Eight years into their MLS existence, the Seattle Sounders have embraced their heritage like few other teams have before. The Sounders unapologetically trace their history back to 1974, the year the NASL team was founded, even wearing uniforms meant as an homage to that original team. As obvious as this may all seem now, though, it's worth remembering how close the Sounders came to using an entirely different name.
There are two significant paths that could have lead to there not being a Seattle Sounders in Major League Soccer. The first is simply if the club refused to allow a write-in vote when the team was in its expansion phase.