Towering over the Sounders’ MLS Cup championship rally last Tuesday at Seattle Center was a slightly altered version of the club’s green-and-blue logo. Above the Space Needle in the team’s angular crest hovered a gold star.
Such alterations to a team’s logo are a widespread soccer tradition, to the point where MLS codified its system earlier this year: One gold star for the defending champion, which turns silver the year after that. For every five league titles, a club earns a permanent gold star.
Looking up at that banner early last week, Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer was struck by a prevailing thought.