Ding ding ding. We have a WINNER folks!!! And that is depending upon what kinds of financing they can find out there. Financing for these types of deals is VERY competitive. Like I said. If it is a well put together deal, it will be an easy sell.
Less then a week since San Jose lost their club, and I'm already annoyed by Quakes fans. Look, hate AEG all you want. That's your right. But please be rational about it. If not for AEG, you would have lost your team about three or four years ago. They never wanted to own San Jose, but did it for the league. There would never have been a SINGLE MLS Cup to celebrate, much less two. All the real true success in San Jose has been during this "horrible" AEG era, hasn't it? So, yes, they took your team away. That does stink, and I'd be depressed too. But the constant harking about hating AEG and not trusting them is silly at best. Who knows if this deal will happen or not. I certainly hope it does, because I want an MLS with a San Jose club. AEG was nice enough to leave the team name, colors, and championships. I'm positive there are some NFL Baltimore fans who are jealous of that. The deal is bad all around, but I simply do not see how AEG are the bad guys here. Some have said if they were a voter there, they'd vote down this new deal immediately. I wonder if those same people, if they were Anschultz, would continue putting money into a team they didn't want to own, that nobody else apparently wanted to own, in a stadium that doesn't fit their long term needs.
Nope. AEG had absolutely nothing to do with San Jose's first MLS Cup win (or with San Jose at all) in 2001, and planned to reward the Earthquakes and their fans for the second MLS Cup win in 2003 by secretly selling the franchise to Club America to be rebranded and/or relocated, which was thankfully but fortuitously uncovered by the San Jose Mercury News' Dylan Hernandez in January 2004. -G
Sorry. You would have had one title, instead of TWO, if not for AEG. But you also would have not had a club after that one title. Great way to celebrate a championship victory, by going out of business. As for "secretly" selling the team off, is that really a big deal? Should AEG broadcast everything about their business publicly before deals are completed? We did not find out about the sell of DC United until a day or so before it happened. Before that, it was just rumors and/ or conjecture. Secret behind the door sells go on all the time everywhere. Why make AEG the villain here?
Unfortunately I don't believe the voters would approve $5 million in public money for a "rich owner" to bring in a team, much less $35 million. The truth is, the number of people who have no use for "rich" people, and only slightly more use for sports in general, outnumber committed, or even casual soccer fans by a wide margin. The dominant political thinking in the entire Bay Area for 3 decades is that rich people are the reason for all of society's ills and they deserve no help or sympathy from voters. I see no scenario where actual taxpayer money gets invested in a soccer team for SJ. Sad but true.
We'll see. But if it's local people putting the deal together, they know the market and how to sell it. That is why AEG got out - because they are not local and don't know the market intimately enough. It will get done.
Certainly there have been some irrational posts by Quakes fans, but, until you experience what the Quakes fans have the past year I wouldn't be overly critical of them. The big losers in this whole drama have been the San Jose fans, the only ones who have ever cared about this team. And the Earthquakes fans are sick of hearing, "if it wasn't for AEG you would have lost the team several years ago". Well, the fact is, AEG did buy the team and then proceeded to do jack squat for the franchise. If they bought the team to "save it" for the league then maybe they should have done more than keep it on life support. Did they look for buyers? No. They let a fan group go out and do the legwork for them, and then turn around and criticize them for bringing someone forward couldn't come up with the cash. They did nothing to make the franchise attractive to potential investors. Are they the only villains? Certainly not. The mayor and city council of San Jose did not give a rats ass about the team either, it wasn't until AEG's threats to move the team seemed like they were going to become reality did they act, and by then it was just too late. Hopefully we will get an expansion team owned by an owner who wants to make it a success, and I am hoping the team is located a few miles up the road in Santa Clara, where city leaders there do want to get a stadium built for a team.
This is very encouraging news for all San Jose Soccer Fans! I wish Tampa Officials would get off their lazy ************ing A$$es and do the same!!! Question is: Will they go for the Earthquake Blue Kit or the Classic Red????
That isn't 100% similar to the Quakes sale. That sale did not involve relocation so there was no need by either party to make it public. AEG has the right to move them however they want, but I think it is a bit underhanded and very difficult for Quakes fans to swallow when you are moving out under cover of darkness. The fact that Lamar Hunt is actually putting some sort of an effort to make sure a stadium deal goes through before he sells makes it even harder to swallow for Quakes fans. Like GoSounders said, many Quakes fans are acting irrationally, but it is not too unexpected and it is hard for me to criticize them too much for their emotions.