Ever since Sounder at Heart became an independent website, we’ve been looking for ways to improve and add value to your subscription. Today, we added another perk that we hope you’ll find compelling.
Starting now, everyone who joins at the Advocate level or above will be entitled to a complimentary year-long membership to Backheeled.com. We are also extending this offer to anyone who has previously signed up for an Advocate-level membership (that includes those of you grandfathered at that tier from the Substack days).
Beyond adding value to your subscription, we also felt this was an important step in helping to support other independent media. While Sounder at Heart’s launch has been about as successful as we could have imagined, we recognize that the media landscape is pretty bleak and we strongly believe that we must help support a healthy independent ecosystem. A portion of your membership will go directly to Backheeled to help fund their operation as well. Backheeled shares the same ideals as us and we believe we can work together to help build a stronger foundation.
By becoming a Sounder at Heart Advocate, you are supporting both of us in particular and contributing to a healthy media ecosystem in general.
Rather than trying to explain exactly what Backheeled is, I’ll let the site’s founder and editor, Joe Lowery, explain:
Hello wonderful Sounder at Heart readers! My name is Joe Lowery. I’m the founder of Backheeled.com, an independent website covering American soccer at large.
At Backheeled, we’re passionate about growing the love and knowledge of soccer in this country. That’s why we’re thrilled to partner with Sounder at Heart — who have set the standard for local soccer coverage — to provide free annual Backheeled subscriptions as a perk for SaH Advocates.
Today, we’re doing more work that I’m truly proud of than ever before, and we’re doing that work by going one step further.
We don’t just recap what happens on the field across the U.S. soccer landscape. We tell you how and why it happened, like when the Columbus Crew won last year’s MLS Cup on the back of a manager with a crystal-clear vision. We don’t just tell you stories. We tell you stories that change how you think about the game and its most interesting characters, like the Sullivan family with their deep Philadelphia Union roots.
We’re the only place on the web where you can read independent coverage of every team in MLS on every Monday morning. And we don’t just focus on MLS. We cover the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams in detail. We even broke the news of U.S. Soccer’s decision to hire Emma Hayes as their new manager. We have weekly NWSL and USL columns, too, with top-tier insights from experts who both know and truly care about the game.
So come on over (for free!), check out what’s happening outside the great state of Washington, and stay awhile. We’d love to have you.
Here’s how to redeem the offer:
- Follow this link and sign up for a free Backheeled account.
- Existing Advocates can then fill out the form below, and your free Backheeled account will be upgraded (this process may take a day).
- If you’d like to become an Advocate, you can upgrade on your membership page and/or shoot us an email for more information.
Thanks again for supporting independent media and rest assured Sounder at Heart will continue looking for ways to add value to your membership while holding true to our main ethos of providing best-in-class coverage of the Sounders and Seattle Reign.
John Morrissey
