Quakes at Spartan Stadium

What kind of message does this send to Quakes fans? Yeah, you can sugar coat it, but with 2 weeks left in 2002 they work out a TENTATIVE deal to stay in Spartan for ONE year in 2003. No way does that look like the kind of long-term commitment the league needs and Quake fans deserve. It just underlines the uncertainty related to ownership, which plays out in a lack of marketing and promotion. MAybe everything will come out right, but I see as much negative in this announcement as positive.

 

Yes I read the link. Thanks for posting it.

Until the "long term contract" becomes a reality, it is vapor ware. That's exactly the "sugar coating" I was talking about. "We only have a tentative one year deal now because we are working on this real good deal that will come along soon now..."

If they reach a long term agreement, then all to the good. I will wait to celebrate until its signed, not when some press agent promises its going to happen. Remember that new stadium that Metros were going to have built ....

 

still, a 1-year agreement is better than a 0-year agreement.

but i haven't bothered to read the link.

 

What this likely says is that the window for the CyberRays to be the priority tenant just closed. They agreed to something for this year to fix that issue and are just working around the paramaters of doing something more permanent.

If anything, I'd say this is a bad sign for WUSA, which had an opportunity to be the lead tenant, instead of a bad sign for MLS, which has shown more economic viability as a whole.

 

The bigger deal is that SVSE (AKA San Jose Sharks) is out and now the Quakes are fully owned by AEG, which intends to ramp up marketing. Now, the Northern California fans need to respond and attend every freaking home game they can.

San Jose has one of the very highest Away Game Attendance figures, a great team, and a marquee player. The fans need to make this team come close to profitibility soon. There's too much soccer interest and wealthy potential investors for that team to be in this situation.

I'd really like to see an owner step forward and secure a permanent home for the Quakes, be it Spartan or elsewhere. But to attract one, the Quakes need to continue to bolster their attendance at Spartan. Beefing up the marketing team helps. Getting assurance of where they'll be playing was/is necessary. Congrats.

-Tron

 

I have a feeling the CyberRays Problem is going to sort itself out before too much longer.

Maybe that has more to do with playing in the Western Conference, where they got to go to LA twice, including on the 4th of July (55,234) and late in the season (32,874, which may have been Hispanic Heritage Night, or may not, but definitely wasn't Come See The White Boy Play Night), to Colorado for the Rapids' home opener (25,010), to New England at still pretty new then-CMGI (21,539), and twice to Columbus (15,712 and 19,085), than in the perception of the team as being seen as a particularly attractive one or Donovan et al a compelling reason to buy tickets.

The Fire led the league in road attendance average (20,791). You think they were a particularly sexy team? Or were they helped in that number by playing at New England after the US played Holland (36,778), at Colorado on the 4th of July (61,202) and in front of four other road crowds of over 20,000 that probably weren't over 20,000 because of the Fire so much?

 

Just from looking at the crowds I saw at Quakes matches in Crew stadium, I "anecdotally believe" there's a "White Boy" bounce-- the number of teenage girls wearing Quakes jerseys was significant.
Obviously, though, Kenn's point is well-taken-- the Quakes' road average certainly has more to do with hitting LA on the 4th and Hispanic Heritage Night (which are well-documented phenomenons) than our White Boy Bounce.
What people need to realize is that this is just the nature of the beast. IF there are World Cup bounces, "Great Matchup" bounces or "Ladies Love Landon" bounces, these must be much smaller than the "event" bounces... maybe only a couple of hundred people on average.

 

Whoa, now that sounds like a big wet shoe about to drop.

 

I agree. This announcement is nothing but good news for the E-quakes. They got their act toghether, did the short term deal and are still working on a long-term deal.

Nothing wrong with that. Hopefully they can get a few more Saturday NIGHT games this year and increase attendance. Those 7,000 day games were killers.

 

About the long term agreements, the following is from the SJ Mercury News (again, thanks for the link, Jim):

"Talks on a longer-term deal, which could involve stadium upgrades such as more suites, will be held at a later date."

That's a little bit different picture than was painted on the MLS web site. I would guess the SJMN is more accurate.

On the other hand, if AEG decides to really market the Quakes, there is hope. It has always been my view that a strong team in SJ is a good thing for LAGalaxy. Good rivalries presume good teams on both sides. LA/SJ is a natural rivalry and one of the best in the league in recent years. It would not be at all good for LA to have SJ fold, so AEG clearly has a self interest to promote.

 

The Quakes should play one or two matches a year at Candlestick - but only during the day. This might be a useful way to expand the fan base throughout the region. Same way the Celtics used to play a couple of times in Hartford each year.

 

Yeah, though the day games had nothing to do with the lease--they were because of the TV deal. Due to LD, the Quakes will probably have more than their share of ESPN2 games this year.