Yeah my cousin played for them in 2014. He was pretty good for little while and was given an apartment and a part time job but then got injured. Burlingame didn't want to sign him. I think they thought he was too small or too old. Not sure which it was.....He decided to give it up in 2015 because he wanted to finally start earning a real salary.
FC Ararat? Tough opponent, could be a real mountain to climb. Do they call their team bus "The Ark"? Is their field measured in cubits? Are you required to enter their stadium two by two?
In the original Zionist homeland -- suburban Buffalo! "While most Jews ascribe the beginnings of Zionism to the legendary Austrian, Theodor Herzl, there is one name that rarely makes the lists of the world’s most influential Zionists: American born and bred Mordecai Manual Noah also dreamed of a Jewish homeland. "His 'Zion,' however, would be located on an island near Buffalo, N.Y. He would name it Ararat, after the mountain where the Biblical Noah’s ark ran aground." http://www.bnaibrith.org/magazine-articles/mordecai-noah-the-worlds-first-zionist
Little known fact. There was a counter-proposal by a Palestinian group to claim the same island. They would name it "Arafat".
Yeah huge Armenian community, unfortunately they didnt really show up, and the ones that were dicks. I was off by 4-6k on my attendence prediction haha damn
We went to the home opener today, very fun, and it was packed -- parking is inadequate and spills over into the residential neighborhoods, but high energy and lots of fan excitement. I don't remember the last time I saw so many babies in one place, I think it was my prenatal exercise class reunion, but plenty of 20-somethings too. The Dragons hustled and beat LA 5-2 . There are some talented players on the team, they are all still young and the game was fast-paced until both teams ran out of steam the last 20 minutes. After that, the most entertaining aspect was watching the LA coach in a state of borderline hysteria (the 4O spent a lot of time trying to get him to calm down). I wouldn't road trip too far for one of their games unless it was my kid playing, but if you live/work on the peninsula or even in SF it's an easy trip to Burlingame, good restaurants and other interesting places to explore in downtown Burlingame too. At-the-door ticket price is $10, but if you plan ahead, tickets seem to be readily available for a mere $5.
Reminds a bit of the Frogs except that they never drew very well. But the team generally played very well. Fast and lots of good passing. Why is it that these teams often seem to look better than the Quakes :-(?
I went to quite a few of the Frogs games, and this had a different feel to it. I was just reading that one of the Dragon founders was a co-founder of Zappos, and my impression was that they run ascaled-down version of an MLS operation. They have a uniformed mascot, quite a few smaller sponsors, a game area for the tots, and a nice selection of merchandise. Little kids playing games at halftime. All that's missing is a real SG -- though there were kids marching in front of the stands getting everyone to cheer "let's go, Dragons." Lots of Game of Thrones references too, if you're into that. The boy had to explain those to me.
Yeah, I think with the Frogs I got the impression it was Helmut and his wife trying to do the whole thing themselves. And I don't think they had any sponsors. I remember going up to a booth pre-game to buy a shirt, and I think it was Helmut's wife who just gave a couple to us. And they were really nice shirts too.
I spoke to the Frogs first coach Franco Benevento and he told me Esslinger was a billionaire and really wanted to make a go of it after the Quakes left but realized with the few ticket sales and the MLS club moving back to San Jose , it was a losing battle trying to continue on. Although I don't know for sure but I doubt he really wanted to work with Lew & company either.
I'd be a little surprised if he is a billionaire though certainly wealthy. He has a design firm that has done a lot of high profile work, including early Apple designs. I'm sure they get paid very well but it's not like being founder of a company that has billions in revenue. I'm assuming they work off of lucrative contracts, but not percentage of revenue for products designed, the latter of which could swing the equation quite a bit. In any case I think the Frogs went through sort of the typical arc of professional soccer in the Bay Area, on a smaller scale, pre-Avaya Stadium. Initial optimism, maybe thinking it was going to be easier than it is, waning support, thinking you can reach out to the Latino community and easily have success with that, lack of proper venue, etc. It will interesting to see of the Dragons can sustain what they seem to have early. If they can, hats off, and the Quakes should hire some of those guys.
Dmitry Piterman and the California Victory did the same thing. He thought placing a team in SF would be a cakewalk and was gone as soon as he started.
Yeah, that's why I'll be impressed if the Dragons can sustain it, though they have the advantage of the partnership with the Quakes. That may make a big difference.
Like Piterman and the Victory, the SF Delta will be playing at Kezar so I don't see that as a positive. Depending on how deep pocketed they are, what they should do is buy a piece of land and build their own park and start out small like Charleston Battery did with Blackbaud Stadium did in 1999. It would be nice to see the Delta merge with the Dragons or it least have Burlingame as a reserve team.
He/they did but it was in 2007. Wolff & Fisher came in with a sweet deal the day the Quakes left. I recently heard, AEG didn't want to sell "their club" or the club they inherited by the league and that was why they moved to Houston. In 2005, AEG ran the league and did whatever they wanted.
I heard different things. Tony Amanpour's deal fell through and later they learned he was just blowing smoke. Tim Leiweke was in the Bay Area at the end of November or early December complaining that AEG invested and lost "$5 million in the Quakes" but then I also heard he really wanted to get a deal done. Scott Hamilton who later died and revered as having been the man who orchestrated the successful move of the franchise to Houston. Lew Wolff came in with his bid the day after the club moved on December 15th 2005 I believe it was saying "that ship has sailed". I don't know what happened in those weeks leading up to the move but if they really wanted to sell the club, why not sell it to him? Obviously they hung on to it to make more money later on which is what they did. I also think Lew & Fisher got a great expansion deal (maybe $10-20 million?) to come forth with their bid.
Well I think in the end there was some wink-wink going on between AEG, the league, and Wolff. And it was at the expense of the SJ fans. Otherwise everyone got what they wanted. Which is not so much different than Donovan to LA.