Author: soundersalliance

Categories
Meetings

Meeting Recap: June 2016

By Thom Kephart and Stephanie Steiner

New business at this meeting was a Supporter Liaison Officer resolution proposed by Paul Cox.  This conversation was tabled until we can discuss at greater length and expect to devote time to this topic in our next meeting. The goal of this proposal aligns with the goal of the Alliance which is to positively influence the game day experience.

We had a heated conversation about our productivity particularly around how we are representing the fan voice and progress within our work groups.  Pretty much everyone on the Council agrees that the Council as a whole is not producing enough for the Alliance; i.e. for you. Half way through the season and the Council is short on representatives who are striving to push for change. We are short on action oriented people. This is where you come in; If you think you can make a good contribution to the Alliance, nominate yourself for Council here.  To learn more about what is entailed, check out this blog and this link.

Sometimes our meetings feel like Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, especially with our June meeting being devoted to voting on Constitutional changes presented in May. However, with repeated efforts we are able to move forward toward the greater good.  Why must we do everything twice?  The Constitution requires that every new Article or Bylaw (or every change – called an amendment), must be presented at one meeting and voted upon at the next.  This provides our Council members with the time needed for consideration.  Usually, there is discussion on the topics at each meeting, because people have ideas whenever they have them, not on a convenient schedule.

Our objective is to have the cleanest possible and most relevant version of the Constitution ready for the Alliance to ratify when we host the annual scarf vote.  The most important section is the addition of General Manager Vote and Recall – this section is not in the Constitution that was ratified in 2011.  Solidifying that work could be extremely important in the future and finalizing the Constitution has a big deadline.

If you’d like to read about some of the other things we’re working on, you can check out this blog.

We’d love to hear from you: hit us up on the comments, Facebook or Twitter.  You can also look back at the meeting minutes for past Alliance Council meetings.

 

Categories
Meetings

Meeting Minutes: April 2016

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

April 5, 2016 – 7:00 PM – The NINETY

Present (12 of 22): Cameron Collins, Paul Cox, Craig Dillon, Eric Flatness, Bill Kaczaraba, Roberta King, Angelica Germani, Jerry Neil, Jeff Randle, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, and Kristina Vaughn

Via telephone (4): Martin Buckley, Thom Kephart, Karl Picard, and Brendan Vaughn

Absent (6): Samuel Chesneau, Michael Dollard, Nick Gibson, Jeremy Monsivais, Brian Prouty, and Hans Ulland

Next meeting: Tuesday, May 5, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

 

  1. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner (Executive Committee President)
  2. Roll – Cameron Collins: 12 of 22 Present
  3. New Business – Kyle Sheldon, VP of Marketing & Al Raitt, Gameday Presentations

→ Kyle came from NASCAR, but before that, he was with DC United

→ Al came came from the LA Galaxy, has worked with the LA Kings and the Anaheim Ducks

 

→ Questions for Kyle and Al

How do they balance the avid fan who knows the brand intimately vs the casual fan which is where the growth will come from? This is a constant conversation that they have. 50% of new season ticket holders had a partial plan last year. 50% are just new. As a fan, youou shouldn’t be surprised by any of the traditions in the stadium. They ponder how they can communicate the experience to first time people who visit.

How do we get Sounders signage to be in the same abundance as Seahawks signage within the stadium? Kyle just did a walk-through with the Seahawks. There are inherent challenges to big signage changes because it was built for the Seahawks. How can the Sounders get it to make it feel more equitable? Make it feel like home?  Some possible changes → soccer celebration in the NW concourse. Couple places not currently used where they could get a little more branding or use the space for Sounders. It would go a long way if the Public Stadium Authority could hear requests like this from Sounders fans, and the FO will figure out how best to address such contact.

What is happening with the Seahawks Ring of Honor and Scoreboard changes? The stadium is installing LED Screens around the entire thing. New boards in the corner

 

People seem to enjoy the big billboards around town. What sort of marketing campaigns to the Sounders have to attract new fans? More targeted and more focus is the trend of marketing. But Kyle believes that the outdoor high impact of a billboard could have a real effect. There is no way to decide the direct impact on ticket sales, but they think it does have one. The next big push will be around the 1st of june, as the midseason campaign and the full season packages come about

 

Why is it so loud in the Stadium before games? The sound is the same, there just isn’t enough bodies in the stadium to dampen the sound.  Because of the speaker placement, some sections will get it louder more than others.

 

Is there a philosophy on replays? Why not show controversial calls? Mandated by league. There is concern on MLS and PRO to insight crowd with a replay. At Levis stadiums for 49ers games they get access in their app. MLS will not let it happen for out league. An example of what is done on a replay: Al speaking on Ty Mears tackle… He sees 8 different angles to decide whether to air it. In this instance it looked clean, so they decided to air it on the big screen once play had stopped.

 

How do we let the league know that we are upset about refereeing? The league monitors their social media, so something like #Geigered gets back to them. Keep telling the league. Keep telling the team. It will keep pressure on them.

 

What is the thought behind when the Digital media team is discussing rumors, when the club has no official opinion?  This is the type of conversation they are having internally. They aren’t set on what it should be moving forward. But, they DO want the club to be the one stop shop for all the info on the club. They don’t want to rumor monger, but they do want to be able to walk down the hall and ask Garth questions.

 

March Minutes – Stephanie Steiner

Made official.

Updates from Work Groups

Marketing – Stephanie Steiner

We are working on a longterm planning session for alliance goals and alliance growth. What kind of things, as an AC, would we like to see in terms of marketing? What would we like to pursue?

→ AC Signage, Flag on the field, Buttons or something like that, Booth on the concourses, Big Screen announcements, bio portions of the voting site have pictures too and can be editable, E-mails to include links to meeting recaps, Matchday email include our location if we have booths, beer of the match(?), Charitable contribution idea with Match Pass, Push notifications on our behalf, Consider printing a new banner because ours has the old logo.

→ In the app, with the twitter feed, can they pin stuff to the top? We are currently in the curated feed on the app.

→ The 90 before matches is booked all the time, but we’d love to use it for a recruiting meeting. We can use lofts in the stadium as well.

Bios – Dan Roe

Profiles are up and running. If you see any edits that need to be made, contact Mikaela directly

 Scarf Group – Kristina Vaughn

Brainstorming to see if there is anything the AC wants to change from last year’s vote

Supporter Group Bylaw Group – Kristina Vaughn

They just got the information on the latest versions of text and will start working on it.

Visibility

They want more people to write. Eric said he would write. Cameron said he will write as well.

Constitution/Bylaws – Stephanie Steiner & Cameron Collins

We went through and did a lot of work on the language. We will attack the easy ones all at once, and then take the major substantive ones on a one by one basis.

Adjourn – No other business presented, Motion to adjourn ten minutes early proposed and passed

Categories
Uncategorized

Baggage and Gaggage

photo by Stephanie Steiner

By Stephanie Steiner

May 20, 2016

I had the opportunity to attend a Sounders’ event this week, and I engaged several of the Front Office staff (different levels) in some pretty interesting conversations.  I’ve been known to take these casual opportunities to pitch the needs of the Alliance.  But this week was particularly interesting, as I learned something pretty damned important: Clear plastic bags (in 2017): are being mandated by CenturyLink Field. Guess what? CenturyLink Field actually tried to mandate them this year to match the Seahawks rules, and Sounders told them to pound sand (probably something more professional than that, but I would have used four-letter words).  CenturyLink didn’t give them enough notice, and didn’t give the Club enough time to provide any solutions, so the Club shut it down.

Then MLS put out the bag rules and the Club actually negotiated to not follow those rules here because we have a “really good” (quotes added because you know why) security system with inspections and wanding. CenturyLink Field said something along the line of “Forget it. If MLS has published rules, and SSFC does not follow them, then if anything ever happens no matter what it is, it’ll be 100% on the Sounders.” So Sounders adopted the new rules. Sounders’ verbiage with the announcement regarding 2017 does not specify that CenturyLink Field is mandating the clear bag rule because the powers that be want “to be good business partners with Century Link.”

Sometimes this crap just makes me nutty.  Actually, all the time.  I know they need to be good business partners – fine.  Is it so damned hard to say you have to do something that your fans are going to hate?  I wrote Taylor Graham a very nasty email that used the phrase “pain in the ass factor” many times.  I don’t understand how the relationship between the Club and CenturyLink Field could possibly be so fragile.  The Sounders are the biggest tenant.  The Sounders are CenturyLink’s customer, not the other way around.

Yet without these pieces of information, Sounders’ customers are left feeling like we are not important (I certainly did).  We end up feeling like this is one more thing to make our matchday more difficult, and most of us who have been active in this conversation were left thinking the FO didn’t care. Well it looks like they went to bat for us in a pretty big way. Why couldn’t they just say so? Isn’t the relationship with their own customers more important?  Seriously, if I don’t get those angry comments, I’m not going to be lonely.  I bet their customer service agents won’t either.  This doesn’t make the bag rule any easier to tolerate, but at least I can direct my contempt at the right target.

Here are a few other topics I was able to slide in:

Matchpass vs. Mobile Tickets – when the Alliance Council first had the conversation, we all thought mobile tickets were going to be optional. No matter the hot button of the day/week, it still does not outrank the number of requests to get Matchpasses back. I asked that they please allow STMs to opt-in for Matchpasses: please create a solution.  Well, I can’t say that the solution will be a plastic card, but I do feel like I’ve been heard. I don’t know what’s in the works, but I think something is going on.
Ross Fletcher vs. Keith Costigan – first, the Club is not ever going to make comments on human resource issues.  Get used to it.  I could get laid off today – and no one from the Front Office gets to show up at my office and demand an answer why. I hate that we don’t have Ross, and I never believed that it wasn’t a dollars and cents decision, and I said so (minute 1:18:30).  But aside from that – Adrian asked us to be patient, and asked us to trust the organization. There’s no reason we can’t talk about the broadcast. Well, we’re now in May – is the broadcast better? I hear from people all the time who don’t think so. I don’t think so. While I’m willing to concede that most people don’t pay as much attention and don’t care as much as the people I hear from, then aren’t we at the point in time that we should listen to the people who do care? This one isn’t going away until it’s solved or until we go away.  With this, I was able to segue into how they address the really passionate followers:

I talked about the Club’s attitude toward the “small group of passionate fans.” Those of us with deeper than passing knowledge, the avid followers who have been around for a while, the ones who read information and pay attention. I said the Club is terrible at addressing that group of people, and in my opinion they under-estimate the ripple effect of the passion (or its absence). They have access to multiple channels for communication, so they need to start using them.  The messages don’t have to be the same on Twitter as they are on Facebook or email. But for crying out loud – start talking directly to that group (us!) because when that group starts to check out, the impact will be felt now and for many years to come.  There will come a time when base prices for tickets are double what they are today.  I don’t want the Club to struggle to sell them.  I don’t want there to be a time when kids’ jerseys don’t sell because people stopped teaching their kids to make this their Club. I said, “You have an Executive Committee that you can access nearly any time, and a whole Alliance Council. Yet it very much feels like any time the organization doesn’t want to hear anything it doesn’t like, it just won’t ask the question – therefore, full steam ahead!”

I feel very strongly if they don’t better consider their fans when they make decisions, many of those fans are going to stop considering the Club when they make theirs. That will be a really expensive problem to solve.  Well, this week I learned that some of those mis-steps that I have blamed on the Front Office didn’t come from the FO.  I’ll still think it’s stupid that they didn’t just say so the first time.

The terrible photo of Roman Torres has nothing to do with this post.  But Roman is running around at practice in boots.  Soon, he’ll be running on our pitch.  That day will be a very good day.

Categories
Uncategorized

Clear Invasion of Privacy, Clear Slowdowns in 2017

photo from Amazon.com

May 13, 2016

By Eric Flatness

When we first began to hear rumblings of a new MLS-wide bag policy last month, the reactions to it were nearly universally negative, as moves to limit customer choice always are. Council refrained to make a statement on the matter then, and more discussion is needed before an Alliance-wide statement-of-record could potentially be made. But before this issue is forgotten and accepted, this piece needed to be “said:”

The Sounders fanbase is a diverse one, with many unique gameday rituals and ways to spend time before and after matches. Situated at the junction of Pioneer Square and SoDo, CenturyLink Field is perfectly located for fans who would prefer to bike or use mass transit rather than driving and hunting (or paying exorbitant amounts) for parking. The club itself promotes these alternate gameday modes in their weekly emails and at the stadium.

The way these fans experience gameday will now fundamentally change. Bikers will have to make tough decisions between packing what they need or keeping their things secure. Anyone who wants to attend a match directly after work will need to be willing to buy a clear plastic bag, so everyone can see all the valuable electronics and personal hygiene items they’ve got packed in. We’re looking at a significant “infrastructure” change for non-driving fans, and even for many who do. This new policy spits in the faces of all those who aren’t interested in or willing to commit to that battle and drive in one of the most traffic-congested cities in America.

It’s terribly disappointing that MLS has given in to the same fear that other American sports leagues have bowed to in recent years; the idea that large televised crowds are targets for the worst people in our society, that keeping that one deranged individual out of the building is worth the paranoia that turns more and more people away from live sports every year.

In 2017 the restrictions will become even more prohibitive; only clear bags will be allowed inside (this is not directed by the MLS, but instead a choice made by our local decision makers, thank you very much!). The NFL made this change a few years ago; the Seahawks made an attempt to lessen the blow by giving bags that fit their guidelines to all season ticket holders. But the bags they distributed were poorly made, little more than sheets of plastic with a hem stapled to the edges. Mine fell apart in just over a single season of use.

The new policy will also be a problem for driving fans; cars will more than ever be targets for thieves now that they know fewer fans are bringing their valuables inside. And it didn’t appear to have a significant effect on line speed either; the fans don’t seem to benefit from this move at all.

Last year, a terrorist group attempted to exploit security at a Paris soccer stadium to set off a bomb with 80,000 people in attendance. The attempt came 15 minutes after the match, so when the man failed his security check, he ran away and detonated his suicide vest. Events like this one are likely the inspiration for more restrictive entry procedure, and yet there’s significant question as to whether these changes make anyone safer.

As one member of the Alliance Council, I wholeheartedly reject the new MLS bag policy and hope that the Council will be able to make it clear just how damaging this erosion of supporters rights is to the live sports product.

Categories
Meetings

Meeting Recap: May 2016

Photo by Karl Picard

By Karl Picard

The May Alliance Council meeting, which took place at The NINTEY with cardboard cutouts of Clint, Chad and Nelson (not pictured), watching over us, was begun with old business: reviewing changes we’ve been working on to the Constitution and Bylaws of the Council.  This work started last year and we are closing in on the final efforts to get it out to the whole Alliance to be ratified later this season.  This work is in no way sexy but it does pave the way for the Alliance Council to better represent the fans moving forward.

Many of the changes are simple like using ubiquitous language thought the document to allow for easier understanding and creating consistency throughout the Constitution. Other items are around the fact at times the Council is referred to as a corporation, which is incorrect.  Maybe at some point we’ll incorporate, but if we use the word “Council,” we’re accurate now and in the future. We are working on how to make those that purchase any ticket package (not just a full season ticket package) are included in the Alliance.  We’re also working to have an attendance policy for Council Members to ensure they are representing the fans that voted them in, and to ensure they are knowledgeable about what they are voting on by participating in Council business.

We ended the evening with New Business: specifically, discussion around the new bag policy which was released by MLS in late April, the mobile ticketing issues from the 4/30 Columbus game, and the overall customer service the Sounders have been providing.  While we didn’t get deep into specific details, a few members of the Council did discuss writing up some possible opinion statements or blog entries to get deeper into the items we’ve been hearing from fans and experiencing ourselves this season.  We will also continue to explore ways to influence the Club and specifically the front office to respond to the needs of the Alliance Members.

We’d love to hear from you: hit us up on the comments, Facebook or Twitter.  You can also look back at the meeting minutes for past Alliance Council meetings.

Categories
Meetings

Meeting Recap: April 5th, 2016


photo credit: unknown

By Eric Flatness

Tuesday, April 5 was the third meeting of the year for the full Alliance Council, joined by Taylor Graham as well as Kyle Sheldon (VP of Marketing) and Al Raitt (Gameday Presentation). The club staff at hand garnered much interest right away as Council members peppered the pair with questions about potential and insipient stadium changes, gameday signage and the logistics of showing video replay of controversial plays and decisions.

This meeting came in the immediate wake of the previous weekend’s home loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps, a match that featured two… let’s say “interesting”… penalty kicks for the away team. Raitt was able to clarify the policies that govern what replays are shown on the in-stadium video boards. The league itself has certain guidelines on what can and cannot be shown, and disputed plays are treated gingerly (likely with the intention of avoiding inciting the crowd.) It was brought up that many fans can now watch the plays via their mobile phones (using in-stadium wi-fi no less) and that gifs via Twitter and other social media can make the situation even worse. We were told concerns would be passed on to the league.

Raitt and Sheldon both addressed a noticeable change occurring at the stadium: the inclusion of the wrap-around video boards on the edge of the upper deck. The boards should be fully functional in May, and will include new gameday features as well as old ones (scoreboard) and likely some new advertising opportunities.

Most members of the council were pleasantly surprised with the increased speed getting through security lines since the first match, though it was noted that consistency was still an issue for wanders. Some had heard examples of people being asked to unzip jackets and take off hats while others had not been asked to do so. One problem that no one had was with the mobile ticketing-the new tickets seem to work exactly as intended.

We’d love to hear from you: hit us up on the comments, Facebook or Twitter.  You can also look back at the meeting minutes for past Alliance Council meetings.

Categories
Meetings

Meeting Minutes: March 1st 2016

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

March 1, 2016 – 7:00 PM – The NINETY

Present (15 of 23): Martin Buckley, Samuel Chesneau, Cameron Collins, Craig Dillon, Michael Dollard, Eric Flatness, Angelica Germani, Bill Kaczaraba, Thom Kephart, Roberta King, Jerry Neil, Karl Picard, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, and Kristina Vaughn

Via telephone (1): Paul Cox

Absent (7): Nick Gibson, Brian Prouty, Jeremy Monsivais, Mark Nesteroff, Jeff Randle, Brendan Vaughn, and Hans Ulland

Next meeting: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 15 of 23 Present. 1 on Phone.

III. February Minutes – Stephanie Steiner

Made official.

IV. New Business:

A. Hot Button Issues – Taylor Graham

→ Mobile App Ticketing: From the club’s perspective, it seemed to work well. The results were significantly positive in the numbers of season ticket members who used the app. Went well beyond their hopes.

· People were happy as a whole. A few issues raised, the council members suggested that people contact the club directly on specific issues (like an elderly person who didn’t have a phone).

· Not being able to print tickets except within 7 days of the match is to prevent the fraudulent ticketing.

· Main problem was people who printed their tickets and then tried to use the app, but one other issue raised was about designating and then people having separate device.

·The rep didn’t appear to be around. But there were only 8, so it could have been hard to see them. These reps will see email, get calls in real time, but texting won’t work.

· People didn’t know there wasn’t a prematch deal. Also tried to get the ticket scanned at concessions for the Matchpass points that no longer exist.

· Encourage people to download their tickets before they go to the gates.

·What are the next steps with the app? More games? More data being put in. How to make it more diverse? App currently available totally in Spanish.

→ Dynamic Pricing: Everything that has been done over the last season in terms of ticketing is to get the tickets in the hands of fans. Recalled over 600 tickets from brokers to sell directly to fans. Season tickets are not dynamically priced. Half season tickets are not dynamically priced. What they have seen is that when the price is the same for every game, brokers buy them and sell to fans. Prices are tiered only on a single match basis so that they can be directly in the hands of fans. Increases the value of being a season ticket member. They’ve done this for 3 years. It is just more responsive or fluid now than it has ever been.

· “Get in price” What is the cheapest price to get in to the game? They will always keep it at the $30 mark. They get data of Stubhub, Ticketmaster Exchange, all those things, including average price, etc.

· Questions from AC

i. Why is an ADA seat 37% more expensive than those right in front of it or behind it? They do not sell ADA seats until a number of days before the event as required by law. If this is happening, it needs to be fixed, and the club will make sure it is fixed. The club will always move people to the ADA seats when they need them without charging any more.

ii. Is there a new policy in place for price ceiling on what a ticket could be sold for in GA? ECS asked for it. Planned on following through on it, but didn’t come about until people had renewed season tickets already, so will not happen this year, but will happen next year so that rule can exist at the point of renewal.

→ Women’s Jerseys: They are not even close to authentic. How do we give feedback? Taylor said we can pass it on directly to Pro Shop and those that make decisions on ordering. We will have Doug Orweiler come in to discuss with us.

→ Alliance Council Voting: Main account holder voting currently live. Designee voting will go live on April 1.

V. Work Groups

→ GM Vote & Recall: Must work on where the various pieces already agreed upon go and propose charter changes to the team. Cameron, Stephanie, Martin

→ Annual Meeting: Kristina, Paul, Roberta, Cameron (and Jeff Randle?)


→ Constitution & Bylaws: Cameron & Stephanie (and Dan, Kristina, and Martin)

→ Member eligibility: Will be same as C&B and GM Vote

→ Supporter Group Bylaw 7: Cameron, Kristina, Karl, Martin

→ AC Visibility: Thom, Eric, Mike, Karl

→ Community Outreach Group: Bill, Sam, Thom

→ Scarf Vote: Karl, Cameron, Kristina, Jerry, Roberta

→ Kit: Jerry, Dan, Eric

→ Seating Expectations: Roberta

→ Women’s Attire: Roberta, Jerry

→Season Ticket Holder giveaways: Ang, Jerry

VI. Removing gender from the Constitution / Bylaws – Stephanie Steiner & Cameron Collins

Seattle is a very equality based city and the Sounders have taken a very equality based stance. The attendance bylaw is the only thing written with gender neutral language (“themselves”). “His or her” is no longer gender neutral. Question is are you in support of re-writing the entire document to be gender neutral? We want to get an okay before we even do the legwork. The AC would always be able to vote on it again. The entire Alliance would have to vote on it.

→ Vote taken. Unanimously passes.

VII. Council Member Profile Update – Dan Roe

All but one of the new people have turned theirs in. New extra question “Tell us about yourself” will be extended by one week. March 8th will be the last possible date for current council members to answer this. Will go up blank if not turned in.

VIII. Adjourn – Motion to adjourn passes

Categories
Meetings

Meeting Recap: March 2016

Democracy in Sports photo from The NINETY

photo credit: Karl Picard

By Karl Picard

March 14, 2016

Our last Alliance Council meeting was on 3/1.  We had 15 members attend the meeting and one member that called in.  The meeting started with the AC chatting with Taylor Graham.  The main focus of the discussion was how things went for the Club America match, which was the first home game using the mobile app tickets and other changes.  Overall the feedback from the Council members, based on conversations with fellow fans and season ticket members combined with what we saw on social media, indicated entry and use of the app was pretty smooth.  We did share some isolated issues with Taylor as well.

Security at the Club America game was another matter we discussed, mostly around inconsistencies. This is an area that we are starting to hear more about and are making sure the Front Office is aware of fan concerns.

We also discussed the changes around MatchPass and the fact there are no longer points but rather random drawings or buy it now options for rewards.   They are also using the info gathered from the users of the app and mobile tickets to send targeted emails to Season Ticket Holders (STH). The direct messages were sent prior to the home opener, so you should have seen one prior to  the KC game.  We discussed how there are language options on the Sounders App, including Spanish. Fans who have set their phone to Spanish saw the app in Spanish. Many commented how this was a step in the right direction coming out of the November Annual Business Meeting.

The council spent time discussing app features with Taylor, including the ability to reach your ticket rep during games from the app’s MatchPass Profile page.   The “My Rep” area contains your rep’s email and phone number and even a quick way to add them to your phone contacts.

A question was raised to Taylor about the capping the resale of GA tickets via the Ticket Exchange. He clarified that capping GA resale is not in affect this year but that is being looked into for next year.

A few other items that we’ve made progress towards were around dynamic pricing and the women’s jersey.  The dynamic pricing was discussed and Taylor clarified that this practicehas been in place for a couple seasons now.  Craig Dillon on the Council called out that the ADA tickets seemed to be mis-priced as they were more expensive than those seats around them.  Taylor looked into the issue with the sales team and it has been resolved.  One note, Taylor mentioned that if you are a fan in need they will do all they can to accommodate you.

Stephanie Steiner brought up the subject of our women’s jersey, citing concerns we’ve received over the years regarding the neckline. This  issue got a lot of attention and you should read more about it on the blog.  (We appreciated all the feedback we got via social media around this subject too!!) The Club and adidas™ have heard our concerns and we will keep pushing on this subject to create positive change.

After finishing with Taylor we moved onto the work groups for the year.  The following list captures the areas we are currently focused on but we’ll continue to refine as necessary as the season progresses:

  • GM Recall and Alliance Council Membership Eligibility – finalize the Charter, Bylaws and Constitution so they can be voted upon in 2016.
  • Support Group – clarification on the bylaw and how Support groups are recognized
  • Visibility Group – social media, blog, outreach and charity involvement to ensure the Alliance Council Members know what is happening and that we are positively impacting area charities.
  • Scarf Vote – ensuring the tradition of our Scarf Vote continues for 2017
  • Kit/Jersey – working with the Front Office to ensure fans have a stake in kit designs
  • Annual Meeting – end of year business review operations
  • Seating Expectations – addressing the sit vs. stand concerns voiced by STMs with the FO and Stadium Operations
  • Women’s Attire/Jersey – working with the Kit/Jersey team, but focused on ensuring there are more options for female fans.
  • STM giveaway – explore options to provide to season ticket members including the traditional scarf vs other items

If any of the above areas are of interest to you or you feel like you have something you want to address as part of fan and game day experiences, we encourage you to run for council. The voting and nomination site is up for the Alliance Council; the more people we have the more change we can impact.

That’s all for March.  Continue to provide feedback via Twitter, Facebook or comments on this blog (scroll down to “leave a reply”).

Categories
Uncategorized

No Cleavage in Soccer

By Stephanie Steiner

March 2, 2016

#NoCleavageInSoccer is a hashtag I started tweeting aggressively last year when the television correspondent assigned to one of our away matches was a bit (cough!) underdressed. Q13, get your shirt together. I felt then, as I do now, that such a display was disrespectful to players and fans of the sport, many of whom are women and girls.  The value they bring to soccer is not their cleavage, and in my opinion, such a display doesn’t send a message of equality, respect, or unity – and I was vocal about it.

Last night, the Alliance Council had the opportunity to bring our concerns about the Sounders FC’s women’s jerseys to the front office (not the first time, and there have been complaints about them for years).  I followed up this morning with the letter (below) and the images of our women’s jersey compared to NYFC’s women’s jersey.

From: Stephanie S
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2016 10:07 AM
To: Taylor Graham
Subject: Women’s Jersey Feedback

The criticism is that the neckline is ridiculous and objectifies women – entirely unnecessary when we’re in a conversation about jerseys. Please keep cleavage out of soccer – soccer is for girls too, and their worth is not their cleavage. We don’t believe this jersey is an example of the equality direction in which Sounders FC has been heading.

This jersey came from the Club – if adidas ™ can produce one with a normal neckline for NYFC then they can produce one with a normal neckline for us: [photo inserts]

Thank you for being willing to forward this on.

My letter was indeed forwarded, and in less than an hour, I had already had a reply: Of all of the other teams that offer a women’s jersey, NYCFC is currently* the only team that does not have our current neckline or last year’s scoop neck.  Their women’s neckline pictured is only available in the kit pictured [higher neckline].  These concerns will be addressed with adidas™.  

*a few weeks ago, a Vancouver Whitecaps women’s jersey was seen in social media with a high neckline like that of NYFC, but at the time I wrote my letter, I was not able to find it on MLSstore.com, nor were the contacts in the Front Office able to find it.  It doesn’t look like any other clubs were offered the higher necklines – and we don’t know why.

I want to thank Sounders FC for taking our concerns seriously and for being willing to address them with adidas™.  This matters to us, and I’m both happy and proud that it matters to our Front Office representatives and our merchandising team.

I’m not a small girl.  I’m not young. I’m not “maturing.” I have anatomy I’m proud of at times and other times, I feel preyed upon. But at my age, I’ve got the benefit of time and wisdom, and both good and frightening experiences behind me.  One of those was just Monday morning.  Yes, really – even at my age, even in my career path, objectification and demeaning behavior creeps into professional environments.  Let’s keep that out of soccer, and let’s keep that away from our girls as long as we can – at least until they’ve got the personal skills and strength to deal with it.  If a woman wants to show off “her girls,” great – there are plenty of tee shirts to choose from. There is only one jersey – let’s keep it as authentic as possible. The Club has never released a jersey for the team with a plunge neckline, cap sleeves, and a short midriff. Men’s jerseys in the proshop aren’t relegated to these options. We already know “women’s cut” jerseys are poor sellers, because the adidas representative told us so – women reject these.

Being inclusive is important. Standing up for equality matters.  Following through with integrity is our responsibility.  We can’t get to everything that we’d like to accomplish on the Alliance Council; we don’t even come close.  But today was a good day.  I know jerseys are designed years in advance – I hope changes can be made that impact the 2017 jersey for women and every jersey thereafter. Below are only a few of the endless reasons why.

Categories
Meetings

Meeting Minutes: February 2nd 2016

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

February 2, 2016 – 7:00 PM – The NINETY

 

Present (14 of 23): Martin Buckley, Cameron Collins, Craig Dillon, Michael Dollard, Bill Kaczaraba, Thom Kephart, Angelica Germani, Jeremy Monsivais, Jerry Neil, Mark Nesteroff, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, Hans Ulland, and Kristina Vaughn

Via telephone (4): Roberta King, Brian Prouty, Jeff Randle, Brendan Vaughn

Absent (5): Samuel Chesneau, Paul Cox, Eric Flatness, Nick Gibson, Karl Picard

Next meeting: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

  • Introduce Taylor Graham, Megan West, and Mikaela Purvis – Stephanie Steiner
  • Roll – Angelica Germani: 14 of 23 Present
  • Call to order – Stephanie Steiner (Executive Committee President)
    • Taylor Graham – New App
    • No Matchpass or paper tickets, mobile only
    • Announcement next week, although already teased
    • Sounders building their own new app – digital content, loyalty of ticketing, seat designation, voting, real time data and communication re: date/time changes (push notifications), matchday magazine in digital format, S2 incorporated and partner offers
    • There was 100% attendance for playoffs using the Ticketmaster print option, so the club is confident that this will work.

 

  • Mikaela Purvis – Service Teams
    • Service teams Monday-Friday & matchdays
    • Now neighborhood model based on where you sit – share rep with seat neighbors
    • Present on matchday to help mediate issues
    • Contact rep through app
    • Block of neighborhood parties in the works

 

  • Megan West – Matchpass
    • Addressing feedback and issues
    • Mobile Matchpass w/ no points going forward
    • Free enter to win options
    • Buy now option; every dollar goes to charity or enter to win
    • Reciprocal arrangement w/ fan engagement
    • Charity plan: 1/3 to Rave Foundation, 1/3 to Community Partners, 1/3 to AC Community Partners. Rotate community partners per match or periodically. Will report midseason how it goes.
    • May add inventory to Matchpass as it becomes available (e.g. vacant suites). There will be a range of cost of items. The shift away from points program is something they believe other teams will do as well
  • AC will work in partnership with TG, MP, MW on AC needs. Will engage in corporate partnerships (one hour focus group? Date/time to be announced)

 

  • Taylor Graham – Voting
    • Designation process → cannot collect new data until app is online. AC Voting needs STH and designee info. Primary account holder and assigned designees being able to vote. Info will be uploaded in to new app.
    • Should we only allow primaries to vote at this point and not designees
    • Designees are wiped if seat location is moved or no. of seats changes
    • Must input different email access for each account to designate

 

  • Approval of Minutes from November Meeting – Stephanie Steiner

Approved as drafted

 

  • Old Business: Stephanie Steiner

Cameron and Stephanie went thru entire Constitution & Bylaws and formatted and fixed typos. Nothing substantive was changed. But, based upon the review, a lot of changes need to be made.

 

  • New Business: Stephanie Steiner
    • Elections
    • President – Stephanie Steiner nominated. Elected unopposed.
    • Vice-President – Kristina Vaughan nominated. Elected unopposed.
    • Secretary – Cameron Collins nominated. Elected unopposed.
    • Executive Committee – Cameron Collins, Dan Roe, Martin Buckley, Bill Kaczaraba nominated for EC. CC elected as secretary of EC. MB elected at-large. DR and BK tied for final at-large position 7 votes to 7 votes. BK withdrew and DR elected at-large to EC.

 

  • Work Groups: Stephanie Steiner

Two ways to create a workgroup → (I) AC can vote workgroup in to place and (ii) Executive Committee can do so (in years past, the executive committee has done it because we don’t always have quorum to do so at AC meetings)

  • Existing Work Groups
  • Council Bio
  • GM Vote
  • Member Eligibility – Do we want to charge people to join the Alliance? Purchasing Alliance Memberships? Is $125 too much or too little? What about S2 season ticket holders.
  • Supporter Group recognition
  • Alliance Council Visibility
  • Charity Partnership – MB proposes renaming the charity group to Community Outreach. Seconded and passes unanimously.
  • Scarf Vote
  • Matchpass
  • Jock tag and Necktape (we are done thru 2017, next chance to be involved is 2018) – By unanimous vote group renamed to Kit
  • Annual Meeting Questions* – does this need to be a workgroup or just take volunteers?
  • End of Year Meeting
  • Season Ticket Holder Giveaways
  • Presentations from the FO

 

  • Proposed Work Groups
    • Constitution & Bylaws (passes unanimously)
    • Budget (passes unanimously)
    • Sitting vs. Standing (came from end of year questions) – After discussion, this group is proposed as Seating Expectations and passes unanimously. Will discussed all issues related to seating in stadium.

 

  • Publishing vote results by council member: Stephanie Steiner

Some people have asked for transparency in terms of who is voting for what. They want to see how each councilmember voted (yes, no, abstain)… they also want to see more blog entries and to be heard from us giving the different sides of the issue

This is coming from STMs during the Sonar Feed interview that Stephanie did.

Discussion of pros versus cons of doing this.

  1. Con issues are privacy, harassment, that there is no why behind it as they won’t be able to hear our reasons, we are speaking as a council.
  2. Pros are transparency, the ability for people to respond to the way specific people vote,
    Some discussion on 6.2 of the Constitution where it says President can only speak on behalf of the Council and how this rule only applyies to when the President speaks as the public face of the Council.
  3. what is the value to individuals outside this organizations? Discussion on the negatives outweighing the positives since we are not a governing body. Discussion on not allowing fellow councilmembers to be bullied if votes are public.

 

  • Adjournment – Motion to adjourn passes