They already have from what Twitter is saying. Dos Santos has a new club already and the players have all been released.
I know. I was poking fun at the "fan delusion" that you can't fold or move a pro sports franchise the year they won the championship.
It’s sad this league and team can’t take off. I don’t like the outlaw stance the new NASL took but MLS didn’t and doesn’t help matters. Any Quakes fan will you that just since the inception of the league in 1996. Whichever way you spin it, San Jose was robbed of their players and championship winning teams. In a span of time, it wasn’t all that ago. The league did nothing to help us and I can’t forgive them for what they did. I believe seeing another league and/or club fold is heartbreaking to any fan of the game. Again I’m not defending the NASL but I certainly won’t side with MLS or the USSF , for that matter.
I live right by Kezar, so it's a bummer for myself personally as it was a nice option to have to go games. I was at that last game and the amount of kids who were super into it (like knew the players names and everything) made me sad. Knowing this was likely to happen, it brought me back to when I was a soccer obsessed kid who knew all the Quakes players when they just up and left. It's a shame the owners couldn't absorb a loss for a couple seasons, because despite their crappy name and marketing I think the amount of families in the area looking for something like this would have made it work eventually.
I happened to sit next to a charming 60-something couple for the final. They are life-long San Francisco residents and this was their third-ever soccer game, the first being the Deltas' regular season finale and the second the semi-final playoff. They had never even visited Kezar Stadium before. They were enticed by the recent San Francisco Chronicle article and were intrigued by what they saw "so close" (from the 14th row and beyond the warning track). they urged me to help them understand what was going on; for example, they were shocked to learn there were only three subs per side. They were also saddened to learn that this would be their last Deltas match, just as they were starting to embrace the game. I gave them my card and invited them to be my guests for a Quakes game in the front row next season. Hopefully we will gain some converts.
Too bad they couldn't make it work. I think folding of teams and/or leagues is terrible for anyone involved with the game from fans to players and coaches. With two other teams in southern California, the Deltas could have saved money on travel by playing each team four times. With the split season the NASL uses, that's half the schedule. If the NASL really want to make a go of their second division, they should consider starting a regional league.It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. How much sense does it make for teams in California to travel to NY , Indy or Miami? Of course they will lose money.
Actually 69-70 yards wide. A little narrow not awful. That said it was really long and really long combined with slightly narrow makes for a bad combination in my experience. Worse, it was quite muddy.
Somewhat simultaneously (or at least overlapping) was the USWNT game played at Avaya Stadium that same night. The playing field (corner-flag to corner-flag) was widened a bit from Chris Leitch's near-ideal 74 yards to the fully-ideal 75 yards and it was awesome! GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
I know. Not only that, but they had no idea the stadium once sat 50k for Niners games. Rip van Winkle quality to them.
Not unless they come up with a better plan. I say start a regional team in a regional league. Then maybe build from there. I don’t know much about this NISA but I’m assuming the costs and travel will be a lot less than they are in the nasl as they will be a third division. Maybe they can put a team in that league in a few years?
It would need to be part of a coordinated west coast move by that league. And would need to be outside SF proper in a place like Oakland... Or you know they could just join the USL and save themselves the league uncertainty. Maybe even affiliate with the Bay Area MLS team...
Yeah they had a worse plan than the Deltas. You think the latest addition would have learned from them.
The Deltas are officially defunct: https://medium.com/@bhelmick/the-dr...ff44dc9fd?mc_cid=d2642dd57e&mc_eid=3bbb0e5636
They seemed to have big plans when they came in and with a strong ownership group. Even though we all pretty much knew this was the outcome, I still think it’s sad to see a team and/or league fail.