Hot on the heels of Daniel Stern's latest anti-Seattle diatribe comes this little piece of information.

Major League Soccer is on the verge of announcing an expansion team into Seattle in time for the 2009 season.  Now, I am not a soccer fan per se, though I find it interesting to watch as a change of pace when the other local sports are not going well, and worked the Sounders games at the Q when it was first opened.  This team will also share playing space at the Q with the Seahawks and the concerts and other events that take place there.

Seahawks owner Paul Allen will also own part of the MLS team, as well, garnering more income (does he really need it??) for both the venue and himself; making him a three sport owner (NBA, NFL and MLS).

This cannot be BAD for Seattle, as there is quite a lively soccer community here, what with our very diverse population.

There is also talk of trying to lure an NHL team into town to become natural rivals with the Canucks a few hours north, be it an expansion team or one that already exists and is struggling in its current venue.  Few people know that the Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup some seventy-ish years ago, and that we have two good WHL hockey teams within 30 miles of each other in the Seattle Metro area now, both of which enjoy good fan support, and both of which usually  make it into the playoffs at season's end. The T-Birds will be playing in their new arena next season, as well, down in Kent (south of Seattle).

In short, will we miss the Sonics when "Cash Us Clay" (copyright Jim Caple of ESPN's Second Page....) and the commish drag them off to Oklahoma City?  Well, yes, at least I and some of my friends will, but.......don't write Seattle off as a sports town just because they go to a smaller venue where Herr Bennett already says that the Ford Center needs to be refurbished and/or another new arena built Sooner than later (pun intended.

In the immortal words of Gloria Gaynor from the disco era "I (We) Will Survive.  And quite nicely, too.