Nick Sakiewicz

SEATTLE - The Union made their Major League Soccer debut last night in Seattle, and MLS commissioner Don Garber is impressed with the impact the first-year franchise has made. More than 10,000 season tickets have been sold for the 18,500-seat PPL Park in Chester, and the Union are cutting off sales at 12,000. Garber said the team had made great gains not only with soccer fans but with the business community. "With a recession, who thought they would have a naming-rights deal and pull together some of their commercial partnerships?"

Two years ago, when a couple of dozen local soccer fans journeyed to Baltimore to cheer at the Major League Soccer draft, they traveled with the hope - and it was only a hope - that Philadelphia could land an expansion team. Yesterday's scene was just a little bit different: Scores of blue-and-gold-clad fans turned the Convention Center ballroom into a party zone, roaring for their new team, the Union, who held the first pick in the draft. "It's kind of crazy, isn't it?" said Bryan James, president of the Sons of Ben fan club and one of at least 200 Union supporters who rocked the ballroom.

Philadelphia has been chosen as one of 18 host cities included in the U.S. bid to land soccer's World Cup tournament in 2018 or 2022, officials announced yesterday. But don't rush out to buy your tickets just yet. The U.S. bid is due to FIFA, the sport's governing body, by May 14, and the winning nations will be announced in December. It's far from certain the United States will be awarded one of the tournaments. If the United States does win, it probably will be asked by FIFA to trim its list of host cities down to about a dozen.

The Philadelphia Union, the expansion Major League Soccer club set to begin play next year, has hired John Hackworth as coach and youth development coordinator. Hackworth comes to the Union from the United States Men's National Team that recently qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa. "He [Hackworth] has proven his ability to nurture young players and that talent will be essential in our plan to develop them into successful professionals," said Union coach Peter Nowak.

A rainy June complicated workers' ability to pour cement. A shaken Wall Street meant it took longer to sell construction bonds. That squeezed the built-in cushion out of an already tight schedule that aimed to ensure the 18,500-seat home of the Philadelphia Union would be ready to open in the spring. Last week, the soccer team bowed to soggy, economic reality, announcing that it would play its first home game - and maybe its first few - at Lincoln Financial Field. "It's a daily thing, where we're at: Are we a day behind, a week behind, a month behind?"

The region's new professional soccer team is setting up shop in a town where the sport has hardly existed. Chester High School, a perennial contender in basketball, doesn't have a soccer team. Throughout the Chester Upland School District, in fact, there is no soccer program. Last week, Philadelphia Union vice president Rob Smith arrived on the district's doorstep with a swift kick at the ready. On loan from the Major League Soccer team, whose home will be a new stadium in Chester, Smith is working nearly full time to establish a district soccer program.

The Philadelphia Union officially introduced Peter Nowak as its first coach and general manager yesterday at The Wharf at Rivertown in Chester, handing him a multi-year contract and the reigns to an expansion franchise scheduled to make its Major League Soccer debut in March, 2010. "I don't believe in words. I believe in hard work," Nowak said at his first news conference. "That's how teams have played when I've coached them. This is what we intend to do with this team. " Nowak, 44, will function both as the Union's head coach and general manager, mimicking what Union chairman Jay Sugarman called a "European model," which allows coaches to be involved directly in acquiring the talent they eventually will coach on the field.

Peter Nowak, an assistant coach for the U.S. men's national team and head coach of the under-23 squad, has been named team manager of Philadelphia's new entry in Major League Soccer, the Union. Nowak will serve as coach and general manager. The 44-year-old, who was not available for comment yesterday, will be introduced at a news conference this afternoon. "For me, Peter was our No. 1 candidate from day one and we worked very hard to try to bring him to Philadelphia," said Nick Sakiewicz, the Union's chief executive officer and operating partner.

When government and sports leaders thrust shiny shovels into the Chester City riverside this afternoon, officially breaking ground on a $115 million pro soccer stadium, they'll hit more than rocks. They'll strike the hard surface of a sinking national economy, a calamity that has depleted government coffers and turned once-routine bank loans into adventures - and hurt the construction of sports venues across the nation and across the sea. Nick Sakiewicz, chief executive and operating partner of the yet-unnamed Philadelphia team, scheduled to start play in 2010 as Major League Soccer's 16th club, said the financial crisis had not hurt the stadium project.

WILMINGTON - Two years is a long time, and even the people running the Major League Soccer expansion franchise granted to the Philadelphia region are thankful for the timeline given to get things going. Still, when you are creating a professional sports franchise from scratch, including the building of a state-of-the-art stadium that could serve as the linchpin of a $500 million development project, time becomes a relative concept. Months can feel like weeks and weeks can feel like days.