Here's an interesting tidbit that just came in from SA's MLS Confidential: "2. OWNERSHIP ISSUES: In its first season, the partnership between Anschutz Entertainment Group and Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment hasn't gone smoothly in San Jose. "SVS&E controls budgets so tightly that any Quakes expense of more than $500 has to be approved by SVS&E vice president Greg Elliott, who is overseeing the Quakes operation run by General Manager Johnny Moore. "A Quakes staff member said AEG paid for additional sales representatives when president of AEG Soccer Kevin Payne last spring decided SVS&E hadn't committed sufficient resources"
No real surpise. Hey, every expense at my company has to be approved by our CEO. Welcome to life at a startup organization in tough economic times...
I've worked in accouting and human resources for a while. It has always been this way, everywhere I've worked. There are always processes in which organization will have to follow get approval on things. I'm not quite sure how I see that this is problem.
Okay, nevermind, I see how it's a problem. But I guess what I meant is, I don't see how it's news. It happens in many business partnerships.
The question it raises, at least to me, is not about SVS+E's organizational process. The question is 'what is SVS+E's commitment is to the Quakes and to marketing them properly? If AEG through Kevin Payne made the decision to hire more reps, what does this say about SVS+E's ability/willingness to do this right? Now, I think Kevin Payne isn't always the most liked person inside MLS, but apparently he believes in this market; J. Moore believes in this market. I do want to point out that without SVS+E, who knows if the Quakes would even be around. tony
SVS&E sucks. I've been saying it since the beginning. They don't have the Quakes' interests in mind any more than the Quakes give a crap about the Sharks. My prediction: this "partnership" is going to dissolve, SVS&E will bail out and we'll back to Square One as far as I/Os go. And my guess is it will happen before the 2003 season starts.
I'd have to agree after watching the lack of commitment on the part of SVS&E this past year. They basically fired all the sales people I dealt with previously and then went with a bare mimimum, closed the Earthquake store and did little to promote team in media. The valley really needs to find a local ownership with soccer in mind like the Giants did with Megawan group. Unfortunately, soccer is a lot bigger gamble for people than the Giants was. But at some point the Santa Clara community has got to get more involved both in ownership and attendence issues. That is the long term solution.
I've got to agree with Doug and mlsfan11. SVS&E have not shown an interest or commitment to the team. It looks like AEG will become our owners, unfortuneatly. Maybe Mr. Hunt would like the San Jose weather?
Just for an update on this, Jed Mettee declined to comment to a reporter from QuakeMagic on this issue. Hmm.... I can't read too much into that. But it does kinda make me wonder. From QuakeMagic: http://www.mlsfansites.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1055
(1) So as long as it isn't Anschutz. Credit for him for stabilizing the league, but eventually the league needs 10 owners, not 2. I'm not keen on Mr. Hunt either but that's because he would be an outsider similar to the Krafts. (2) If it isn't SVS&E, then make it a consortium of companies and individuals similar to McGowan's group with the Giants and the board that runs the Edmonton Oilers. The ownership needs to be local. Quiz for IBT: Who owns a stake of the hockey Oilers?
      Perhaps then San Jose will get a new soccer specific stadium?       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
I'm still keen on the Quakes getting a SSS by the HP Pavilion. However, getting a better lease deal and maybe some more improvements short term would be a better deal for the team. Anschutz would rather take over the Quakes and then hopefully down the road another local group buys the team. After the experience with the Krafts, it's easy for AEG to let this team get gutted and become a shell of their former selves. Another reason why I'm not keen on someone running a multiple of teams. Cheers!
I'll give you two clues: (1) He runs a comic book empire and (2) Mark McGwire home run ball, which took a dive in value last season, much akin to someone being suckered into getting a bobblehead for a high amount only to see something similar go considerably down. Here's the answer. He did design the Oilers third jerseys so you can either praise or damn him. A consortium to own the Quakes should be the solution. Cheers!
Re: Re: Ownership issues Why not have fans buy stock into the league? Or would that open a can of worms and we would get to see the "real" numbers? Aren't the Green Bay Packers owned by fans in a broad sense?
Johnny Moore spoke at the "Shake with the Quakes" about trying to get a better lease with SJSU and mentioning that SJSU promised $6 mil for stadium improvements...this included the much wanted Jumbotron...he said he would look into it ad see if it would be possible.... Mr. Moore said he loved Spartan and would rather improve it than leave it....
Spartan would be great if... The field was wider, there were parking spaces available for a sell-out, it wasn't used for football, etc.
The field would be wider if the level of the actual field was raised, the east side peeled back about 4 rows. This would increase the sight lines on the west side that the TV commentators like to criticize and allow for some elbow room for the players so they wouldn't have to run parallel to the field for throw-ins. I'll cut the check for the expansion right now and get in going ASAP.
I thought I remember hearing that the difference from last year's deal with SVS&E and this year's was that JMoore was supposed to have much more control than the last GM, Tom Neale. Doesn't seem like it's happening at all, especially with any $500 approvals. One would think that Johnny can handle those approvals. I wonder what was really happening? As for SVS&E, I hear they are pretty much out the door, the announcement just hasn't happened yet. They will probably announce it the same day when they announce Landon's deal. Seems like it won't be a good day of soccer for the Bay Area.
Despite the problems with the field, I like Spartan. It'd be nice to widen it. Another problem is public transportation. It would make it a helluva a lot easier to get to games if easy public transportation was available. I tried looking into doing it, but it looked like at least 3 different rides (BART and bus) to get to the park in addition to some walking. Too much trouble. Better parking and road access would be nice, but that and public access is very difficult to expand.
FYI: Link to Transportation Issues here... https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20718
Re: Re: Re: Ownership issues That would be a thought, but in theory if you have people from all over buying stock in MLS the whole factionalism/regionalism issue would arise. If shares were offered for the San Jose Earthquakes in the same theory as the Green Bay Packers then I can see a chance of that succeeding. I do remember that the Boston Celtics have offered stock in their team--I don't know if they still do that. However, the league is very very protective of their numbers so the last thing they want to do is open the books for the fans to see. I can attest that the consensus would buy stock in at least the Quakes (or any of the other teams) if given the chance. Unless a board of directors is in place for the league to discuss matters if it were owned by stockholders, everything from financial and admininstrative decisionmaking would be bogged down. Cheers!