David Falk
For some of us longtime Sounders fans, it would be nice if there were an official museum we could visit to pass the time and wax nostalgic about our favorite local soccer club. Perhaps one day there will be but in the interim, we have a virtual museum available online.
Meet David Falk, our unofficial official curator of the virtual Seattle soccer museum, Goalseattle.com.
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I found David's Web site more than five years ago. I was following the news about Seattle's expansion bid in 2004 (we were passed over for Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake). I was feeling a bit nostalgic about the 1974-1983 NASL Sounders and was looking for any information I could find on the club.
I came across this amazing Web site that had substantive photo content, statistics and pictures of memorabilia I used to own but somehow got lost along my life's journey.
Do you want to know how many goals and assists Davey Butler got in 1976? Are you interested in finding pictures of Harry Redknapp (current manager of Tottenham Hotspur) when he actually played and coached the reserve squad in the 70's? It is all there for you at GoalSeattle.com.
Not only does David cover Sounders FC history but all of Seattle professional soccer history. The ASL Tacoma Tides, Seattle FC, The MISL Tacoma Stars, The CISL Seattle Seadogs and a lot more. I could tell you more but David's work speaks for itself.
I invite you to take a virtual tour of David's virtual museum. The ticket costs nothing, but I offer a word of caution, if you are a huge Sounder and soccer fan like me, you may find your self getting lost in the place for a few hours.
I had the opportunity to ask David a few questions about his site and the work he does on behalf of Seattle soccer fans. After you are done reading,
NSS: How did Goalseattle.com get started?
"I have been a Sounders fan since the very beginning in 1974, and have been collecting and archiving Sounders stuff pretty much since then. It began as SounderCentral.com in 2003. The USL Sounders were moving to Qwest Field and my interest in the club had been re-ignited. Fans were looking for a place to gather online. At that time there was an email 'chat circle,' but not much more. SounderCentral became a place to talk after we added forums. In 2004 I bought the domain "GOALSeattle.com" in anticipation of Seattle getting an MLS club. I ran the site as a place to get the latest news on MLS coming to Seattle. In 2007 I merged the two websites and started using just the name "GOALSeattle.com," though SounderCentral.com is still active and some users continue to use that in their bookmarks."
NSS: What triggered you to start doing this?
"When Adrian Hanauer put together his first bid for an MLS franchise in 2004 I put up the website to keep track of news about that effort. The USL Sounders were a blast to follow and fall in love with, but we had a pretty small circle of fans back then. GOALSeattle was an effort to hype MLS and also include all of local soccer, including college and semi-pro."
NSS: Where do you get all of the great pictures and videos of The NASL Sounders?
"The photos are mainly from the camera of Jenni Conner. She was a high school photography talent and went to as many Sounders matches as she could. Her late mother Jewel was luckily a bit of a 'pack rat' and saved many of her negatives and photos from those times. The rest are scans from "Kick" magazine, the match day program in the NASL era. The videos mainly come from a guy in Texas, Dave Brett, who has made a small living off of 'saving' and archiving NASL footage. www.DaveBrett.com"
David also writes a daily blog on Seattle Soccer Examiner.
Reach columnist Greg Roth at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
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