What exactly did MLS, and USSF do to San Jose? AEG owned most of the teams in then league at the time. They couldn't figure out a stadium solution and the city of Houston agreed to work with them on that. If the league really hated San Jose they wouldn't have granted them an expansion team a few short years later. Canada has a Division 1 league too by the way. MLS and the USSF couldn't stop the formation of the Canadian Premier League. The NWSL couldn't stop the formation of the USL Super League either. If USL has enough interest and a plan to meet the PLS for D1 sanctioning they'll be granted it. There is no conspiracy. MLS are no saints, businesses rarely are.
I believe, and I may be wrong, that San Jose was effectively put on hiatus and told they would be favored for expansion if they found a stadium solution.
In regards to San Jose, that is not at all what transpired but in hopes of not wanting to derail the thread and rehash old wounds, I'll leave it alone. Yes, supposedly before the City group came in with their bid, I think Garber was ready to have Paul Kemsley and his group enter the Cosmos in MLS from what I heard but I don't know exactly what happened there. My cousin was training with them at that time and they offered him a deal to play and train for the Brooklyn Italians without pay and he said no. Giovanni Savarese wanted him to stay with some relatives in NY but he wasn't going to play for nothing so he came back home to NorCal. Sadly , he has since passed on a few years ago so I can no longer ask him how it all went down.
But the league did retain the Earthquakes name, colors, logo, wordmark, history and competitive records to be used by a future San Jose team. And it granted an expansion slot the following year.
Only because a nonprofit organization called SSV or Soccer Silicon Valley , came in and lined up new ownership, John Fisher and Lew Wolff who owned the Oakland A's but AEG would not sell them the club. On December 15th, 2005, they still moved the team to Houston and the lack of a stadium was more of an excuse to save face but AEG had no plans or intention of ever selling the club. Lew Wolff on that day was then quoted in the press saying "that ship has sailed". There was an understanding that John and Lew would come back in 2007, I believe and re-enter the club into MLS , retaining the teams’ name, trophies , history and logos. Similar to the Cleveland Browns situation They came forth with their bid in June or July 2007 and re-entered the league in 2008. I was at the teams’ offices on Almaden Ave on the day of the move and security guards wouldn’t let anyone in or out.
Victoria L. Anderson New NASL Commissioner | NASL The North American Soccer League (NASL) elected Victoria L. Anderson as its new Commissioner, effective September 1, 2024. Anderson replaces Rishi Sehgal