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Meeting Minutes: July 2016

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

July 12, 2016 – 6:00 PM – Sounders Conference Room

Present (20 of 21): Martin Buckley, Samuel Chesneau (NV), Cameron Collins, Paul Cox, Craig Dillon, Michael Dollard, Eric Flatness, Angelica Germani, Bill Kaczaraba, Thom Kephart, Roberta King, Jeremy Monsivais, Jerry Neil, Karl Picard, Jeff Randle, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, Brendan Vaughn, Kristina Vaughn, and Steve Wilson.
Via telephone (0): None

Absent (1): Brian Prouty (NV)

Next meeting: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

 

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 20 of 21 Present

 

III. Season Tickets Renewal – Mikaela Purvis

Renewals will launch on August 1. There are three types of accounts for renewal: those who are auto-renewed, those who opted out of renewal, and those that are new Season Ticket Holders and will be walked through the auto-renewal process. The decision was made to go with more information, rather than “fun,” so that the fans can make an educated decision. Each account will have its own personalized URL for the primary account holder to visit. Most things will go through this website, although Ticketmaster will still be used for processing credit cards to ensure secure transactions. S2 tickets will be include in this process, and the payment plans will be 1) all at once, 2) two payments, or 3) 6 equal payments taken on the first business day of each month.

→ Question: Will tickets be in the app again or will there be other options? They are currently looking in to other options besides only having tickets available in the app. Tickets will still be able to be printed through Ticketmaster either way.

 

IV. June Minutes – Approved

 

V. Old Business

 

a) Constitution and Bylaws Updates

 

Article 5

→ Proposed change: Changing it to “shall serve up to a two (2) year term” so that it makes clear it isn’t exactly two years, because you could be elected mid-year. Your term would end at the end of the second council business year where you are a member.

Motion to vote. Seconded. Passes Unanimously 17-0.
 

Article 11: General Manager Vote and Recall – Second Reading

→ Proposed Change: Formatted into legal format for the Constitution. Added definitions for league so that this would still apply if the league were to change.

Motion to vote. Seconded. Passes unanimously 17-0.
 

Article 8 & Bylaw 7: Supporter Groups

Motion to table Bylaw 7. Seconded. Passes 18-1.

→ Proposed change: Updated it to be less complicated because a lot of the language was vague. Eliminated any confusing text to make it short and sweet.

Discussion on the history of why supporter groups are listed in the Constitution. Several members are very passionate that it needs to be in here to prevent interference. Some discussion on what does interference mean and what enforcement does the Club grant to the Alliance Council. AC involvement with Supporter Groups revolved around Cascadia tickets historically.

Motion to table Article 8. Seconded. Passes unanimously 20-0.

 

Bylaw 5: Creating and Amending Bylaws – Third reading

→ Proposed change: Completely alters the bylaw with a new set of rules. A four step process that uses the Executive Committee to create a process that anyone can use, even non-council members.

Motion to vote. Seconded. Passes unanimously 20-0.

 

 

Bylaw 11 – Third reading

Amended to create a separate category for special meetings and give the ability to reschedule meetings.

→ Proposed change: Amendment to delete reference to times in the special meeting. Seconded. Passes unanimously. Passes 18-0 with one abstention.

Vote on the whole bylaw. Passes 19-0.

 

b) Resolutions Updates: Paul Cox on Supporters Liaison Officer – Second reading

 

Comments on Resolution:

→ It feels like we are asking for a lot, but maybe we could make a work group.

→ It feels like the Club has not talked to us about much. This could be a step in that direction.

→ We have to push the Club and make them work in partnership with us.

→ Concern that if there is someone in the office that they should go to instead, that they will go to that person, and then it will train the club not to come to AC. That person would end up spending more time with supporter groups.

→ Agrees with comment that this could hurt the AC and worries about telling them how to do their business. They aren’t customer service focused and we aren’t sure it will make that change.

→ Having worked at Amazon, there is an empty chair at all Amazon meetings that is meant to represent the customer. The Club needs to change their culture to serve the fans.

Motion to table. Seconded. Passes unanimously.

 

 

VI. New Business

a) Bylaws

 

→ Bylaw 4: Elections rules for Council – First reading

Request for an amendment to the language to say we need to “create and maintain” a website with the Sounders and to strike July 1 that was accidentally left in the clean version.

 

→ Bylaw 3: Method for introducing topics for a binding vote or a non-binding opinion statement – First reading

Introduced new language that mimics bylaw 5 on how to propose things and eliminates any sentence that references it.

 

 

b) Work Group Updates

→ GM Vote and Recall: Work is complete. Only thing left to do is to work on the Charter itself and propose writing a new, updated charter.

 

→ Constitution & Bylaws: The changes already voted upon just need to be updated in to the working copy of the constitution.

 

→ Visibility: Active on social media. Not much beyond that. Having a meet and greet with AC and the fans that allows for voting and introductions. Come up with a survey for our group of Ninety vs North Courtyard.

 

→ Alliance Members Giveaways: We’ve talked about ideas for potentially an alternative to a scarf. Given the cost of merchandise, it is hard to find something valuable that would replace a scarf. A new possibility exists of giving Alliance Members the option to opt out of a scarf and donate the cost to a charitable arm of the Club (the Rave Foundation). They are investigating whether this would be a good option.

 

→ Kits: AC Members gave some input. We have some possible neck tape and jock tag design opportunities like in the past.

 

→ Outreach: Met with Mikaela to discuss what the AC can do for outreach. One important thing that came out of it was to reiterate that the club needs to have more outreach to the Latino community.

 

→ Seating Expectations: No update at present. Need more volunteers for the group. Jeremy joins the seating expectations committee.

 

→ Women’s Clothing: No update. Somewhat dependent upon jerseys.

 

→ Scarf Vote: A lot of discussion is on the back-burner until ticket renewal goes live. But back and forth on the vote and concerns about how it was run last year and getting “screen time” in the stadium.

 

c) Proposal from AC President & the Club – Stephanie Steiner

Proposal to set it up so the first hour of most meeting is a strategy session with the Front Office on one topic. Different topic at each meeting. One concern from club is that we will NOT be voting on business of club. The Club will be proposing the calendar and it will start this year.

→ One worry from AC→ we could be seen even more as a focus group, we’ll have to make sure the FO staffers do not come in with ideas already firm and try to sell them to us.

→ One pro: We will have more people involved in more conversations and the ability to work ahead of the FO’s deadlines.

 

d) Alliance Resolution on Recognition of Drew Carey

Since we have the ability to select the honorary chairperson, as stated in the Constitution, this resolution would recognize Drew Carey as the original chairperson in any Alliance statement or resolution relating to the chairperson so that there is a distinction in the event that we begin naming a new one annually.

 

VII. Adjourn

Motion to adjourn is seconded, and passes.

* For purposes of this document NV shall refer to Non-Voting Status.

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Respect and Gratitude


By Stephanie Steiner

July 21, 2016

Years ago, I was in an Alliance Council meeting with Sounders FC front office members and their adidas™ representative at the time (I don’t remember his name).  One of the topics of conversation was disdain for the women’s jerseys.  He talked about how poorly women’s attire sold and listed that as the main reason their company didn’t have a huge interest in investing heavily in women’s jerseys or other attire.  Our response was pretty much along the lines of “Wait, wait, wait! We’re Sounders fans – do you know who you’re talking to? We buy a lot of stuff.” He was really diplomatic, but he never wavered from his message: Sounders women’s jerseys don’t sell either.  We had a limited conversation about why women don’t buy them, and he gracefully gave us the opportunity to engage further.

Earlier this year, after seeing that two MLS clubs had released women’s jerseys which were more representative of what an athlete would wear on the pitch, we re-engaged in this conversation. I posted a blog about it here. Sounders FO personnel and owners were very open to making changes, and I’m not even sure they were ever made aware of more authentic options.

Today, I am proud and honored. I have learned that adidas™ and Sounders FC were able to make changes even this far into the production schedule.  The 2017 offering will include a women’s jersey with a more authentic neckline and cut. Making such a change happen after the jerseys were this far into the production cycle is no small feat, and speaks greatly to the respect that Sounders FC has for us and the concern we brought forward.  Alliance Council can’t fix everything, and there are days when I feel like we’ll never be able to fix enough – but this is one that women have complained about for years.  Some of the clearest explanations came in social media replies as the original blog was forwarded and posted:  “I’m tired of having to buy clothes to wear under my clothes,” and “Show me a team that ever entered the pitch dressed like that.”

Ladies, you’ve been heard.

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Meetings

Meeting Minutes: June 2016

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC ALLIANCE COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

June 7, 2016 – 7:00 PM – Sounders Conference Room

Present (13 of 20): Martin Buckley, Cameron Collins, Paul Cox, Craig Dillon, Eric Flatness, Bill Kaczaraba, Roberta King, Thom Kephart, Jeremy Monsivais, Jerry Neil, Stephanie Steiner, Brendan Vaughn, and Kristina Vaughn.

Via telephone (0): None

Absent (7): Samuel Chesneau, Michael Dollard, Angelica Germani, Karl Picard, Brian Prouty, Jeff Randle, and Daniel Roe.

Next meeting: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

 

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 13 of 20 Present

III. Old Business

A. Constitution & Bylaws Updates. In an effort to complete all the required changes so that the Constitution can go out for an Alliance-Wide vote at the same time as the scarf vote, the Council is tackling the remaining Article updates.

→ Article 3: Cleaned up the language plus updated MLS to “The League” so that the Constitution would still apply even if the MLS becomes a new league. Second reading. Passes Unanimously.

 

→ Article 7: Takes all references using language of the business world and updates to proper language for the council and correcting grammar. Second reading.

Proposed Amendments: 7.4.2 – Strike sentence referencing one year.

7.5 – New language proposed to say: “The Term for an Executive Committee Member shall be from election until a new executive committee is elected at the beginning of the next alliance council business year, unless a member dies, resigns, or is removed from office.”

The Amendments are seconded. Pass unanimously.

Article 7 passes unanimously as amended.
→ Article 6: Clarified language for each of the officer positions.

Discussion ensued concerning whether we should be referencing “Alliance money” or “Alliance Council money” in the provisions relating to the treasurer. To whom does the money, if it were to exist, belong?

Proposed Amendment to 6.5: Change reference to “Alliance Council” to “Alliance.” Seconded. Passes Unanimously.

Article 6 passes unanimously as amended.

 

→ Article 5: Update to language in 5.1 Council Eligibility and 5.3 Business Meetings. Aligns the Council business year to be the same as the Club’s year, with the first meeting of the year taking place in December. Second reading.

Proposed Amendment to 5.1: Add “Alliance Council” prior to the words code of conduct to make clear that this would be an internal code of conduct and was not referencing the league’s code of conduct. Seconded. Passes unanimously.

Proposed Amendment to 5.3: Change the language that reads “scheduled in December” to “held in December.” Seconded. Passes Unanimously.

Article 5 passes unanimously as amended.

 

→ Article 4 & Bylaw 11: Updates language in 4.1 Alliance Eligibility and creates a bylaw 11 so as to allow the council to amend language relating to Alliance membership.

Proposed Amendment to 4.1: update the language of “season ticket package” to “multi-match ticket package.” Seconded. Passes unanimously with one member out of the room.

Article 4 passes unanimously as amended, with one member out of the room. Bylaw 11 passes unanimously with one member out of the room.

 

→ Bylaw 8: Replaces mistake in language referencing the “Executive Council” with proper language referencing “Executive Committee.”

Proposed Amendment: Change language stating that each committee “shall present” at each Council meeting to “may present.” Seconded. Passes unanimously.

Bylaw 8 passes unanimously as amended.

 

 

→ Bylaw 10: New bylaw giving the Council President the ability to call special meetinfs and to cancel or reschedule meetings when necessary.

Discussion occurred on whether notice should be required for a meeting to be call. Discussion on whether we need to do this so we can reschedule the July meeting, as it falls on a match day.

Proposed Amendment: Add a 3-day notice requirement before a special meeting can be called. Amendment withdrawn.

Motion to table this discussion until the next Council meeting. Seconded. Fails by a 5-6 vote.

Council looks to the Constitutional Article relating to meetings. We currently have the ability to change meetings by a council vote.

Proposal to table this discussion until the next Council meeting. Seconded. Passes 10-1.
→ Bylaw 9: Eliminated words and updated language for clarity

Proposed Amendment: Strike 9.1.1 because it is repetitive and the language exists elsewhere. Seconded. Passes 8-0 with 3 abstentions.

Proposed Amendment: Proposal to change the language such that eligibility will be stated in the positive, rather than discussing the negative. New language would read, “All Council Members, except those who have missed fifty percent (50%) or more of the preceding meetings of that council year (by the Members’ fourth eligible meeting or later) or who have missed the previous three (3) meetings consecutively, are eligible to attend meetings with owners.” Seconded. Passes 10-0 with one abstention.

Proposed Amendment: Proposal to streamline the language in 9.2.3, as it is covered elsewhere, by striking “Meetings with Ownership/Senior Management &” from the title and “attend meetings with ownership and/or senior management, or” from the body of the section. Seconded. Passes 10-0 with one abstention.

Proposed Amendment: Proposal to move the language of 9.1.4 to 9.1, then removing section 9.1.4. Seconded. Passes 10-0 with one abstention.

Bylaw 9 passes unanimously as amended with one abstention.

 

Motion to table old business and move on to new business due to time constraints. The time was already 9pm and there was new business to discuss. Seconded. Passes 10-1.
IV. New Business

A. Supporter Liaison Officer Resolution from Paul Cox

Paul Cox put forth a resolution calling for the Sounders to hire a Supporter Liaison Officer to speak on behalf of the fans in the Front Office. Now that the club is separate from the Seahawks, there is nobody talking to the fans in advance to see what the fan response will be. The people in the Front Office are so busy. The way big clubs handle this is that they have a liaison officer for the fans. It is written in to the documents as recommended in UEFA.

Questions:

How many MLS teams have this? Zero.

How many Premier League clubs have one? Almost all of them. Each club is encouraged to have one, but it is not necessarily enforced by UEFA.

What’s the difference on what we have with the Sounders currently, where multiple people are responsive, and having one person do it? In Europe, they have realized the way we are doing things in the USA currently doesn’t work. So they have moved towards this type of program.

 

Comments from members of the AC:

→ This is a cultural issue in this front office and it is up at the Bart level. Suggesting we create a separate role does not change the culture that Bart is implementing.

→ The club has said that the Alliance Council would have this role. If this exists, does this hurt the Council’s power? Should we be asserting this power for ourselves? If this position were to exist, could this position answer directly to the Council?

→ Should we call them to the carpet and use this power ourselves?
Motion to table further discussion until the next meeting. Seconded. Passes Unanimously.

 

 

B. Moving the July Council Meeting

Our July meeting falls upon the friendly date. Should we reschedule to July 12 or July 19? July 12 passes unanimously.

 

V. Adjourn

Motion to adjourn because we are twenty-five minutes over time proposed, is seconded, and passes.

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Meetings

Meeting Minutes: May 2016

May 3, 2016 – 7:00 PM – The NINETY

Present (16 of 21): Samuel Chesneau, Cameron Collins, Paul Cox, Craig Dillon, Michael Dollard, Eric Flatness, Bill Kaczaraba, Roberta King, Angelica Germani, Thom Kephart, Jeremy Monsivais, Jerry Neil, Karl Picard, Daniel Roe, Stephanie Steiner, and Kristina Vaughn.

Via telephone (2): Brian Prouty and Jeff Randle.

Absent (3): Martin Buckley, Nick Gibson, and Brendan Vaughn.

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

I. Call to order – Stephanie Steiner (Executive Committee President)

II. Roll – Cameron Collins: 16 of 21 Present

III. April Minutes – Stephanie Steiner Made official.

IV. New Business

 A. Constitution Updates

→ Gender Neutrality: Updated all his or hers in every one to “member” or “councilmember” as previously voted upon. Made Bylaw 9 change from they or themselves. Question about previous plan to ask groups what would be appropriate We found a way to structure it so that it was not necessary to refer to any specific pronoun when speaking of an individual on council, so input was not necessary.

→ Article 3: MLS to League; #7: shorten sentence. Article 3 clarifies the Aims and Objectives of the Alliance. Is the League specific enough? Council feels yes. Further edits just to clean up superfluous language.

→ Article 4: Changing the definition of who is a member of the alliance. Suggestion: from 50% to any commercial season ticket package. Further membership criteria is then established in a new bylaw.

→ Article 5: Cleaned up language to reference a bylaw and took out all the language about ownership meetings so that the Article is easier to read and understand. deleted text here. BUSINESS YEAR? Proposal to change it to starting in December instead of February. Questions on how that changes? What happens to votes? Request that this be tabled so that it can be discussed at the next meeting. Seconded and passes.

→ Article 6: Clarifying language for 6.2: President and 6.5: Treasurer Article 6 edits are to clarify the language to set the agenda. Removes dates from Business year in case changes are made. 6.5 added language about treasurer that existed with the other officers. 6.2 says end of Business Year. Make 6.3 and 6.4 and 6.5 the same. Other capitalization needed throughout.

→ Article 7: Changes to verbiage to so it says executive committee or executive committee members, rather than board and directors. Sets a new maximum number of people on the executive committee to 9. Secretary becomes automatically on the exec committee. Corporate records changed to council records. Other small changes requested to have proper grammar and language consistency throughout the document. Question about how many do we have right now? 5 currently on EC. This would allow a Treasurer to join the EC if elected. Question on term? Is it indefinite? No, the Executive Committee is a term of one year.

→ Bylaw 5: Cleaned up language so it is laid out the proper order for things to be presented on the schedule. Question on the passive language concerning president scheduling the agenda: Should it be automatically on schedule? Discussion: what if it the schedule is full? What if they keep putting agenda stuff forth to stop a GM vote? But, what if the president is trying to stop a vote on that topic? This is specifically for amending Bylaws. We would need to put it for resolutions too PROPOSAL: after for scheduling… “on the agenda within two regularly scheduled Business Meetings”

→ Bylaw 8: Replaces “council” with “committee”

→ Bylaw 9: Eliminated the example in 9.1. Capitalized member throughout. A lot of other language cleanup.

QUESTION: Why can’t people on the phone vote? You cannot under Sturgis unless it is specifically written that way in the Constitution. Roberta and Karl will discuss writing up a change on this rule for the Council to consider.

→ Bylaw 10: When we were going through the Bylaws, we realized that there was officially no way to move meetings around, (like if a meeting was on a gameday) or call a new meeting. So this was created.

B. Agenda: By rule, our agenda has to be published two weeks prior and it is in place. It cannot be changed. However, there is always space in the new business portion to bring a new topic to the meeting. No one on Council asked to add the new bag rule to the meeting. Brendan Vaughn asked that a different topic be brought to the meeting, and it was declined because we discussed it 8 months ago and we already knew the answer (club pricing going a la carte). So, he was given all that information to pass along to those Alliance Members. But, if you have something you would like to bring to the Council, anyone on Council can bring it. If we need to write the resolution or the opinion statement, an AC member can write one and then the president will figure out what the AC member needs to get the proper resources and scheduling (per the rules in the Constitution). People can bring up anything else prior to the Agenda being published or during new business.

C. Bags: Eric expressed several concerns about the new bag rule for those who need to carry laptops and are coming to matches directly after work, or taking public transportation. Others shared their experiences regarding diaper bags, etc.

QUESTION: Do we know who proposed adopting the Seahawks bag policy? Councilmembers believe Sounders don’t care about customer service and treat people poorly. One heard the comment: “The Sounders are The Comcast of the MLS.” Paul Cox speaking on all the recent uproars: Historically, we have refrained from getting too much in the Club’s face. But they aren’t listening to the fans. They need someone specifically in the office to address fan needs. 2 things against us: 1) they get butts in the seats and 2) we haven’t asserted ourselves saying that they need to listen. Each person in that office should be watching out for the fans. But the main part of every person’s job who works for the Sounders is to make more money for the Sounders. That’s how their employees are evaluated. Supporters Direct in England highly recommend clubs have a position that is Supporters Liaison Officer (SLO) to talk to ALL supporters (not just SGs). It’s time for this Council to assert itself a little more on a couple of these issues. Stephanie Steiner on the Council’s relationship with the club: Club takes resolutions they like and ignore the ones they don’t like. We also have a place on our own website that we can put pressure on them through our blog. We can do this AND do resolutions and opinion statements. This is an especially effective tool for showing differing sides to an issue: not all Council members agree, just as not all Alliance members agree on how issues should be addressed.

V. Adjourn Motion to adjourn because way over time proposed and passes.

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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.

 

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.