My guess, and this is purely a guess, is that local residents would be happy to have the land developed into something rather than continue to be unused and subject to blight. The lights may be an issue, but noise should not be. Not sure about parking.
The Quakes weight room, locker room and associated facilities are located at PayPal. Seems more convenient for the 1st team to practice at PPP, unless they are going to move some of that stuff. OTOH would be nice to have access to more than one field.
"The approximately 35,000-square-foot professional training and practice center will house the Earthquakes’ pro teams and all youth teams within the Earthquakes Academy. " The daily training facilities are currently at the stadium because they don't have anywhere else for them until they build this thing.
Only fairly minor disadvantages are that the 1st team will need duplicate lockers - one at the stadium and one at the training facility, and presumably they'll need to retain some medical treatment kinds of things at the stadium as well.
That is not a disadvantage. Look around the league--having a facility separate from the stadium is standard. Nobody complains about two locker rooms. What the Quakes have now is bare minimum. For the players the training facility is the daily workplace and having a good one is important to player recruitment.
As I said, those are minor disadvantages, but they are disadvantages nonetheless. If the advantages outweigh the disadvantages that doesn't necessarily mean that there are no disadvantages. It just means that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Anyway, how positive this turns out to be for the first team depends on the quality of the new training facilities. I've heard a lot about the "fields" but little about the training facilities themselves, and given that Fish tends to be pretty conservative with the budgets, the new facilities may not be great. It's not going to be Compass Minerals National Performance Center, let me put it that way.
Here's a video overview of MLS training facilities. It's several years old--some teams have upgraded since then. When it gets to San Jose it almost looks like satire. A handful of others do have stadium-connected facilities: Galaxy, Colorado, Dallas; but those all have full multi-field complexes on site.
As far as we know, it may still be satire when the new facility is built. We'll see. I will say again that there are advantages to stadium-connected facilities but only if you have the space for multiple fields. In most cases it probably comes down not just to available land but cost / value of the land. You can build training facilities on the outskirts or in not greatly accessible areas because you don't need your customers to go there.
Best advantage is being able to drop by the stadium mid-day during the work week and having Wondo wave and say, "hi Don" while returning to the locker room from the training field. (Actually happened once.) I've run into players all the time while navigating the Audi lot to the front office. Another memorable time, I encountered Jack Skahan among a group of players in the week leading up to a big game, and I said to the group, "go get 'em on Saturday!" Skahan was very earnest (perhaps afraid I was one of his bosses), and assured me, "we will!" Of course, that was before he was getting any regular playing time.
Coincidentally today is the 1st day I ever stepped into the offices, just to drop off a toy. Didn't see anyone around, which is not surprising since they are on break. Lots of "Enchant" stuff around the grounds. I thought maybe I'd see Luchi around, and if I did would I say "good season", or not?
I was wondering how this fit with the MLC Oval that's being discussed. Looks like the Oval is on the opposite side of the fairgrounds , in the parking lot across from the front entrance.
Good news is that they're saving all those shitty buildings in front, so if you need a vaccine or want to see a dog show, cat show, or gun show, it's still good to go! Woff, meow, pew
Deal struck for soccer fields at Santa Clara County Fairgrounds . . . Earthquakes representatives said they are planning to commit $50 million to the project, including financing and management of the public fields. Jared Shawlee, president of the Earthquakes, said the organization expects up to 300,000 people could use the fields each year. . . . The agreement announced Wednesday is nearly three years in the making. After the Earthquakes expressed interest to Santa Clara County in developing fields there in early 2021, the county began work to negotiate with the team, entering into exclusive negotiating agreements in April 2022 and extending them last April. While a preliminary term-sheet agreement between the county and the team is now in place—and city leaders have said they are fully committed to the project—there are plenty of details to be worked out, including finalizing a land lease, timelines, and getting needed permit processes underway. But everyone who is involved in the deal expressed confidence the fields will come to fruition quickly. Shawlee said the hope is to open the finished facilities before the 2026 World Cup, with an aim of letting the U.S. Men’s National Team practice at the facility . . . https://sanjosespotlight.com/deal-s...cer-fields-at-santa-clara-county-fairgrounds/
Just not curious enough to do a 5 second Google search?? https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/making-it-in-the-bay/santa-clara-paintball-closing/3319227/
I did look on google and didn't find it but then, I was busy yesterday and stopped looking. Thanks for pointing it out though. I think I'm even more ecstatic about this project now.
Sad that south bay kids can no longer dream of a professional paintball career and may have to settle for soccer
Top 20 prospects, 2004s through 2009s... from the reddit comments: https://old.reddit.com/r/ussoccer/c...u_are_interested_marcus_chairez_of_us_soccer/ Out of 120 players: 8: LAFC, Philadelphia Union 7: New England Revolution, San Jose Earthquakes 6: Inter Miami, NYRB 5: Orlando City, Atlanta United, Real Salt Lake 4: FC Dallas, NYCFC 3: Chicago Fire, DC United, Seattle Sounders, St Louis City, LA Galaxy 2: Sporting KC, Dortmund, Orange County SC, Without Club 1: Burnley, Chelsea, Hadjuk Split, Austin FC, Leicester City, Colorado Rapids, FC Koln, Fulham, Feyenoord, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Houston Dynamo, SC Freiburg, FC Barcelona, FC Augsburg, UE Cornella, Liverpool FC, Toronto FC, Birmingham Legion, Duke University, Charleston Battery, Club Brugge, FC Tulsa, Bayer Leverkusen, Charlotte FC, PSV, Frankfurt, Columbus Crew, Barca Arizona Residency, Houston Rangers, Real Madrid, North Carolina FC 0: Portland Timbers, Minnesota United, Nashville SC, FC Cincinnati
Takes a while to look thru all that because the players and descriptions are broken down by (birth) year, but the Quakes players on there are: Niko, Cruz Medina, Verhoeven, Tomo Allen, KK Spivey, Marcelo Avalos, and Will Ostrander. The Quakes are kind of "bottom loaded" - 3 of the guys are from the youngest class (the last 3 I listed). And so I guess you could say that there's greater chance of a "miss" at this point. But Spivey (mid) and Ostrander (winger) are highly ranked and supposedly there have already been some German clubs around scouting them. Avalos is a GK who is already 6'2" and possibly still growing, and this guy rates him as the best GK in his class (2009). He mentions Medina's stock going down but revived somewhat by his U17 WC performance. Still, he has him as a "low tier 2" in terms of his prospects, which I think is the lowest category of all the rankings that I remember seeing for Quakes players. I think everyone else is a 2 or high 2 except for Spivey, who's a 1. Bear in mind, this is one person's opinion and I don't know how reputable, so take with a grain of salt.
KK Spivey, that's number three behind two of the biggest prospects out there, Cavan Sullivan and Manu Romero.. also "most dominant player in MLS Next" is certainly high praise. After Cruz Medina, Quakes fans will probably wait to see how it translates to MLS Next Pro before getting too excited, though... https://www.ussoccercollective.com/rankings/top-20-2009 #3 | CM, Kaedren "KK" Spivey, San Jose Earthquakes Other Citizenship: None Last International Cap: United States U15 Prospect Tier: 1 Spivey might be the most dominant player in MLS Next at the U15 level right now. His combination of size, strength and athleticism are unmatched and unplayable at his age group. Spivey is the prototypical box to box midfielder that can win the ball and progress the ball with ease and he also has decent instincts in the final third. I hope to see Spivey move up to the U17 level this spring where he can be challenged a bit more. A Borussia Dortmund scout was at one of San Jose’s games at MLS Next Fest and Spivey made a good impression. San Jose is likely looking to lock him up as soon as they can. #9 | GK, Marcelo "Chelo" Avalos, San Jose Earthquakes Other Citizenship: Mexico, Iceland Last International Cap: Not Capped Prospect Tier: High 2 Avalos is the top keeper in this class for me and a modern day goalkeeper. He stands at about 6-2 and he may not be done growing. He is very comfortable on the ball and has good coordination and flexibility. His communication is solid as well. He was brought into the first United States U15 camp, but was left off the roster that was taken to Portugal which was a questionable decision in my opinion. He holds an Icelandic passport which means he can go to Europe at 16. #11 | WING/AM, Will Ostrander, San Jose Earthquakes Other Citizenship: Italian Last International Cap: Not Capped Prospect Tier: High 2 Ostrander is one of the most technically and tactically sound players in this group — he rarely takes a poor touch or makes a poor decision. He has played mostly as a winger from what I have seen, but San Jose has been playing him in the midfield a little more as of late and I like that future for him. Dortmund was in attendance for all of Will's games at MLS Next Fest.
Right, the lower you go in the age "class", the higher the odds of the player flaming out to some degree as he gets older. And as for Spivey, we know all too well that big advantages in "combination of size, strength and athleticism" do not necessarily translate as those advantages get watered down a bit when the player gets older and into higher levels. We've been down that road.
I'm curious as to what "combination of size, strength and athleticism are unmatched and unplayable at his age group" even looks like for a kid born in 2009... do we have any photos (or video) of this KK Spivey?
As I said, Cavan Sullivan and Manu Romero are not just 1 and 2 for the 2009s, but also 1 and 2 on the overall Top 50 list. KK Spivey is a very respectable 11th. Niko Tsakiris is 31 and Marcelo Avalos 33. https://www.ussoccercollective.com/rankings/top-50
I think he's in the top row here with USMNT U15's, 3rd from left, curly hair. Offhand he doesn't seem to stand out physically but all we can really see here is his head, and who knows until you see him play.
video posted today! Kaedren Spivey has been one of the best 2009 players this season 👀Here is him cooking against Inter Miami and the Sounders 😳 pic.twitter.com/zrb3aOfl5p— Youth Soccer Central (@yscentral) December 13, 2023