It's fun

Tukwila, Washington. – A lot that almost 1,800 people had packed the stands in the Starfire Sports Stadium on Tuesday evening to sing and scream when the Tacoma Defiance came against Portland Timbers shortly before a famous result. A few delayed goals, including a time penalty of stop times, gave Portland a 3-2 victory against the hosts. Despite the result, there was a lot to like from the Seattle Sunders' point of view.

From the first season of the team in 2015, when they were called S2, the main purpose of the second team of the SUNDER was to offer a last step along the development path for the players before reaching the first team. From this perspective, the team was an undeniable success. The current MLS service plan for SUNERS comprises 15 players who have started with the club with Defiance or have spent the club. There are more and more players to make this jump with every coming season.

This talent was seen against Portland. Five players in the start-XI for Defiance already have MLS contracts, but are part of this 15-member cohort, which would thank themselves for a significant part of their development, and another shortly afterwards they were joined when Osaze de Rosarios signed the sound later. Defiance players such as Snyder Brunell, Sebastian Gomez, Yu Tsukanome and Kaito Yamada (currently borrowed from Vissel Kobe) have shown that they have been more than stopped and keeping their own claims about these guys, who were already signed in the first team. to create.

Defiance's proposal as an important part of the development path is a well -known amount. What was less safe is the role that the team can play to connect and deal with fans.

This amount of 1,800 years was the greatest of the defiance of the defiance in her MLS -Nännachsteära, but we are not too far away from a time when the team pulled significantly larger crowds. In the two seasons before the start of the Covid Pandemic, when S2/Defiance actually played in Tacoma at the Cheney Stadium, the average number of visitors in 2018 and 2,636 in 2019 and even in 2019. Even in 2021, Defiances last season in Uslc before moving to MLS Next Pro, they had an average of 1,105 place when they were 5th in the west occupied.

The move to MLSNP meant a decline in the competition and a step back to Starfire because of defiance, as well as a change in dealing with ticketing. The result is a lack of easily available presence information, but the quantities are a name that no longer really fits the circumstances of the team, as well as a complete lack of real marketing. The Timber's agreement showed what a change in the organization's marketing approach could be for defiance.

The SUNDERS have long recognized the need to achieve new fans and have finally started to react to it. He started the first game in the US program to give fans who have never been in a game. This is a good start, but it will probably not be enough to transform someone in Lumen Field or a season ticket holder. Tickets are expensive to say nothing else you may want to buy as soon as you are in the stadium. While Starfire is certainly less easy to reach, it is also much cheaper to catch a defiance game, whereby entry only costs a Pay-you-can donation to the Rave Foundation.

However, it is not only that observing the defiant is cheaper. Despite the small crowds, games and games, the team makes a show. Since moving to MLSNP, the team has been the 2nd place in the west and in the west in '24 in 2022 and '23. Under head coach Hervé In 2004 the team scored an average of 2.0 goals per game (59 goals in 28 regular season games), and this season with only seven games they sit at the top of the West and their 22 goals scored the league (the next highest goals scored 18 goals, which also scored by Huntsville City FC). Defiance games are fun and players earn a lot that meets their appearances in the field.

The games are fun and tickets are cheap -if you are already a SUNDERS -Allianz member, the entrance is free -but Defiance games also offer a rare opportunity to experience some of what I will surely primarily use to the sound. If you have the stands on the field directly on the field at Starfire, you can contact Defiance Games with players who are simply no longer possible with the first team. You can have the types of interactions that have opened the past in our fan community heroes of the past. You can cheer on and get to know the games of these young players before jumping to the first team. This not only deserves to you that you can honestly say: “Oh, yes, I knew that he played under the light under the light at Starfire.

I say all of this in order not to blame the feet of the fans because they no longer appeared defiance games – I know that it is not easy, and there is only so much time that one of us can commit to watch and attend sporting events – but to emphasize why the organization of the SUNDER should do more to market the team. It would be a start to enable the personalities in the team, including coach h and the players to enable them more accessible through social media and reporting on the team page to get to know them and to make them. Do more to advertise games so that fans can take on plans for participation, and cross posts on the first team accounts that help to get the word. As it is now, fans cannot even buy basic defiance equipment, let alone actual jerseys. These are the minimal foundations.

It is not just about bringing new blood into the fan base or deepening connections, but it is not just about providing a lot to the effort that players use, but also help to prepare the players for a potential move into the competition manager. Regardless of whether you will be future SUNDERS-First-Teamer or your career paths, you will bring elsewhere, Fuller crowds and more lively atmospheres in the stadium help to create a more competitive environment. The jump from MLSNP to the big leagues will always be a big one, but even if it is only slightly smaller, the chances of success increase when the players make this jump.

With a little more investment from the club, nights like the Open Cup match do not have to be once a season event. That would be a good thing for everyone.