First, let’s get things straight. It’s not like FC Spare Tire players appear in newspapers and blogs as the biggest soccer fans in the state. Nor have they ever been photographed wearing big-name soccer apparel for a magazine or Web site. Sports talk radio show personalities will never mutter “FC Spare Tire” in sequence in an on-air sentence. And never will Tire game storylines be ever published in any reputable professional news media.

But over the years, and even recently, Tire players haven’t exactly been sitting on their hands all day.

Below is a compilation of events and reasons FCST and its players have appeared in various media outlets—outside of fcsparetire.com, of course. Which receives around 500 hits a week, by the way. Not a lot wrong with that.

Tire on Telefutura TV

During the Gold Cup that took place on Saturday, July 9, 2005 at Qwest Field, members of FC Spare Tire sat in a section at the end of the stadium behind a banner featuring an American flag and promoting the FC Spare Tire Web site address.

After a U.S. goal during the Americans’ 3-1 win over Canada in second round of Group B action, Tire players in the stands and the FC Spare Tire web address appeared for a second or two on the Latin TV network Telefutura during Costa Rica—Cuba highlights later that day.

It is estimated that nearly 150 Web page hits were the result. “Congrats on Marketing,” said Carles, a Texas resident who saw the quick televised clip and signed the FCST Guest Book. Tony G. in Arizona did the same.

Tire the featured Club of the Month

Objectivo.com, a then-soccer-focused Web site devoted to covering “the world’s greatest game, on a community level”, chose FC Spare Tire as its January 2007 club of the month.

While it’s no longer available online, read the article here.

And just as a side note, the article references the Web site receives 500 daily hits - the word should have been weekly, but no one complained ...

Tire player urges readers to avoid tomatoes

In April 2008, at least 167 cases of salmonellosis caused by the bacteria Salmonella Saintpaul had been reported. The FDA linked the outbreak to three kinds of raw red tomatoes.

In an article published in the Seattle Times on June 10, 2008 titled, “Many varieties of tomatoes disappear from markets, restaurants”, star midfielder and Pagliacci Pizza owner Matt Galvin is seen pictured discarding tomatoes from a container into a trash bin.

“There’s just enough uncertainty about where this stuff is coming from,” Galvin was quoted as saying. “Why risk any confusion?”

Read the entire article here.

As it stands, Galvin has appeared in the media more than any other Tire player, appearing in the Puget Sound Business Journal, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle magazine, kathycasey.com and pizzatoday.com, to name but a few.

Soccer expert gives Tire player the time of day

In the late summer of 2008, renowned American soccer expert Ives Galarcep invited questions from his readers to be considered for his attention on his Web site, soccerbyives.com. Of the many he selected to answer, one addressed a lukewarm topic at the time: Who would be named the Seattle Sounders FC manager? The question was posed by FCST founder Steve Lassiter.

On September 18, 2008, the question was published and answered by Ives, as well as a second question about his attending the home opener, along with a smiley face emoticon, as Lassiter can only do, as a funny little note as to the location of said opener.

Below is the question and answer:

SSFC season ticket holders nod to Tire

As Seattle Sounders FC season ticket holders waited with bated breath in early March 2009 for the arrival of that shiny rave green-colored box to arrive at doorsteps and mailboxes across Puget Sound, an e-mail was sent to them to inform one and all as to who might be sitting in their section at Qwest Field.

Upon encouragement to visit www.tickets.soundersfc.com, the middle button, TicketInfo, opened to a map of each seating section.

With a mouse rollover pointed at section 149, site goers were informed that in general, fans in that area favor three well-known teams: Seattle Sounders FC, Manchester United, and FC Spare Tire.

Tire keeper nominated as an Eastside favorite

In its “2nd Annual Doctors Making a Difference” feature, the April 2009 edition of 425 magazine highlighted doctors and other medical community professionals worthy of recognition for their fine efforts in their field.

Magazine editors combed through nominations from their colleagues, and e-mails and letters from 425 readers who recommended their favorite physicians … and there in a slate green-colored box, fourth one down, wouldn’t you know it, a familiar name was a nominee: Physician Assistant Shelby Dobbs, Overlake Hospital Medical Center, Bellevue.

Read the entire article here.

SFC Weekly cameras love Tire

In the March 29, 2009 edition of Sounders FC Weekly on KONG 6/16, a short segment featured Seattle Sounders original manager Alan Hinton. Toward the end of the segment, around the 25-minute mark, Hinton revels in what his team has now become; as a visual, the SSFC second-ever MLS goal (Brad Evans) was shown, along with a pan of the nearby crowd in the endzone.

In the quick scan, Tire players clearly seen are Mike Gill-More in his bright yellow jacket, triumphantly holding a Sounders scarf above his head, Tim Farley, clapping as he peeks at the photo that Scott Strasser took of the shot on his Blackberry, and Doug Hodson, who watches the replay on the big screen.

View the entire show here.

Sounders—Tire banner gets air time

In two successive Seattle Sounders FC home games, local and national cameras captured images of an FC Spare Tire banner cheering the team on.

The banner was placed at the northwest corner of the field where any close-up shot of a corner kick-taker would certainly show visible Sounders and Tire logos, along with the text “Go Sounders” and “www.fcsparetire.com”.

During the Sounders—San Jose game June 14, clear images of Sebastien Le Toux and Freddie Ljungberg were picked up by KONG-TV/FSN cameras as two of six corners taken from that side during the 2-0 SSFC win.

Then during Sounders—DC United the MLS Game of the Week on June 17, ESPN2 cameras picked up close images of the banner during a Ljungberg corner and following a Nate Jaqua goal where he ran nearly directly to the banner in celebration with fans there. The goal lifted Seattle to a 2-1 lead, but the game ended in a 3-3 tie.

Defender Berk a 'Genius'

As part of November’s 2009 Stranger Genius Awards Shortlist: Visual Art, Tire defender Leo Berk was named as one of four honorees of the annual award.

A Stranger reviewer noted that Berk “took a risk, made a leap: Developing sculptures from news events could easily be a recipe for disaster. But Leo Berk's series of topographies based on Saddam Hussein's spider hole, Tora Bora, Naj Tunich, and the Quecreek Mine—2-D, 3-D, and in-between—embodied the ache for information and the way that ache perverts facts and invents realities, becomes spectacular, pornographic, glittery, desperate. This is not to say his works were flashy; in fact, they were rather minimal. Which made them throb.”

As noted on a lawrimoreproject.com page, “Berk’s work limns the space between the real and the depicted. Past works explored the relationship of veneer to trees, of architectural models to their completed buildings, and of images to actual objects. In delineating these relationships, he attempts to reveal their formal and conceptual beauty, their innate fallibility, and our cultural assumptions built around them.”

Take a gander at a bunch of Leo’s stuff here and here and here too.

Sounders FC Weekly Cameras Catch Lassiter
As part of a segment on Sounders FC Weekly highlighting keeper Kasey Keller's career, cameras caught FCST patriarch Steve Lassiter in the crowd at Keller's final regular-season home game vs. San Jose on October 15, 2011. The episode ran on Sunday, October 17. Lassiter is pictured at the far left.

Hodson turned to for the latest from King Cunty
As part of a 10 o'clock news segment featuring King County's preparedness for an upcoming winter blast, midfielder Doug Hodson informed the public of the latest County Roads Services winter weather budget happenings on the 10 o'clock Q13 Fox News Wednesday, November 16, 2011.

In his 15 seconds, Hodson stated, "So in 2012 is really when our budget impacts are really gonna be felt more severely. We've gone through a number of, uh, staff reductions and equipment, ya know, we have fewer resources and those have been happening throughout the year. But they're really going to be most noticeably seen, um, beginning in January."

Hodson also appeared as a guest on the Ken Schramm radio program on KOMO 1000 AM the same day. 

Of course, you can also get your fill of FC Spare Tire on: