Seattle soccer: A city drinks in Drew Carey's love of the game

SEATTLE — Hey bartender, have you seen Drew Carey?"

"Sure," she says, pointing to a thicket of blue and green. Soccer lovers -- Seattle Sounders lovers to be precise -- crammed inside a beer-drenched bar.

His famous outline emerges, wide and square-jawed. The popular comedian and host of TV's "The Price Is Right" stands by a bar stool, one of the gang -- the gang being the Emerald City Supporters, one of several fan groups that live and breathe the Sounders, the Major League Soccer team Carey partly owns that is playing its first season.

Game time is in two hours at nearby Qwest Field against the San Jose Earthquakes, and the fans are hyped.

Some thank him for bringing big-time soccer -- as big as it's played in America at least -- to Seattle.

"Drew, Drew, never thought I'd see anything like this. You're totally awesome, man!" says one. Others offer advice, from what to do about a struggling player to where the team's crackerjack band should sit. "Drew, bud, we gotta talk. . . ." "Drew, ever think of this . . .?" "Drew, Drew, hey Mr. Carey . . ."

Most team owners would steer well clear of a place like this. But Carey, guided by his populist instincts and curiosity, wants to soak up the fans' energy and hear their opinions.

Carey, schlumpy son of middle America, has become a soccer fiend and one of the game's most ardent evangelists. He wants fans to share his goal of making soccer deeply popular in this country. He wants pro sports teams in the United States, particularly ones like the soulless L.A. Clippers, to replicate the Seattle Sounders' tight, almost brotherly connection with fans.

Impossible, right? Team owners aren't known for welcoming change. To think a trend will develop, says David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute, "is simply wishful thinking."

--

Soccer is hardly fertile ground for such a movement. This is Major League Soccer's 14th season, yet ESPN this year scuttled its weekly "Primetime Thursday" showcase game because of meager ratings.

The Sounders, though, lead the MLS in attendance, having sold out the 29,000-seat Qwest Field for all 15 of their home games, right up to the final match in October that ends the 30-game season.

On this particular night in late April, as game time approaches, Carey ambles down the street toward the stadium, still surrounded by scores of fans, signing autographs, giving hugs. This is the start of the Sounders' pregame parade. And Carey is at the heart of it.