Director of Sacremento Sports Commission: “[MLS] is very interested in Sacramento.”

I wouldn't be... if you walk into any sports bar in Toledo (colored Steelers yellow on the map) on a football Sunday, you will primarily see Browns and Lions fans with a few Bengals and Steelers fans in between. The issue is that there's no way of knowing how accurate a sample is for any particular region, the margins between teams within each county or the context behind some of the more random results (like the Steelers county in Oregon being where Troy Polamalu grew up).

 

Indeed, the biggest metro area in the Bay Area is actually San Jose, and when you tell most people this, they have a "well, knock me over with a feather" expression. San Jose really needs to push its PR a little better than it does.

Yankee=Dutch. The term (Jan Kees, "John Cheese") was invented to be a derogatory term for Dutchmen.

 

Not sure how you are defining that. The East Bay (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) is larger than the South Bay (Santa Clara County). Or if you are using the OMB MSA designations, SF-Oakland is quite a bit larger than San Jose-Santa Clara

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area

 

In my experience (and it's true on this thread too) there's a definite little brother complex with San Jose folks (and to a less extent some East Bay folks). They're put off by the big name across the bay and have a little chip on their shoulder. Tourists don't travel thousands of miles to see the sights in San Jose. In fact -- and this probably really pegs me as a North-Bay-and-San-Francisco person -- I'm not sure there really are any tourists attractions in San Jose. San Jose is an economic powerhouse with a big population. That's about it. They used to say there's no there-there in Oakland. You could say the same about San Jose. (Now I've really pissed off everyone from San Jose!)

Etymologically, anyway. But in common usage it refers not to the Dutch settlers of the mid-Atlantic, but specifically to their neighbors to the north. Unless you're in the South, of course.

 

???? The "small, small plurality" was the Steelers in NC. UNC in NC is an entirely different question.

 

If UNC is entirely different, then why did you bring it up in response to a point about the Steelers?

 

Actually, you did that already by referring to SF as "the big name across the bay." Which side of the bay do you think SJ is on?

 

He also butchered that Gertrude Stein quotation, refering to her childhood home which had been razed upon her return as an adult. I can't tell if knave is an actual bad stereotype or if he just plays one on the internet.

 

http://geography.wr.usgs.gov/science/dasymetric/images/dasymap_2000lowres.jpg

I think this picture gives a fair indication of where people in the Bay Area live. San Francisco is the big, high-density hub, and Oakland also has a substantial high-density area across the Bay. Down south, San Jose doesn't have anything like that kind of core and only gets to a big population number because it spans a very large area.

Also, if they had a density of where people work (rather than reside), then the 101 corridor through places like Palo Alto would stand out more than San Jose would.

 

It's just down south there somewhere past the airport.

 

I have to agree with you. Even though I have lived in San Jose for nearly 20 years, and I think it has the best weather in the bay area, and is a great place to live, there is no "there" here. When I have friends or relatives come to town, I take them to SF, Napa, Monterey/Carmel, etc. Though, my brother did find the Winchester Mystery House kind of interesting.

 

To contrast UNC, which really is popular in North Carolina, with the Steelers, who are not really popular in North Carolina.

Remember how we got onto this tangent...there was a map showing that the Steelers are the most popular team in many parts of North Carolina, and that was in context of people arguing that there are pro teams that are popular outside of their home market. I was saying that from living here and looking at the map, that the methodology was bullshit, because there's no way that Steeler fandom around here makes them "popular" here. They are just the tallest midget among Redskin, Cowboy, Panthers, etc. fans in that region.

QED.

 

This is often the argument used within that abstracted map, but reality shows that San Jose is only the 44th largest municipality in the country, much of the marshland and Coyote Valley are uninhabited, and overall density remains higher than Sac, SD and a big chunk of MLS. SF and Oakland are just especially small in area.

When the self-proclaimed progressive Bay Area gets over all the minorities and homeless downtown, San Jose will lose this reputation among the country club set. It's already happening in Oakland, but the white monoculture is slow to creep beyond the bubble up north.

 

I believe that Sacramento Republic FC's season ticket target was 5,500 by April. Report today is that they've sold 3,700 so far.

 

I wonder how Knave's literary allusions will disappoint me this week. What krudmonk doesn't bother to explain is that the Stein quote refers to a neighborhood in Pittsburgh and is misapplied to Oakland, CA.

 

I wonder the same about you.

And yet it's still most often and most famously applied to Oakland.

 

3,700 season tickets is an incredibly impressive figure.

 

My understanding is that Gertrude Stein actually declared "there's no there there" when assessing Gringo Torres' play for the national team.

 

Doesn't this thread prove that Sac might as well be in a different state in terms of Bay Area perception of all things sporting .... So yeah I want Republic to be in MLS. But it looks like they will not be #24. I think Rebublic will be ready when the time comes though ...

 

To put some perspective on 3,700 sold and 5,500 as the goal: https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/...ket-holder-count.1944405/page-6#post-27661596

 

I actually think this weird dual-affiliation puts them a leg up on other bids. They are rubbing twice as many elbows. That's efficiency.

 

I see your point, and I think it's valid. But I have trouble seeing it getting to that point. I mean, if the crowds really do show up (as it appears they will), then doesn't that just amplify the "MLS soon" vibe? And, indeed, more than amplify a feeling, doesn't that make it even more of a reality? If the crowds are there, MLS will come running -- and so will additional well-moneyed investors. The only thing that could totally destroy that feeling is if the downtown stadium prospects fall flat. I don't see that happening either. I'm hardly noted for my optimism (quite the opposite, in fact!), but I'm pretty optimistic in this case.

 

Is Sacramento a legitimate, MLS-caliber soccer town? I'll say this: a lot of us think it is, but it's on Sacramento Republic FC to prove it is. My personal hunch is that Sacramento has the makings of a Portland-style fan base with one difference: a larger Latino element than I (perhaps wrongly) associate with the Timbers.