When the Sounders died

In the 2009 MLS season history was made when on March 15th the New York Red Bulls took on the Seattle Sounders which was the Sounders 1st ever game in the MLS. But it was not their 1st game in the Sounders history, far from. The team was 1st founded in 1974 but in 1982 the Sounders 1st run ended but why, that's why if you can believe it I did the research and found out, I know what crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy. It began in 1979 when construction rich brothers Frank and Vince Coluccio bought a majority stake in the Sounders. Before that the Sounders old home ground Memorial Stadium was expanded to 17,925 seats for Sounders matches; the team had 4 more sellouts games that season and averaged a whole 16,830 during the 1975 season with 7,477 season ticket holders. They even announced a move to the new multi-purpose Kingdome, the Seahawks old stadium ahead of the 1976 season, planning to limit capacity to 38,000 seats for most matches but charge the same prices as their Memorial Stadium tickets. They Sounders went on to play in 2 Soccer Bowls (the old MLS Cup essentially), losing in 1977 and 1982 to the New York Cosmos.

That was because of after the old coach left for Vancouver Jimmy Gabriel stepped up in 1977 and his 1st year led us to our 1st ever Soccer Bowl in his 1st season. But then things began taking a turn for the worse. As in 1978 the Sounders barely got into the playoffs and lost to the Cosmos in the 1st round this time instead of the final round. And in the 1979 the Sounders suffered it's 1st ever losing season. That's when management kicked Gabriel to the curb for the fiery Alan Hinton. The team's recruitment strategy around this time changed too instead of getting imports from England more and more North American's starting appearing on the roster. A good amount of local home grown talent too like, Kennedy High School graduate Jimmy McAlister who took NASL Rookie of the Year honors in 1977.

As for Hinton he was a fiery brit who later became known as Mr.Soccer in the Puget Sound area around this time. He was a ex-player, left-winger specifically for the likes of Wolves, Nottingham Forest and Derby County. His temper made him polarizing within the organization and among the players. But his love of the game, love of the local area and dedication to growing the game in the Puget Sound led most fans to loving him. But that was only helped when the Sounders form picked up as soon as he walked in the door. As we went 25-7 in 1980 which was the single season record for wins in a NASL season. With the team almost sweeping the post-season awards and attendance reaching 24,000. Hinton was coach of the year, goalkeeper Jack Brand won player of the year, and striker Roger Davies earned Most Valuable Player honors. Tacoma natives Jeff Stock and Mark Peterson were both in the running for Rookie of the Year, an award which was given to fellow Tacoman Jeff Durgan of the New York Cosmos however. So after such a high the team imploding was a thought that was far away from the mind of all fans. But that's exactly what happened in 1981.

In 1981 the Sounders suffered their 2nd ever losing season as all those fights behind the scenes spilled over and ruined all the momentum that they built after their record season last year. But the roller coaster ride went back up. As in 1982 they made the playoffs again and Hinton even led them back to the Soccer Bowl where they again lost to the Cosmos in Carlos Alberto’s last ever game. But the damage had been done. Attendance wasn't half of what it was last year and the league itself was going through a ton of money troubles at the same time too. So Frank and Vince Coluccio sold the team to former football player Bruce Anderson. And his ownership of the Sounders was extremely short but memorable.. but not for the right reasons.

The new owner Bruce Anderson thought soccer was "too British" and began to make dramatic changes to "Americianize" the team and game. And the 1st major change was firing British manger
Alan Hinton and replacing him with despite thinking soccer was too British also English manager Laurie Calloway. Though Bruce said that he played a more American style of play hence the hiring. Anderson then changed the logo, uniforms, and installed "red, white, black, and blue" as the team's advertising catch phrase. Now nothing wrong with any of this hell I liked the logo Anderson commissioned. But a lot of longtime hardcore Sounders fans hated it and so they began to take their money elsewhere and no longer showed up to the games. With the Sounders #1 source of revenue, ticket revenue dried up further the Sounders had a hard time even paying their players that season. So as you imagine the players didn't play their best ball and that didn't help the attendance issue. They finished with a 12-18 record and eked out only 8,317 in average attendance. Barely 4,000 diehard fans attended their final game.

There was a plan to play the 1983–84 NASL indoor season at the Tacoma Dome but that was scrapped after losing to a new Major Indoor Soccer League franchise, later the Tacoma Stars; an alternate site, the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, Alaska, was also favored by Anderson but was never used. The Sounders lost an estimated $7 million in their final years of operation and the rights to the team's name were sold to Hinton. And thus the Sounders 1st death was official, thanks a bunch for reading!

Please read this article by historylink.org

And this 1 by the Guardian as they were both massive helps in this article!