This is hilarious and awesome! European cities are often covered in soccer club scarves! Go Sounders!!!

Very cool. Great idea for a marketing campaign... I just wish there were more!

I'm just glad they don't say 'XBOX LIVE 360" on these scarves.

those uniforms are hideous.

We really need to look more like Europe. REALLY??? This is a better start than the other bleep they bring to the table. Got hooligans? A bright spot in a not so bright time. Good for them. It's nice to see somebody doing something without government help.

Awesome! Just awesome. Grab a scarf. Keep it with pride. Come to a game and hold your scarf up!

"I’m just glad they don’t say ‘XBOX LIVE 360″ on these scarves."

click the link and look at the pictures of the scarves... I wanted to buy one until I saw the xbox crap on the blue side.

Here I thought Scarf Seattle was a cooler, hipper version of Bite of Seattle.

There was a huge banner drapped across one of the overpasses on 520, accompanied by quite a few people waving with excitement. It was a nice scene on a sunny Friday morning. Excited for the 19th!

and by 'drapped,' I mean 'draped.'

Without XBOX Live there would be no sounders.

I understand xbox/microsoft lends a huge endorsement but do we need to be reminded?

This is great, however the "First" Major league soccer team in Seattle was the 1974-1983 Seattle Sounders.

Those were the days....

Yeah, I'm also excited for the 19th. First day of the NCAA Tournament -- go Dawgs!

Haha, well 2 reasons to be excited for the 19th!

Where can we get those scarves?

We can't even get enough support to keep an NBA team in town. What makes people think there's going to be enough support to keep a soccer team in business? Even with major stars like David Beckham in LA it was still not popular.

I give them kudos for their efforts, but I would put money down that it will fold within 3 - 5 years.

Homeless dude,
You are clueless about what you think. The Sounders will not fold in 3-5 years, as a matter of fact, they will be a global brand by then. MLS is the only league at this moment who are surviving extremely well with this terrible economy, even the NBA is going down the hill fast. Do your research and talk like an intelligent person before making comments. Thanks.

Dear whiners about the xbox branding. Grow up. Love Chelsea in the Premier League...Samsung all over the branding. Like Manchester United....AIG. Get the point. At least we don't have the embarassment of New York. I mean come on the freakin' New York Red Bulls. Now that is selling your soul.

BikeDan...another fan of the Blues?! Sweet! Don't tell Gooner. :)
I for one am extremely excited for the season to start.

homeless. the reason seattle couldn't support an nba team is b/c clearly, they couldn't draw 10,000 to their games.

well, the sounders have 22,000 season tickets SOLD.

oh, and the first game is SOLD OUT at 34,000.

oh, plus $5mm a year from xbox.

oh, and the stadium is shared with the seahawks, who aren't going anyway, so the financial burden of stadium is substantially less.

oh, and paul allen is a majority owner.

oh, and soccer is the most popular sport in the world

oh, and there are more kids that play soccer than any other sport in washington

i could go on if you like but you don't have to be a math genious to understand how that is clearly a better financial situation than the sonics had.

Yeah for scarves! I love it.

Now will someone please tell me how it is we don't have a hockey team? I mean c'mon, we can practically see Canada from here!

"oh, and soccer is the most popular sport in the world"

This means nothing. It's definetly not the most popular sport in the US, which is the important factor.

It's not even 2nd, 3rd, or 4th... I'd put it somewhere below hockey and golf, but above women's basketball. Sure, you have your hardcore fans... but fact is it's a small, niche market.

You're right it may last beyond 5 years, but it'll always be an small time sport in the US...

Homeless dude: average attendance for NHL and MLS has been almost the same for the past few years. If you remove the Canadian NHL teams then MLS handily beats the NHL since the majority of the top 10 attended NHL teams are Canadian. MLS has also been growing faster than the NHL. A big part of this is due to the Latino community who make up a big chunk of soccer fans in this country.

Personally, I hope it stays a niche sport in this country. I don't want it turning into the sort of bloated spectacle and ego trip that have become the NFL and NBA!

Golf is a completely different model and actually attracts a huge number of fans simply due to the multi-day format of the event and nature of the venues. Sort of like how the Tour de France is technically the largest annual spectator sporting event simply because it's 3 weeks long and the "venue" is a few thousand miles of open road that allows millions to view it in person.

Also, yes, it's very weird that Seattle doesn't have a NHL team but Phoenix does. WTF??

Finally for all you X-Box whiners out there keep in mind that soccer relies on corporate sponsorships. This is MUCH better than other pro and college sports that are subsidized with tax dollars. I'd much rather see a bunch of 360 logos than continue to have my tax dollars wasted on UW teams!

The entire UW athletic department is self-supporting. No tax dollars are "wasted" on UW athletic programs -- it earns in ticket, advertising, and sponsorship revenue more than what it spends.

WSU, on the other hand, well...

Also, the Sounders play in a taxpayer-subsidized facility, unless I'm missing something.

The reason they have ads all across the jerseys is because there are few breaks in the game, which gives TV/radio less opportunity for advertisements, which makes TV/radio contracts less lucrative.

We have season tickets, so excited.

Re: x-box, I'm really glad Microsoft is willing to invest so much into its city! Love the logo and the uniforms, its not like x-box needs the marketing so maybe it will actually appeal to x-box players who haven't yet discovered the world's game.

"homeless. the reason seattle couldn’t support an nba team is b/c clearly, they couldn’t draw 10,000 to their games.

i could go on if you like but you don’t have to be a math genious to understand how that is clearly a better financial situation than the sonics had."

No ... The reason the Sonics left is because Seattle is a front running sports town. When any Seattle sports team is winning, it draws. When it loses, it doesn't, simple as that.

If the Sounders are bad, they won't draw. Period. I hope this is not the case.

Oh, and homeless dude already schooled you on soccer's popularity in the US, so I won't bother.

"Duncan // Mar 6, 2009 at 3:50 pm

The entire UW athletic department is self-supporting. No tax dollars are “wasted” on UW athletic programs — it earns in ticket, advertising, and sponsorship revenue more than what it spends.

WSU, on the other hand, well…"


Congrats on bringing up something completely irrelevent to the topic at hand!

"Now will someone please tell me how it is we don’t have a hockey team? I mean c’mon, we can practically see Canada from here!"

We do! Kind of...
http://seattlethunderbirds.com/
They're WHL, not NHL and they play in Kent, but if you want to watch a game live and get good and close to the action you should check it out.

I'm a Sounders season ticket holder and I can't wait for the 19th. Sometimes I pee my pants just a little bit thinking about it. If you've never been to a professional soccer match, please, please check out a Sounders game (if you can get a ticket). I promise you won't be disappointed. Watch the young Columbian up front named Freddy Montero. He has the gift. This is really a first class organization that is making all the right moves. It's going to be an absolute blast. I grew up in Gig Harbor and lived and breathed the Tacoma Stars. I know the Sounders will fill that little hole in my heart left by the Stars. I still have dreams about the "Lord of All Indoors" Steve Zungul and Preki.......Preki to Zungul, back to Preki on the boards, Preki drops to Gary Heale. Heale back to Preki. Goooooooooooooooooooooal!!!!!! VIVA LA SOUNDERS!!!!!!

Watching soccer is for Americans an acquired taste, like coffee, beer, and wine. Despite the fact that I've been playing since I was 7, I found matches utterly boring until I grew up and paid some attention to the subtleties. (You gotta grab onto the subtleties when the combined score of the game wouldn't pay for your morning cuppa.)

I never liked baseball or coffee so if football (yeah, that's right, you pigskin fans gotta share that word) isn't your thing then let it lie. To each our own. Hell, I didn't get hockey for the first few games I watched, but at least it was fast so I hung on until I understood the game.

Speaking of hockey, Seattle doesn't have an arena appropriate for an NHL team. No, Key Arena is nowhere near capable. Anyone who went to a T-Birds game since the '95 remodel knows about the horrible rearrangement of the bleachers. I hope the Birds have fun in the new barn in Kent. Haven't been down there yet; I'm a Portland boy and bleed Winter Hawks black and red. Maybe next season when, you know, we hopefully don't suck.

For now I've got my season tix for the Sounders and will be out there cheering on old man Keller and the crew. At least until the Timbers get uplifted to MLS. Rose City till I die.

oh man, i got SCHOOOOOOOLED

except i never said that soccer was the most popular sport in the US so you weren't telling me anything new there.

if you don't understand or like soccer well there is no way for me to argue you into that, nor do i want to.

while it is true that there are plenty of fair weather fans in seattle. there is no proof that the sounders aren't going to fall victim to this, only time will tell.

but to reiterate my point about sharing the stadium... even if they only sell half their tickets when they are bad, it is still going to be much easier for them so sustain the down periods b/c the stadium is already financed etc. the sonics didn't have other revenue streams to keep key arena the stadium to a level that they wanted it to be.

anyway. the 19th can't come soon enough.

XBOX Live is the major sponsor of the sounders. Sponsor=money=scarves. Would you rather they weren't televised? (different sponsor, I know, same idea)

living in San Antonio now. . . . . dang this makes me miss home. I remember going to see the sounders when they were USL spanking MSL teams. Funny how now that they are MLS, they're selling out quest field. It's all $$ and marketing. They're an amazing team, going to see them own the dynamo in august!!! SOUNDERS!!!