Article:The Voice of the Fans is Heard

Indeed the voice of the fans was heard and taken into consideration in Seattle. Yesterday the owners of the city's new Major League Soccer expansion team unvieled the club's new colors, crest and name. Seattle please meet and greet Seattle Sounders FC.

The new club is, of course, not the first professional soccer club in the northwest to use the moniker of Sounders. The original Sounders played in the old North American Soccer League. The original Sounders did meet with some success winning two division titles in 1980 and 1982. The originals also made it to two Soccer Bowls in 1977 and 1982 but ultimately lost each of those to the New York Cosmos. The middle incarnation of the Sounders started in 1994 and are playing their last season this year in the United Soccer Leagues First Division. This version of the Sounders has won 4 championships at this level of American soccer. So the new Sounders have a bit of a legacy to build upon.

The name of the new club was left to the fans. Approximately 14,500 fans voted on the clubs new name and around 82% of the votes were for the name Seattle Sounders. While allowing fan input into naming new clubs is not all that new Seattle fans gave it a new twist. Seattle fans were given a list of three finalists to chose from;


 * Seattle Alliance


 * Seattle Republic


 * Seattle FC

The fans of the new club elected for the write in option to retain the more traditional name for the top level club in the city of Seattle. Great stuff from the fans up there.

The owners of the club decided to listen to the fans and go with the Sounders name adding the FC to the end. The club's new colors are Sounder Blue, Rave Green and Cascade Shale. Here is the official explanation of the club's new badge;

The badge represents the organization's personality, image, core competencies and characteristics. This design is loosely based on a heraldic shield, which helped identify combatants who were otherwise hidden by their armor.

The Seattle Sounders FC badge was developed with two distinct layers to represent the partnership between the ownership, the community, the players and the fans.

The partners are all united under one banner which carries the team name. The Space Needle is a universally recognized icon and symbol of Seattle. The overall design is an updated, contemporary treatment of traditional shapes. The effect is clean, bold, aggressive and uniquely Northwest.

A successful launch for the new club who have already sold over 14,000 season tickets.