Latest SSV Newsletter (Thursday, April 19): SJSU says no; Plan B on tap

Would the city see any of the sales tax revenue from a stadium located on county land? Parking revenue? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think so. I doubt the city would see dime one from any money spent at a fairgrounds stadium. And we all know that anti-rezoning forces like at the Merc are starting to coalesce around the idea that a new residential neighborhood like at Edenvale would cost the city money for services like schools, police, and the fire department, while residential property taxes bring in much less than if the land were still zoned industrial/commercial.

 

A/ True

B/ True - Kanning is playing hardball thinking that Lew Wolff doesn't have any other options. But truely Lew does. Maybe Kanning thinks the MLS can step in to get whatever he wants. Wolff doesn't have to bring in an MLS team and Kanning can continue his historical track record of being a tight ass and never get a new stadium built.

C/ Yes, they still are. Remember that whole SHARKS issue where they made the City sue the County so a new stadium wouldn't be built and compete with them on the revenue for the new stadium. Those Bastards.
To this day I will not pay to go to see the SHARKS.

D/ 1000% correct

Does anyone know if Lew Wolff has enough property by the proposed Fremont A's baseball site to put in a soccer field next to it?

 

RE: The Sharks. Bastards! Of course, now they're on our team . . . err, Wolff's team.

RE: Fremont. No, he does not. He's said on several occasions that he needs all the land in Fremont for houses to pay for the stadium.

 

I know y'all don't love me anymore, but I'm going to chime in anyway.

This was a bad deal for SJSU and Kassing was right to walk away. This amounted to a soccer stadium that his football team would be "allowed" to play in. Given what he was being asked to give (reportedly), he was not going to get enough in return to make a deal pencil out.

This was Wolff's easiest path to a new stadium. However, he came in guns blazing as the man in control of the decisions on stadium design and amenities. This was not the correct approach. He could have and should have been more conciliatory toward the needs of the SJSU football program, which is going to be in a growth phase whether y'all know it or believe it.

The idea of "we'll build you a new stadium so just shut up and take it", which I've heard continuously from those on this board who believe Kassing was stupid for resisting the deal, is just insulting.

This should have been a negotiation. But it got off on the wrong foot and was doomed from the start.

So now the easy road is blocked. Where next?

I hate to say it, but it's not going to be San Jose. Why do I say that? Read between the lines:

1) Unless Wolff is going to buy the land and build it himself (an idea thoroughly debunked), the City of San Jose will not allow a stadium to be built without a vote, which will be voted down in the current political climate.
2) Wrangling over the Fairgrounds site (which I've favored all along for a community soccer facility) will take too long and probably be just as volatile as the SJSU negotiations...the only difference is instead of dealing with a university president, you'll be dealing with a crowd of yapping NIMBY's which have already reduced the Fairgrounds to its current state of insignificance.
3) What's the title of this page? San Jose/Bay Area. When Garber speaks of expansion here, he talks Bay Area. The name of the holding company is Earthquakes, LLC...no mention of San Jose anywhere. MLS doesn't want to be in San Jose. Garber is one of those stuck-up types who can't abide his league stuck in a backwater cowtown like San Jose. He'd prefer anywhere else. That's why the Bay Area is in play, not just San Jose.

We've used up the San Jose options. The Bay Area is most likely next.

A hui hou...

 

After digesting this for a bit (it STILL ain't going down, though), if a "Plan B" does happen (and I pray it will), would the Quakes still play at Spartan the first year while waiting for the stadium to be built?? This may be a testy negotiation.

P.S. I have stated before (and quoted in a Metro article) that the folks at SSV truly inspire me. Nothing they have done or said through their correspondence since that time has altered my opinion of them.

Thank you, everyone at SSV, for all the countless, SOMETIMES thankless, hours you have all spent in helping keep the dream alive. I don't think Lew Wolff would even be thinking soccer in San Jose had it not been for the efforts of the folks at SSV.

 

I never said you personally accused SSVof lying, falvo. I was reacting to stikesoutalot's comments.

I wish that some people here on BS would realize that SSV is working in good faith and that they are not always at liberty to divulge any information. Have we already forgotten the recent hit pieces by the Murk?

So the deal died and it was NOT because of the lack of information. Let's no go off the deep end and attack SSV. They work hard and only for the love of the team.

 

That could all be part of the negotiations. The city could say "We'll rezone the IStar land if you give us a cut of the stadium revenue." In theory, the Quakes and the county could do a deal at the fairgrounds with no city involvement at all, but leaving the city out of the deal could end up putting the city in an adversarial position, since there will be traffic impacts on the surrounding streets, which are the city's, and any potential NIMBYs are city residents.

 

I know....Actually, I didn't mean to quote you...I'm sorry about that...What I really meant to say however, was I wish we could hear some more good news from SSV or someone else who really knows more about this thing becuase I'm sick of asking why opr what is going on?
It seems like we are on on this constant 16 mionth a rollercoaster that won't end and its really a shame!

One comfort however, is that SJSU/Spartan Shops already said no to AEG and Lew stepped in in December 2005. He already said "that ship has sailed" etc etc. At that point no one knew or believed or even thought SJSU was in the picture at all as it was always the Fairgrounds to bethe new SSS.......When the story broke in January,2007, this is when the pendulum swung back to Spartan/SJSU becuase Spartan Shops already was out of the picture the year before.

 

I don't believe that anybody lied, or anybody has anything other than good motives. However, by definition "Plans B" tend to be subordinate for good reasons. I tend to doubt that the path to a potential plan B is as clear or uncomplicated as the SJSU plan appeared to be at first. Given the difficulty of doing anything in this area and the prevalence of NIMBY, BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody) and NOPE (Not On Planet Earth) attitudes that seem to prevail in this region, I am far from sanguine that we will ever see a stadium for the earthquakes constructed within our lives...

 

Do you have a source that this is how Wolff negotiated, or are you projecting the attitude of some BigSoccer posters onto him?

The name of this board was made by BigSoccer administrators. How that is relevant to the decisions that will be made by Wolff or MLS or anyone who matters, I don't know. Your characterization of what Garber says is not consistent with recent comments he has made. He mentions San Jose by name often. Also, in the quote in the opening post of this thread, Alioto used "San Jose" twice in places that he could easily have said "Bay Area," especially since it was a statement to SSV, which has never had a San Jose-specific agenda for finding a stadium site.

We've used up the San Jose options. The Bay Area is most likely next.

A hui hou...[/QUOTE]

 

Isn't is weird how SierraSpartan stopped posting as soon as he herd that the deal was dead? What's upwith that? Why would anyone wish this? I just don't get this whole ordeal!

 

For the University, it's not supposed to be just business. Universities are not just businesses. They have to behave like that to a certain extent because you can hardly thrive if you don't. But they have to be outside the "just business" mentality to meet the research and education missions handed them by society. Kassing isn't supposed to be the same thing as the CEO of SJSU. He supposed to care about such things as whether the he can create a feeling in 10-yr-old Miguel, 11-yr-old Katie, and 12-yr-old Lee to grow up with the dream of attending San Jose State because they went to Spartan football games and played soccer on SJSU branded youth fields when they were growing up and feel pride in their University before they're even in high school. The Penn State's and the USCs of the world have this. If Kassing is really thinking like a University President should be thinking when he's looking out for the interested of SJSU, he has to put these things in the equation. Maybe he did...maybe that's why he took the meetings in the first place, I've just seen absolutely no tangible evidence of it.

 

Not really; he's obviously concerned only with the SJSU side of things, and once it appeared that SJSU and the Quakes were going their separate ways, it makes sense that he wouldn't come back here.

 

What's weird about it? He's an SJSU fan. This is an Earthquakes board.

 

So this whole thing died becuase of $5 million dollars a year? Lew should have offered 50 homes to the University.........I mean wasn't hegoing to buil 1500 anyway? One new home as we have discussed in other threads in SJ anyway, is worth at least $1million....if not more.....This deal tanked for 5 million?

 

No. I just think he's being polite.

I didn't want this deal to work. It was doomed to be suboptimal, cursed by compromise.

Fairgrounds my friends! Write your supervisor today!

 

Everyone of us are SJSU fans , I mean none of us would want to see them do poorly.....Give me a break!

 

It should have died because of football lines on the field and a front row thats elevated 5 ft!

 

Can you make a specific case for this opinion and how they'll do it either without a new stadium or what alternative stadium plan they have? Obviously I think that no new stadium means growth can't happen because it won't happen in existing Spartan. Maybe someone's made a reasoned case why it can happen in the existing stadium. But I don't see it.

It seems to me that when this fell apart it just closed a pretty big door on saving Spartan football and that happened because Kassing doesn't really care about saving it, it's been a money loser and hurting the bottom line.
I'd like to know what specific evidence exists to the contrary, even if I do realize it's best for Quakes supporters to move on and let SJSU lay in the bed it's made. It's more just a curosity thing.

 

SINCE WHEN?!?!?

How many times did I read in this debate that SJSU should just give up football so that soccer could take over Spartan Stadium?

As many times as on the SJSU boards I read that SJSU shouldn't partner and build a soccer stadium for the 12 fans that go to soccer games.

Look, this so-called "partnership" was doomed from the start. It was adversarial from the word go, and we should be thankful that it flamed out as quickly as it did so that each entity can get on with better arrangements.

What we should be most concerning is that the Murk in it's reportage has declared the entire soccer proposal dead, not just the cooperation with SJSU on a stadium. Read the lead carefully, Barry Witt writes that the proposal to bring soccer back is dead, not just this particular stadium deal. That's some good reportin' there...

 

Do you have any evidence to support this? No, you don't. Because you don't know the current state of Spartan Football.

 

The same (or should I say opposite) way YOU know things for sure!

 

Isn't it amazing how everyone on this board knows everything?

 

Spartacus, that's what he was asking you. Why are you so optimistic about Spartan Football? I see some big challenges there. One season does not make a program and this year might be a challege because the schedule kind of sucks. Best game - Hawaii starts at 5pm on a Friday!

Last year was great, lots of home games and Stanford, Fresno and Boise on the schedule. This year UC Davis, Idaho and the weird start time for Hawaii.

You're an insider, why are you so optimistic?

BTW. Did you seem me at the spring game with my Quakes sweatshirt? I tried really hard to be visible.