that Club America is abandoning the idea of playing in San Jose, and they will probably pick Houston as the location for their expansion team in 2006. I have to place a few calls here and there and meet with a few people. If you want the latest updates as I get em post an icq or another way I can contact you and ill pass on the latest talk. Im out for now. Stay tuned for the latest happenings and a likely announcement from mls in the coming weeks.
A bit of recent news from Club America -- a "restructuring committee" has been formed, and its leader is Guillermo Cañedo White, who has been one of a big supporter of Mexican teams playing in MLS. This means a change in leadership for the C.A. project in MLS ... a little bit more here (in Spanish). http://www.el-universal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=65576&tabla=Deportes
Oh man, I hope this is true! This would also open up the possibility for a local investor here to take the reigns of the San Jose Earthquakes, which is still a strong possibility. -G
Re: Not you, silly Like thats a big deal... there are seven or eight of us just on bigsoccer married to morgan fairchild...
Local investment isn't a panacea by definition. Just ask Fusion fans about Horowitz. Wise investment is the most important thing. I personally think that Club America could be an ideal big-pocket IO: loads of cash (owned by Televisa; CA itself is a highly profitable enterprise w/ one of the highest attendances of a soccer club in the world) to build an SSS, and a highly recognizable brand name amongst US Mexicans, which would help bring in that elusive fan base. Of course, these plusses would be predicated on maintaining the current fan base. It's good that there's now one single guy who is in charge of investigating MLS opportunities. Soccer club presidents have enough on their plates...
Re: Not you, silly So, I'm sitting there this evening watching the backhaul raw KCAL-9 feed of the LA game from Chicago during halftime. You know, the parts the local audience doesn't get because they're watching commercials. And I'm thinking to myself, that sure is one sexy sounding stadium announcer. Do you write your own material?
Ahhh Goodsport. The eternal optimist. I sense the onset of one of those independent film endings where everybody dies, no hope is left, and you wonder to yourself, "What was the point of it all?"
Re: Not you, silly No, I thought this was going to be the last year of the league because of the players' union, so I figured "Why bother?" No, that's the one thing I don't do. Halftime was hopping tonight, though. Lots of stuff going on out there. At least the Million Dollar Kick guy got the ball off the ground.
Re: Not you, silly It was okay. 13k will be much better in a 20k Bridgeview than a 61k Soldier Field.
Re: Not you, silly Actually, no you didn't. What you actually said was: And this is your only other post in that thread. You made a bunch of generalizations about unions, and other stuff that I shot down. If you said "it would be the last year of the league if the union started making rediculous demands and asked ownership to incur further losses under threat of strike, of which they have not," you didn't say it in that thread, I didn't see it anywhere else, and it's not selective memory. It's fact. (BTW, from what my inside sources say, they're close on a CBA. Just because you haven't seen the evidence yet doesn't mean it isn't happening.) Here endeth the lesson.
True enough. I suppose I should've written "local and committed". I'll bet you $20 that despite all of their money, that Club America has absolutely no intention of ever building an MLS SSS much as Chivas has had absolutely no intention of building an MLS SSS for Chivas USA - the Club America expansion team in Houston will most likely use Reliant Stadium indefinitely. And using their highly recognizable brand name on an existing team (such as San Jose or Chicago or whoever) would most likely involve rebranding the team's identity and overhauling the current roster, both of which will extremely jeapordize the existing fanbase. Hopefully he realizes that the best way for them to enter MLS is as an expansion team - it'll be a little more work for them initially to build the franchise, but starting from scratch will allow them to build their team their way with almost no negative repercussions. -G
Yes, I also can't when the Rochester Raging Rhinos come to San Jose to play an MLS league game against the San Jose Earthquakes in 2006. -G