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.


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