A year ago, after the Seattle Sounders had made the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season but once again had failed to reach the MLS Cup Final, majority team owner Adrian Hanauer addressed a group of hard-core fans.
"We struggle through this just like you," Hanauer said at the annual meeting of Sounders FC Alliance, the team's official member association. "It is so painful not to win that elusive MLS Cup."
A year later, Seattle is in position to finally win the championship that has eluded the team's grasp. The Sounders play Toronto FC for the Major League Soccer championship in Toronto on Saturday.
Unlike Toronto, which until recently had struggled for most of its existence, Seattle has been a success from its start in 2009. The Sounders have always put winning teams on the field while setting numerous MLS attendance records. They have inspired a rabid following among Seattle fans, which has helped make the Sounders the most valuable franchise in MLS, worth an estimated $285-million (U.S.) according to Forbes Magazine's 2016 tally.
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But for all the success – the perennial playoff appearances, four U.S. Open Cups and a Supporters' Shield in 2014 for best regular-season record – the MLS playoff disappointments had started to weigh. In seven postseasons, the team reached the semi-finals only twice.
Moreover, this past summer, the goal of winning the MLS Cup appeared more distant than ever. The playoff streak looked finished, too: Seattle was 6-12-2 in late July, and parted ways with its only MLS coach, Sigi Schmid. He was replaced by long-time assistant Brian Schmetzer; general manager Garth Lagerwey said at the time that "this team can succeed. It has good players, it has talent."
The next day, Seattle signed Uruguayan midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro to a designated-player deal, and everything seemed to suddenly turn around. The team has gone 12-3-4 since. Loderio has eight goals and eight assists. "We've been able to figure a few things out," Schmetzer said on Monday.
But the Sounders paid a price. The wrenching tumult around the early season failings and firing of a valued head coach and loyal employee, was difficult for everyone, including the franchise's long-standing part-owner.
"If I'm honest, this has been the worst year of my professional soccer career," Hanauer, 50, said in an interview. "I've told people that, which is so ironic now, heading to Toronto for MLS Cup.
But I've been really proud the way the organization has responded. Success doesn't happen by chance."
Seattle soccer is ingrained in Hanauer. He grew up in suburban Bellevue and Mercer Island, and was kicking a ball not long after he learned to walk. He attended his first Sounders game when he was eight – in 1974, the team's first year in the North American Soccer League.
Away from the game, Hanauer – whose family had a bedding business – made successful early investments in technology, including Amazon when it was a startup. In 2001, he joined the ownership group of the Sounders when the team was in the United Soccer League, and soon became majority owner and GM.
In 2007, Hanauer connected with Joe Roth, a major Hollywood movie producer. Roth took the financial lead, and Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder and Seattle Seahawks owner, joined Hanauer as a minority shareholder. Together, they landed the MLS team. (Hanauer took over as majority owner last year.)
It wasn't initially obvious the Sounders would be an MLS phenomenon. USL games in Seattle attracted only a few thousand people. But the Seahawks' backing in the early days helped.
"They just had a dream start in MLS and they've never looked back," said Bob Lenarduzzi, president of the Vancouver Whitecaps, the long-time rival of Seattle in both the USL and MLS.
Sounders management took a cue from Toronto FC.
TFC struggled on the field but was a box-office smash, building a large, vocal and devoted following. Before the Sounders launched, Hanauer and company spent time in Toronto to figure out what made it work.
"Toronto really focused on young sports fans who were out in the bars, a highly educated young international crowd that was willing to commit emotionally," Hanauer said.
Seattle posted average attendance of 30,897 at CenturyLink Field in 2009, its first year; the average peaked at 44,247 in 2015, then slipped to 42,636 this season. But the Sounders still draw about 11,000 more fans per game than No. 2-ranked Orlando City SC.
Standard soccer capacity at CenturyLink is about 39,500 when many upper-deck seats are closed off. The Sounders have sold out 146 consecutive matches. For bigger games, the team opens up more seats, and has drawn crowds of more than 60,000 seven times. The long-term goal is to sell out all 69,000 seats at CenturyLink regularly.
Seattle fans have loved the team from the start.
"I just fell in love with the atmosphere. I didn't know anything about soccer," said Stephanie Steiner of first seeing the Sounders in 2009. She has since gone all-in on the team: She leads the purchase of a suite each season, and is president of the Alliance fan group.
This season's dramatic mid-season turnaround and playoff run to the MLS Cup Final has raised spirits to record levels, she said.
"Something clicked. There's very much a new energy," Steiner said. "The goal is MLS Cups. Plural."
David Ebner