A pair of closely timed announcements by the Sounders demonstrated the Major League Soccer financial-arms race into which they are being pulled.
First, they unveiled new center back Kim Kee-hee from South Korea at CenturyLink Field, their fourth Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) signing since July. Then they announced a first-of-its-kind, multiyear streaming deal with YouTube TV that sees it become the team’s official partner.
The two deals are hardly unrelated: The streaming contract is the latest bid by the Sounders to grow revenue any way they can to sustain the rising cost to remain an elite team in a changing league.