Major League Soccer is expanding to Seattle. The ownership is made up of Joe Roth (Hollywood Producer), Paul Allen (yeah, that one), Adrian Hannauer (local soccer supporter) and Drew Carey. Drew has some things that might not make him popular here at dKos, but in this case he ONLY joined the ownership because they agreed with him to attempt to bring Democracy to American sports.

This effort would be an echo of what has been done with the Barcelona club in Spain. The most notable element is that the fans can vote on the President of the Club. But Seattle’s first test is coming up, quite simply - the name vote.

The ownership proposed the following three names, two lame and one merely adequete.

FC Seattle
Seattle Alliance
Seattle Republic

Ownership has been quite clear that they felt they wanted to breakaway from the traditional soccer name in Seattle, the Seattle Sounders. So that name didn’t even make the cut. There was an outcry online and in the newspapers and via email. So the ownership only kind of caved and they have now offered a write in option. Certainly that makes it tough.

What the ownership did not take into account was the fact that many of its season ticket deposits are from the fans who have already supported the current Sounders of the USL and the former Sounders of MLS. They also didn’t understand that in Democracy the internet is starting to take over not just a fundraising tool, but a marketing effort that at times can capture viral attention. They kind of get it, in that their websiteMLS in Seattle will host the poll, but they don’t yet get how many people around the world can attempt to game this online poll. They also don’t quite understand the passion that can be elicited in this beautiful game.

Soccer in America still has its working class and family roots. Imagine getting 4 good seats to 15 games in any other top flight sport in the USA for less than 1,500 dollars as is possible in most MLS cities. Imagine players making money that you can actually imagine. David Beckham, the league’s highest paid player makes just over 5 Million per year from the team/league. The minimum salary in the league is right at mid-America wages, and the reserve players have jobs like the rest of us as they only make a minimum of about 12,000. So not only is this growing sport still accessible for America, but the Seattle Club is adding a nice little wrinkle by empowering people - allowing us to vote on the name, to vote on the GM, not just because of money, but there will be fan group for nonseason ticket holders that costs between 50 and 100$.

So what I’m asking the DailyKos community to do is join Seattle Sounder fans in attempt to show some powerful men in the Hollywood/technology scene just what Democracy means in America, let alone in American sports.

Join myself, the GoalSeattle community, BigSoccer and numerous other blogs, message boards, etc and write-in Seattle Sounders in the online poll.

This is the first test of Democracy in American Sports, at least at the highest level. Help the people of Washington continue their traditional name, while also showing the entire sports world how amazing Democracy can truly be. People powered movements can change the world, even outside of politics.

Vote now and write in Seattle Sounders

Its been called Moneyball, but really it is just Billy Bean (and others) applying statistics to the economics of sports to find where there are mistakes in other teams talent evaluation and to exploit those for your own team’s advantage. Beane has been doing this successfully for the Oakland Athletics for some time now, leading the team through the losses of MVPs and Cy Young contenders and still competing for the playoffs in most every year. Even as he tears down the 2008 club the fans of his team are convinced that they will win in the long run.

Beane is now entering a new era and new sport - Soccer or Football as the other 6.3 Billion people call it. He is applying his talents to MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes and statistical analysis of the Beautiful Game. I figure if this works for him, he just raised his value on the open market to tens of millions as Man U, Barca, Real Madrid and others are worth billions and have hundreds of millions of fans.

Welcome to the world’s game Billy, I’ll be able to hate you when I follow both of my passions in 2009 - Seattle’s expansion year.

What kind of impact will Beane have in MLS? That is yet to be seen, but you can start speculating now.

It becomes increasingly apparent to NBA * fans and Seattle sports fans that the Sonics * will eventually not be in Seattle. How soon depends not upon attendance, but upon the outcome of a court case. This isn’t necessarily a suprise to Sonics fans, as we have known that at least one minority owner bought the team with the sole intent of moving it * . David Stern recently made comments that if the Sonics leave Seattle the team will not be replaced (unlike Charlotte). Stern has had a recent case of foot in mouth concerning the viability of his league in a business sense. From the previous link

Stern repeated earlier criticism of Seattle’s City Council for promoting a measure, overwhelmingly passed by voters, that requires any funds to help build an arena earn money at the same rate as a treasury bill.

That measure means there is no way city money would ever be used on an arena project, Stern said.

Stern just admitted publically that there is NO economic advantage to be gained from spending public dollars on an NBA arena. Think about the impact of that. He claims that a city can’t earn back money at treasury bill rates from a stadium investment. Why would ANY city fully fund a stadium?

Just two weeks ago he made statements that Seattle should emulate the San Antonio model, a model which involved a super-majority of public funding and which was so successful that the team is already demanding over 100 Million dollars in public funds to update the FIVE YEAR OLD AT&T Center. Perfect business model. A city should provide 85% of initial funds and then every five years should expect to spend nearly that same amount on updates.

Stern is working very hard to break his league. This is more than just about stadiums, but about regions and cities that Stern would lose in his efforts to get fully funded stadia. Why would any sports owner approve a move from market 13 to market 42 by Nielsen TV ratings? How will that help their next contract? Would the peripheral markets in Tulsa really be better than Vancouver BC, Spokane and Boise?

Furthermore, as the league continues to shrink its market penetration in English speaking North America through moves like the Seattle - Ok City how does it see its future? Would a league really be better for not having youth in the Puget Sound wanting to be NBA stars? Would it be better without Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson, Dan Dickau and others? Maybe Stern doesn’t realize it but a league doesn’t last long if it can’t appeal to the best athletic talent in its home nation, especially not while shrinking the number of viewers who care.

The good news for the great citizens of Cascadia is that though we have already lost one NBA team and will soon lose another, there is a sports league expanding to the region. Seattle will be getting an MLS team.

David Stern you did great in the 80s and 90s, but its the 21st century now and you are failing to understand that though sports in the USA are global in appeal they must first appeal locally and around North America as a whole. Your inability to adapt the league to the some time competive strings of global and local appeal mean that you are becoming sports version of Sears.

You will still be around, but at one point you were a top two league in America. Your league’s appeal continues to fall. As the NFL * and MLB * compete for top status, you have fallen behind NASCAR * and are currently battling with the NHL * and MLS * for pro-sports respectability.

Any owner that votes to turn its back on millions of consumers and future consumers for a short term gain is emulating the day traders of the 90s. Vote against Clay Bennett and his short-sightedness.

* Link goes to Fanhome forums

In the past couple weeks several issues have sprung up that are dragging the names of Americas top sports through the proverbial mud. From Michael Vick’s indictment showering new commissioner Roger Goodell with criticism to David Stern facing his toughest challenge ever with a referee connected to gambling and point shaving the issues are rather large and not limited to these two sports. Goodell really hopes that you only think of Michael Vick when you think of the NFL and criminals. Let us not forget PacMan Jones, Tank Johnson and the rest of the Cincinatti Bengals. This is a league that is soiling its reputation through its players and too many of them with criminal misconduct. The NFL has an image problem that might just hurt its ratings and ticket sales in the upcoming season. Goodell has talked about taking the SuperBowl international, and yet their foreign farm league folded this year.

Stern, and the whole NBA, are getting rocked by the gambling story, but it is overshadowing other issues as well. USA Basketball isn’t very good and hasn’t competed on the international stage for too long. Once the US was the gold standard for basketball around the world, lately though they just hope to medal, even in continental tournaments. Inside the USA the NBA has issues as three teams have stadium/attendance issues facing them. The Kings likely lost their Vegas trump card in negotiating with the city, but they still won’t talk Sacremento in funding a new stadium for billionaire casino owners. Oklahoma City will no longer host the Hornets, but seem quite likely to wind up with the Sonics as no city in the Puget Sound will build a stadium to host the 40 year old former champion SuperSonics. No one can know how successful the Hornets will be in their return to New Orleans after their two year absence, but the team ownership can’t be happy with the large challenge of marketing a corrupted league.

Who would have thought at the start of the baseball season that there wouldn’t be one, but two stories diminishing the controversy of Barry Bonds, steroids and Bud Selig? Selig took several months, but it seems he finally decided to follow Barry on the chase, yet we still are left to wonder how will he address the questions that shadow Bonds? Steroids isn’t the only issue facing baseball though. Mega contracts are on their way back, as Marlins’ President Samson says “It’ll take the sport down, that contract.” He also called it “the end of the world as we know it.” That was only about Ichiro signing a five year, 90 million dollar extension. Its not like that’s Scott Boras asserting that Alex Rodriguez will be signing a 35 Million dollar per year deal this offseason. What would Samson say about a single player making as much his entire team? It seems that the megacontracts are on their way back and as soon as Selig figures out the steroids issue he’ll have to face the MLBPA again about contracts.

The Big Three aren’t alone in their struggles, though they are the biggest targets. The second tier leagues all wish they had the kind of coverage that the NFL, MLB and NBA get and the NHL once did. But hockey has signed a poor television deal without rights fees, and actually had playoff ratings in the USA that were lower than regular season WNBA games. After the long lockout attendance was initially back, but this year the struggle extended beyond just the SunBelt into some more traditional markets (Chicago and Boston) as well. Almost two-thirds of hockey fans on Fanhome think that Bettman is doing a poor job, and it is quite obvious that most of America agrees.

I tried to delve deeper and find good news for even less followed sports to see how they are doing. In Major League Soccer Garber has attained a ton of press, but almost all of it is about David Beckham as an entertainment star, not the performance on the field. It isn’t that the performance is poor, it is just inconsistent. Recently lower table Real Salt Lake beat Everton and the All Stars beat Celtic, those are good wins versus quality teams, but what does it mean when in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup only three MLS clubs advance to the quarterfinals of the tourney? DC United lost to a second division team even. Soccer is stronger than ever in the MLS era expanding into San Jose and maybe even Philly within the next year, and yet it faces the same issues it has since the NASL.

So which commissioner has it easiest right now?

I’m voting none of the above, there hasn’t been a worse time for pro team sports in my 3+ decades.

As I’m reminded by sometime FanHomer and current Admin at The ScoreBoards, TestSubjekt, I left out a sport that is usually hot this time of the year, the Tour de France. Likely the most drug plagued sport in the world, the Tour collapsed in the past two years. No Lance Armstrong, its last winner accused and its current winner was just kicked off of the his team due to drug issues as well. The Tour might be dead in North America.

The baseball season is two weeks in and some strange things have already happened. An entire series in Cleveland was SNOWED OUT and the Mariners have played all of five games where most teams are in the 9 or 10 games-played range. Two of those Seattle games were started by a man-child who goes by the name of King Felix. This year he is earning that crown. (Thread Archiving King Felix starts)

Current Division Leaders (Friday the 13th) are
NL East - Atlanta at 7-2
NL Central - The Reds, Brewers and last year’s Champs at 5-4
NL West - Arizona at 7-3
AL East - The only team with a winning record is the only team in Canada at 5-4
AL Central - is lead by last year’s Division and AL Chamionship winners at 5-4
AL West - The Angels lead the small division at 6-4

The Baseball board features a Game of the Day thread with a predictions contest for those that want to see how they compare. It is early in the season but with several games going in unexpected directions it has some excitement. Also on the top of everyone’s mind are the increasing number of players and team’s wearing #42 in tribute to Jackie Robinson. Torii Hunter thinks this tribute has gone too far, what do you think? Myself, I think that the lack of system has diminished the impact of the tribute as things seem rather haphazard for a league with centralized control of this situation.

In non-baseball news, the Stanley Cup playoffs have started for our fans of the puck and stick sport. Roundball is currently dominated by the college kids declaring for early entry into the draft, but the playoffs are just a couple of short weeks away. The gridiron news has been dominated by two players with troubled histories getting suspensions of 8 games and a full season. Wrestling fans tell me that Hulk-o-mania just keeps on going, like a certain bunny. The Premiership proved this week that it is the best soccer/football league in the world right now.

Baseball is in for a marathon season with dozens of twists in the hole, doubleplay’s turned, more complete games, there is no wonder why many consider it the National Pasttime, and now 16 nations are represented in the Majors. Here’s to seeing history made and Hall of Fame careers develop. Let’s raise a glass to those that get a cup of coffee, and a toast for those that have brought us 42 years of joy (Moyer v Glavine).