Seattle Sounders taking MLS to a new level

MLS franchise Seattle Sounders are taking match attendances and merchandise sales to a new level.

The vivid blue and green of the Sounders is one of the factors that turns Qwest Field into a cauldron for the expansion club who are enjoying success both on and off the pitch.

With an average attendance of 30,024 fans per game and second place on the Western Conference table indicates that the club is heading in the right direction.

"This is kind of an international city, and our ownership group gets it," says Gary Wright, a veteran of three decades in the NFL's Seattle Seahawks front office and now the Sounders senior vice president of business operations. "Our goal is to be a flagship."

Sounders CEO Tod Leiweke echoed Wright’s sentiments.

"People have asked me if I'm really surprised by this, and there's part of me that is, but there's part of me that's not," says Tod Leiweke, the Sounders CEO and president of the Seahawks, whose ownership group also owns a share of the MLS team. "We worked really hard, we put a lot of the right pieces in place. And when you do that, the fans step up."