Former Seahawks and Warriors executive Tod Leiweke joins Seattle Sounders ownership group

The Seattle Sounders FC announced that Tod Leiweke and his wife Tara will join the ownership group with a minor stake of the share package. Leiweke is a well-known sports executive who was previously involved with the team back in 2009, while the Sounders were joining the MLS. His story is related to some of the most successful franchises of the USA.

Leiweke is very close to Paul Allen, the Seattle Seahawks’s owner, and has been both the CEO of the Seahawks and of Vulcan Sports and Entertainment, Allen’s management company which oversees his sport’s properties. Later on, Leiweke worked as executive in NHL’s Minnesota Wild and Tampa Bay Lightning, and on NBA’s Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers.

During the last decade Leiweke had been the Chief Operations Officer of the NFL under commissioner Roger Goodell, and ultimately take the rol as the CEO of Seattle Kraken, a brand new NHL franchise which is set to debut in the league in 2021. Back at Seattle, Leiweke expressed interest in joining the Sounders FC ownership group at the same time that owner Adrian Hanauer is expanding the ownership members.

The agreement was singed earlier this year but hasn’t been announced until now. Since the summer of 2019, eleven new families has joined the Sounders’s ownership group, with some familiar faces like the Seahawks’s quarterback Russell Wilson, his wife singer Ciara and the rapper Macklemore.