what would a recession/depression mean for the sounders?

disclaimer… i am no financial analyst, nor do i profess to be a historian. but then again, i am sure you knew that. but as someone who watches too much news these days, it isn’t hard to feel like we are entering a financial era that none of us can be happy about.

the economy has been on my mind a lot lately, yours too i would assume. but i have been thinking about how would this affect the sounders, especially since they would be a brand new team.

the good news is, as far as i know, those that have bought their season tickets, can not return them. so the first year we are looking pretty solid. somewhere around 17,000 season tickets sold and even if we don’t sell another single one, that is still a great number for the first year. but how much beer, hot dogs, jerseys etc are people going to buy if they find themselves with out much disposable income, or at least income they are scared to spend. i don’t know the exact figures, but you often hear that concessions and retail makes up a very large proportion of a sports franchise income. so this could be a significant blow.

beyond that, i think the biggest scare that the FO might have is the second seasons season ticket sales. if the economy tanks more than it has, and is bad this time next year, unless we put out a playoff making team the first year, i do fear that season ticket sales will plummet. i have nothing to back that up but using me and my friends as a litmus test. in a small poll, every single one of them that has a season ticket this year, said it would be a stretch to say that they would buy one next year if their economy sucked.

why?

well we are all of the age where we have families, and as much as i LOVE football, i really really do, i could not buy a $600 ticket in good conscience if i was fearing for my retirement, or my daughters college education. sure, in the long run, those things will probably be fine, but unless you are rich (i am not) it is hard to see the big picture when you are in the thick of just trying to pay your bills and be sure that you don’t lose your job. in a time like that, i can’t go buy a season ticket to a sports franchise no matter how much i love the sport or team. i think my friends would all say the same thing, and you know what, i think that we make up 1/2 if not more of the season ticket holders for the sounders. the make up of ticket holders being a lot of families was something that was echoed to me by frank mcdonald when we talked.
so i think two things have to happen to avoid a huge second season slump

1. sounders make the playoffs. if this happens, i say we keep the same number of ticket holders. sonics are gone, huskies suck, mariners suck, seahawks will likely not suck as bad as they have started, but still, they aren’t the team they used to be. we may be the only game in town

2. the economy doesn’t tank. by tanking i mean depression. if it stays poor (recession) then we may be ok, but even that might be a stretch.

so lets go out and enjoy this season that we have already hoped for and hope for the best in the economy b/c i think it will greatly affect next year.