Adrian Hanauer
{{short description|American sports businessman}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Adrian Hanauer
|image = Adrian Hanauer at Sounders Victory Rally, 2016.jpg
|caption = Hanauer in 2016
|birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1966|2|7}}
|birth_place =
|nationality = American
|known_for = Seattle Sounders FC ownership
|education =
|alma_mater = University of Washington
|employer = Museum Quality Framing
|occupation = Businessman
|title =
|boards =
|spouse =
|partner =
|relatives = Nick Hanauer (brother)
|children =
|website =
|footnotes =
}}
Adrian Hanauer (born February 7, 1966) is an American businessman and majority owner of Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer. He is also one of the minority owners of the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League and the governor of Seattle Reign FC, a National Women's Soccer League team that the Sounders co-own with the Carlyle Group.
Business history
Hanauer's family owned the Pacific Coast Feather Company, a down pillow, feather bed, and high-end bedding products manufacturer that was founded in 1884 in Germany, and is now headquartered in Seattle.{{cite news|url=http://subscribe.seattlemag.com/0p131a267/the-gambler/ |title=The Gambler |publisher=Seattle Magazine |author=Meisner, Jeff |accessdate=2011-08-21 }}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} While Hanauer never held an executive position within the company, he began working at the company at 13.
Hanauer founded Museum Quality Framing, which is a chain of custom frame stores in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, in 1988.{{cite news | url=http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/1999/11/22/story6.html | title=Seeking frame and fortune | publisher=Puget Sound Business Journal | author=Nancy J. Kim | date=1999-11-19 | accessdate=2008-02-01}} Hanauer used to own a chain of pizza stores called Mad Pizza.{{cite news |last=Massey |first=Matt |date=September 28, 2007 |title=Hanauer lays bet on Seattle soccer |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/sounders/hanauer-lays-bet-on-seattle-soccer/ |work=The Seattle Times |accessdate=May 7, 2023}} As an early investor in Amazon and aQuantive, an online based advertising company, Hanauer turned a substantial profit when the latter company went public in 2000 and again when Microsoft purchased the company in 2007.{{cite news |last=Mesiner |first=Jeff |date=July 8, 2007 |title=Private pro soccer talks stall |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2007/07/09/story7.html |work=Puget Sound Business Journal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805102751/http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2007/07/09/story7.html |archive-date=August 5, 2011 |accessdate=October 11, 2022}}
He became the managing partner for the USL Seattle Sounders in 2002 and began reducing the financial losses the team was taking, $1 million per year for the five years proceeding Hanauer's taking over the team,{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} and reduced the losses to $350,000 per year. The team also attained success on the field under Hanauer's leadership, going 23-4-1 in his first season, the second best record in USL history, and made it to the league championship game three times, winning it twice. Hanauer also began working on getting a Major League Soccer team in Seattle. The league passed over Seattle in 2004, choosing instead to expand to better prepared Salt Lake City. Hanauer invested $250,000 for a 15 percent stake in an English soccer team Cambridge United FC in May 2007.
Following the MLS All Star game in July 2007, Hanauer was introduced to Hollywood executive, director, and film producer Joe Roth by MLS commissioner Don Garber. The two men hit it off and over the next few weeks, Roth made several visits to Seattle to take in a few Sounders games and get to know Hanauer better. By November, the two had brought in Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and comedian Drew Carey as investors and MLS had announced Seattle as the next expansion team.
In 2005, Hanauer founded business incubator and venture capital company Curious Office Partners. The company invests in small internet startup companies and offers them office space in Pioneer Square and invests between US$10,000 and $250,000 in the startups.{{cite news | url=http://www.seattlepi.com/business/242482_curious28.html | title=Startups—the micro approach | publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer | author=John Cook | date=2005-09-28 | accessdate=2008-02-01}} In 2018, he and his brother sold the Pacific Coast Feather Company.{{Cite web|first=Ashley |last=Stewart |author-link= |title= Down and out: Why Nick and Adrian Hanauer sold their family business |publisher=Puget Sound Business Journal|date=March 30, 2018 |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2018/03/30/adrian-nick-hanauer-sold-pacific-coast-feather-co.html |accessdate=}}
Hanauer joined the ownership group of the Seattle Kraken, an expansion franchise in the National Hockey League, in 2018.{{cite news |last=Baker |first=Geoff |date=September 5, 2018 |title=NHL Seattle minority owners include Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer and family of former Sonics owner |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/hockey/minority-ownership-partners-announced-for-the-nhl-seattle-initiative-includes-sounders-owner-adrian-hanauer/ |work=The Seattle Times |accessdate=October 11, 2023}} He and his mother Lenore also acquired a minority stake in Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League the following year.{{cite news |last=Schlosser |first=Kurt |date=January 30, 2019 |title=Seattle venture capitalist joins Reign FC ownership group as soccer team announces move to Tacoma and new stadium plans |url=https://www.geekwire.com/2019/seattle-venture-capitalist-joins-reign-fc-ownership-group-soccer-team-announces-move-tacoma-new-stadium-plans/ |work=GeekWire |accessdate=October 11, 2023}} The stake was later acquired by OL Groupe in December 2019.{{cite news |last=Hays |first=Graham |date=December 19, 2019 |title=Lyon ownership group to buy Rapinoe's NWSL team Reign FC for $3.51 million |url=https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37580002/lyon-ownership-group-buy-rapinoe-nwsl-team-reign-fc-351-million |publisher=ESPN |accessdate=October 11, 2023}} The Reign were acquired by the Sounders and The Carlyle Group in 2024; Hanauer serves as governor of the team.{{cite news |last=Evans |first=Jayda |date=June 16, 2024 |title=Sounders' purchase of Reign FC finalized, ushering in new era of Seattle soccer |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/sounders/sounders-purchase-of-reign-fc-finalized-ushering-in-new-era-of-seattle-soccer/ |work=The Seattle Times |accessdate=June 18, 2024}}
Personal life
Hanauer's interest in soccer began at the age of 3, he saw his first North American Soccer League Sounders game at the age of 8, and he was one of only two freshmen to make the soccer team for Mercer Island High School. While Hanauer did not make the team as a sophomore, he continued to play soccer, first on an intramural team while attending University of Washington and now on two teams in the Greater Seattle Soccer League.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Seattle Sounders FC}}
{{MLS owner navbox}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanauer, Adrian}}
Category:University of Washington alumni
Category:Businesspeople from Seattle
Category:Major League Soccer executives