The SF Chron has an article by Tom Fitzgerald that asks the important question "Why didn't the Bay Area guys who bought DC United buy the Quakes?" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/14/SPGBTNI7S21.DTL I am not sure that I understand their answers. No one brought the idea to them? What does that mean? The word was out and AEG says they were looking for local investors, yet two years later they are able to hook up for the DC deal? I am sad to say it, but it probably has more to do with the money they can make off of the real estate deal than soccer. If that is the case, then they really aren't much better than AEG. I was also interested to see that Jay of SSV said he thought that AEG was not serious about keeping the Quakes in the Bay Area. AEG said they were looking for local investors. Was AEG lying? Did SSV not feel that AEG were being above board in their dealings with SSV? None of this really impacts the progress that Wolff is making, but it is interesting to review what happened to try to figure out why we are sitting here today without our team. We got hosed, and I would love to really understand why MLS allowed this to happen.
On the SSV blog, Jay enters his side of the story. http://blog.soccersiliconvalley.com/ This still does not explain why these guys would not buy the Quakes, especially since the price would have been less! I hate to be jaded, but I think it comes down to money and real estate, and these guys are not really interested in soccer or sports as much as they are interested in development.
As you said blacktide none of this has made any impact on Mr. Wolff because if you've noticed the announcement was just made back in May 2006 for Lew to come up with a deal and look at all the accomplishments Lew Wolff and Company has made only in 8 months ! ! ! ! ! ! !
"No one brought the idea to them"? Geez, more people that don't read the damn paper. But, seriously, their purchase has much more to do with real estate development around DC than being a soccer team owner.
Lewis Wolff was also led to believe by AEG in November/December 2005 that "that ship [the opportunity to buy the Quakes] had already sailed". GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Maybe some day the full truth will come out of how AEG handled these negotiations, but I think, that so far, it should already be apparent to all of us what kind of group that is. Hell, AEG is as evil as Dick Cheney.
San Jose Mercury News: "Killion: Beckham will be a folly for MLS" (not Quakes-related per se, but an interesting persepective on the recent David Beckham signing nonetheless) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
YES. However, I do think that soccer this time around is a bit different than it was in the 70's. I from the midwest, for example didn't even know soccer existed until the early 90's. More families today are involved with soccer than any other youth sport and that includes my family that's still in the midwest. "A lot of American soccer fans would like to see some of that $250 million plowed into player development, such as finding a better way to spot and develop players who aren't products of our elitist youth soccer system." Isn't that what I said? And did she not hit the nail on the head about Klinsmann.
Beckham will be paid a salary of $10 million a year. That means he'll make more in two weeks than the Galaxy's entire salary cap (excluding the Beckham exemption). It means he'll make more in four minutes than the league's minimum salary. That's kind of a startling statistic, particularly the 4 minutes Becks = league minimum annual salary. I mean, he could be in the john taking a crap for those 4 minutes. MN sportswriters like to use that word "folly" in connection with soccer I guess. In Purdy's article about a prospective downtown SSS a little over a year ago, he called the idea "folly" (also in the title I believe).
Interesting piece, albeit she did play with the facts a little. Pele was not the best player in the world when he came over here. He was at one time, but at 34 he was like Beckham, just the most famous player in the world. And the Madrid reason to not play Beckham at all anymore has to do with the fact that he signed the huge deal with LA, not because his abilities had declined to the point where he couldn't contribute anymore, which how she made it sound. Personally, I would have rather seen Killion write a column about the proposed deal between SJSU and Earthquakes LLC, but, it looks like she herself was sucked in by all the Beckham hype.
She's most likely waiting for the SSS deal to finally be struck before writing a column about The [Corporate name] Epicenter at San José and the San Jose Earthquakes' return. GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
The key part of his pay deal is that he is apparently keeping all of his income from endorsements. For a guy like him, that is far more profitable than the money he gets for playing. That would have been true at Real Madrid too, as he was only keeping 50% of his endorsement income there. In MLS, I have no idea of how the league handles endorsement money, keeping in mind that the value of such things in MLS are quite low. For Beckam, he is in a position to make some significant money literally on his name alone. That fact probably has as much to do with this deal than his playing skills. Another thing is that since the money is from endorsements, the league itself is not really spending that much. It could be argued that Beckam's endorsement money could have gone to the league, but if that was the MLS negotiating position, Beckam would not be here in the first place, so it doesn't matter. My feeling is that the league is taking some chances now, and that is probably something that is needed. Interest in MLS has, at best, stagnated over the past few years. It is up to the league to now offer a decent product to those new faces who show up to see guy's like Beckam play. Just like the NASL, if this is handled properly, it could be a great experiment. Obviously, the NASL bungled it pretty badly. We must remember that the NASL was a loose organization of individual owners, each one able to make whatever nonsensical decision they wanted, and nonsense was central to much of what happened after Pele.
Probably true. I also think that if they're combining forces with SJSU we're not likely to see a stadium called "The Epicenter" any time soon.
No, but we're likely to see a stadium called The [Corporate name] Epicenter at San José soon. Actually, since both sides are contributing a fairly equal amount of equity into the stadium (SJSU with the land, Wolff/Fisher with the money), we're likely to see both "Spartan" and "Epicenter" in the stadium's name. If the City of San Jose gets involved, we're also likely to see "at San José" inserted. And in this day and age, a corporate sponser is very likely to buy the stadium's naming rights, hence the "[Corporate name]". GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Or possibly Adobe Park, Adobe Field or The Adobe Center. Though whatever the official name, whether or not it changes over the years (such as San José Arena/Compaq Center at San José/HP Pavilion at San José, or Pacific Bell Park/SBC Park/AT&T Park), the stadium's nicknames will always remain "The Epicenter" and "The Ep" (just like "The Shark Tank" and "The Tank", or "Pac Bell Park" and "Pac Bell"). GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Actually Monster Park is quite appropriate for that park these days. It's a total monstrosity and a dump.
There is some discussion on one of the Spartan football messageboards that the name "Spartan Stadium" should be buried with the old stadium. Being the only "major" college stadium, other than in Michigan, to have that moniker, the thought is that maybe it is better to leave the name to history and begin a new era in a "new" stadium.