Ben Franklin had syphilis

He did, you know. Oh, and Major League Soccer announced today that Philadelphia would be awarded the league's 16th franchise in 2010. 

According to the MLS press release, the fan-boosted bid for a team was finally accepted, shortly after former MetroStars GM Nick Sakiewicz added his considerable weight to the project (no, I'm not calling him fat), but the real driving force behind the bid was the Philly supporter's group Sons of Ben.

"The 'Sons of Ben' are what's great about the sport of soccer," Sakiewicz said. "Look at the excitement they're bringing and the team isn't even going to play a game for two years. It's just phenomenal. I think the excitement generated by this franchise and all the development surrounding it will also generate strong ticket sales. We're all very excited."

The team will be holding a contest soon to allow fans to pick the name of the club and let me go on the record now to say that this is a stupid idea -- unless you narrow down the list to four acceptable names ahead of time (see poll). Some names of soccer clubs in Philly's past and present: Philadelphia Atoms, Philadelphia Fury, Philadelphia Charge, Philadelphia Kixx, and Philadelphia Freedom (ugh).

Last August, I chided Seattle (who will receive an expansion team in 2009) for their weak fan support, and I made mention of my respect for the SOBs in Philly. So, congrats you crazy bastards.

Now, here's a drunk guy explaining the history behind the real son of Ben Franklin:

MLS in Seattle? The Sounders of silence

With the Seattle Sounders’ trouncing of Colorado in the US Open Cup and their Round of 16 win over Chivas America, MLS Seattle boosters are pointing and nodding and nudging one another like Tim Howard off his meds. But hold on a minute.

The Sounders put together a couple of wins and looked impressive against Colorado, but this particular team’s quality on the pitch says nothing about Seattle’s ability to host an MLS expansion team.

That’s not the way Seattle Sounder owner Adrian Hanauer saw it following his side's win:

"I'm highly optimistic we'll be able to get this thing [MLS expansion] done this time"

Not so fast, Hanauer. Let’s examine an aspect of last night’s 5-0 blitzkrieg of Colorado that has been overlooked – the pitiful crowd.

I watched the match on usllive.com (ok, the first half) and what struck me was not the quality of the Sounders or the terrible play of the Rapids, but the complete lack of atmosphere. If Seattle fans expect MLS to bring a franchise to their city, they need to show the league that they will support a team (even when they’re playing crappy Colorado). And there were way too many open seats. Sure, it was played in Qwest Field, a cavernous NFL stadium, but I’m talking empty bottom bowl seats.

The attendance for last night’s match was officially 6,619. Against Chivas America in the Round of 16, it was 3,589. Pitiful.

I can only guess, but I am confident that this would not be the case in a city like Philadelphia, who is also soliciting MLS for a team. Admittedly, I have experienced the passion of the Philly fans first hand when I made a comment about them possibly slipping on the list of MLS expansion cities and was immediately torched on this site and Big Soccer.

Yes, the Sons of Ben, as their already-created supporters group is called, are in full force and would have gotten out the word and filled the stadium had an MLS club came to town to play a local Philly squad. They are already organizing trips to other MLS stadiums. And there is already a proposed SSS in Chester, Pa.

I googled and googled and I couldn’t find anything like the SOBs (I hope they did that on purpose) for Seattle. I found this blog GoalSeattle.com, but it doesn’t seem to be organizing fan support in any real way, other than politely urging people to support the Sounders.

Another stumbling block for MLS Seattle will be Qwest, itself. MLS commish Don Garber has gone on record stating that every MLS team needs to be playing in their own soccer-specific stadium. So, even if Qwest Field is an acceptable short-term solution, a Seattle franchise would need to be thinking about an SSS. And here’s a great column on the problem with that, courtesy of a blogger on seattlest.com.

Last night was Seattle’s opportunity to show that there is a passion and desire to bring MLS to the city, and it fell as flat as the Colorado Rapid defense.