05.10.10 Soccer Fans Getting Refund…Sort Of

Fans of the Seattle Sounders were treated to a less-than-impressive game when their team lost 4-0 at home to the Seattle Sounders. But give credit where credit is due, as Sounders owner/GM Adrian Hanauer has decided to do just that–extend credit to the Seattle fans that paid to see that game. Well…sort of.

“The refund will come in the form of a credit against next year’s season tickets. We want our fans committed for the long haul and we think this is the right thing to do for our fans.”

“As the owners of the club we reserve the right to do whatever we think we need to do to treat our fans the way they’ve treated us.”

In its inaugural season, Sounders FC capped season tickets at 22,000 and averaged 30,943 fans per match, establishing a new MLS record for highest fan average per match. This season 32,000 Sounders FC season tickets were sold at a 96 percent renewal rate with a league-high average attendance of 36,144 over five games. –press release, via Guanabee.

And this is the point in the post where any other fool would say, “I wish teams in other sports did that.” You know why they don’t? Because their fans are too stupid to walk away from their season tickets after the team goes 4-12. Hell, the Redskins are suing their season ticket holders and they’ll still sell out every game. If fans of other sports were more discriminate about how they chose to support their teams financially, those same teams wouldn’t be thumbing their noses at them. But I’m just a homeless guy* with a blog and a 401(k) account. What do I know…

*not actually homeless