BTW, they didn’t have a salary cap in the NASL and Seattle was always one of the top teams in attendance and then of course because of that on the field. I will give you the Cosmos dominated.

However, LA has a better team, even if the Sounder beat them this year.
And the Mariners are one of the highest revenue teams in baseball. I read that Portland ( Mariners broadcast of course ) was the 10th highest baseball viewing city in the nation during the Mariners good times.

If you are still mean spirited towards the Seattle masses read this….ortherwise thanks for the conversation. I appreciate the great viewpoints.
I am calling to get my season tickets renewed, it looks like the Sounders are making a decision on whether to “only” increase the stadium size to 35k or closer to 40k seats, most likely 40k as they are getting renewal rates on season tickets of close to 95% currently, so get used to the arrogance of the Sounder’s fans. Either way it will be most likely sold out for the year before first kick-off.

You don’t understand economics at all.

The reason why New York and LA do not outdraw Seattle is because the product is inferior due to a salary restriction.

If the cap was removed, these clubs would have incentive to spend like drunken sailors and relegate the Sounders to the status of the Seattle Mariners in terms of quality, because Seattle is a smaller market.

What you are currently looking at is the short term, with a cap, results. Tell me, would the Sounders be so popular if they came in and lost over half their games and didn’t make playoffs?

The answer is, of course, No.

Past performance is not indicative of future performance. You cannot realistically compare the support of a winning team in a mid sized market under a heavily capped league to that of a team in a mid sized market without a cap. The cap is a market distortion and screws up the balance of the league. The last thing the Sounders want is a cap removal.

The Seahawks ( who stink granted ) are playing the same time as the Sounders today. My brother in law, who doesn’t follow the Sounders and is a huge Seahakws fan ( who isn’t ?) is watching the Sounders. He is not the exception and he might be the rule, I hope I can find the TV ratings on Monday, it should be interesting.
I would be shocked if NY even sold half as many shirts as the Sounders…hard to find out as it is Seattle’s first year as very few had USL Sounders shirts.

IF you disagree, just log on to MLSNET.com and see the pathetic goals of the week that made it because they were Sounders. I saw one post that showed the replay of the Sounders game ( they replay them three times usually ) drew more than the ESPN game of the week, which is national.

One thing to consider with a salary cap in place.
I estimate the Sounders had $18 million in ticket revenue. It actually could be quite a bit higher, I don’t know how they do on luxury boxes and how that is split? I think 1/2 gets shared with the league, disperse that money and have…no MAKE each team spend $600k more…over and above an increase they could probably do by gambling a little bit. Sign players and they will come approach.
I think that the Sounders number is likely to go up next year as the ticket prices for non season ticket holders ( 10k or so ) plus new tickets will be higher, plus there should be closer to 40k/game depending on how they do today and how many seats the Sounders feel they can open up.
Then pray for Toronto type crowds to for Portland and Vancouver and do the same with 1/2 of that money. You are starting to get to that magic doubling of salaries that I think starts to keep the American talent home.

This kind of stuff isn’t really that notable in big leagues in the rest of the world, either. Again, think of it like this: Columbus won the league; they sit at the top of the table. Another team won the US version of the FA Cup, not all that notable from other leagues; and the possibility is high that a third club will win the US version of the League Cup.

This stuff isn’t that remarkable worldwide, and I think it does the intelligence of US Soccer fans an injustice to think they can’t keep up with this stuff.