Fans who followed the Sounders FC opener on either TV or radio likely drew two quick impressions of Arlo White, the team’s new play-by-play announcer.
For one, there was his perfectly pitched voice, distinguished by an authoritative English accent that’s, well, perfect for the pitch.
For another, he sounded like somebody happier to be at rain-drenched Qwest Field than anywhere else in the world. The thrill wasn’t contrived. After enjoying some precious time with his family in London last week – White and his wife, Liza, are the parents of 3-year-old twins – a bureaucratic snafu at the U.S. embassy delayed his access to a passport by a day and a half. White didn’t pick up his bags at Sea-Tac Airport until 5:30 p.m. Thursday, and wasn’t able to settle into the Qwest Field broadcast booth until 6:25, by which time the Sounders pregame show already was in progress.
“I made it to my first game with 14 minutes to spare,” White recalled Tuesday. “A rather interesting day.”
Had the longtime BBC broadcaster been describing, say, a cricket match in Pakistan, the leisurely flow of the event would’ve offered him every opportunity to share his frantic-traveler saga with the audience. But soccer?
“A legendary manager, Brian Clough, was fond of saying that it takes a second to score a goal,” said White. “I’ve always remembered that: It only takes a second. If listeners hear the crowd roar because a goal has been scored, I don’t be want to be preoccupied because I’m telling tales.”
How the 36-year-old from Leicester, England, hooked up with the Sounders is a tale in itself.
White was covering one of the five Super Bowls he’s worked for the BBC when he met Gary Wright, the former Seahawks publicity director who now oversees business operations for the soccer club. Invited to “broadcast” Seattle’s franchise opener last year, White’s account of the game – unheard by the public – was an audition that earned him a chance as a one-game substitute last summer for original Sounders play-by-play man Kevin Calabro.
Because it was determined Calabro, a national radio voice of the NBA, couldn’t juggle his ESPN schedule to remain full-time with the Sounders, White wound up with a gig in the Pacific Northwest.
Named after folk singer Arlo Guthrie – son of the iconic Woody Guthrie, composer of “This Land is Your Land” – White long has been fascinated with American culture. He’s coached soccer at a summer camp in Massachusetts, and has made many visits to see relatives in Chicago, where his interest in American football was intensified.
“I remember listening, very late at night, to NFL games on the U.S. Armed Forces network,” White said. “Hank Stram, was that his name? He was one of the announcers. The signal originated from an Army base in Germany and wafted across Europe. Sometimes the reception would be strong, and then, just at a moment of impact, it would fade into Belgian folk music. Then I’d have to wait a week to find out what happened in the newspaper.”
In any case, he was smitten with the NFL, and regards his BBC play-by-play call of Giants quarterback Eli Manning’s last-minute touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress in Super Bowl XLII as a career highlight.
“When you’re with the BBC at the Super Bowl, you’re on the bottom of the food chain,” White said. “We were set up beyond the end zone – opposite the end zone the Giants were driving toward. It was a challenge just to get the numbers straight.”
Nevertheless, White still is able to replicate a 3-year-old version of his favorite call. “Thirty nine seconds to go, Manning takes the snap and looks left. ... Touchdown Giants! Has this ruined the Patriots’ perfect season? Has this ruined the dream?”
“Of course, it was 3 in the morning back there,” White said. “Who knows if anybody was listening? But it was a thrill, and I was told the people at the NFL’s London office liked it.”
But it’s the other kind of football that is White’s bread pudding and butter. Since learning he would replace Calabro, White has undergone a crash course in all things Sounders. Calling the game is easy for him, but calling it with an intimate knowledge of the athletes and the coaches, that takes homework.
“I don’t want to be known as the announcer with the English accent,” he said. “I want to be known as somebody who’s thrown himself into the job.”
Meanwhile, he’s determined to familiarize himself with the region.
“I want to see the Cascades, take the ferries, go out to the Pacific Ocean, and visit places like Vancouver and Portland,” he said. “Well, maybe not Portland, not with the way that rivalry appears to be shaping up.”
Welcome, Arlo, to your home away from home. As long as you’re a guest, please feel free to think of this land as your land – at least until you accompany the Sounders to Portland, where you’ll be on your own.
John.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
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