The Seattle Sounders are looking for outdoors buyers for the primary time for the reason that membership joined MLS in 2009.
The workforce has retained Moelis & Co. to discover a “strategic capital elevate,” in keeping with an announcement shared with Sportico. Extra particularly, the Sounders are in search of a big minority accomplice that may lend capital and experience to the membership’s massive challenge ambitions, together with actual property aspirations that would embody a brand new soccer-specific stadium at its Longacres improvement.
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The workforce is looking for “a strategic accomplice that desires to align with the imaginative and prescient of what we’re constructing,” Sounders president of enterprise operations Hugh Weber stated in an interview. “Whether or not that’s a household or a person, a first-time sports activities investor or if it’s their fifth sports activities funding, it’s extra concerning the human and the way we take into consideration partnering. That’s far more necessary than their pedigree.”
The mandate relates simply to the Sounders and doesn’t embody the Seattle Reign, the NWSL workforce that the Sounders purchased final 12 months in a deal. There isn’t any particular person accomplice promoting his or her fairness; this can be a capital elevate, agreed to by the entire possession group.
The Sounders are managed by majority proprietor Adrian Hanauer, who took over from Joe Roth in 2015. Although the membership has additionally introduced new backers over time, they’ve been very small items bought privately by celebrities or native businesspeople akin to Ken Griffey Jr., Macklemore, Marshawn Lynch and Satya Nadella. This, nevertheless, can be the primary time since its MLS debut that the workforce has sought capital on the open market.
The Sounders are simply the newest MLS workforce to overtly courtroom buyers on the eve of the 2026 males’s World Cup, which can be held throughout North America. Each the Vancouver Whitecaps and San Jose Earthquakes are presently in the marketplace, and Actual Salt Lake offered earlier this 12 months. The and are amongst groups which have raised cash within the final 12 months.
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For the reason that second the World Cup was awarded to the U.S., Canada and Mexico again in 2018, MLS executives and homeowners have mentioned it as a significant industrial catalyst for each the league and soccer in America. That stated, even when each scenario is exclusive, it’s notable that various groups looking for new homeowners or new buyers have chosen to take action previous to that occasion.
The Sounders are value $825 million, which ranks seventh within the league, in keeping with . Staff income in 2024 was $83 million, which ranked ninth. For the reason that Sounders joined the league in 2009, they’ve been among the many league’s greatest groups on the sector—successful two titles and 7 different main trophies.
Although the workforce performs in an NFL stadium, a problem for a lot of MLS golf equipment over the league’s historical past, it has persistently maintained among the many highest attendance within the league. The Sounders led the league in dwelling followers for eight straight years from 2009 to 2016 and have by no means completed outdoors the highest three. They have been second this previous season, trailing solely Atlanta United.
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Moelis not too long ago dealt with of NWSL membership Angel Metropolis FC to Bob Iger and Willow Bay and a latest funding into the New York Giants at a report valuation. The funding financial institution can also be presently one other MLS membership, the San Jose Earthquakes.
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