Soccer Silicon Valley Launches Website, Plans Major Rally Volunteer group gaining momentum in effort to build soccer-specific stadium San Jose, Calif., July 30, 2004 -- Soccer Silicon Valley (SSV), a volunteer group formed to give a voice to all soccer fans in the Bay Area, has launched its website at http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com. The group has also announced a major rally to be held in downtown San Jose on August 20. SSV is actively encouraging investment in a new soccer stadium by San Jose or another city in the Bay Area. The group’s goal is for soccer fans to have ‘a seat at the table’ in influencing that process. The new website contains a petition for supporters to sign, which will demonstrate to local governments that investment in soccer is an investment in the community at large. Soccer is played by more amateurs than any other sport in the U.S. — more than two million in California alone. In the Bay Area, tens of thousands participate in soccer leagues, from preschoolers to adults. On the professional level, the San Jose Earthquakes have had a presence in Northern California since 1974. The inaugural game of Major League Soccer (MLS) was held in San Jose in 1996. The Earthquakes won the league championship title in both 2001 and 2003. The Bay Area has also hosted men and women’s World Cup matches and international exhibitions by teams from Europe, South and Central America. While other U.S. cities are now competing to attract MLS expansion teams, San Jose and the Bay Area already have a championship team. However, a soccer-specific stadium is key to retaining an MLS team, as demonstrated in Los Angeles, Columbus, New Jersey, Dallas, Chicago and Colorado. In addition to the on-line petition, the Soccer Silicon Valley website provides up-to-date information on potential stadium sites, negotiations, and fund raising. The August 20 rally, to be held at Cesar Chavez Plaza, San Jose, from noon-1:00 p.m., is open to all who want to further the effort to build a permanent soccer stadium in the Bay Area. (To contact Soccer Silicon Valley, please use the "Contact Us" feature on the web site.)
Soccer Silicon Valley welcomes members from outside the Bay Area, so please sign up even if you live outside that area. This is an easy way to advocate for the building of a stadium for another MLS team.
Smart Initiative...remember to cater to all segments of the population. Anything that will make soccer dominate in the US is something i am willing to support...I supported SSV on your website
I'm being very serious. We need the entire soccer loving community behind this, be they Quakes fans, Juventus fans, Metrostars fans, and dare I say, even Galaxy fans. What's good for the Quakes is good for MLS, and what's good for MLS is good for soccer. So I repeat: you are wise beyond words..
In case that wasn't clear enough, anybody who supports MLS or even soccer in general is welcome to sign the petition at http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/ and add their name to our list. I realize that there are some people on these boards who think San Jose or the Bay Area doesn't support the team enough and I would agree with them, to a certain degree. The fact remains, however, that if MLS can't make a go of it in the Bay Area -- one of the most soccer-mad regions in the entire country -- it would be a tremendous black eye for the league and could have significant effects on the league's ability to expand to other markets. In other words, all MLS fans should want the Quakes to succeed in building a new stadium. If that makes sense to you, please sign up. (Go to the site, click on "Join Us," and fill it out.) Oh, and since people seem to be taking a while to find it on their own, we have a very interesting study analyzing MLS posted on the site, prepared by a large consulting firm specializing in the economics of sports. You'll find the link at http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/why.html -- it's towards the bottom of the page.