In Part 1 of his article Sonics and the Sounders – Friendly Competition but Nothing to Fear looking at the consequences of NBA Basketball returning to Seattle, Prost “Other Sports” Correspondent Michael Ligot examined the logistics.
In Part 2, he examines the battle for hearts, minds and wallets.
Space in the Playground – The Battle for our Passion
If you can’t measure passion, that means there’s plenty of room for Seattle NBA and NHL fans to join in with the Sounders’ monstrous following, not to mention the Seahawks’ notorious “12th. Man” and, yes, even Mariners’ crowds in good years like 2001. Forget about cannibalization. Basketball and hockey love envelope Puget Sound, and shouldn’t affect the soccer fan base.
Roundball grassroots run deep here.
Area high schools boast strong traditions, from the legendary Garfield-Franklin rivalry to Mercer Island’s suburban dominance. Washington’s men point to a number of lengthy “March Madness” runs, the women’s team is a consistent national power, and Seattle University looks to return to the days when it beat the Huskies in cross-town classics.
The impressive roster of local prep and collegiate players who made good in the NBA include Clint Richardson, Spencer Hawes, Isaiah Thomas, Brandon Roy, and Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor. Oh, yes, the Sonics …
The Supersonics reintroduced major-league sports to comparatively small Seattle in the late 1960s, and in the face of the one-year baseball Pilots’ disaster, maintained the city’s sporting pride until the NASL Sounders, Seahawks and Mariners arrived in the mid-’70s.
The Supes also enthralled Seattle by winning the city’s first pro league championship since the Metropolitans, and that 1979 flag remains the most recent. Despite a scattered few off-years, the Sonics maintained strong crowds the next decades, particularly in the surprising 1987 Western Conference final playoff run and a return to the NBA Finals in 1996.
Only from 2006 to 2008, when it became clear new owner Clay Bennett intended to relocate the franchise to Oklahoma City, did Sonic attendance plummet, and you can’t blame the dispirited fans in that lame duck situation. With a fresh team, intelligent ownership (which Hansen seems guaranteed to provide) and a new arena, the Sonics fans could once again make it “Boom Time In Seattle!”
They would be welcomed back by other fans that never quite understood how the Seattle market was abandoned for Oklahoma City.
And then there’s hockey, a sport that drips passion from the players’ soaked jerseys and the fans pounding on the Plexiglass around the rink. The NHL is a clear fourth in America’s team sports geography, but intensity of the game’s following betrays the statistic. The league lost an entire season to a labor dispute, and yet the fans still returned! They’re even coming back after this season’s lockout, the third (THIRD!!) since 1994. Loyalty? You betcha.
Seattle’s passion for hockey? It certainly has the pedigree. (Here’s the 10-minute verison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BROy2xyt0ik&list=FLlALuAJ5T8kk-jm-ym-qBcw)
The Metropolitans carried the flag for West Coast pro hockey in the pre-NHL days, and the beloved Totems often outdrew the Sonics while dueling the Portland Buckaroos, Oakland Seals and the like.
Even though the WHL Thunderbirds (neé Breakers) have enjoyed just sporadic success, they’ve given the NHL notable players like Patrick Marleau, Brendan Witt, Ryan Walter, and Ken Daneyko, who won three Stanley Cups and had his number retired by the New Jersey Devils.
And though they’ve toned it down in recent years with more kids and families in attendance, the fans can still replicate the volume of the days when they rocked the chain links around the tiny Seattle Center Arena rink and unleashed language that would shock the Timbers Army.
Locals pay attention to the NHL, and have pined for the league to come to the Emerald City. The league certainly should have noticed the impressively large numbers of youth and adult rec-league players for a city outside the circuit.
Don’t take this to mean that the Sonics and hypothetical NHL Totems’ fans wouldn’t have enough room for the Sounders. Despite the occasional snarky Internet troll and wiseacre sports talk host, the soccer team enjoys a prominent place in Seattle’s sports landscape.
The attendance numbers many European teams would kill for show that. The basketball and hockey people here know about the soccer atmosphere that’s so similar to their noise-filled palladiums, and sports fans know a good time when they see — and hear — it. Crossover will happen. There’s always time for another game, yes?
So, Sounders fans should not worry when the new boys ride into town. The games will rarely overlap, and the lovers of the hardcourt and the ice likely won’t siphon soccer attendance. Passion plays here.
And as for me … I know firsthand the Seattle hoops and pucks mania. I remember portable TVs set up at my Cub Scout troop meeting when the Sonics won it all in 1979, I’ve been to more than a hundred Thunderbirds games, and I’ve flown as far away as Miami to see the NHL.
Until the league comes here, let’s go Florida Panthers!
January 28, 2013 at 9:51 am
What you’re not factoring into your argument is corporate dollars. Two new professional teams in far more established sports are going to siphon dollars away from the Sounders. It’s not like the financial crisis is ancient history. If they want a box at Key Arena and whatever they name the new arena there will be plenty that pitch off their box at Sounders games. That town likes the Seahawks (and pays
January 28, 2013 at 11:02 am
Excellent point, Thunderbear. I’ve wondered about that, since the arena sports are more dependent on corporations than Joe Fan for ticket sales (41 home games each). I’m not as concerned about corporate boxes leaving the Sounders, thanks to the Sounders’ relationship with the Seahawks’ savvy marketing and that it’s only two games a month to sell compared with 12 for the arena. Soccer fans are pretty loyal, too, and that gets noticed by businesses. Check out the Footiebusiness blog, which mentions this quite often.
One concern is sponsorship. Seattle does have a heck of a lot of major corporations for a city of its size, but as Art Thiel at SportspressNW points out, two of them, Amazon and Paccar, don’t touch sports in their sponsorship activities. I’d be willing to investigate that in a future piece.
January 28, 2013 at 1:04 pm
Go ahead Michael. It sounds like an interesting area to explore.
February 1, 2013 at 2:44 pm
I suspect that the boxes at the new arena would be very attractive to corporate sponsors. Especially if they can be packaged with hockey (should a team arrive) or other events like concerts.
There is still a lot that needs to happen before this happens, there NBA franchise is not yet fully secured (Sacramento is counter-offering, and the NBA has to approve the sale and move), NHL is a longshot, and after that there will be the permitting process and lawsuits with the Port and environmental groups.
Sounders have a product that is unique enough that it should be able to maintain it’s support even with extra competition. Sure seems like there should be plenty of business to support it.
January 28, 2013 at 11:51 pm
Would love the part three of this to go into television contracts with local broadcasting channels, as well as regional sports networks. Look at what’s been going on with regional sports networks in Houston, LA, NY, etc… about the money coming into the teams.
Wondering if the Sounders would be interested in joining the Sonics and the Storm in starting a new regional sports network. Could also add Seattle U B-Ball to the network as well. My guess is that Comcast would be part owner in this network.
Root Sports will not let go of the Mariners for their network. A hockey team would probably be enticing enough to add it to their network during the winter months.
Add in the new Pac-12 Network with UW/WSU programming, the State of Washington would be home to three regional sports networks if a new network is started.
January 29, 2013 at 2:22 pm
I definitely can look into this, Isaac, along with the other topics.
There is Comcast Sports NW (albeit primarily Oregon teams) along with ROOT and the PAC-12 Network, so WA already has three sports networks. I think CSN and ROOT could absorb both the Sonics and NHL. CSN OR does the Blazers, so CSN WA can do the Sonics, in the same way ROOT does both the Sounders and Timbers for their respective markets. ROOT could have the NHL “Totems” to fill the Mariners’ off-season.
The PAC-12 Network has some growing pains, from forcing late football games on stadium fans who prefer afternoons (all-day tailgating) to low penetration outside of the West Coast (unlike with the Big 10 schools, Pac-12 alums don’t scatter across the country I think). Seattle U hoops likewise needs help; it was a commuter school whose students didn’t care about sports for 30 years (I know, I went there for a while), and therefore lacks an alumni base to follow and donate to the teams.
January 31, 2013 at 11:52 am
The current Comcast Sports NW will NOT include the Sonics. Why? Because they already have the Blazers. You will not have two NBA teams on the same regional network. Will not happen. Thus a new “Seattle” centric regional sports network comes into play. Would not be surprised as well to see Comcast sports NW acquire the Timbers rights to help shore up their content to be come the ultimate “Portland” sports network.
Look forward Michael to what you can find out. Especially about the current TV contract between the Sounders and BELO and for how much longer that deal lasts.
Would be nice as well if one of the local sports radio hosts was a fan of soccer that would have soccer guests. Missing Mike Gastineau already for when he would regularly have soccer guests on.
Curious, what’s the tv arrangement up in Vancouver for their teams(Canucks/Whitecaps/BCLions)?
January 31, 2013 at 9:25 pm
The Canucks and Whitecaps are carried locally by SportsNet Pacific, I believe. All CFL games are nationally televised on TSN.
January 28, 2013 at 11:57 pm
I forgot to ask/mention. When does the tv current contract between the Sounders FC and BELO end? I found the press release for when they announced the contract back in 2008 but it didn’t state when the contract would end. BELO operated KING 5 and KONG 6/16 broadcasting channels.