Seattle Sounders FC will play their first Major League Soccer game Thursday night in front of a packed house at Qwest Field, but don't call Drew Carey's squad an expansion team.
"I think the expansion team this year actually is the Galaxy and not us," the Seattle Sounders FC co-owner told reporters at MLS headquarters Monday morning. "I said that to all my Riot Squad friends. You're the ones scrambling to put a team together from scratch, didn't know who was playing for you day-to-day. ... They're coming from a big mess, they're the expansion team."
Carey, the host of the long-running game show "The Price is Right," former star of "The Drew Carey Show," the U.S. version of "Whose Line is it Anyway?" and freelance U.S. national team photographer, met with reporters in Manhattan to talk about the buzz in Seattle three days before Sounders FC face the New York Red Bulls in a game, the comedian said, his team will definitely win.
"I think we're going to win, no doubt," Carey said, noting that his team has been listed as the slight favorite by sports wagering websites. "We'll win 2-1."
Carey, who lives in Los Angeles, said he attended his first soccer game at The Home Depot Center and soon fell in love with the sport. Although an owner of a Western Conference rival, Carey still has his season tickets for Galaxy games.
"I just was hooked," he said. "I thought it was such an exciting sport. ... I always thought of soccer before as something the kids played and not a lot of physical contact, but I had no idea it was such a brutal game. I've been loving it every since."
Carey said he bought every DVD he could find to learn more about the sport and now jokes that he can "heckle with authority." He certainly considers himself an expert when it comes to the Galaxy's recent woes, calling the hiring of Ruud Gullit last year "a mistake," and he and his friends didn't know who to point the finger at.
"We didn't even know who was in charge," he said.
Now Carey is in charge and he's giving the Sounders fans a major voice. The Seattle FC Alliance, the official supporters group, will have the opportunity vote out the club's general manger, currently co-owner Adrian Hanauer, every four years or sooner if 20 percent of the member sign an online petition.
"The idea that we're willing to fire our general manager if the fans don't like him, I think it's fair," Carey said. "The way I sold it to (co-owner) Joe Roth is that the fans will do your dirty work for you. You always know when a general manager is doing bad in any sport and you always know when they need to go, but nobody ever does anything about it."
It's an idea Carey, 50, said has its origins from La Liga powerhouses Barcelona and Real Madrid, clubs that allow fans to vote for their president.
"I thought that sounds like the craziest thing," Carey said. "Right away I thought I would love to own a team back in the States just to bring this idea to the United States."
Carey said it's a concept that would also work in everyday life.
"I think you should do it if you own a Walmart or a CVS," he said. "You should be able to vote out the manager if the aisles aren't clean or they don't stock the stuff you like."
Sounders FC will also soon launch a supporters' website, a social-networking type of site that will include video, blogs and photos and is only open to members.
"Not only are we letting them burn down the castle, but we're giving them pitchforks and torches to do it," Carey said.
The site will be free for season ticket holders, but would cost $125 a year for membership.
"We figure you have to put up some kind of money if you're going to be messing with our money," Carey said.
Carey and his fellow owners will also meet with a supporters council four times a year. The first meeting already resulted in what Carey hopes becomes a game-day tradition where fans will be led to the stadium from Pioneer Square by marching band.
"We'll just have this big drunken march down to the stadium before the game starts," he said. "It's a really good idea and it's going to be a good tradition for us and it came from this membership council meeting."
Carey said he's been overwhelmed by the positive response to the team. Season ticket sales have already exceeded 20,000 and seating limits at Qwest Field has been expanded to about 26,000 per game.
"I'm shocked," he said. "It's like being at a hot dice table or something and I'm so happy to keep rolling numbers."
Although his love for his native Cleveland is well documented -- Carey is still a big Cleveland sports fan -- he said he didn't think MLS expansion to his hometown would be feasible.
"I don't think this could happen in Cleveland honestly," he said. "I was approached once before about investing in a team in Cleveland and there's an investment group trying to get a team together there, but the Browns, Indians and the Cavaliers are so entrenched in that town, that's all you ever read about. Soccer would be a really tough sell there."
As for the possibility of expansion to the Pacific Northwest, would Carey prefer Vancouver or Portland? How about both?
"That would be fantastic," he said. "We could have our own little triangle of death up there. I know somebody would come up with some three-team mini tournament and call it the something cup and I would be against that."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com
