Sounders hire Arlo White as announcer

Major League Soccer club the Seattle Sounders have hired British Broadcasting Corporation veteran Arlo White as its new commentator for television and radio.

The 36-year-old Leicester native has been a Premier League host for the last nine years and has also called five Super Bowls for the BBC.

He said he was impressed with the enthusiasm and knowledge of the sellout Seattle crowd when he attended an MLS match in July.

"I experienced a passion, a football intelligence, a football knowledge that seems inherent in them, like it is in Europe," White said Wednesday. "I came away thinking, 'I just had an authentic football experience in America."'

White replaces former Seattle SuperSonics announcer Kevin Calabro, who has a Seattle radio show and television commitments for basketball.

White said Sounders fans would quickly get used to thinking of soccer by its global term of football.

"I'm going to call it football," said White, whose British accent will be heard during Sounders' simulcast for all 30 regular-season games from March into October. "I might say 'soccer' to start with a little, but I think people will understand when I call it football."