News: San Jose Earthquakes Owner Hires Bank to Sell MLS Club

I don't actually know what Google's plans are. Maybe they are still planning to move forward but with altered plans? I don't know. The pandemic certainly knocked that thing back but now there seems to be a renewed commitment to "work at work".

 

So what are the odds on the team being sold and moved and the stadium being sold to Bay FC?

 

One other possibility is that an ownership group is interested in buying the club and having them play in Sacramento. I don't think Graber would necessarily balk at that. It's not bay area, but "close enough"?

 

Dear god if the Yorks or anyone connected to the 49er's ends up owning the team I am done with them!

 

If such an ownership group existed, why didn't it save the Sacramento expansion bid that was announced and in process? Why doesn't it do a Sacramento expansion bid right now?

 

The most likely is a rich person you never heard of. People can throw out names of rich people they have heard of, but that doesn't mean they are interested or that they are going to be good owners.

 

Things that might exist in the future don’t always exist in the present, nor did they necessarily exist in the past. It could take many months or multiple years before the club is sold.

 

He's a Raiders fan.

 

Like if a Sacramento billionaire showed up today and wanted MLS they could do an expansion without destroying the presence of the league in the Bay Area.

 

Well that has more to do with the relative market sizes of pro basketball and pro soccer in the US at their respective timings. By that token it was basically impossible to fail as a Bay Area NBA franchise, but both the ~2009 Warriors and the ~2025 Quakes were/are woefully underperforming their potential as commercial enterprises. The path to relevance isn't as simple as "spend money on Quakes squad -> ??? -> profit!", but strong leadership and capital could get it much further than where we are now.

 

There are limited expansion “slots” for MLS, if any. Would Graber want to use one on Sac? Probably not. But if any ownership group formed that wanted to move the Quakes to Sac and offers for buying the Quakes and keeping them in the bay were not forthcoming, I could see Graber saying, meh, it covers NorCal and I get to lose a chronically under-performing market for one with potential upside. Good enough. Certainly much stranger things have happened. Sac Republic’s average attendance is 10k or so? Not much lower than a typical Quakes game.

 

No I don’t think it had to do with “market sizes”. The Warriors had a strong fan base and excellent brand awareness and penetration in the Bay Area despite being terrible for many years. The Quakes are perennially near the bottom in attendance, and I doubt that our improved performance will make much of a dent in that, and as for brand awareness, how many people do you see around town repping the Quakes and how many people even know of their existence? It’s night and day.

 

What about that Zappos guy, wasn't he willing to buy when the Fish sell uproar was at it's height?

 

Forget the Zappos guys, someone look up Tony Amanpour!!

 

He literally did use one on Sac.

 

Doubt it. Based upon their training location and advertising partners, Bay FC is trying to build/find a stadium in SF.

I think the only reasons that they would be moved would MLS stopping expansion and it was only opportunity for a owner/city to get a team. Quakes are staying.

 

Again, as time moves forward things can change. When San Diego, Las Vegas, and other locations became viable, Sac dropped down the list. Other candidate cities are Vegas, Detroit, Phoenix, Indy, Tampa, etc. Sac would check off the “NorCal” box in place of the Quakes if such a relocation transpired. Again, we’re in the very early days of this. Stranger things have happened. We shouldn’t just assume a Joe Lacob type is gonna rush in and buy the Quakes and keep them in the bay and from then on our lives become wonderful.

I don’t know the current state but there was / is another investment group looking to add Sac to MLS.

 

The founder? Didn't he move to Vegas, live in a shipping container and is now dead?

edit... just looked it up. Yup, he ded.

 

Zapp’d

 

That was the CEO. The founder owned the Burlingame Dragons when they were affiliated with the Quakes, made an unsolicited offer to buy the Quakes, and then had a falling out with Fisher and swore off the Quakes.

 

I highly doubt Bay FC will be able to build a soccer stadium in SF. They just missed their chance to spruce of Kezar, for example.

Quakes may be departing PayPal Park, even if they remain in San Jose, judging from the mayor's tweet today. Bay FC would be stupid to pass up the chance to exclusively occupy PayPal under those circumstances.