Ugh, that is a horrible photo of him. And talk about an article that adds nothing to the info, except we know what he ate in Montreal. But thank you, Goodsie. Edit: missed the 24,000 expansion (too focused on the haircut?) Though it's hard to see that enclosing the end would increase capacity by 33% when most of the seating is along the sides.
In November 2006 SSV wrote, distributed, and promoted a report "The Epicenter: Visitor Projections for a 25,000 Seat Soccer Stadium, Home to the Earthquakes of Major League Soccer". So this mention of considering 24,000 down the road makes me very happy.
Dave Kaval was all smiles last night. Not sure if he really knows the game but at least he is getting our stadium done. Good job Dave!
"Kaval's Kickoff: Break a world record with the Quakes" (SJEarthquakes.com - Monday, 8/27/12) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Dave Kaval's acknowledgment of the fans' role in what will have been a decade-long process is appreciated: ". . . despite all the twists and turns, the local soccer community, especially Soccer Silicon Valley, has always been there for us. Their unwavering support helped move the process forward and get us to this historic day."
Remember the days of rumored owners planning to buy the team from AEG? I think "strange" fits perfectly. Nonetheless, I was relieved to see Kaval finally announce a groundbreaking date.
Or what about when Club America was going to buy the club? Strange is too soft I was thinking more like and acid and quaalude trip to the inferno and back!
Yep, it was great for David to acknowledge SSV in this, because that's where it really started, some 8 years ago. Barring any unforeseen turn of events (knock on wood) the vision that SSV set forth in 2004 is actually going to be realized, after a long period filled with not a small amount of pain and loss and doubts and many stops and starts and twists and turns. Soccer Silicon Valley is a grassroots organization consisting of soccer fans, soccer players, business leaders, and political leaders with a goal of creating a permanent home for professional and recreational soccer in the Bay Area. A business trade association, we will advocate for the development and construction of a soccer facility which will permanently house the San Jose Earthquakes, the Bay Area’s only professional soccer team, and provide playing fields for the use of the entire soccer playing community in the Bay Area. Hopefully there will be opportunities for the SSV founders to take a well-deserved bow as the stadium development begins and comes to fruition.
I want to credit Kaval for pushing through the stadium. I'm a long time skeptic about it actually happening. I suspect his hardest battle has been to convince ownership to build it. We fans have done our part by supporting the team (even when they were bad) at the seriously inferior Buck Shaw, buying all the tickets at Stanford, and showing our passion even after AEG stole our team and sent them to Houston. Without us, I don't think Kaval could have prompted Wolff and Fisher to open up their (super heavy) checkbooks.
That's pretty disheartening, as it's usually a team's ownership that pushes for a stadium to get built (heck, it took the airing of complaints/concerns from fans, neighboring residents, potential sponsors and City of San José officials to get ESLLC to massively improve its initially-submitted stadium plan way up to at least the minimum MLS SSS level). Thank goodness for the airing of those complaints/concerns in this case, though, and all's well that ends well. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
The fans who showed up did their part, but, let's face it, the numbers were not what the ownership expected. I think they thought that it would be much easier than it was. And therein lay the chicken-and-the-egg. Ownership was reluctant to spend more on the product because the demand seemed in question, and the market was slow to respond to a lukewarm product, especially after suffering through years of half-baked ownership commitment and finally a relocation. I think Kaval deserves credit for pushing through the chicken-and-the-egg by doing things like producing the showcase games at Stanford and for (apparently) advocating for a better stadium. Demand for the high-end stuff at the stadium seems to be strong (frankly I'm surprised that the suites and club seats are already sold out), so my guess is that these upgrades are going to pay for themselves and then some as they add some "wow" factor to the venue.
When the product has been presented as big league, the fan base has responded in kind, which the likes of Don G. and SSV has predicted they would.
Yeah, my only contention with that line of thinking was the idea that the product owners would not, and never have presented the product as big league.