Sounds good! I feel kinda bad by planning to go to these meetings and then not being able to attend (I am a letter writer though!). I wonder if recinding the call to attend the future meetings means Mission Accomplished?
SSV president Don Gagliardi, Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff, and A's president Michael Crowley. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
"An essential part of the equation, as it has always been, is obtaining traction on a new stadium" certainly doesn't sound like Mission Accomplished, unless you're very down with the current Executive Administration's take on that term.
The mission won't be accomplished until the Quakes rise from the grave and kick the crap out of the Galaxy. In the playoffs.
I meant mission accomplished as far as what SSV hoped to bring to these meetings. I think the answer to my question is within the update itself...."Thanks to your help our message of inclusiveness for soccer in the DEIR has been received loud and clear." This update gave me a good feeling. I like it.
I thought this was funny....right now on KRON is a program titled: EARTHQUAKES: Where The Fault Lies. We all know what this is about, but I peeked at the show just in case. Okay back to SSV update.......
Very promising news about Lew Wolff. I'm most encouraged to hear that he's open to considering stadium locations in Santa Clara, Fremont, San Jose south campus, as well as San Jose downtown.
I kind of wonder at the renewed interest of San Jose State. Cindy Chavez made some mention of Kassing at the mayoral forum the other night. Maybe they are coming to their senses and realize that a partnership with a professional soccer team is their best chance to get Spartan renovated.
Yeah, and I think there are multiple scenarios possible there, including building a whole new stadium to replace Spartan, renovate Spartan, etc. My guess is that the Wolffman would want to rebuild the stadium, and build stuff around the stadium also - housing, more sports stuff, etc. And according to this article from last year, http://www.sjdowntown.com/pdf/april 05.pdf university and city officials would like to turn the south campus area into a "sports and recreation complex for professional, collegiate and amateur athletics, students and residents". Sounds a bit like HDC, doesn't it?
lew wolff, our guardian angel maybe??? he sorta looks like clarence, from its a wonderful life....you compare. http://www.reelclassics.com/Movies/Wonlife/images9/travers_clarence.jpg http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/
This is the only acceptable course of action if the SJSU South Campus option is chosen. I mean seriously... if one-year-old Real Salt Lake and not-yet-born Inter Toronto F.C. (or whatever they'll be called) are each soon getting a state-of-the-art MLS SSS, then any serious suggestion of renovating* Spartan Stadium as a permanent stadium solution for the new San Jose Earthquakes is ridiculous at best and insulting at worst. Also, wouldn't this option prevent the need for a public vote? GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G * Meaning anything less than tearing the whole thing down and building a new SSS on top of it, near it or across the street from it.
It'll probably require a vote. Any venue that seats 5,000 or more and requires some public funds will necessitate it, though it's possible that if the construction were entirely privately funded a vote may not be required. One good thing about it is that there's still a nice halo effect around the library as a great example of the City and SJSU partnering on a project. The Merc also reported over the weekend that two of the DiNapoli clan are part owners of the A's. So if you're looking for a lot of local ownership, there you have it. It doesn't get much more local than the Wolff-DiNapoli machine. The one thing that would be in question for me is some of the land south of Spartan Stadium. I wouldn't be surprised if developers went after that land, using Redevelopment to get it. The problem with the land is that it's an old Superfund site that has never been cleaned up, IIRC. The toxins have simply been sealed over by asphalt. Someone will have to pay for that, and it's private land, not university land. The parking lot next to HP Pavilion is in the same condition.
I'm pretty sure that would be the case. If the South Campus SSS ended up being entirely privately funded (to avoid the public vote and any other delays) in return for other incentives such as low-priced or free land and/or other surrounding upgrades, would those incentives come from San Jose State University or from the City of San Jose? GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
The land ownership thing is where it gets sticky. SJSU/CSU isn't going to give a private party a piece of the campus in exchange for some recreational facilities and a stadium. But SJSU has some very outmoded stuff in Spartan Village: the track, apartments, baseball/softball fields. There's a lot of space to make it work. The developer could get some land adjacent to the sites to build retail/residential to finance the project. I can even see a way to have most of a new stadium go up alongside the existing Spartan Stadium, then have Spartan demolished when most of the new stadium is done. That way there's no net land loss and both the Quakes and Spartans have venues to use in the interim. IIRC the only city-owned land nearby is Muni and the Corp Yard on Senter. Anything else will have to be purchased or subsidized. There could also be complaints from preservationists because both Spartan and Muni are over 60 years old.
If I was Lew Wolff and/or anyone else who's considering becoming the new San Jose Earthquakes' investor/operator, I would give that option some serious consideration ASAP! It would eliminate the need for a public vote (IMO, the biggest key to all this) and get the ball rolling earlier. While the stadium would be entirely privately financed, a large chunk of that would be offset by stadium naming rights while the rest would sooner (rather than later) be offset by a much larger percentage of stadium revenues going straight to the Quakes' coffers. Spartacus earlier had brought up the potential problem of SJSU alumni complaining that the Quakes would control jointly-paid-for South Campus SSS rather than SJSU... but would that still be a problem if it was only the Quakes (i.e. Wolff) paying for it? GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
That's looking at it from an optimistic and Quakes-slanted viewpoint. No problem with that, it's just a matter of perspective. SJSU would be giving up control of its only outdoor venue and revenue streams from it, for what? Sure they could use a refresh to get people to watch the football team again, but there probably should be more for them than that. They are after all providing the land. If it's going to happen in this fashion, there would have to be shared control by SJSU, the City, and the Quakes. There are logistical questions that would have to be answered. Say it's an $80 million stadium. The annual payment on it if no one puts any money down is $6.5 million. If naming rights shaves that down to $5 million: 1. How is the rest paid off? What share is the Quakes? What is SJSU's? The city's? 2. Who's responsible to pay the lease? 3. How are non-gate revenues split? 4. Who owns the stadium during the lease? At the end of the lease? 5. How can the dealmakers make the deal palatable to SJSU alumni? Should a "soccer village" concept take flight with 400-500 housing units, a bunch of the stadium could be paid off using the profits-towards-stadium model. Where would the housing be located? Would it also be on South Campus? Next to it? I think that if that $5 million per year were cut down to $2 million and the split were $1 Mil - Quakes / $800K - Spartans / $200K - City it'd be pretty equitable. Getting that difference - $3 million - together is the hard part.
If the city can subsidize the Opera House to the tune of a quarter million a year so the rich folks from Los Gatos can enjoy hearing the fat lady sing, than it can subsidize a soccer stadium to the same amount so the poor kids from east San Jose can hear the Casbah sing.
If a new stadium were put up on the SJSU South Campus somewhere, the City's only role would be street maintenance. The property belongs to SJSU. As for whether or not SJSU would be willing to let Wolfe run the stadium, he has only to look to Cal State Dominguez Hills for his model. Assume that between them SJSU and Wolfe rebuild the student housing on South Campus, put up a couple of parking structures, refurbish the athletic fields and facilities, and demolish and rebuild Spartan Stadium. SJSU has to use another facility for a year, or they would arrange the football schedule so that they finish their last home game in October, then have November to August to rip down and rebuild Spartan. Yeah, SJSU might go for that a let Wolfe run the stadium. They'd have a new stadium, they could get revenue from at least their own football and soccer matches, but let Wolfe get the revenue from everything else. And what are the alum going to say?! We don't want a new stadium?! Please. Kassing can tell them what's what and make them like it. But my first choice is a new stadium on land that does not belong to SJSU. They chased the Quakes away, now they can suffer the consequences. Bastards! QUAKES FOREVER!! GO SSV!! Come On Lew!!! fumls! fuaeg! - Mark