Just off the Mercury News website. Ann kind of sums up how a lot of people in San Jose feel. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/13426203.htm
A lot of folks on this forum ache for the days when each MLS team will have its own owner. And you know what, when that day comes, more teams will move, just like in the NFL and NBA, because owners do that kind of thing to get better deals. AEG liked NY and Houston better than SJ. So what - it's their prerogative. All SJ needed was one of those rich Califonria entrpreneurs we hear about to buy the team and none of this would have happened.
Good job ignoring everything that was written in the article. How about you rip on something she wrote instead of bringing up the talking points that have been gone over 100x already.
everyone is quick to slam AEG... why not slam some of your own nocal billionaires... if they thought the team was worth it, they couldve bought the team and saved it... but they didnt, yet all slam AEG for keeping the team around for an extra 2 years... AEG said from the get go they DID NOT want to own the team long term.... im sorry time ran out on your team, but build a bridge and get over it... and keep working with SSV to court one of those nocal billionaires so you can get a team back and a SSS MODs.... this thread should be merged with the other ann killion thread
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Ann Killion again. Excellent article, with not a single wasted word! -G
Very good article that sums up SJ fans' feelings. Now, I'm all about defending SJ, especially when it comes to attendance. I firmly believe that SJ, if done properly, would easily be in the top 3-4 teams in attendance each year. And certainly, the only non-Galaxy, non-double-header game over 22K (two!!), in addition to 5+ games in the late summer/fall of 17K+ speaks volumes of the market But it's a slight misrepresentation to say that it's unequivocably 4th best in attendance, when El Jefe has shown that SJ has been given the advantage of more Sat. night games than anybody.
Well Saturday night is the best time to play. Anways it's not the Quakes fault that most of their home games were schedule on Saturday nights.
But to more than compensate for that, the other MLS teams got doubleheaders and such. And thus the Quakes were officially dropped to 8th in attendance. -G
Yeah, we all know that, but truly the best indicator of attendance is to compare on like terms. The best term? Sat. night, non-doubleheaders. El Jefe did a breakdown of this, and SJ came up somewhere in the middle. By no means last, but not 4th.
It's a terrific primal scream by Ann Killion. Over the course of this debacle MLS has shown everything from obliviousness to callousness to two-facedness to (presumably necessary) corporate fawning. The league has a massive job to do to regain the trust and confidence of San Jose fans.
True about the ticket sales staff. Before I got a season ticket, I used to buy tickets at the office, and I am convinced there are (were) only two people who do that. BUT the people who actually sell the tickets are not the ones who try to get people to buy tickets.
2010. Season four of the Earthquakes, part 5. One year after the contraction of the NHL to the Original Six plus four other markets. A's still in Oakland. Two years after San Jose State cut the football program. The local owner/group is of a character that is symbolic of Silicon Valley and the natural boosterism/trendiness/diversity mindsets of the area have latched onto the new team. People recognize that it is only soccer that can truly spread a city's sporting reputation worldwide. No more do businesses bring partners visiting from Asia to 49ers games only to have them say "who the Hell are these people?" Friendlies against Dalian Shide in Beijing, Indian clubs, and the Peace Cup in South Korea have spread the name. Visitors from China arrive in San Francisco only because the flights are cheaper. They pack the freeways heading south to do business and see the area's best known sports team.
I don't think any of us wanted AEG to operate the team forever. They were terrible owners who made their contempt for SJ known from day one. But AEG and MLS could have put a little more effort into finding a stadium solution, or finding a local owner. From Killion's article: "The league hired people specifically to find stadium deals in Washington, Chicago, New York and now Kansas City. Never in San Jose." Alexi Lalas' top priority coming into the 2005 season was supposedly to find local ownership. Yet AEG sends him to the Metros halfway through the season. What kind of committment is that? We can thank AEG for keeping the team alive, but beyond that, they have done nothing but let it wither on the vine. It probably would have been less cruel to fold the team in 2002 when the Sharks bailed out the first time -- then we wouldn't have to listen to them complain "we invested 20 million dollars in San Jose" when they invested WAY more in every other city they are involved with. So you'll forgive me if I refuse to strap on my kneepads and give them a big sloppy BJ for that.
If AEG had pulled out in 2002, SJ fans would have been furious that they weren't given a chance to find a local owner. Remember the reaction when AEG was in talks to sell the team to CLub America? Now you turn around and say, it would have been better if they had bailed sooner? You guys damn AEG no matter what they do. Try to sell the team, "Traitors!" Try to keep costs down, so they won't lose so much money on the team "They're not marketing us enough." Many SJ fans were thrilled when Alexi left. they never trusted a former Galaxy guy. its funny now to see so many post that his leaving was such a vital loss. most acted like he was an imposition in the first place, a spy sent to ruin the team. killion is misleading readers by working over her biased numbers and calling them "real". It's funny that she also misses completely the blame her own paper might take. She slams AEG's lack of marketing, but doesn't mention that Mark Purdy took the position in the Merc that the team wasn't going anywhere, Spartan was just fine, and the Quake fans should just relax. the best marketing for the team would have been more ink in the paper. they didn't get even a third of the coverage the SHarks got. pitiful.
I think we're all grateful that AEG gave us a chance to have the Quakes for a few additional years. But as Quakes fans, we'll never be convinced that they and MLS did as much as they could abd should have done to make MLS successful in this market. To answer profiled: With the benefit of hindsight, had AEG and MLS helped get a stadium project off the ground in San Jose, they would have had a much easier time getting a buyer. Obviously, we have the Sharks' ownership that would have bought in with a stadium deal, and now we have the A's ownership talking about it. Who knows who else would have shown interest. Bailamos: You're right, the Merc rarely did the Quakes justice. It seems there's more press about the failure of the Quakes as a business that there was about their success on the field. It's been a big failure of civic and political leadership. Which is why Soccer Silicon Valley was formed, and why we Quakes fans understand the real heroism of their efforts.
Because the team is worth more if they could have sold it with a stadium deal in place. Also, their operating losses would have been less if they had moved quickly to get a stadium deal, because they could have sold the team faster. Lastly, the league looks better and makes more money if existing teams stay where they are and places like Houston get expansion teams. To Quakes fans, it looks like AEG ignored their own naked self interest, to the benefit of other teams in the league and to the detriment of San Jose. Great article, Ann.
Enge/Barojo: That's one way to look at it, however we don't really know what the truth is, until some insiders let us know what the rationale was behind how the whole thing went down.
I don't know. I have seen AEG make a lot of business decisions over the last 8 years, and even before that outside the soccer world. There's not a heck of a lot I can recall them ever doing that was NOT in their own interest. In fact, there's only two decisions I can think of which probably were not pure calculated business decisions: 1. To go into a super-high risk business like soccer and MLS at all. 2. To take on the thankless task of trying to salvage the situation in San Jose. And what other teams do you think will benefit from this move the most? Certainly not GaLAxy - which loses a big rival and two sold-out gauranteed crowds. Maybe FC Dallas, but that's not an AEG club so why would AEG care? I'm sorry, but it may "look that way" to Quakes fans, but I doubt that it looks that way to many other people not emotionally invested in the Earthquakes.