The Three Comrades – Sounders “Big 3” all lean politically left
Will the personal politics of Sounders “Big Three” influence their views in the CBA talks?
by Matt Hoffman
Just days before the current CBA expires the MLS Players Union has made a clear mandate: Free agency has to be in this deal for the players to play on opening day in the first week in March.
While it’s easy to think of the owners as a group of hardliners joined together by mutual interests, the reality could be different particularly in Cascadia where bizarrely the personal political views of the owners contrast with the perceived stereotypes of the clubs.
The potential loss of the season could be especially costly in Seattle where the team, no longer conjoined with the Seahawks would face steep costs renting out an empty stadium with no game in town.
Their ticket revenue is of course the highest of any club due to its large attendances average over 40,000.
Yet bizarrely and instinctively, the key players in the Sounders franchise may be the most sympathetic to the players’ plight.
Adrian Hanauer and Joe Roth are both progressive democrats who have funded progressive movements. Joe Roth is the archetypal Hollywood liberal but this is an unfair and simplified characterization of him.
In 1959, Roth’s parents Lawrence and Frances offered Joe as a plaintiff in support of the ACLU’s effort to abolish mandatory prayer in public schools. The case was originally filed in Roth’s home state of New York, reaching the U.S. Supreme Court in 1962. The Court ruled that such prayer was unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Finding examples of Roth’s contributions to the Democratic National Committee are not hard to find online.
Politically speaking, new Sounders GM Garth Lagerwey will be at home in Seattle
Interestingly that youthful exposure to the Supreme Court gives Roth something in common with the man he just hired to run his club.
Garth Lagerwey is a former DC lawyer who confessed that he ‘woke up with a smile on his face’, the morning after Barack Obama was re-elected; a somewhat brave admission in ultra-Conservative Utah.
“As a DC lawyer, I must say that I spent a lot of time on the politics last night and I woke up with a smile on my face. That’s speaking for me personally and not for the club. But I had a little fun with that for sure.”
Later that night, shortly after he had seen his side progress after that famous Mario Martinez late goal sent Sounders through a play-off round for the first time on a memorable night in Salt Lake, (then) Sounders GM Hanauer added:
“Yeah. Yeah. It was a good week. A couple of good wins.”
It’s the strange intersection of personal politics meet ambition. Roth, Hanauer and Lagerwey are the key men in deciding how Sounders FC, the biggest dog in the yard, will handle negotiations. They are not by instinct ‘union busters’ in their personal political beliefs.
It has to be stated that their is no external evidence as yet that this will affect their position going into this particular scenario, but it is simply impossible to imagine the three of them sitting in a room and deciding their strategy is to emulate Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
On the other side you have Merritt Paulson, the conservative owner of the Timbers, son of Hank Paulson who was George Bush’s finance secretary. Paulson in a way has less to lose by a strike as Portland Timbers are unlikely to shed any of their more casual supporters through a stoppage, because there are less other franchises to watch in the Rose City, and they could fill any gaps that did arise upon a delayed restart from their much vaunted waiting list.
Dan Kennedy is helping lead the MLS Players Union’s push for free agency.
Outside of Cascadia, they aren’t the only owners whose soccer ambitions would be blunted by an abeyance to the regular season. Only one owner comes to mind who could potentially bite the bullet and hold firm: Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Revolution who owns Gillette Stadium (shared by the Pats and the Revs). While Kraft can play hardball–and he has occasionally with excellent results (see Jermaine Jones)–he’s in the minority.
Sure, both New York teams are awash in foreign lucre, but its safe to say both squads are hoping for the season to begin after a controversial, to put it mildly, January for the two clubs. The Colorado Rapids, a team that revealed last week have yet to turn a profit in their 18 years of existence, will only see the goal moved further away with any sort of work stoppage.
This is far from the first time the players have threatened to derail how MLS runs their business. The players have already attempted a legal block to the single-entity system (the NFL providing an amicus curiae brief in favor of the league).
Such as the system is, the players’ only true leverage is the threat of a work stoppage. While a lifetime of watching other sports unions routine failure to make inroads with the owners–or capture the hearts and minds of the public–the MLS Players Union may be the rare group capable of reversing the trend.
Also See:
Lagerwey: I’m the Rick Perry to Hanauer’s Romney!
Editorial: Garth Lagerwey – “The Best in the Business”
Sounders FC’s Brad Evans talks about the CBA negotiations (starting 0.25)
