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Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston "[San José and Kansas City,] The only teams that have beaten Chicago in the MLS Cup, are being dismantled and removed. When will these people learn? Don't ********** with us" -- M. Gonzalez
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston I honestly do not get this one for a few reasons: 1. No stadium deal in place in Houston. 2. No new owner in Houston. Isn't this stadium/owner AEG's argument against SJ?? It is particularily troubling in light of the recent KC announcement. It seemed this year that KC and SJ were in similar boats. I felt the SJ fans really got behind the team while the KC fans did not. Garber's comments about bringing an expansion franchise back as soon as 2007, makes little to no sense as well. Drop a fan base for a year and expect open arms upon your return? The cherry on top of this is the report that Spartan Shops, operators of Spartan Stadium, offered to renegotiate the Quakes lease, but AEG failed to respond to that offer. I'd would have loved to see both teams stay, but it truly must come down to a number of "behind the scenes" items that have yet to be addressed: 1. KC is much closer to a stadium than they are leading on and certainly closer than SJ was/is. 2. Stadium control is key. Lamar has discretion over Arrowhead. KC stays. AEG didn't even consider a revamped lease (speculation). Thus MLS will not accept a tenant situation. 3. Houston has a solid foundation of stadium and owner ready to go, but for ticket sales the move had to happen ASAP. Although with no ink dry on a stadium or ownership transfer (we'll find out for sure tomorrow), MLS is rolling the dice. And Houston wouldn't be the first Texas city to leave some egg on Garber's face.
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston I love how they sporting news ranked it as the 4th best sports city in America. I'm not sure what the criteria is but isn't this the same Houston that had trouble selling out a Rockets play-off game a few years back when they were the best in the NBA? I would not be surprised if they gave the team a year off to get their act together. I'm ignorant of the Houston area, hence the reasons for the following questions: Where will the play? What is support like for Soccer in Houston? I'm aware of the large Mexican community but that's not the only reason you would put this team in Houston? Is this the future team for Club America? What will they name the team? Sure as hell not the Earthquakes. That would be hilarious on so many levels. Sad day in San Jose. I understand the business side of it but it's still sad for a great group of fans. Fonsos
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston they'll play in the astrodome. They could actually sleep there and move their families in. Then Barbara Bush could say," This is working out well for them. Afterall, they're are underpaid professional athletes."
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston steve dahl remarked one day, "The Fire fly coach, I flew with them once as they walked past first class to sit in coach." "what kind of sport is this?" Well, it's more of a spectator sport, sport. The kind of sport that can withstand decades of negative media to rise to the top of the hill. The only common language this world will ever have. The beautiful game. The Chicago Fire..........(this is where the band Chicago starts singing,"only the beginning".) ect.
This is tangentally Fire related after all. My question...is this another deathblow to the Brimstone Cup? I think the whole Brimstone thing has lost momemtum (and for saying that, I'm sure I'll be blasted on here), and now with Chicago and Dallas in separate divisions, and Dallas having an in-state rival within driving distance, I mean, will anyone care outside of the few hardest core Dallas haters here and Chicago haters there, and those who came up with the trophy...?
A Soccer Silicon Valley member speaks... "We can't talk about a timetable for withdrawl from San Jose. That just says to the soccer enemy 'Hey, just wait it out and then we can take over'. We will not hand San Jose over to the anti-soccer Al qaEda insurGents. We will stay the course until victory is achieved and we have a stable soccer organization in San Jose, run by the San Jose people. God bless." San Jose, the Iraq of MLS. Shouldn't have gone there in the first place, but it will be painful to get out.
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston I'm not at all happy about the SJ situation. I spent the first two years of MLS existence living in the Bay Area, and I went to several Clash games. For as much crap as Spartan takes on these boards, from an atmosphere stand point, it was pretty frickin good. Still, if I remember correctly, the President of SJSU was recently in the paper telling MLS to go take a flying leap when the topic of re-negotiation came up. If there were any last ditch "we're willing to talk" overtures, I am guessing they were too little too late considering the school's arrogance. As to the second part, I am guessing a couple of things. They proably have a much better tenant situation in Houston. That will stop some of the immediate bleeding. They have always planned to be in houston, and they intend to be in SJ, so why not take the better deal in the short term, and fix the problems in SJ over the next year. I'm not saying I agree with that at all, but it makes sense. The good news is that they definitely weren't this strong in their comments when they bailed on Miami and Tampa. Just some platitudes about "some day we would like to come back." From a distance, it seems to me that AEG was the only thing that prevented this from happening a couple of years ago, and it seems that AEG is at least in agreement to bring it back quickly there.
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston I have it on good authority that SanJose states version of lease negotiation meant just not kicking AEG in the balls as hard as they have been the last 5 years. Something along the line sof putting ice on them after. AEG basically told them to ******** OFF!!! AEG speant months trying to negotiate a faire deal with them and SanJose Sates Spartan Shops managment just thought that AEG would eat it. They didnt think they would really move the team. Once they realized they were serious it was too little too late. So I dont blame AEG for leaving one bit. Dont forget Houston is MLS's largest television audience, that does not have a team and larger than some of the cities that do have a team. They are trying to captilize on this and I for one dont blame them. Everyone in the city of SanJose city hall shoudl be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen. I can see why they dared AEG. they have been threatening to move for 5 years and haven't. Its about time AEG stuck that hot poker right up their arse
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston Whatever, who in this city cares. We ain't going anywhere. That's all that matters. Just another city to travel to.
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston absolutely, and i hope they're called The Houston Hippos.
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston To the extent that your league is, or is perceived as, a Mickey Mouse league, it affects the team you support. A lot of us supported the Sting in the early 80s as well. I didn't really give two shakes for the other NASL teams, but the league strength matters. I want the Fire to dominate a league that is respected. Having said that, I am not sure this is a bad move by AEG. They took a stand with SJSU, which will now have to explain a big revenue gap to their board of regents.
I just hope this isn't a sign of AEG being interested in maintaining ownership of 4 teams. I really would like to see them down to 2, hopefully by selling the Fire.
Interesting that you should mention this. I had been thinking last night that AEG has just set themselves up as the compass of MLS, North, East, South, West. They're in a position to own 4 teams in arguably the 4 biggest markets in the country (especially w/ regard to TV). Now, I'm not a huge fan of AEG having 4 teams, but they might feel it ensures their stranglehold of authority in the MLS boardroom. I am, however, a big proponent of local ownership, so if they sell off Houston in 2-3 years once an stadium is finalized and sell off Chicago to a local owner (for a hefty price tag, in all likelyhood), that would be swell with me. I'm sure AEG would still own the stadium and the local owner would just pay stadium fees much like Vergara pays in LA (but less, since we aren't encrouching on another team's territory like CDC is). As for SJ, I think they (local powers) needed this in order to get their act together. They were trying to call the bluff and it backfired. However, if it results in a good stadium financing deal and a local owner to bring the team back in 2-5 years, then I think it comes out even better in the long haul.
Re: NFR San jose earhquakes moved to houston I suppose that you've never heard of MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL teams that have moved, right? Maybe we should take a short drive down I-55 to the St Louis Cardinals NFL game? Or perhaps a LA Rams game? Baltimore Colts? Cleveland Browns? L.A. Raiders? Houston Oilers? Similar lists can be made for the other leagues too.
Totally agree. For all that AEG has done for MLS to get them to this point, the faster they sell their teams, the better off the league will be.
I was just looking around on MLSnet and I was wondering, but didn't they used to have a link up for some kind of "Name Houston's Team" thingy? I didn't see it any more and it struck me, I bet they took that thing down because they were getting nothing but hate mail and bogus name suggestions. That's a pretty hilarious thought.