Alexis Ohanian is married to Serena Williams and he was the major investor behind Angel City. I assume that was his Reddit money. Read my review of the HBOMax series on Angel City at https://soccermoviemom.com/angel-city-2023/
Haha Jazzy, you obviously didn’t go to the STH event where President Fox lamented PPP as having the worst location in the Bay Area, next to the airport and at the confluence of too many freeways and far from everything (everything important). I think I posted about that event somewhere in here. On top of that, Fox said this 2 years in a row. I complained about that to Ian Anderson, that Fox was showing no leadership at all, just a lot of kvetching. And funny thing, Fox was gone by the next season.
Yep, I know who he's married to. Also, he recently started "Athlos" - women's track events, and they had their inaugural event a week or so ago. According to Google, he is not very wealthy by "mega millionaire / billionaire standards (far from a billionaire), but it's cool that he's investing in women's sports.
Well, Fantastic Mr. Fox was pretty off on that one. Since when it is a bad thing for a stadium to be close to transportation hubs? And as I've mentioned many times, PPP is only 2 miles from downtown SJ, well within walking distance, if you're not afraid of "urban monsters" coming out to get you! The irony about those comments is that the one thing I remember Fantastic Mr. Fox doing is trying to emphasize that the Quakes are San Jose's (or the south bay's) team. Seems like he wanted to try to strengthen the local ties to the club and wasn't as much about outreach to other parts of the bay. I remember some people were critical of him for that - i.e. they thought he should be trying to push the brand thoughout the bay. I don't know what the right answer is. Seem like we are doing more beyond south bay outreach now again.
According to online estimates, which I doubt are highly accurate but probably are enough for rough discussions, Williams and Ohanian have a combined net worth of a half billion (more from her than from him). That's not enough for a sole MLS owner. Could be enough to be a lead investor of a larger group. They aren't buying the Earthquakes anyway, let's not be ridiculous.
Urban monsters are known as the boogeymen, and yes many people are afraid of them, thanks to fake news. Tom Fox is a generic corporate suit.
Ohanian was @naopon’s conjecture, not mine. When I watched the HBO series, Ohanian’s becoming the lead investor of Angel City didn’t really make sense to me, i didn’t really understand why he did it, but he was the most entertaining part of the series. I saw rumors this season that he wanted to sell. I don’t know if his AC purchase went up in value. For awhile there NWSL was claiming big increases in valuation, but I haven’t kept up on that..
Where exactly does Fox think PayPal Park should be located or rather, where is everything in San Jose? Downtown is a ghost town other than SJSU and the only other happening places would be Oakridge or Valley Fair so where should the stadium be? Levi’s Stadium is located even farther out in the middle of nowhere.
Angel City sold a majority interest to Willow Bay and Bob Iger at a valuation of $250 million. The original group remains as minority owners. That's after entering the league on a $2 million expansion fee in 2022. Bay FC paid $53 million.
The Fabulous Mr Fox never suggested where the stadium should move to, he just bitched about how hard it made his job, that no one wanted to come to PPP with all the traffic.
I don't think PPP is hard to get to if you're committed to attending a Quakes/Bay FC game, but there is literally nothing to do in the vicinity. That might be fine for the 49ers, but more suboptimal for an MLS team with no brand cachet situated in the Bay Area sports market.
Just curious, what exactly is there to do in boring San Jose? It is a total suburb so where is this happening place other than maybe Valley Fair? I don’t know about where other MLS venues are but usually, stadiums are located far outside and away from the city centers so I don’t know where else PPP could be placed..
In-N-Out and Smoking Pig are right across Newhall. Plus there is ample tailgating. I agree it would be nice to have some watering spots on the other side of Earthquakes Way, but the current location is not a wasteland.
I was in downtown SJ a few weeks ago. Plenty of bars and eateries, several performance venues, we went to see a show at the SJ Civic. It’s more happening than lots of places. And the weather is great. Do any of the parks smell like open sewers? Like SF? I quite like SJ. Go Quakesfans!!
Ok so if that is the case , why can’t stadium goers just drive there after a given game and why is it so important that PPP is located downtown? For that matter, what would change? All those years when soccer was played on South SJSU campus or Spartan, I hardly ever recall many fans flocking downtown. If they did, as I remember, no one walked 2.2 miles and everyone drove. I just don’t understand this same talking point of why a stadium must be placed in a downtown area.
PPP is not located downtown. It's near downtown. It's located there because that's where Fish and company could get land deal.
I went to Google Maps after reading this thread and wound up down an internet rabbit hole ending in an article about the unincorporated enclaves of land inside San Jose.
Yeah, I know Fisher's land deals etc. My point is, what is the point or big lure of building a stadium in downtown SJ? Eateries notwithstanding, parking sucks and you always must make it a point to go down there. When it came down to building the stadium, where else exactly could it have been placed or built? Tearing down the Fairmont or near the San Jose Arena? In Willow Glen, Almaden, Campbell, Los Gatos, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Milpitas, up in Alum Rock , Evergreen or out in Morgan Hill? Also, since when is there foot traffic anywhere in Santa Clara Valley? There is virtually no land anywhere in the entire county and even if there was, I seriously doubt anything will have changed because everyone needs a car to get around. I have looked up many stadiums around MLS and not many have stadiums close to their downtown areas and that never hindered clubs’ success on the field or at the gate. I’ve heard Fisher come up with the stadium location excuse and that is all I've heard him say in 17 years. He gets credit for building it as many never believe it would ever get built but there is nothing wrong with it or its location. What I blame him for is his lack of interest putting forth a good, competitive team in place and he should concentrate more on that instead of this negative stadium rhetoric.