Fair point, though we had a great team in 2012, and did it really impact media coverage or attendance all that much? I would have expected "The Shaw" to be packed to the gills every game, but it was the same kind of "sellouts" (in name only) that we typically had there. And that was in a 10.5k stadium (or something like that). According to published attendance figures, the Quakes best season at "The Shaw" was 2014, a truly dreadful year. Of course that figure may be skewed due to some other game (Levi's opening?). But just anecdotally I don't think the 2012 season had significantly better attendance than other years at "The Shaw", and that team was way better than the previous and following years.
The Quakes sold more season tickets in 2014 because that got people priority for tickets at the new stadium; hence, the higher attendance numbers. Now that Avaya has lost the new car smell, ownership is desperate to turn around declining revenue by chopping it up into pieces in order to appeal to affluent people more interested in status than soccer. Ownership doesn't believe in soccer. Even their promotional info for the Skylo Unge lists the view of the San Jose skyline above the view of the football field. Unfortunately for people most interested in attending for the sport itself, we're stuck with an overpriced bar/restaurant that lures customers with something happening on a playing field. And now they are making it harder to move around with more security and barriers to separate the different classes of ticket buyers. Sad and shocking that this is the first substantial off-season news, and that the FO thinks the common fan will want, support or care about this. Tone deaf. Why don't they ask our opinions about how to improve the Avaya experience? I'm sure people have lots of good ideas. I doubt that the pizza slice in the corner is one of them. How about unifying the supporters sections? Fixing the PA system? Improving the video board presentation to include visuals about substitutions and cards because we can't hear the announcements or see the player listings from the endline seats?
Yeah, that's why they spent some $80 million to build a soccer specific stadium, and just within the last year, did an international search (for real this time) for a new GM, hired a head of scouting, and a "director of methodology" (albeit who morphed into assistant coach). Maybe it's not for you. Not every customer or prospective customer is the same. I would imagine that there will be plenty of news about player personnel in the coming months - for the more hardcore soccer folks. We are what, 3 weeks into postseason? They regularly poll fans about their game-day experience. Maybe they are working on some of these things. Maybe they believe that "fixing the PA system" doesn't warrant a press release. I would suggest emailing your ideas to the fantastic Mr. Fox rather than just whining on social media.
When we selected our club seats, the stadium design was with the closed end on the airport side. We purposely chose seats on the West side because we didn't want to be facing the sun. When they flipped the stadium because of the residents' complaints, we weren't given the option to switch sides so as to still be on the West side. The truth is that we wouldn't have been as close to the midfield as we are, but on those afternoon games or that time of year when the sun is setting at game time, I debate which is more important- facing the sun or being close to the middle.
The FO has not sent out a post-season evaluation survey or anything except for emails soliciting interest in the Skylo Unge. I have traded emails with Shawlee with suggestions and concerns and I get defensive, dismissive or no replies. I just finished a season where my rep was so unresponsive to emails and telephone calls about my needs for additional tickets and such that I had to turn to other reps to finish these transactions. Every. Single. Time. So here I am. Just like you, only a lot less frequently.
Whoa, whoa. I followed the stadium process closely from the beginning. I went to all the council meetings and dug up every document I could on the city website and don't recall any mention of "flipping" the orientation due to neighbor complaints. Every rendering/drawing from the beginning showed the stadium orientation as it is. When it came to actually being able to choose seats there were no changes. You just don't/can't make changes that late in the process as you described.
That is not entirely true, as my anecdote illustrates. There may not have been changes of the magnitude of flipping the directional orientation of the open end, but there certainly was an aisle inserted that was not shown on the diagram from which I made my seats selection.
I thought the Quakes stopped sending out those post-game surveys a few weeks into the season. I don’t think they use STH input at all anymore. Even on the stupid “benefits” for renewing early, we got no say on when they were “given” to us. So, can’t come to the game on the day GM talks, or you can shoot at the goal, or tour the locker room? Too bad. Weren’t even told when it was going to be? Too bad. I was kind of shocked when Rep said this is your week to be part of the pre-game flag-bearing ceremony on the field. Just seems like a really thoughtless attitude towards fans. And they really cut back on promotional items this season. Crew fans said same thing, so maybe that is leaguewide?
That has not been my experience at all. Maybe try changing your tone. If it is at all in line your tone on BS I can see why the response might be a little defensive. As for "postseason survey" they have collected feedback all year on the game day experience. I don't know that the feedback is going to change all that much now that the season's over and game day experience is no longer top of mind for most people.
I will have to go back and check, but I know that something changed after we put our deposit down and selected seats, and the result was that we were moved to the same relative location, but on the other side. I thought that the orientation of the stadium had been changed to accommodate the neighbors who were concerned with stadium noise.
Yes, one of my few suggestions to Shawlee was about improving email communication with STH's. They do read the post-match surveys, which I always complete and have included some of my above ideas about improving the Avaya experience. I know they read them because I noted that I didn't know about "Devotion Days" in a survey because my rep never notified me, so a different rep replied and hooked me up. I will note that I'm surprised that the communication dysfunction also applies to club seat holders. I think they only care about the bottom line and have some sort of defense mechanism in place to explain away STH defections. I get along fine with all the staffers, but over time, they have become more defensive and more evasive. I don't know if it is generational or organizational or both. Raise your hand if you suggested cutting off the upper walkway, eliminating public access to the SW elevator and building a barrier within a corner section as a stadium improvement. I like to use that upper walkway to visit friends in sections on the sunny side before the game and at halftime. I have also learned to avoid the concourse at halftime because it is overcrowded and poorly designed with vending on both sides, so those halftime visits are out. How about building a second gate to ease the security line/entrance crush as an "infrastructure improvement"? What other newish 18,000 seat venue has only one gate open to all attendees?
Agree on the media attention. MN would rather die on the vine than support the sport of soccer. Or even report on soccer. But disagree on the attendance. I remember the good ole days of Azizzi when the attendance could be measured in 100's not 1,000's. Spartan stadium filled up when they started winning. People like winners. 49ers get supported when they win, and don't when they lose. In the 70's all the talk was about the Raiders, then Joe Montana came along, they started winning, and everyone had a 49ers shirt. Now Levi's is 2/3 empty.
But you are talking about teams that went from historically bad to historically great with multiple championships. Those are very exceptional cases. Going from somewhere in the middle or poor, to great (briefly) from 2008-2017, it hasn't made much difference. And remember we were talking about adding 2 $3 mil players. No guarantee they will make the team better and if they do it may be pretty incremental.
Since you guys said you have been getting post-game surveys, i asked hubby and it turned out that he was so disgusted with the team he stopped forwarding them to me. Sorry I mis-spoke. I could have sworn i thought someone said they had stopped the surveys, but obviously I was wrong. Man I missed out on about 13 games of belly aching. What a loss!
Pretty cool. "Up on a Tuesday: Minnesota United hoist first beam of Allianz Field" (MLSsoccer.com - Tuesday, 11/21/17) (Photo via Minnesota United) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
With Thanksgiving upon us, I thought I'd post this link to the old SSV site news archive. This of you who attended city council meetings etc might enjoy reliving some of the ups and downs by reading some of these old posts. (Start at the Danny Califf photo at the bottom, where the oldest posts are, and read up). http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/archives.html
That is a great account of how things went down - thanks for posting, Ned. Ups and downs indeed. The savethecrew folks should read that also. Interesting that the stadium wound up being built at none of the initial prospective locations. Wolff is open to a variety of venues, including downtown San Jose, San Jose State South campus, Santa Clara and Fremont, and he is or has been meeting with key people involved with each of these venues.
Thank you. I'm not fishing for compliments, just giving thanks for the stadium and celebrating the efforts EQ fans made to support building it. We tend to forget sometimes how crooked a road it was. I remember the Big Soccer poll which was posted where it was asked how many years would it take for the stadium to be built. If I remember correctly some of the choices were something like 1 year, 3 years, 5 years. I thought the respondents who chose "5 years" were way too cynical, but they turned out to be more realistic than I was. At the risk of overstaying my welcome, here are some additional links to the old site which may give more of a taste of the psychology at that time. Asking for a 25,000 fan stadium (sigh...): http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/vision.html Page which included a link to the 2004 slideshow made for the San Jose Sports Facility Task Force and a photo of a younger Landon Donovan: http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/why.html Krutko's 2007 memo: http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/pdf/6-12_memo.pdf FMC site: http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/sites.html Honorary Members, which I include because I can't resist anything that includes the name "Tighe Dombrowski" and also because many names who have moved into coaching or administration which speaks to the quality of the group: http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/support.html Suggested letters, which many of you sent out: http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/message.html Organizing for the Planning Commission meeting to rule on the Newhall Neighborhood Association appeal: http://blog.soccersiliconvalley.com
Credit to Colin McCarthy, who conceived the effort and set the tone from the outset. (And by saying that I'm not diminishing the efforts of the entire board and fan base.)
Just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to all involved with the SSV effort. It is a Herculean task that not all teams' fanbase can get done in any leagues. I only remember us and NFL's Browns being able to do something like this, and in our case it was 100% fan effort. Thank you all!