MLS Sounders GM & minority Owner ADRIAN HANAUER is now in the midst of his fifth season at the helm of the club and coming off a vote in December where 96% of club season-ticket holders and Alliance members elected to keep him in his position. A Seattle native, he will spend the majority of his weekend in the city’s neighborhood of Leschi, while also heading to CenturyLink Field for the team’s rivalry match against the Timbers. Hanauer took time to talk about his game superstitions, homemade smoothies and his sleep habits -- or lack thereof.
DINNER PLANS: Friday after work, if I can muster the energy after the week leading up to a game, it’s almost certainly dinner with friends. It's at one of five or ten favorite spots or it’s trying a new restaurant in town. And then -- especially if I’ve had a glass of wine -- I’m crawling to bed by about 10:30pm.
KICKING AROUND: I do my best to sleep as long as possible on a game day, but I’m a terrible sleeper. So I’ll more likely get involved in turning the TV on somewhere between 6:00am and 7:30am to start watching soccer games that are on in Europe. That’s the problem with our sport. There’s basically a live soccer game on almost 24 hours a day, which makes it really hard to turn off. I have good friends at Chelsea and Arsenal, so I certainly root for my friends. Those are probably the two teams that I try not to miss if they’re playing in the morning.
BOYS AND THEIR TOYS: I have a really fancy kind of commercial-type espresso machine that I use more than any expensive toy I’ve ever bought. I have an Americano every morning. I’m a coffee and smoothie guy, every morning. I put banana; fresh fruit; frozen fruit; yogurt; vegetables like carrot, spinach, maybe kale, beets, whatever we might have around; protein powder; and then ice and juice. That’s breakfast.
DOG DAY AFTEROON: My girlfriend and I try to go to the dog park on Saturdays before games with my dog Oscar. Then most Saturdays -- my background is German, and there’s a little German deli near the dog park -- we’ll pick up some cold cuts and sausages, sauerkraut, potato salad and mustard and go have lunch at the house. It’s a very, stress-relieving, relaxing thing for me to do.
HOCUS POCUS: I rotate through different superstitions. One year I had a lucky haircut and I didn’t get a haircut until we lost a game. Other times I’ve had lucky suits that I’ve worn. There was a period where we were winning when I didn’t work out the day of the game. But that one I kind of got rid of pretty quickly because I just couldn’t stand the idea of not working out on the day of the game. It turns out that the superstitions never work for a long period of time. And I would say as I’ve gone more years, I’m starting to become a little more sane and less neurotic about my superstitions and ability to affect the outcome by what I’m wearing.
NIGHT CAP: After the game I’ll go home, get a bowl of cereal and watch the game again with some Kashi or some healthy cereal. It’s usually like Raisin Nut Bran or something like that. There’s a negotiation that goes on every weekend between my girlfriend and I about how much soccer on TV equates to how much Home & Garden TV and how many episodes of “House Hunters International” we have to watch. So it’s like one full game per episode of “House Hunters International.”
ON THE 7TH DAY, HE RESTED: Sunday is usually way less programmed and it also almost certainly is affected by the result and the quality of the game before. Again, as I do this more years, I hope to not have the game affect me quite as much for the next few days, but I’d be lying if I said that the days after a win were not different from the days after a loss.
JUST LIKE MOM: My favorite, kind of off-the-beaten-path place that I go to is a little sandwich place where I can hide out at because it’s in the middle of the industrial area. It’s not a flashy place, just a little place where they make good food. It’s a place called Two Tartes. I almost always have half of a tuna fish sandwich with a salad and salt and vinegar potato chips and a glass of water. I have a huge sweet tooth. And this place makes the best cookies and baked goods in the city, kind of like your mom used to make with real butter and real sugar.
