Please no. I get not wanting the teams to be able to jump ship, but there's likely more creative ways to tie them there. Spending public money to purchase and attempt to run a sports franchise is hardly top on my tax dollar list.
Having been involved in local politics for 20+ years and after visiting Sacramento for a senate hearing last week, I absolutely do not want government's fat little fingers in any sports team I follow. I do see the appeal of fan ownership, but management is always going to be a beast.
I hear you brother! Clearly public ownership is not a perfect, or perhaps even good solution. But I’m kind of down on billionaires right now. In any case this isn’t an actual suggestion that anyone is making, so we can put this debate on the back burner. Go Quakesfans!!
I wonder if Habbas has received more eyes advertising with the Quakes and MLS, or on that grain silo on 101 south of Gilroy? On a busy weekend probably tens of thousands drove past there.
Still a relatively young market, with money, and a WC next year. Kind of a no brainer to spend more...
19 MLS teams in the top 50... you'll never guess who didn't make it Forbes: Report Showing High Value Of MLS Clubs Hurts The Pro/Rel Cause
Honestly, with all this Messi hype, why can't the Quakes, in this day and age, have a superstar in their team? I'm not saying a star would solve all of the clubs problems but it is pretty sad that we have to go back 40 + years to the old NASL to dig up the last great players , George Best and Steve Zungul.
Steve Zungul's entire outdoor soccer career was a few years in Yugoslavia pre-defection and two years with the Earthquakes. This may offend old-timers but Chicho and Josef Martinez are bigger deals.
Even though he mostly played indoors, for this country at the time anyway and within the soccer community, Steve Zungul was a much bigger superstar than either Martinez or Arango.
Most of the "household name" types that come to MLS are well past their prime, and often do not help their clubs much. Giroud, Lampard, Gerrard, Marquez, Bale, Reus, Pirlo, Matthäus, the list goes on and on. The most impactful players tend to be the guys who are not global superstars but good players, and they come over fairly young or in their prime. Puig, Cucho Hernandez, Carles Gil, Acosta, Rossi, Evander, Mukhtar, etc.
Being the greatest indoor soccer player does not put someone on a comparable level to Best or Messi. Best is the only worldwide superstar the Quakes have had. They have had many players with better careers in real soccer than Zungul.
Sure but I never posted that he was the greatest in the world. Zungul at the time, was by far, the greatest and biggest name the USA had seen whether he played indoors or outdoors and he played for the Quakes. He also won the last NASL MVP award as a member of the Earthquakes. Cruyff left the Dips in 1981 and was mostly injured that season. Best was done after the 1981 NASL season. Beckenbauer left in 1980, came back and played with the Cosmos in 1983. Chingalia played until 1983 but after that, at least until 1996 and the startup of MLS, I can't think of many other big name players and none for San Jose. After the old NASL folded or from 1985-1995 and with the exception of World Cup 1994, no one cared about outdoor soccer. Paul Mariner at 40 years of age played for the SF Bay Blackhawks in 1992 I believe and he was a fairly big name but that is all I can remember. As for Wynalda, LAndy and Wondo, they were great but never superstars.
What is a "superstar" exactly? Landy is considered by many to be the best ever MLS player, and Wondo is the all-time scoring leader. What's missing? You must be talking about *global* superstar because they were certainly MLS superstars, much more so than the list of "superstars" I provided above.
LAndy was a great American born player but not in the same league.as Zungul. Not even close. Also, the old NASL from 1978-84 was a much better league skillwise as well as rosters, than a 1996 to at least 2010 MLS. I can't name any foreign bon player from the 1983 Quakes roster who was better than anyone on the Clash -Quakes from 1996 to the present day.
Personally, I am anti-superstar as it often interferes with the team working as a team (vs deferring to the superstar). As talented as Wondo was, he never made the game about him, and his presence made his teammates better. Of course, Miami has multiple stars on their team, but I wonder what impact they've had on the development of the younger players. I can imagine there are advantages and disadvantages.
I watched almost every game Zungul played for the Quakes and Donovan as well, Landon was a more impactful player in my opinion. Zungul was good but selfish and had a poor attitude which led him to check out of some games and put minimal effort.
Yes, but MLS was not as good or as difficult as the NASL was for the same time period. If you go by the rosters and even salaries. Do not get me wrong I am all for MLS and am glad they have progressed and its stabilty but no one will convince me that our MLS players are or were better than Ingram, Terlecki, Zungul, Cuellar, Litt, Kerri, Irwin and even Dangerfield. They were much better than any of their MLS counterparts. The Americans are better now but not the foreigners.
Agree on the Americans for sure, as a teen fan in the 80's Terlecki was incredible, got to meet him and quite a few of the other players as we had one player who lived with us when he first got to the area due to our connection with the Greek community and Greek church in SJ.
Terlecki was supposed to be on the Polish National team in 1982 but was kicked off the team and that is when he went to America. Whitecaps players Peter Beardsley and Bruce Grobbelaar went on to star in England after leaving Vancouver. They were just some in a crowd of players who came over were all in their 20's and early 30's. The NASL was far more advanced than MLS , somewhere betweeen a 1st and 3rd divison.
Definitely some great players in those days, but for some reason Terlecki stood out to me , i really enjoyed watching him play, that team with Ingram Goosens, Zungul, and Terlecki was so fun to watch, and Tony Powell on defense another favorite of mine.
They were much faster and younger or in their prime playing ages. Best was 35 when he last played with the Quakes. Very few players in the NASL were over 35 and even fewer were 38.
Messi's considered possibly the best ever, and averaging about a goal per 90. Alba is still very fast and really good. If he plays tonight you will see it tonight.