If they were going to make a change to the crest they could have at least gotten rid of the Eartquakes written across it. Why have it twice on the same jersey? They should have replaced it with est. 1996 or something...anything...
I wouldn't expect any change to the jerseys themselves. Nike execs told me they have about an 18 month lead time on new jerseys, so these have been in the pipeline awhile. What we're seeing is very similiar to what Chris Chamides described to us prior to the start of last season (over 12 months ago). Although I didn't attend the Club Quake meeting, I would guess that Johnny Moore's comments were more about distribution and sale of the jerseys and less about design. Cal Custom has been told they can expect a shipment around April 1st. The MLS Gear site has them available for sale now.
No they don't. They have them posted on the site, but if you go to buy one you'll find they're not in stock. i emailed them and they said they won't have anything until late march at the earliest.
      Because the logo is oftentimes shown by itself on other merchandise (like in this thread, for example). So for that, the word "Earthquakes" should be on the crest... even better if the seismographic line on the word "Earthquakes" could be clearly seen.       Actually, it would be est. 1974... it's a long story...       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
"Because the logo is oftentimes shown by itself on other merchandise (like in this thread, for example). So for that, the word "Earthquakes" should be on the crest... even better if the seismographic line on the word "Earthquakes" could be clearly seen." Couldn't they just put San Jose on the top bar? "Actually, it would be est. 1974... it's a long story..." You couldn't say that because that team became defunct in the early eighties. It was never "re-born." The franchise was completely different and had a different name (The Clash), so I'd assume then that it would have been established in 1996. But you do raise a valid point; and you're certainly right...but...
Oh, goodness! Don't get him started! I assume you haven't seen Goodsie's analysis on this issue. Just don't get him started. I think his eyes mist over and he rambles on and on. Kinda like when he talks about a SSS for the Quakes.
      Despite what sj_quakes_fan wants you to believe, it is absolutely not a completely different franchise!       Here's the short (yeah, right! ) of it: (1974) NASL San Jose Earthquakes formed by Milan Mandaric. (1982) Team sold to Carl Berg, who changes name of team to Golden Bay Earthquakes. (1984) NASL folds; Berg sells the team to Peter Bridgwater, who in turn changes name of team back to San Jose Earthquakes and co-founds a small league called the WSA which starts to play in 1985. (1989) Bridgwater sells the rights to the team and the rights to play in Spartan Stadium (but for some reason, not the rights to the team name, colors, and logo) to Dan Van Voorhis; Van Voorhis then renames the team the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks (after the Blackhawk Estates in the East Bay that he founded earlier), who start play in the APSL (which later evolves into the A-League). (1991) Blackhawks defeat Albany to obtain the APSL Championshp crown; some player named Troy Dayak gets a championship ring, as he will a decade later. (1992) Blackhawks pull out of the APSL, but continue playing exhibitions against Mexican teams for a few more years. (1994) About 100 cities (seriously!) across the U.S. bid to be among the original 12 (later changed to 10) inaugural MLS cities; Van Voorhis leads the San Jose bidding team, promising to sell the rights of the team and to play in Spartan Stadium to the league in return (he was to be the Investor/Operator in San Jose); Van Voorhis later successfully convinces the San Francisco bidding group to drop its bid and to allow San Jose to be the lone Bay Area bid; San Jose later announced as one of the ten inaugural MLS teams, with all existing Blackhawks player contracts and front-office resources turned over to Major League Soccer, LLC. (1994-1995 ???) Somewhere along the way, Van Voorhis gets of the loop; San Jose then determined to be one of three league-run teams (along with Dallas and Tampa Bay). (1995) Peter Bridgwater named as President/General Manager of the San Jose MLS team; Bridgwater about to sign deal with MLS to turn over rights to name "Earthquakes" (along with colors, logo, etc.), but Nike halts deal as it wants the team to be called the "Clash" instead (with scorpion logos and all that); team later officially named the San Jose Clash. (1998) Expansion Chicago front-office refuses Nike's demands to call the team the "Chicago Rhythm" (with cobra logos and all that) and instead names the team the "Chicago Fire" (with fireman's logo); in revenge, Nike refuses to produce Fire jerseys for sale to the public that year, thinking that the expansion team won't amount to much that season anyway - however, all Chicago does that year is win the U.S. Double (MLS Cup/U.S. Open Cup), completely throwing egg in Nike's face. (1998, continued) MLS co-founder Alan Rothenberg and Japanese advertising agency Dentsu attempt to buy into MLS and become the Investor/Operator of the Clash; the Asian Stock Market Crash that year forces Dentsu to pull out of the bid at the last minute, causing Rothenberg to follow suit; later, Bridgwater is promoted to the MLS front-office in New York, and MLS finally obtains the rights to the name "Earthquakes", along with team colors, logo, etc.; with Bridgwater's departure, MLS convinces the Krafts to run the Clash. (1999) After the conclusion of the 1999 season, GM Lynne Meterparel decides to change the name of the team back to the San Jose Earthquakes (reeling from the Chicago fiasco, Nike doesn't stand in her way), although she decides to use new team colors and a new logo and wordmark (both of which were designed by Terry Smith, the same Sunnyvale graphic design artist who designed the Sharks' and SaberCats' logos).       Of course, there's tons more Earthquakes history even after 1999, but that's about it as far as what pertains to how the current team's bloodline does flow back to 1974. I guess I remember all this because I'm old.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
sjqf warned you! Now you got him started, he'll probably come up with a new aspect of the history in his dreams tonight.
Goodsie, Good work with the history of the area's TWO most prominent pre-MLS soccer teams, but you are not correct when you say that the lineage of the MLS Earthquakes can be traced from the NASL Earthquakes as stated in the list you posted. The item from your list headed (1989) and quoted above is simply incorrect. Bridgewater never sold anything to Dan vanVooris. Bridgewater did, however, sell the Earthquakes to Bill Lunghi around March 3, 1988. On that date, the Mercury ran an article entitled "QUAKES, WITH NEW OWNERS, ARE PREPARING FOR '88 SEASON", announcing the sale to Lunghi. The article says that Peter Bridgewater would stay on as President and General Manager, Barney Boyce would be the player-coach, and Chris Dangerfield and Tomas Boy had been signed to play for the team. On November 16, 1988, the Merc published an article by Dave Payne titled "Quakes Leaving League", announcing that now President Bill Lunghi (not Bridgewater) stated the team was leaving the Western Soccer League but would be playing an international schedule against Mexican and South American teams. The same article said that with the Quakes out of the WSL, the league awarded another franchise to the Bay Area. The new team was to be called the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks, and plans were for it to play its games in Spartan Stadium and other Bay Area facilities. The Blackhawks were backed financially by Dan Van Voorhis, president of Blackhawk Corp., a land development company in Danville. At that point in time, both teams existed with independent ownership, the Quakes owned by Lunghi and the Blackhawks by Van Voorhis. By April 1989, the Quakes were in limbo as explained in another Dave Payne article in the Merc "EARTHQUAKES NOT PLAYING, BUT BLACKHAWKS ARE". The Blackhawks roster and schedule were announced, but nothing was forthcoming from the Earthquakes. Lunghi was not returning Payne's phone calls and the few employees the team had were not being paid and had left. Peter Bridgwater, the executive director of marketing and public relations for the WSL and former president of the Earthquakes, severed his relations with Lunghi and the Quakes in August 1988. He said he left "because I did not agree with the way the club was being run (by Lunghi). He had been in control since April, after I had resigned as president." Then, on August 9, 1990, an article entitled "QUAKES' EX-OWNER FACES THEFT CHARGES" was published by the Mercury. The former president and majority-owner of the defunct San Jose Earthquakes faced charges of grand theft and forgery for allegedly writing bad checks to cover the soccer team's expenses in its waning days. This ended the original Earthquakes story and Bridgewater reacquired the ownership of what was left of the team - the name, the logos and some uniforms and equipment. All of these articles are available from the archives of the San Jose Mercury-News, and they show that the chain of ownership was indeed broken in that Van Voorhis never had ownership of anything related to the San Jose Earthquakes. By the way, I am even older than your are, and I remember all of this clearly. Sorry to debunk your well written history.
      Hmm... interesting! I guess that explains why I could never find out why Van Voorhis never had the rights to the Earthquakes name, colors, logo, etc.       So I guess that the current team's lineage only extends as far back as 1989 (as the Blackhawks did become the Clash... this I know for sure). Even so, the fact that Bridgwater reacquired the Earthquakes brand would play a big part in MLS down the road (the San Jose team almost being named the Earthquakes in 1995, the team finally being named the Earthquakes in late-1999, etc.).       I guess the only thing debunked in my timeline was the 1989 entry... but it still shows that the Clash didn't just appear out of nowhere in 1996.       But what makes you think that I'm not old?       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G P.S. = What happened to Dan Van Voorhis to get him out of the loop? Why didn't he become San Jose's MLS Investor/Operator from the beginning as he originally had planned to be?
      I had also heard somewhere that when MLS was being formed in 1995, Lamar Hunt (who was also an owner in the NASL days) contacted his old pal Milan Mandaric and inquired if Mandaric wanted to be an Investor/Operator in MLS.       Apparently, Mandaric had pondered the possibility for a short while, but then declined, stating that under the Single-Entity Management arrangement he would hardly have control of his team, and that he would lose money overall (as the league lost money) even if his team individually turned a profit - this seems to be the same reason that scared off Yahoo! from becoming the Earthquakes' Investor/Operator years later.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
      If a piece of merchandise had just the Earthquakes crest, but the only word on the crest was "San Jose", how would that be marketing the Earthquakes brand (we're talking about selling soccer in the United States... nothing about MLS is yet such a household name to the general sporting public here that it doesn't need aggressive advertising/marketing)?       Without the word "Earthquakes" and the seismographic line running across it, what exactly on the crest reminds you of an earthquake?       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
What do the Quakes think of their new kits? Well, if anyone knows what the Quakes think about their new Man U kits I'd like ti know. ps am I the only one who feels we'd have looked better with white home shorts and black away?
Wait one lousy minute G!! It wasn't me who said they were completely different franchises. I'm not here to make people believe what I say or what I believe. But I never even stated my opinion on this. I was just joking around about getting you started! It looks like Crazy_Quakes_Fan sure got an earful! But that's okay, I'm just teasing you. That stuff is interesting.
Interesting indeed. I still think the crest should say: "Est...." (regardless of the year.) About San Jose, why should the crest remind you of an earthquake? Won't the soccer ball suffice to indicate that it is the crest of San Jose's soccer team. Hopefully someone wouldn't be so ignorant to think it was an NFL logo or something...
Re: What do the Quakes think of their new kits? Yes. White home shorts with a blue and black shirt?!! Ugh, talk about fashion nightmare!! Now, if we had the blue and white shirt still (which I'm much more fond of), then maybe. But not with the current shirt!
Re: Re: What do the Quakes think of their new kits? we don't have that much black in the current shirt, the slight clash might do well.
anyone care to do a mock up of white shorts with the current top to see if it well and truely is that bad?
unfortunatly, our new kit is the least of our worries right now. But, since you asked, I don't think its any worse then last seasons, but in typical Nike fashion its an unimaginative cookie cutter kit. I think our money would be better spent with another supplier who would give us something a bit more original.
Re: Re: Re: What do the Quakes think of their new kits? Yeah, I guess if it works for ManUre, then it could work for us. Then we'd really look like that team - only more blue!
Not to stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but I thought it would be interesting to point out some clubs (mostly smaller) overseas that have had a more...um...tumultous history actually trace dates that follow the history of the club name, not the actual incarnation of the club. I guess, in a way, I'm saying you'd still probably be well within your rights to claim 1974 as an establishment date. Oh, here's the reason I'm here. Pictures from last night: