I had been unfamiliar with this tidbit: "According to Soccer America, the purchase of the Earthquakes is part of a broadcasting partnership being forged by AEG and television network Grupo Televisa, which owns Club America." This seems like bad news. CA and AEG seem to have some relationship that's more important than just the Quakes, and seem to plan some type of joint venture co-ownership of the Quakes in Houston. This sounds like a heck of a more likely outcome that SSV showing up with some rich guy at the last minute to save our team.
Hmmmm......very interesting, isn't it? Here's what I think MIGHT happen. At the beginning of the season, AEG and CA were going through "negotiations" on purchasing an MLS franchise. CA was insisting that they buy one of the existing franchises in an "hispanic" market for next year. They have said since day one that they want to skip the aches and pains of building an expansion team (and we know that they wanted to buy SJ last year to compete with Chivas for this season). AEG proposed selling the Chicago Fire to CA. They will be opening a new stadium next year, they also have a large hispanic population in Chicago (remember the Fire acquiring Jorge Campos from the Galaxy years ago?). They hatched a plan with CA to sell the Fire to them (with a "rebranding") for next season THEN start an "expansion" team there in '07 with the name "Fire". I know you're thinking "huh?", but there are some clues for this scenario. First, last year there were some rumors on the Chicago board that CA was sniffing around the area. There was even some talk about "sharing" Bridgeview like the Galaxy does with Chivas. Problem is, CA did NOT want to build an expansion team (and give Chivas a head start). So AEG thought about it and came up with a creative solution. Sell the existing franchise and rebrand it, then come back with the "Fire" as a new team on '07. How could they do that and not have a major problem with the fans in Chicago? Here's how. They sat down and told Peter Wilt "we're going to remove you from the Fire. Guppy will come in for this year and help transition the franchise over to CA. Your contract with us will go until the end of the season as GM. The current fans love you and will be loyal to you. After the season is over, you'll work with a local investor group in Chicago. Peter, we're going to sell them an "expansion" franchise and you'll be a partner (like Kevin Payne is in DC). You'll get to be a HUGE hero by "resusrecting" the Fire to compete against CA in Bridgeview. All the angry fans that walked away pissed that the Fire were sold off will return to support your team. You'll have a HUGE rivalry from the moment the Fire returns. You built a great team from scratch once, you can do it again. CA gets a team that instantly better then Chivas, you'll get to be a part owner and everyone's happy in the end." Now why would AEG do this thing "backdoor"? For a few reasons. First and foremost, if AEG announced it like this, many of the current Fire players would ask to be traded or leave MLS. They'd want to play for the "other" Chicago team. Also, the fans would be up in arms that they'd lose their team for a year and have to start over. It would be a nasty PR mess. On the other hand, they COULD manufacture a crisis with CA. It plays out like this. CA "pretends" to want to buy the Quakes and move them to Houston (at this point AEG has already approved the sale of the Quakes to a local SJ investor. He is told to "wait" until the All-Star game before his "deal" is announced. AEG tells him that they will be spreading rumors about a sale to CA and relocation, so he should use that to leverage local SJ communities for a south bay SSS). While in Houston, CA has some "problems" pop up with a stadium. It looks like they won't make their deadline. Suddenly the SJ investment group comes in and "buys" the Quakes. Since AEG doesn't want to lose the Televisa deal, they "must" sell the Fire to CA. Of course the fans go ballistic. Pretty soon the fans start hearing rumors of a group of Chicago investors that want to start up a new team. This group even approachs Peter Wilt and asks him to lead them. The group "buys" the rights to call the team the Chicago Fire and a brand new expansion team joins in '07........ So what's in it for Houston you ask? Well, there have been plenty of rumors of other MFL teams wanting to join MLS. Perhaps MLS has told Houston that they can use this "lost" deal as leverage to build a SSS locally, and then MLS will bring in Pumas or Tigres (or any other team that has been rumored to join MLS) and Houston will get an expansion franchise. All they have to do is play ball in this little theater.
As San Jose is now in the top 10 largest cities in America, and the news seems generally bad, I hope the converse is true.
haha I dont know, but I like them, because LA was i think the #2nd or 8th dirtiest city I guess you cant dispute facts though
By the way, why does the MN keep showing the Quakes 3rd in the standings behind the Gals? Same number of points, but don't the Quakes have the tie breakers (goal differential, head to head combined score, etc., don't know all of them and what order). MLSnet.com has Quakes in 2nd.
i didnt know they had a set of criteria for the placing.. i just thought it was whoever had that number of points first (we were in 2nd alone and then LA moved up with us.. we were first, they were 2nd)
When things like that happen I usually blame the alphabet. Los Angeles Galactoscum comes before San Jose Earthqaukes