Adrian Hanauer addresses the meeting flanked by ECS leaders
In an unprecedented moment in Sounders FC history, Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer told a meeting of the Emerald City Supporters (ECS) that “we fucked up”.
Hanauer was addressing the main Sounders Supporters Group, who held a Town Hall meeting this Saturday before the home match with Colorado Rapids.
After several attempt to refer to a controversial canvas that will promote Delta Airlines as “art” rather than an advertisement, Hanauer finally dropped his calm exterior over a piece of fabric that had started the week as “tifo”.
In a poignant moment, PR-speak turned to an owner leveling with his angry fan base. There was no dancing around the point, or speaking in half-truths to appease half-attentive masses. It was just a clear admission of a massive mistake. It was perhaps the most candid apology we have ever seen from the Seattle front office in public.
The ECS Town Hall meeting was due to be a fairly run of the mill procedural event, with members able to question their own leadership, until a series of events made this one of the most eventful weeks in club history. The bulk of the disquiet at the meeting concerned the Delta advert, new security checks, dynamic ticket pricing and the hiring of announcer Keith Costigan.
The club announced details of a commercial tie up with Delta Airlines at the beginning of the week. The deal announced that ‘tifo’ would be celebrating Delta’s role in uniting Seattle. The use of the word ‘tifo’, used to describe fan made banners supporting the playing side touched the rawest of raw nerves among ECS members and others.
The announcement though was the tip of the iceberg for many supporters after a series of unpopular and occasionally baffling decisions in 2016. One fan Jim Strother, a season ticker holder since 2007, used our pages to voice his frustration at what he saw as a series of terrible decisions made by the Sounders Front Office.
Jim’s Fan Op-Ed set off a firestorm with many fans chiming in for and against, but mostly echoing his frustration.
The size of the outpouring of anger took many by surprise. Displeasure about the appointment of Portland Timbers fan Keith Costigan as match announcer was already known, as was anger over dynamic pricing and increased security checks.
But the strength and size of the reaction to Strother’s article caused consternation inside the club. As the article went viral, the Sounders FO moved to quell the growing unease and it was announced that majority owner Adrian Hanauer and Chief Operating Officer Bart Wiley would attend the ECS Town Hall, along with two other representatives, Mikaela Purvis and Taylor Graham.
The meeting was contentious. At one stage, a chant of “Fuck Bart Wiley” broke out, only for ECS Co-President Heather Satterberg. calm the crowd by saying,
“That’s not necessary ….yet.”
On the whole, the club did well to own up to past mistakes and find common ground with supporters. Their efforts in standing up in front of an angry group of people were courageous. The 90-minute long grilling featured the occasional outburst from well-meaning passionate supporters. Staying calm was no easy task, even for executives, and Hanauer, Wiley and co. did it well.
The ECS deserve credit as well, keeping the conversation productive while still taking the club to task for its mistakes. At the end of the day, everyone came away with a better sense of the good will between the parties even if nothing concrete was settled.
Other than calling the “tifo” project a mistake — Hanauer didn’t just say it once, either — he admitted “We fucked up.”
