I can't even take credit for any of this, but it is something that we've mentioned here: First, Marine Layer's blog has an entry about how the 49ers' shock announcement last week may have been spurred on by Wolff's interest in Santa Clara as a Quakes SSS venue. Among the tidbits of news is this: Then a later entry clarifies things somewhat: I wonder which site he's talking about? Mission College? Is there some other site we haven't mentioned yet? The other thing I wanted to mention, while I'm at it, is the presence of all the SJSU officials at the office opening party last week. Obviously we all know about the plausibility of sharing a stadium on SJSU land with their football team. They have the land and the desire to redo their stadium, either via renovation or demolition; IOW, they have what Wolff wants, and Wolff has what they want (moolah). The bigger point I want to make about all these nuggets of information is this: --that perhaps discussions about an SSS site are a lot further along than any of us have surmised; --that Wolff is, in fact, playing two or more sides against one another (which is how the stadium game is played; when you need public land it's not a matter of extracting more from one side or another, it's a matter of choosing which side hoses you the least); --that the two sites we've thought most likely-Diridon South and the Fairgrounds-are represented by governments who have had no recent public contacts with Wolff, and may be more of a longshot than any of us realize. OR, Wolff may have just been waiting for the election results before proceeding, and we may be hearing about no less than four potential SSS sites in the next several months--SJSU, Santa Clara (Mission College?), Diridon, and the Fairgrounds. Talk amongst yourselves.
Good post, and good points! I'm sure that Wolff is farther along than most of us have guessed. Opening their office and starting Earthquakes Soccer LLC are moves that show serious intent. My guess is that he has at least a couple of potential SSS sites lined up and could pull the trigger soon, but is trying to get the best possible deal. He wouldn't have sent folks to the WC, opened the office, and have sent folks to MLS Cup if he wasn't very sure he could do this. The downside is that even once he settles on a site, it's going to take some time to finalize the deal, and then get the stadium built. We will have plenty of time to be frustrated at how long the process takes. And I still want to buy some bricks. Maybe I can inscribe one: AEG Blows! QUAKES FOREVER!! - Mark
That's interesting. The 49er stadium would be in the great America parking lot but the spot proposed for the Quakes was the overflow parking lot which is near by, so near by that it would seem to make little sense since parking space is reduced. So what dose "nearby" really mean?
The overflow parking lot sits directly between the 49ers headquarters and the "proposed" football stadium site. I can't imagine this is the "nearby" location. I wonder if the 49ers just don't want the distraction of a soccer stadium on the doorstep of their headquarters. I have checked out the site. The road between the 49ers and the overflow lot is a quiet dead end road. Maybe the 49ers are thinking on two fronts, keep their bargaining chip with San Francisco, and tie up Great America long enough for Wolff to have to look elsewhere. Personally, I think Santa Clara should turn the tables on SF and give them a "shit, or get off the fence deadline". They should say , "hey, we have an offer right now to build a soccer stadium, you are still talking to SF". If the 49ers say they are serious about Santa Clara, require them to deposit a $20million dollar non-refundable deposit into the Santa Clara coffers. This way, if the 49ers end up staying in SF, and stall long enough for Wollf to have to look elsewhere, Santa Clara won't end up with nothing. Hopefully the "nearby" location is off of the Great America property.
If this is true, the key word is "public". Actually, all this chaos with Santa Clara has undoubtedly made SJSU's, the Fairground's and perhaps the downtown San Jose site's chances to land The Epicenter much stronger. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Yikes! I wouldn't want to be a squirrel in your neighborhood! York might call that bluff. He knows that SC wants the 49ers more than the Quakes and he always has LA as option #3. I think it's obvious that York felt he needed to lock down that site. Maybe SC and Wolff were much closer to a deal than we knew.
All good points. What IS interesting is the fact that the announcement was made just days before the OLYMPIC COMMITTEE. Now first shot, I would think 49ers are just positioning and will never move from SF. However, when you take into consideration the potential revenue based on winning the Olympic bid for San Francisco, that was a very interesting move. Especially in terms of possible revenue generation by the team. (not sure if that is valid or not - if not, then no wonder they don't care) As I mentioned in an earlier post, Lew Wolff said something similar to "and we are also in talks with working with a football team". Right then I turned to my friends and thought he meant Raiders. My friends that they meant Spartans. If he said "football team" he meant PRO. If he meant Spartan football team he would have said SJSU. After the party, Wolff seemed very anxious. Perhaps he was waiting for the 49ers to announce the move, which they did late that night. On the flip side, I would think moving the 49ers to South Bay may limit Lew Wolff season tix sales to the A's. Or Maybe they think there is enough ticket sale potential for everyone in the South Bay. In addition to that, that makes 3 stadiums very near each other. Ultimately, perhaps its all about land grabbing for redevelopment. If we look at PacBell Park, the gold mine is not in the stadium, nor even in venues in stadium, but what the stadium did to the entire neighborhood. Lofts, Apartments, Businesses, Restuarants, Grocery STores. Now THAT is big business. Owning HUGE amounts of land around such a development. $$$$$
LA would not be no. 3. York doesn't want to leave the Bay Area. But going back to the Quakes, Wolff has an option that will allow him to put the Quakes anywhere in the Bay Area. But knowing that he is a San Jose businessman, the south bay is his primary goal, if San Jose is willing to cooperate now the A's have reached an agreement in Fremont, the city of San Jose's only hope of becoming a recognized city is..... well what do you know it's the Quakes, the team they abandoned. Though there are talks of SVS&E buying an existing basketball franchise and relocating them to HP Pavilion. Three teams in Northern California, that's a lot. But then again, the area is big enough for it.
With all due respect, a Quakes/49ers partnership makes no sense whatsoever. Remember, it is all about revenue control. I can't imagine them being more than a glorified tennant with the 49ers. Secondly, it just does not fit the league model of smaller stadia in the 20-30,000 capacity. Even Kraft has plans to put the Revs into their own SSS. On the other hand, partnering with SJSU makes perfect sense. Especially when Lew mentioned "sharing with a football team" and Alioto mentioned the presence of "SJSU officials" at the party. It doesn't take much to put two and two together there. SJSU is desperate to upgrade there football program but does not have the cash to make the improvements necessary at Spartan. Wolff has the cash, but no land for a stadium. The city would love for the two to get togther, and have always wanted to redevelop the area around Spartan. How much was AEG willing to put to remodeling Spartan, something around $15 million? You can understand SJSU reluctance to hand the keys over for that amount. Wolff would pay for the whole shebang, which would probably give him the control he desires.
Precisely! Neither the 49ers nor the Raiders were ever in Wolff's stadium plans. The football team he referred to was indeed SJSU. The new San Jose Earthquakes will not call a 60k-70k stadium home for quite a while (and neither will the Niners and the Raiders call a 20k-30k stadium home), will not wait until 2012 for a new home and will not play the second-fiddle tenant role again (there's no way that the 49ers and/or the Raiders would even let the Quakes be an equal, let alone a superior, partner in the stadium revenue/scheduling control - neither the Niners nor the Raiders would ever need to), Your observations about a potential SJE/SJSU alliance and brand-new SSS, on the other hand, are absolutely spot on! GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Listen to Goodsport and GoSounders on this my friend. They speak with great insight. Both Cindy Chavez and Chuck Reed told me personally - and whoever else was listening to Ronn Owens - that Wolff and SJSU are talking about the Spartan Stadium area. What's amazing to me is that there are 5 new stadiums under consideration ( or just built) in the Bay Area. Stanford, Berkley, 49ers, Cisco Field and ours. Amazing isnt it?
Not to mention The Arena in Oakland officially becoming Oracle Arena. About a decade after its renovation, it finally landed a corporate naming-rights deal. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
San Fran's lost Olympic bid may actually help SJ get a soccer stadium? http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/16016767.htm The Bay Area could partake in the 2016 Summer Olympics after all. Los Angeles officials said Tuesday they will consider using stadiums at Stanford and San Jose State for preliminary soccer matches if they win the bid. "We certainly could use an additional venue or two," said David Simon, president of the L.A. Olympic bid committee. The move comes a day after San Francisco's sudden withdrawal from contention because the 49ers announced last week they had abandoned stadium plans at Candlestick Point. L.A. officials haven't discussed the plan with anyone in the Bay Area yet, but Dean Munro, executive director of the San Jose Sports Authority, welcomed the idea. "I would think they would have plenty of soccer facilities in Southern California," he said. "If not, we would enthusiastically listen to what L.A. has to say." Simon said Stanford's new 50,000-seat stadium would be the first choice. Spartan Stadium holds 30,456. The Los Angeles Games used Stanford Stadium in 1984. L.A. officials have a motive for considering the Bay Area as California's only bid. "That gives us one more asset to sell," Simon said. Los Angeles and Chicago are finalists to become the candidate if the U.S. Olympic Committee decides to submit a bid by the end of the year.
More Olympics related to MLS: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/15/BAG2HMD46D1.DTL "Nonetheless, local Olympic organizers huddled over the weekend to try to come up with a plan to change Ueberroth's mind -- focusing on a scheme to build an 80,000-seat Olympic stadium at Candlestick that could later be shrunk down and converted for use by Major League Soccer." Not enough time to make it work...
I think the operative word here is "scheme". But it would have been nice to have a local derby for the San Jose Earthquakes, who by 2016 will have had many seasons under there belt at The [Corporate Name] Epicenter at San Jose.