The Aztexan

No matter your political persuasion, how can you resist a blog post title like this? Would Obama's election make soccer a major league American sport? (via American Soccer News' Twitter feed).

It's an interesting piece on Joe Roth, the majority owner of next year's MLS expansion team, the Seattle Sounders. Here's an excerpt to first excite, then depress soccer fans deep in the heart of reddest Texas:

"If you took a map of America where Obama is strongest and laid it over a map of where soccer has its biggest appeal, you'd see an incredible overlap," [Roth] told me. "The blue states on both coasts are very soccer-friendly as well as huge areas of support for Obama, where as the center of the country is full of people who are the enemies of soccer and Obama -- white, 50-and-over guys who listen to talk radio and only care about football or basketball."

Present company excepted, of course.

After some discussion of this intriguing intersection between national politics and soccer in America, the bulk of the article covers the novel ideas Roth is pursuing with the Sounders. These include giving fans a voice in naming the team, a system for season ticket-holders to "find their ideal seat selection based on their rooting behavior" and an American Idol-style player tryout show, complete with viewers voting online to pick a player to be signed by the team.

Not everyone thinks that Seattle's recent designated-player signing of Swedish star Freddie Ljundberg was a great idea — Goal.com has 5 reasons why it wasn't — but Roth's role is interesting:

Ljungberg was interested in the MLS, but said he wanted to play in Los Angeles or New York. So Roth made his pitch. . . Knowing that Ljungberg's agent also reps San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker, he said, 'Talk to Tony. He wanted to play in New York or L.A., and he'll tell you that the best decision he ever made was going to San Antonio.' "

Labels: media, MLS