Although he could not tell me the exact number, one of the SSV leading lights told me the other day that there are more than five parties interested in becoming i/o of the Quakes. So will you all of you people either drop another Prozac, light up a J, have a beer or do all three. Relax, relax.
Yeah!...unless of course you are an investor, in which case you need to stay sober and look alive for a couple of months.
I, too, think it was a ploy, but not by AEG; rather, by Mr. Amanpour himself. In all the articles/interviews I've read through this whole thing, his words seemed to be less than "concrete," shall we say, and more idealistic, "don't worry, be happy." He was going for his 15 minutes of fame - and he got it, culminating with his face on ESPN2. Course, that's all just speculation on my part (not being privy to SSV's inside information), but I just don't see it any other way. And it really makes me sick - what it's done to this team. They've been jerked around all season long. People are saying, well, hopefully someone will come along and at least keep them in the Bay Area for at least another year - another year of what? Relocation hanging over their heads? Or just possibly being folded outright? (Yeah, thanks Lexi, for that little gem right before our final playoff game. Boy, what a GM!) If that happens, it will be a repeat of this year - up and down and inconsistent. And that's not fair to the players. They have families to think of, and I'm sure the spectre of another season of uncertainty is not what they are looking for. They deserve for this to be handled now, and instead the powers that be are continuing to mess with their lives. Sorry if I sound bitter or whatever about Amanpour, but this just makes me mad.
Seems like excellent news to me. I never thought MLS would sell to anyone who didn't write the big check or have all the money firmly behind him. My hope is that someone who can make the bulk of the financial commitment is stepping forward to a leadership role behind the scenes.
That's a tough one. Wihtout them, there would probably be no MLS. But they have not treated us with a lot of respect. I sort of love them in the general and hate them in the particular.
Wow! What a plethora of commentary. I think StillKickin got it right. If you read all posts from top to bottom, you get a flurry of people being positive, skeptic, negative, frustrated, sad etc. These are just fans. Imagine what our QUAKES players (and those in the front office) are going through. It is VERY VERY difficult. You have to be thick skinned to get through this. There is a market in the Bay Area for soccer to be very very successful. It can be a lucratic business if run right and we have the right guys in the front office like McCarthy & J.Moore. People who have a deep connection to soccer in the Bay Area. The fan base can be pulled in all the way from 1974. Its here. Why do you think MLS chose to have their FIRST mls game here? despite their thoughts of a mealy city of San Jose, the MLS suits KNOW soccer fans are here. The NASL of the 70's proved that hands down. I can recall a consistent large attendance of 18k+. Why do you think they expanded the stadium on the press box side? It was because we kept drawing big crowds to the all the qUAKE games. We just have to have consistency in ownership & mgmt to bring the fans (outside of our 10K solid die-hard fan base) and turn this into a money making machine.
I don't think TA was just going for his 15 minutes of fame. He's an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs do stuff like this all the time. I think he thought there was a chance he could pull this off. He sensed an opportunity and went for it. But, I also don't think he had the financial resources, skills or relationships to make his dream realistic.
Here's a little insight into what the Quakes players are going through. http://ussocceruk.com/news/?CatTypeId=2&ContentId=1969 From the article: "I don't know if you could call him possible ownership," said Donovan of Amanpour, before stopping himself. "I'll keep my comments to myself." However, Donovan failed to hold back when noting his disappointment with the situation, feeling both he and his teammates have been "messed about" by the efforts to keep the team in San Jose. "It's pretty sad. It's just another thing that goes on that affects you that you can't help to get excited," the US international added. "But when someone's just clearly kind of messing with you, it really bothers you."
If I were in your shoes, I'd probably hate Alan I. Rothenberg, Dentsu, Robert Kraft, SVS&E - but not so much AEG. Afterall, all of the above backed out on owning/investing in the Clash/Earthquakes, while AEG - who never wanted the team - stepped up and saved them from contraction. While this year has been pretty bad with AEG and the Quakes, if Rothenberg's group, or Dentsu, or the Krafts had bought the team when they had the chance, everything would likely be fine right now. I really, really, really hope someone steps forward and saves the Earthquakes.
I can see that the atmosphere now surrounding Tony Amanpour's withdrawal is one of the reasons none of the others would want to go public. If you're not absolutely sure you can put a good deal through (or even if you are), you'd rather not have the bad publicity.
"15 minutes" was very much a part of it(he enjoys the positive attention) but I think you are right about the entrepreneurial thing. He is a fan and he had a vision, he just didn't quite have the resources......I think SSV just feels that Amanpour is not the guy that should be heading this or any group for various reasons and there isn't much room for error. I don't feel that this is a bad thing, quite the contrary, it makes me think that there is a better plan in place and I for one like this news as a sign that the eggs are not all in one basket......geez, if i'm doing the glass half full thing then it's gotta be good!
Absolutely....and as impatient as us fans get, even though we always want to know more, it's really better that this stuff stays behind closed doors for reasons like this. Mr. Amanpour would have done well to do the "I can't comment at this time" thing. He chose the opposite......ESPN.
Yeah, I still think his effort was "well-intentioned" (Blackmun himself called it that) but, as you say, he probably didn't have "the financial resources, skills or relationships to make his dream realistic". He clearly didn't mind being in the spotlight as the white knight, but I don't believe he did it just for the "15 minutes".
My two cents. Amanpour is making way for better options. If Amanpour were the only ownership hope or the best hope by far, SSV would still hang their hats on his ability to assemble an ownership group. There would be no reason to ask him to step aside. The fact that SSV did makes me believe there's something behind door number two.
There were some inconsistencies between the SSV release yesterday and the Merc article today. Dylan Hernandez doesn't mention anything about SSV asking Amanpour to step aside, and portrays it as Amanpour withdrawing the offer himself because his potential investors were contingent upon a stadium deal. Whichever...guess it doesn't really matter in the long run because the end result is the same (Amanpour out). Here's to hoping SSV and AEG get something else worked out.