I have absolutely nothing bad to say about John Fisher after info I heard today. He paid for a former Quakes players family member's full chemo and medical treatments. Upwards of 300k. I won't disclose who because of privacy and personal reasons, but theres nothing better than that. Similarly, the Japanese National Team & Toronto FC are paying for former MLS player Tsubasa Endoh's chemo treatment as well.
First, I hope the players have health insurance that covers their families (the family member got sick after the player had left the team?). That is generous of him, but also says something about our healthcare system. (Still reeling after seeing the bills for my mother's trip to the ER for a broken shoulder -- closing in on $100k, though she received no treatment other than a sling and some painkillers.) I don't like calling Fisher "cheap" or the unfortunate stereotypes that word evokes. I'd say he has different priorities from the fans, and he doesn't view the team the way we do. From an MBA perspective, he's following an appropriate strategy for his business objectives. Outside real estate and sports, he's got a decent record as a philanthropist, especially for supporting education.
Must have had some imaging done, but, still, $100 k? That's insanity. But, ironically, I have a friend who has a daughter who is a talented orthopedic trauma surgeon. College, 4 years of med school, 7 years of residency and her fellowship, and will now finally get paid more than the $50,000 she was making a year. Who in the hell is pocketing all the money?
I've been asking the same question. The amounts are surreal -- $20k for a CT scan? This is not new technology! I know what Stanford doctors earn and it's not that much (the only ortho she saw was a resident, so badly treated and barely getting by financially.) It looks like her insurance will pay almost everything, but still, the economics are beyond my comprehension. I figured the Stanford ER must gross about $10mm/day. They might be able to afford a couple of star players if they owned a soccer team.
Look at the Stanford facilities, especially the new building - and you can see where a lot of the money is going. When I see a doctor it doesn't have to be in a luxurious country club atmosphere. I just want to see someone who knows what they're talking about in some little doctor's office. I have Kaiser and it's a lot more utilitarian - almost comical in some ways at how dated some things look, like the kinds of nature photographs on the wall that were popular in the 70's. I had a CT scan in some little trailer in the back of the hospital. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think it was $3-400 but I don't know what it is w/o insurance.
If Fisher did in fact pay for a former players medical bill, then you have to give him a lot of credit for making such an admirable move. There aren’t too many owners who would do that, and somethings are more important than sports. As far as the Quakes are concerned, in sifting back through this thread, other than different players and coaches, not much has changed since 2019. As I’ve posted before, as far as being knowledgeable about the game or the team, we still haven’t heard or read a word from Fisher since 2008 which was when he came forth with his investment. Does anyone really know what he is thinking? I give him credit for buying the team and building the stadium. I also think he has tried to do his best when he hired Fioranelli/Almeyda but sadly, those moves have both backfired. He has forked over cash when he paid for DP’s like Innocent, Vako and now Lopez but nothing has worked so far. It remains to be seen what will happen with Lopez but if history repeats itself, I’m not very confident. Even if he does well it won't be enough. On the financial side with maybe the exception of the Covid season, I do honestly believe he is earning a lot of money off the team in both equity and in TV and sponsorships. He wouldn't stay in the game if he was losing or bleeding money on a yearly basis. That’s always a positive at least for the longevity of the team or keeping the club in one place. Still, on the tactical or soccer side, all these losing years are starting to take a toll on fans, players, and coaches alike. Sooner or later, we can’t keep blaming players , coaches or GM's for being at fault and JF remains the lone scapegoat. I’m not sure who else you can blame, and Fisher needs to be held accountable for the clubs yearly losing record. There are only three solutions.... 1. Fisher keeps the club, playing the same mediocre ball or worse. 2. He brings in other partners or investors. 3. He sells the entire club. These are the only alternatives that I can see if things are going to change.
Pretty much all health plans will only cover "immediate" family. Spouse, children, and children only until the age of 26 if they are still in school, or otherwise being "supported".
Yes he did in fact pay for it, the player he helped is and was a beloved player here. He was open about it on his linkedin page (which is private) unless your in his network. He also wrote a whole piece about how they tried to bring him and one other guy back in 2015 with Dominic Kinnear. Fisher isn't the reason the field results are the way they are. He just writes checks, and he has people in place to run his day to day operations. Shawlee, Leitch and Luchi are the 3 headed Ghidorah for the Earthquakes. Robert Kraft isn't the reason the Revolution suck this year, he had Bruce Arena who had them Cup Contenders this time last year until the scandal. Neville is still a shitty coach, his track record is following him from Miami. When your coaching staff sucks and your players aren't good enough for the coach, thats on team management.
Yes I lost my health insurance at 26, but my mother thankfully pays out of pocket to keep me on her policy of blue shield.
Damn that is nice. Our oldest falls off at the end of June. Health plans at "full" price aren't cheap.
No they arent! Its ridiclious. My mom justifies it as, health is a necessity and the money spent is worth it to her. So she pays for me and the kiddo.
Almost nobody ever pays the billed amount. It’s just the opening bid in the negotiations. When we’ve had kids who weren’t insured they were able to set up payment plans and only ended up having to pay 30-40% of the billed amount at the most.
Yeah I still don’t get how an owner doesn’t care or says nothing about the team he owns. There has to be someone in charge here and they can’t keep passing the buck on past management or rather , Frank, Mark, John , Dom , Jesse , Matias ,or now, Shawlee, Leitch and Luchi. We’ve heard the same story for 15 out of 17 years. Sooner or later , Fisher has to take the reins and take responsibility for his team. As it is, the Quakes are a laughingstock across MLS and I don’t know any owner who wants that label.
We have a corporation so hire the kids and put them on the company health plan. It still aint cheap, but at least everyone can be covered.
Not sure I'd call it a "solution" but I'm pretty sure #1 is our future for some number of years. I don't think we have to be "mediocre or worse". There are plenty of teams with similar resource constraints who do well, at least periodically. There's no reason we can't be one of those teams. But we have to get everything right, and so it's not going to be a sustained kind of success. It's going to be more like occasionally pretty good. But the more the league opens up the purse strings the harder it will be for us. We'll tag along towards the tail end but I think the gap will continue to widen, and that'll make it continually harder as the years go by.
I wonder if most of those other teams with similar constraints are owned by competitive bastards who mostly stabbed and slashed their way to riches and have zero patience for incompetant, non-winning technical and management staff. We have an owner who is a charter member of the lucky sperm club and has given the team management an almost unlimited leash .
Nepo babes in general have a distorted view of reality, at least compared to those of us born into relative poverty.
Yeah John Fisher is making money in his sleep while us fans have had to endure a crap franchise for the last 13 seasons. I do however, give him credit for signing Lopez but we still need a lot more in order to make a dent.
You've been a Quakes fan longer than most of us on this forum. You know damn well, Fisher isn't the reason this team's field performance sucks ass. We've got a competitive roster as we've seen. We go stretches of the game of brilliance, we show great movement and tactical approach, however the inability to sustain that level of play and performance and tinker and adjust to keep it fresh during the run of 90 minutes and the inability to defend the lead, and get pussy footed and park the bus when we're up shows VERY bad tactical approach and understanding of the game by Luchi Gonzalez. He is a shitty coach. Almeyda and Fioranelli failed for other reasons. Doyle, Dom, Frank Failed for other reasons. Starhe failed for reasons. Osiander, Quinn, Calloway previously to all failed for other reasons.
The coaches and tactics may very well be crap but they are only as good as their players. I don't believe we have a competitive roster. We have no GK, defense, playmaking mids or goal scoring forwards and there really is no depth on the bench. The talent level is just bad. I'm the one who criticized Shea Salinas since his debut against Chicago but we have no one as good as him currently in the midfield. Lopez just got here but the jury is still out on him. Pellegrino is so-so, Cristian Espinoza is good but that's all we really got.