Drew Carey has a vision of MLS being just like the major European soccer leagues

Hey, bartender, have you seen Drew Carey?"

"Sure," she says, pointing to a thicket of blue and green — soccer lovers, Sounders FC lovers, to be precise, cramped inside a beer-drenched bar in Seattle.

His famous outline emerges: short, wide, that unmistakable jaw. The popular comedian and host of TV's "The Price Is Right" stands by a bar stool, one of the gang — the gang being the Emerald City Supporters, one of several fan groups that live and breathe Sounders FC, the Major League Soccer team Carey partly owns that is playing its first season.

Game time is in two hours at nearby Qwest Field against the San Jose Earthquakes, and the fans are hyped. Some thank him for bringing big-time soccer, as big as is played in America at least, to Seattle. Others offer advice, from what to do about a struggling player to where the team's crackerjack band should sit.

Most team owners would steer clear of a place like this. But Carey, guided by his populist instincts and curiosity, wants to soak up the fans' energy and hear their opinions.

Carey, son of Middle America, has become a soccer fiend and one of the game's most ardent evangelists. He wants U.S. pro sports teams to replicate Sounders FC's tight connection with fans.

As game time approaches, Carey ambles toward the stadium surrounded by fans. This is the start of the Sounders' pregame parade. And Carey is at the heart of it.

"Drew," a woman says, pointing to a sea of fans lifting green-and blue Sounders shoulder scarves to the sky. "Really beautiful!"

"Geez, I thought they'd be cool," he says. To build unity, every season ticket-holder was given a scarf, the way it's done in Europe. "I mean, look at this, wow."

There is one more stop before the stadium — Occidental Park, to listen to one of Carey's great loves, the team's marching band, 53 musicians strong. The rally, two blocks from the stadium, is a swelling sea of blue and green.

A man approaches, his face painted in Sounders colors.

"Drew Carey, whoa," he says. "Ever thought of painting half of your face blue and half of your face green?"

"Uh, no!" Carey deadpans. "If that's your thing, man, that's cool. Just keep coming to the games."

It was serendipity that Carey became a soccer fiend. As a teenager, he knew of the North American Soccer League, which included the first incarnation of the Seattle Sounders. He also recalls predictions that it would be the next big thing.

It wasn't.

By 2004, the comedian had his own fame thanks to a nine-year run on ABC with "The Drew Carey Show." He took time out and returned to a childhood love: sports photography. He chose soccer because the sport received so little attention. He could go to a U.S. national team game, sit on the sideline with his camera and nobody would notice. He did well enough that a wire service hired him to shoot the 2006 World Cup.

That changed his life.

"A complete revelation," Carey says of World Cup play. "The sport all the parents tried to sell as not competitive ... it was violent! Nothing but elbows and forearms ... I was hooked!"

He soon hungered to own an MLS franchise and arranged a meeting with Joe Roth, former president of Disney Studios who was Sounders FC's new majority owner.

In August 2007, Carey arrived at lunch with a bandaged left wrist, the result of a prop going haywire during taping of "The Price Is Right."

Roth wanted to take him to the hospital.

"Joe, forget the wrist, I want to own part of the team," Carey recalls saying. "But, oh, by the way, there are two conditions."

Condition No. 1: A marching band. Carey was in his high school's band and wanted to recreate that experience. Condition No. 2: Involve fans in a way no other team in America had.

Roth remembers squirming and Carey pressing for compromise. Reserve the right to hire the general manager, the comedian said. But every four years let the fans vote on whether the GM should stay. If there's enough anger, fans can call for a no-confidence vote once a year.

"The fans can do your dirty work for you," Carey argued.

Roth was sold, and Carey was in. The team has the band, and all it takes to oust the GM is a majority vote by the 22,000 season ticket-holders and fans who pay $125 to join a booster group.

Carey, 51, won't divulge his ownership stake other than to say it's large enough to have his voice heard but not large enough to have final say. More important to him, his vision is becoming real, and it dovetails with Roth's.

Roth figured Seattle — wired, progressive, smarting from the loss of the NBA's Sonics — would embrace his team much as it did the original Sounders.

"Fans operate with their hearts and not their heads," Carter says. "The key will be, how do the Sounders balance fan interaction and input with smart decision making? They have to be very careful not to turn this into a circus."

Greg Mockos, another Sounders council member and leader of Emerald City Supporters, understands such caution.

"There's still a lot up in the air, but the way this team is doing its business is helping build an incredibly positive feeling here," he says. "Drew is a huge part of that ... I e-mail back and forth with Drew. Who can say they do that with a dude who owns a sports team?"

By the start of the game, Carey is in his box and Qwest Field is rocking with chants: "Ooooh to be a Sounder! Ooooh. Ooooh to be a Sounder!"

The game will end in a 2-0 victory for Seattle.

Carey is pumped. He's shouting, beaming at the band and the fans as green-and-blue confetti paints the air and the fans stand, singing, chanting, yelling, unfurling Sounders scarves.

"Look at this," Carey says. "Look at what's happening here. This is what American soccer can be."