USC Soccer, hence the small size. And I doubt beer would be a problem. It's not at Buck Shaw after all. It's called the Exposition Park site.
They will have to comply with MLS rules, so at most they'll only have a handful of guys actually from Mexico, plus they might focus on trying to sign Hispanic players here in the USA, but their roster will certainly be composed mostly of US players, which means, a variety of ethnicities. If they restrict the pool of players they are willing to look at, that's going to hurt them, no matter what. I do want to see them be more successful, rather than perennial bottom feeders. Getting their own stadium will help. Getting more technical help from the Mother Club might help. Getting some folks in charge who know what they are doing, that would be a big help. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Take a look at their roster for their first year, 2005. There are only a few guys who do not have Hispanic surnames, and about half were born in Mexico. So either Mexican nationals or Mexican-Americans. It wasn't really much of a "variety of ethnicities". It's OK. We need at least one club in the division built on a flawed premise. The Gals are built on a flawed premise too (it's all about the stars!) but there technical management is good enough to make it work, at least for now. But they failed to make the playoffs for 3 straight years. That's pretty hard to do in MLS, especially for a supposed high profile club that spends a lot on its players.
And that whole year they failed miserably. Thankfully Bob Bradley and Preki turned it around. Vergara said that Preki bypassed on Chicharito saying he wasn't strong enough but I honestly don't think he will have succeeded here. If anything, I think Mexican players as a general rule tend to have trouble in MLS. Other than maybe Blanco, of all the Mexicans who came and went since 1996, no one has exactly set the world on fire. At least not that I recall.....
What they need to do is abandon "Chivas USA" as a name and concept altogether. LA can handle more than one team - but at the same time, spread the wealth. An identity based in East LA, inland empire, Orange County, or San Diego would all work. Their problem is they have a very narrow demographic - Mexican Americans who like Chivas de Guadalajara. It's a doomed strategy whose experiment should be ruled as officially over. Rebrand for the good of the team and the league. The owner is too stupid to realize this.
Well to have an identity based on any of those locations they'd actually have to be in one of those locations. And they don't want to be. They want to be in LA.
Missael Espinoza would have been an average player but would never have torn up the league by any means. Then again, he would have been better than either Daniel Guzman or Francisco Uribe....
When they started talking about building a stadium. Ours is in the construction phase, theirs is where ours was 5 years ago.
Last I checked we were not in the construction phase. Frankly I feel a bit like RSL. If I remember correctly they held multiple ceremonial groundbreakings long before they got any real construction under way. We had our demo party - granted not a groundbreaking but I still count it as a false start. I was optimistic about our world record setting ceremonial groundbreaking, but alas it appears to have been just that...ceremonial. Now somebody said they are hearing March before real construction begins. That will give the quakes one more chance to hold an in-season "this time we mean it" groundbreaking. I find all the delays that have occurred since we got the final political approvals to be the most frustrating. The responsibility for those is solely with the Quakes and our ownership. I think the 49ers started real constuction within 30 days of clearing the final political hurdles. They were able to do so because they were willing to risk a little up front investment to ensure they were ready to go. At this point it is safe to say the delays have cost us a full season.
Your pessimism is showing through. The demo party was just that, a demo party. Mainly to placate those in our fan base who didn't like seeing a lack of any visible progress. But it wasn't a groundbreaking. They were clear on that. This recent one however was ceremonial like all groundbreakings, but was a groundbreaking. March is when they've said we'll see "structure" going up. But structure isn't the first step in actual construction as even layman should know. They still have to demo all the ground covering crap and all the stuff under the ground as well (which there is more of than they thought originally). So we are in the construction phase. Also comparing MLS to the NFL is not a smart move. The NFL is a sure thing no matter how much money you're putting in. MLS isn't and yet they're still putting their money where their mouths are.
Actually, they're putting our money where their mouths are. They have our deposits, and by March will have our initial payments, and by August our final payments, on seats for the 2014 season. So, I take comfort in knowing that if the new stadium is not ready by opening day 2014 there will be a lot of our money to be refunded.
I saw the new billboard advertising the sale of new stadium seats off 101 near de la cruz today... looks great
If I saw bulldozers working on site, I would agree with you that we are "in the construction phase. The fact is we are not. You were correct when you stated that the demo party was held to "placate those...who didn't like the lack of visible progresss" . We also have now held a groundbreaking and still have no visible progress. They have now had us commit to our seating purchases for 2014 when they still don't have actual drawings of the final stadium. This becomes immediately clear when you ask even the most basic questions about the new stadium. The people selling us our seats don't have the answers. Don't get me wrong, I believe this is going to happen and I am thankful for that. But if our ownership had any confidence in their own business (and weren't among the cheapest of owners in pro sports) they would have made some of these investments (finalized design, detailed architectual renderings, Scale models, etc) earlier and would have been in a better position to start construction and to SELL A VISION FOR THE FUTURE. Imagine the impact this years on field success would have had if we also were watching our new home grow before our eyes all season. I would imagine the team would have had an entirely different level of visibility around the bay area.