Done deal -- SJ franchise to Houston.

I didn't say the World Cup alone would've made all the differences. Has there been this much activity on SSS in 2002 (or any year) as there will be in 2006? Four teams will either open their stadiums or hold groundbreaking ceremonies next year, showing the politicians and potential investors in the bay area that the owners and other cities are serious about this league and it's here to stay. It would beat showing just three stadiums for examples. Chances of securing a stadium would get much better with just one more year, IMO.

 

The edit button is gone but let me add that the attendance figure back then (around 10k) was not helping either to get the city to pay for an SSS.

 

That surprises you. AEG never wanted to be here in the first place... And how many times did Leweike ever come to San Jose... once, twice?

Candidly, others have said it, I'm skeptical about an expansion franchise, but if we get one, and AEG isn't in the picture in any way, I'll support it.

If AEG gets once red cent...

 

I'm skeptical about an expansion franchise too.

 

Single-entity says they would.

 

The attendence numbers are important only in context of the league. Yes, the attendence numbers sagged as a result of the Kraft ownership years (if AEG was inefficient, Kraft was incomprehensible). That was a real low point, both on field and off. At that point, the local media ignored the franchise.

With the involvement of SVSE, a good coach was hired, and more importantly, the team got a real voice in the area of player allocation. From that point, everything, including attendence started in a positive direction. Plus, the growth in attendence over the last four years was not the phony stuff seen in other markets. The averages grew without having to resort to inflated figures that included doubleheaders with the USMNT or international exhibitions. Team management and players became involved, personally, in the community, with the result being the fact that some of those people became fans.

People keep bringing up the attendence thing, but the other side of that coin is what was happening league wide during that time? Just plucking a single number out of the air, without keeping it in the context of the rest of the league is not valid. I always liked the theory about statistics: "If you torture the numbers long enough, they will say anything" . I will give credit to the local management of the Quakes. They could have scheduled doubleheaders with popular Mexican teams like Chivas and driven the "average" up considerably, and they did not do it.

While I am skeptical about any future for the MLS in San Jose, I will keep my fingers crossed at this point. There are some good, dedicated people in this area. Finding the ones who have money plus the ability to minimize their soccer losses with other income is the big issue. I am sure they are there, but they may not realize who they are. Whatever the case, if new ownership appears, it MUST be local for this to work.

Regardless of what people say to the contrary, this is a black eye for the league, at least in the small pond that is professional soccer in this country. All it has done is reinforce the idea that the league can't be taken seriously. This is not an owner packing up and leaving. This is the league abandoning an area. I am the first to admit that local investors or politicos did not step up when needed. However, there is not a shred of evidence, not a bit, that either the league or AEG had any clue as to how to generate the needed interest in the local area. It took a group of loyal fans to figure it out.....and this is not meant as a slam toward SSV, but are we to believe they are the only people who could figure it out? That does not say much for the management ability of Garber or AEG.

 

I don't understand why the MLS or AEG thinks that the situation in Houston would be any better than in San Jose. I grew up in the Houston area and have a built-in affinity to their sports teams, but I don't get this.

I understand the hatred from the Quakes fans - my second favorite NFL team is whatever team is playing against the Tennessee Titans, and that will continue until the owner dies.

All vitriol aside, can anybody come up with a logical explanation as to what was more favorable about the situation in Houston than in San Jose? There's not a favorable stadium situation and it will be very hot during the MLS season. Are they just hoping for a miracle in public funding from a public which just barely supported votes for baseball, football, and basketball/hockey? I'll be stunned to see them draw 15K per game down there.

 

The perceived advantages to Houston likely include the following (note my use of the word "perceived"):

(1) Non-soccer costs are less, i.e., front office costs and other non-player/coach salary costs

(2) Costs of building a stadium are less than in Bay Area

(3) City has demonstrated recent commitment to building new stadiums, i.e., local governments are more friendly and supportive of building stadiums

(4) Oliver Luck. AEG hired him away from the Sports Authority and now AEG has a guy in its pocket who knows the ins and outs of stadiums and professional sports in Houston. AEG didn't have any such person in San Jose.

It would be interesting to see if AEG had an SSS economics study done for Houston, like those put together for San Jose and Kansas City.

 

In Italiano si dice,

AEG! ANDATE TUTTI A QUELL 'ALTRO PAESE!

For those of you who don't understand, it just means
"GO TO THE OTHER TOWN"!

Well it loses something in the translation but you can all figure it out! In Italian, it means so much more!

 

What was that again?

 

can we take this to another thread, don't want to keeping seeing that thread title

 

I second that notion, I saw the title and got sad again, but I did laugh when i saw Houstons's attendance for saturday's game at ~10,000

 

Agreed. We're all too well aware of what happened.

 

Agreed. You can "bump" a thread, but BS needs a way to "sink" a thread also (doh!, just bumped this thread).

 

Could a mod please close and lockup this thread for good? I'm sick of seeing its title at the top for our forum, so I had stopped visiting this forum altogether. Whenever its title shows up as the top thread for our forum even from outside (e.g. MLS or Expansions) it makes us look like bitter whiners unable to get over our past. That is indeed not the case, but that's the perception you get.

 

In response to the unjustified invasion of this forum by this thread, the peace-loving peoples of Greater spejiconia have decided to blow it up.