
And I thought I was ready sort of for what I was going to experience. And especially that Belgium game, that parade, that 25, they said they estimated it's like 25,000 people. Yeah. Which I thought was part of what was so amazing about that was I had gone into the stadium already at that point. And I wanted to just sort of get a sense of the vibe in the stadium.
00:09:08
Speaker
And it was already packed. Like the concourses were teeming with people. And so that there was a 25,000 person March to me suggests that it sort of illustrated.
00:09:19
Speaker
There's a lot of people who just want a piece of this action. They just want to feel involved. They don't care if they have a ticket. And I guess some of the estimates are that there was somewhere between 750,000 to a million people downtown on that during the day, which is, i believe, just because I saw every single bar in a, I don't know, like a three mile radius of Lumen Field, just like overflowing with people.
00:09:47
Speaker
It was, it it was just like this massive humanity and everyone seemed, and I think to your point, it wasn't like, anyone It just smiles and and unironic flag waving and people that were just sort of happy to be in each other's company.
00:10:06
Speaker
And you saw that over and over again, really. I mean, the US-Belgium match was the most extreme example, but it was the Bosnia-Cutter match. It was Egypt-Iran. It was Egypt-Belgium. It was...
00:10:21
Speaker
ah Belgium, Senegal, you know, and no matter which game you were at, you saw versions of the same thing. And i i don't think I was ready for any of it. I don't think I was ready for sort of like, and I kind of thought there there would be some a decent crowd of Seattleites who came out to the game, just because it's a big event going on. But this was clearly something else.
00:10:43
Speaker
It was different. And, you know, stories about Pacific Place having a line out the door for the Seattle soccer house. and And that hasn't happened in at least a decade where there's been that kind of crowds in Pacific Place. I can tell you a couple anecdotes. i that was like in the march I was in the march and and ran into an older woman from who has told me she didn't have tickets to the game, but she wanted to be a part of it. She came down, marched in the match, said, I think that there's outside noise that Seattle gets. in And she said, this was just this amazing moment in time where everybody is on the same page and the city was shining, 80-degree day.
00:11:30
Speaker
And she was saying, i just think this shows the rest of the country and the rest of the world what kind of city Seattle is. And I also think to that Qatar match, ah which was one that I thought would not have high attendance, walking around Pioneer Square and seeing people who clearly had come to the U.S. for that game, who were wearing, I think, the the the gowns, that the the gear that you would see in the Middle East, for lack of a better description,
00:12:02
Speaker
posing with Seattle police officers, posing, posing with Bosnian fans. It was this great cultural exchange in the streets of Seattle and nobody was upset and nobody no was talking back and forth or hurling insults back and forth. And everybody was, was happy. It's, um,
00:12:23
Speaker
I just think it was, there were a couple of times that were kind of pinch me moments, even covering it to see that unfolding in such a positive way, ah given everything that we've, we discussed in advance that could happen. It didn't happen. yeah Yeah. I mean, there was, and I think a lot of the, the,
00:12:43
Speaker
the The skepticism I think was warranted. Like the look, I don't think anyone was stoked about paying the prices that they had to pay. There were challenges for people. There were real challenges for people to get into the country. You know, we could go and leave litigate all of that. But I think what was amazing is that it sort of all washed away and that it was able to be overcome.
00:13:04
Speaker
And again, you know, to your point again, after the game, the way after every single game, I think I walked out into Pioneer Square and fans fans from both teams were partying together. Like they were playing music, they were dancing, they were drinking, they were celebrating. And it didn't matter. Like you said, it didn't really matter if they won or lost. It was sort of just, we're here for a good time.
00:13:27
Speaker
And they were intent on doing that. And it was great to see. And, you know, I'm curious though, from your perspective, do you think this has any, like, what are the legs from this? Like, it's all fine and good that Seattle had a ah really great three week run during the world cup.
00:13:42
Speaker
And I think those of us who are sort of civic boosters that love Seattle ah are are inclined to say, yep, this is what it can be every day. But like, that's probably a little Pollyanna ish. What do you think? Like, what, what realistically are the legs? What do you think the lessons that we can take from this sort of experience are?
00:14:01
Speaker
I think Beth Knox from the Seattle sports commission has a huge feather in her cap to go out and sell the city and and try to in a bid process get Seattle as ah as a host for the 2031 Women's World Cup. I think what you heard on it outside the city is that Seattle showed off, showed itself very well in that environment. And i think we saw people from outside Seattle say that the city should have been the host for the World Cup final or a semifinal. i think Yeah. we I think that now becomes a reality ah with the Women's World Cup because of how the city performed, how people were able to get around, how people were able to... I mean, I had skepticism about that pedestrian zone in in Pioneer Square, but there was a reason now, I think as we saw it play out, why they had it that way with the the Northern entry and being really the only way for most fans...
00:14:58
Speaker
to get in the, that, that worked out extremely well. Sound transit had its biggest ridership days ever showing that people could get back and forth, um, across the lake too.
00:15:09
Speaker
So I think all of that helps in a, in a bid process. Uh, I, I think that, uh, you know, in terms of safety and security, I found it more overwhelming during the club world cup with the amount of security that was outside. That's a great point.
00:15:24
Speaker
This kind of blended into the background. There were some issues, I think, on the first match with people getting into the stadium and some pinch points around yeah King and and Occidental.
00:15:37
Speaker
That got sorted out by the the second match. But I think there were some lessons learned there for just safety and security, staging multiple events. You know for Beth Knox, who's been trying to get the NFL draft, she just showed how the waterfront could work with that, with the barge out front, with the natural amphitheater that the the new aquarium provides with the Overlook Walk.
00:15:59
Speaker
All those pictures with the skyline and people hanging out on the Overlook Walk, looking down at a stage. That's all built for the NFL draft. I think she now has those pictures to prove it.
00:16:11
Speaker
I think for the the police department, they were able to prove themselves and in crowd management and working with outside agencies. I think it it it helps for recruiting for the police department to have such a positive event.
00:16:27
Speaker
and have positive feedback face to face. I mean, I could go on. I just think that this could not have gone better for the city of Seattle. The one exception, if I really wanted to dig down and and find one is the Chinatown International District. We did hear complaints that,
00:16:43
Speaker
there were They didn't feel the the bump that perhaps other parts of the city did. and And some of that has to deal with just foot traffic flow and and people getting off at the the sound transit stop and walking towards the stadium.
00:16:57
Speaker
But that that would be the the one thing I think we heard any criticism about were voices in the CID saying, hey, we would have liked to have had a little bit more piece of of this big pie.
00:17:10
Speaker
and And hotels, too. If there was some grumbling, we heard from hotels that ah they they didn't get the big bump during the week of a couple of matches that they thought. But Airbnbs did well.
00:17:24
Speaker
So, I mean, there there are lessons that people will learn coming out of this event, both in recruitment and ways that perhaps the next big event ah could be handled. But, you know, Peter...
00:17:36
Speaker
You heard it as well as I did six Superbowls and it's going to be the biggest sense thing since the 62 world's fair.
Launch of Sounder at Heart Magazine
00:17:43
Speaker
I didn't believe him at first. Uh, but I think as time goes on and we see in the next couple of years, what may come out of this with getting other events, he could be proven to be accurate on, on some of yeah the the early comments.
00:18:00
Speaker
Sounder at Heart has been around in one form or another since 2009. In 2026, though, we make a pretty significant evolution when we go analog. Yes, that's right. In the year of our Lord, 2026, we are publishing a real-life magazine. We're calling this thing 4, as in Sounder at Heart 4.0. But we're stylizing it as IV because we absolutely love Roman numeral. And if you want to refer to it as IV, that's cool, too. The first issue has a comic book-style cover that was hand-drawn by local artist Kevin Newbern. Features by Tim Foss, Susie Rance, and Charlie Boehm. A statistical deep dive by Kat Bush. A Q&A with Brian Schmetzer. A column by G. Willow Wilson. And photographs by Noah Reif, Max Aquino, Mike Russell, and Jane Gershowitz. I could not possibly be more proud of the work everyone put into making this, and I think you're going to absolutely love it. If you'd like to get your hands on one of these limited edition copies, we're currently selling them for $15 on our website. Get yours now.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yeah, Peter Tomazawa is who you're referring to, and he was the head of the local organizing committee. And I mean, look, I'll be honest, i took a lot of shots at the local organizing committee in the build up to this, in part because I just thought they were writing checks that they just were not going to be able to cash.
00:19:12
Speaker
And lo and behold, they I mean, they it came off really well. I have no real complaints. ah And it's i'm I'm very happy to be. This is one of those things I'm i'm really excited to be wrong about. um you know But one of the things...
00:19:29
Speaker
One of the things that I do think came across and, and we sort of alluded to a lot here is just how the downtown location of the stadium is really what differentiated from everywhere, but maybe Vancouver, which has a sort of similar arrangement in terms of where the stadium is. But I will note that one of the big differences between at least, and I'm curious, you're, you went to Vancouver. I did not go to Vancouver, but I know that Hastings park was the hope was where the sort of fan fest was.
00:19:59
Speaker
And was there my, ah my assumption is that the activity right around the stadium was not quite as robust and as organic as it was in Seattle. I don't know if that, if you want to.
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I will tell you that. Yeah. I think Seattle had a better layout um in Vancouver, the East Hastings, what's what's like their Puyallup fairgrounds with their old Canucks arena um is where they hosted that. And,
00:20:25
Speaker
You know, that's not downtown. You're going through a sketchier part of Vancouver to get there and you're going by bus or taxi or parking. Not connected by the SkyTrain. Not connected by the SkyTrain. You're going off Highway 1, their one freeway around the east side of the city.
00:20:41
Speaker
um So it was a little bit disconnected. And I know there was some criticism in Vancouver that they didn't have it down on on either waterfront, Jack Poole Plaza or ah the other big park where they had a bunch of the Olympic stuff. So they took a chance there. I know that on on Sunday with the the World Cup final,
00:21:01
Speaker
they did sell out that park and and there were long lines to get in there. But outside the stadium, the the kind of entry point was more on the false Creek side and they didn't have the same amount of activity in terms of tents and places to get your bank of America bracelet and and any sort of TV a studio set or anything like that. So it was kind of,
00:21:29
Speaker
I thought in a way some some wasted space, but they were also using that for ingress and egress. And then, you know, downtown and Yaletown, i think were vibrant.
00:21:39
Speaker
I think Yaletown, there's probably some businesses there who had some some record foot traffic in that that month and probably would have done even better if Canada had actually beat Switzerland. Right. Because I did hear from anecdotally from the Yaletown brewing company there that they they had one of their best days ever when Canada was was playing right down the street. So I think they they lost somewhat by Switzerland advancing out of the group stage. But it was still, i think for those Yaletown businesses, for a lot of those downtown businesses, I walked through on Sunday from Yaletown during the the World Cup final, from Yaletown ah back through the city core. And it was
00:22:25
Speaker
It was phenomenal. Granville was blocked off as a big pedestrian plaza with people standing in the the road watching on every TV they could possibly see and every bar. And I think there was a lot of activation there.
00:22:40
Speaker
and And just people would spill it out into the streets to experience that World Cup final as well. So i you know in in the discussions I had during a couple of trips to Vancouver during the World Cup,
00:22:51
Speaker
everybody was pretty happy for the most part. That's great. But I don't know exactly how that whole component on the east side of the city worked. Well, I bring it up in part because one of the the topics of conversation has turned into, ah you know, the Sounders have not really...
Sounders' Stadium Dilemma
00:23:09
Speaker
shouted this from the the rooftops, but they have made it very obvious to anyone who is paying attention that they have designs on building a stadium in Renton. And that would be a very different experience than what we had at Lumen Field. and i'm And I don't know if you've gotten any sense of this. I know I haven't gotten any sense of it, but...
00:23:27
Speaker
do I just have to believe that this whole thing does open some eyes and maybe change some some perspectives on the value on the inherent value of just having a downtown stadium and that you know whatever extra revenue streams you might be able to bring up from Renton, that there is some kind of soul that gets lost when you leave a downtown location like Lumen Field.
00:23:53
Speaker
Yes, yes, and yes. I mean, I think one one of the reasons why it was so successful is because it it was downtown. And um if you're the Sounders, you're now having some second thoughts about any sort of grand plans in Renton. I mean...
00:24:09
Speaker
the The idea that all of these fans would would magically, not only you know not all of them are necessarily Sounders fans that came to the World Cup, but part of the appeal of the Sounders out of the gate in 2009 and the reason why they were getting 40,000 fans a game was because it was downtown and because people could take transit into downtown or go to a bar or restaurant a couple of hours in advance and and and walk to the match.
00:24:35
Speaker
You don't have that in rent. And especially if we're talking about the area near the old Longacre site where they've set up camp ah for what is, it turned out to be a beautiful facility is a training facility.
00:24:46
Speaker
But there's this component of heavy rail it's not It's not sound transit that's directly connected to that site if that's where they were if that's where they want to discuss building any sort of soccer-specific stadium.
00:25:02
Speaker
it's It's heavy rail that only goes through that area a couple of times a day on weekdays and not necessarily has the same service on weekends. And that's been casually mentioned in these discussions about ah building a stadium there is the connection to transit. It's not the same thing.
00:25:18
Speaker
And you wouldn't have the that what we saw here with the World Cup with people showing up a few hours before match time. And ah the march to the match wouldn't be the same. And the march to the match from the waterfront ah wouldn't be the same.
00:25:32
Speaker
I think that but for the long-term success of the Sounders, there has to be another idea besides building in Renton. They had an opportunity before Memorial Stadium.
00:25:43
Speaker
Uh, you know, it's in the process of renovation, as you know, there was an opening there at one point in time, uh, potentially for them to have 25 to 30,000 seat stadium obviously is not happening. Uh, where else could you build that without having it so far removed in Renton, making it tougher for fans to get there and tougher for fans to want to get there.
00:26:06
Speaker
and part of the success with the world cup and with the sounders to this point has been that location. And I think it was just reinforced during the world cup. It was, ah and I guess related to that, you know, one of the the biggest, maybe the biggest sports story in Seattle outside of the actual super bowl and the actual world cup, but the non, I guess the non sporting biggest non on field story in around Seattle has been the sale of the Seahawks.
Ownership Stakes and Implications
00:26:35
Speaker
And you,
00:26:35
Speaker
have covered that pretty extensively. ye One of the tangents of that story though, is in addition to the Allen estate selling the Seahawks, they also have a 25% stake in the Sounders. That's gone from, you know, my understanding is that they didn't actually put up money to get that 25% stake.
00:26:52
Speaker
They basically invested it. they They ran the business operations for the Sounders for the first, I think five seasons. But anyway, that investment has now turned into whatever, 200 million, 250 million, something like that valuation.
00:27:05
Speaker
you I know you wrote a story about the state of that sale and that the it was not included in the Seahawks sale, but what what have you learned about that? Because it it suddenly has a lot of relevance, I think, right now, because it would seem on paper, at least to someone like me, that if the Seahawks were to buy the stake in the Sounders and then they wanted to sort of buy the entire, take control of the Sounders, that that would suddenly create a lot of synergy at Lumen Field and keep them there.
00:27:33
Speaker
ah But anyway, What do you know about it? I agree. I mean, that's, I think there was a kind of an assumption and and that's why I made a couple of phone calls that the the Sounders were, that 25% stake was part of the Seahawks deal when in fact it's not. So that that piece of the Allen portfolio, sports portfolio is still out there and ah what that sale would mean, what it could mean the any sort of new stadium redevelopment, any sort of grand plans for the Sounders.
00:28:05
Speaker
That's all a question for another day. But you know With the Seahawks in the short term, you know that that deal is likely going to be approved in August. There will be new owners.
00:28:16
Speaker
There will be new owners who just spent a lot of money. Almost $10 billion, dollars which is an insane amount of money. Record NFL total, $9.6 billion. The closest was you know just a few years ago with the Washington Commanders at $6 billion.
00:28:33
Speaker
So they're coming in with a lot of money. What are they going want with Lumen Field? With a lease that's up in a little over five years, are they going to ask for something from the city of the county and the state, knowing that there are some renewals, but they could potentially say, hey, we're going to opt out because we want X, Y, and Z. Again, that's all hypothetical.
00:28:55
Speaker
But if if they do say, hey, we want to have natural grass in there or we want to ah we want to have more control over something, how does that affect the sounders? These are these are questions I don't necessarily have the answers to ah right now. But another component of this is Will they want to acquire some other real estate to maximize the return on their investment? Could they potentially want to build an entertainment district?
00:29:22
Speaker
Could they want to potentially do something with the convention center on the the south side of the stadium that's been there forever to maximize that? How would that affect the Sounders? I think there are some interconnected parts here.
00:29:35
Speaker
that that we just don't have the answers to right now. Because the Coastal family has said they're not going to talk about this until any of it, until the deal is actually closed, presumably next month.
00:29:46
Speaker
And so they have, cause they have not talked like publicly at all. Right. yeah And they, they are rejecting, as far as, as far as I know what I've been told directly. And I think what others have reported, they're rejecting any sort of interviews until the deal is finalized by the NFL.
00:30:04
Speaker
Um, which to a certain point is, is understandable. Uh, but until we get to that point, we're not going to know, uh, the motivations, what they think about sharing the building in some way with the Sounders if they have other plans for Lumen Field, if they have plans for an entertainment district.
Future of Stadium Revenue Models
00:30:21
Speaker
But we can just, I can just say this, that the there are eight different teams in the NFL, quarter of the league, that's in the process of building a new stadium, opening a new stadium, or trying to finance a new stadium. The Bears are the ones that are getting a lot of attention right now.
00:30:39
Speaker
But there's already dominoes that have fallen with Buffalo is opening a new stadium this year for the Bills. Tennessee is opening a new dome stadium and and they're getting a Super Bowl out of it.
00:30:51
Speaker
i D.C. is getting a new dome stadium. A lot of these NFL teams, Cleveland is getting a new dome stadium. They want dome stadiums because they want to maximize the revenue and have events there year round.
00:31:04
Speaker
So when you spend $9.6 billion, dollars how are you going to get a return on your investment sooner rather than later? It's by trying to get more events and trying to potentially build your footprint around the stadium.
00:31:15
Speaker
And you and I both know there's not a huge footprint around Lumen Field. and And so there's some questions on how all of that may work. But the Sounders are, i think, in this conversation, connected to all that.
00:31:30
Speaker
Yeah. You know, cause I would just think, look between the sounders and rain, they had something like 40 events at Lumen field last year. You would think that those 40 events are a a valuable asset to whoever is running first and goal, IE the Seahawks.
00:31:46
Speaker
Uh, do we know if the, is the convention center part of first and goal or is that somehow a separate entity? I believe it is. and And here's one of the, the moving parts on all of this is the WAMU theater, uh, that is within the convention center that, um,
00:32:03
Speaker
It's not named after Washington Mutual anymore, but it's still called the Wamuu Theater. It's, I think, at best, just a serviceable venue. And it's a big concrete building. Lots of negative things about it. And and the Mariners have, as ah as kind of an apples-to-apples comparison here,
00:32:24
Speaker
you know they They went to the county and did get more public tax money before the pandemic to do some renovations on the stadium. They've now signed long-term leases, the old pyramid space, Victory Hall, where we saw all these events for the World Cup.
00:32:38
Speaker
They're now signed up with Live Nation to build a live concert venue right on on that site as well, 5,000 seats or so, which is going to take business away from the Wamuu Theater in theory.
00:32:51
Speaker
ah The same kind of concerts and events. I mean, almost exactly the same size, right? Yeah, same size boat. There's a question on car shows and boat shows and that kind of thing where you would put those.
00:33:02
Speaker
But they're going to lose business, hypothetically, from the Mariners. for doing what I think an NFL team wants to do, which is build out ah an entertainment district that is around year round, that has foot traffic year round.
00:33:18
Speaker
you know The Mariners still have space to build a hotel across the street. So i mean they are ah they are doing what I think a lot of teams want to do, which is try to maximize revenue in their local kind of stadium area.
00:33:33
Speaker
and and that's going to be one of the questions for the Seahawks and for the Sounders, I think going forward. Yeah, and all of a sudden, yeah like, I don't know, one of the things I fell in love with during the event days was just the way that Occidental was ah sort of pedestrianized all the way to whatever, the the sunken ship, ah parking lot, whatever.
00:33:53
Speaker
ah and it was, like, I've always thought that that was a great opportunity, at least on event days. And I realize event days are not all the same. ah You know, a Wamuu theater concert does not bring in 60,000 people, but... yeah I don't know. There's a lot of potential down there for even as crowded as it is. It seems like it's a, it's a vibrant space.
00:34:14
Speaker
And I really do hope the Sounders continue to be part of it for a long, long time, because it's just hard for me to imagine a better, ah better spot. Like, I mean, I, I understand as much as anyone that the limitations of, of Lumen field for a team like the Sounders and for the rain, but man, it's the upside there just seems so extreme. Yeah.
00:34:35
Speaker
I don't know why the Sounders haven't called up Chris Hansen and said, Hey, you got some space here. they built an arena down at Seattle center, any interest in building the soccer stadium.
00:34:45
Speaker
I'm surprised that conversation, uh, hasn't happened, uh, at least that I know of. Uh, but there, that would feed into this whole idea of having something that is, you know, 20 dates a year and, uh, feeding off the the district and the stadium district as it exists
Importance of Lumen Field's Location
00:35:03
Speaker
right now. I think, um,
00:35:04
Speaker
you know i'm I'm hard-pressed to think of another space somewhere in the region where the Sounders could get the same kind of vibe that they get on match day right now and that we also saw at the World Cup. Yeah, exactly. Well, Chris, I've taken up enough of your time. want to give you another shout-out, though.
00:35:23
Speaker
Obviously, Como News on a what nightly basis you're you're doing? Pretty much. almost Pretty much. Yeah. I juggle a lot of balls or put on a lot of hats. Yeah.
00:35:34
Speaker
And then you're, of course you have ah a podcast that is also a, uh, it's on television as well, right? in, in, inside the arena, inside the arena. Uh, it's our little engine that could, uh, that we, we started,
00:35:48
Speaker
More than 110 weeks ago, i've I've forgotten on a week-to-week basis how many we've recorded, but it's been on a weekly basis. We haven't missed a week. um And it is not only on your favorite audio platform, it's on YouTube and is on TV.
00:36:04
Speaker
And during the non-football time of the year, meaning the non-college and NFL time of the year, it is It is on the CW, our sister station, and airs on weekends periodically on Como.
00:36:22
Speaker
Then during college football season, it's on or immediately following a lot of those big games. So it's it's kind of turned into a a vlog, pod, TV show, whatever you want to call it. Blurring the lines of these days. Yes, we touch all the bases.
00:36:40
Speaker
Yeah, and it's and and in case people don't know, it is essentially dealing with the story outside the the lines of the field, essentially. It's the business side. It's the stuff that's going on off the field, but it is sports-focused. Yeah, business and in philanthropic. My good friend Nico Tamari, the sports director at Como,
00:36:58
Speaker
He's at a lot of the games. I tend to stay outside the games and talk to the business and and philanthropic leaders. And so it's this great marriage with the two of us. And I always repeat every week off the ice, off the court, off the field of play. That's kind of what we focus on. And the business side of sports, the you know the story about the potential return of the supersonics.
00:37:18
Speaker
the Sounders and, in r and Renton stadium issues. That's all kind of in my purview and is kind of that, that, that intersection for me and what I do at Como and and what I, what I do otherwise.
Chris Daniels' Podcast Insights
00:37:30
Speaker
Well, Chris, I know I blew past the the self-imposed deadline I put on this, but i appreciate you being such a good sport. yeah And ah it was great having you on one of these days. We're going to have to get you out to our studio and, and show that off, even though I'm, don't know how impressed you'll be. It's, Probably not much what you're used to, but it's a, you know, we, we like, we like to show it off when we can, but Chris, thank you so much for doing this year. Of course, also on blue sky, you're on Twitter.
00:37:55
Speaker
And I, I just want to say thank you for being on blue sky. Cause there's not a lot of people in sort of like the mainstream press that are even on there still. ah And I appreciate that you are. So I'm on blue sky. I'm on threads. I'm on X. I'm on Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn.
00:38:11
Speaker
How many different social media platforms do I have to be on? but I am. And once blue sky figures out that tweet deck kind of platform, yeah or somebody can teach me about it, then I'll be on it a lot more.
00:38:26
Speaker
Well, I might have some off air suggestions for you though. Okay. But thank you for doing this, Chris. Let's get out of here. i am Jeremiah. This is no Saudi at this part of the Sandra Hart podcast network, and we will catch you next time.
00:39:07
Speaker
Let's go and Sounders.