Amen. You have a good head on your shoulders and the right perspective. I am glad there are people who understand this about soccer and are willing to say it. - Paul
Any credible national soccer league will need a successful team in Northern California. There shouldn't be any question about that. The thing I still don't get about all of this is moving to an ownerless Houston. I understand wanting Houston as a market - but will this team be playing in Rice Stadium with no marketing, community support? Think Ohio Stadium 1996 re visuals. If MLS is going to expand by 2 in 07 anyway, why not wait a year for Houston and keep the Quakes at home? What is going to be so great about Houston in 06? I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised tomorrow, but it's hard to figure......
I can give a rats rump about the colors, I'd actually like to see them come back with there original red, white and black kits. Until the day that they return, MLS has lost this fan. I am not a fan of the league, I am a fan of the Earthquakes in whatever form that may be. Maybe the SJ City council will wait til after Ron Gon is gone, then change his A's plan for a Quakes plan. This is a sad sad day.
This is nice talk, but I have trouble seeing how it gets beyond that. If MLS couldn't be bothered to do much to keep the team here when it had one, I for one will not get up much hope that it will truly make efforts to bring a new team to the area. AEG clearly wanted out of SJ and Garber/MLS was not about to get in the way of that. The part of the call that left me the most cold was Garber proudly saying that Mark Abbot will be dispatched to KC to work out a stadium deal just as the league had done in Chicago. Why didn't that happen here? Maybe it did and we just didn't see it, but that seems unlikely. I'd be curious to hear from SSV about what exactly MLS did over the past 2 years to find a solution here? The past 5 years? The past 10 years? From where I sit it appeared content to let a volunteer fan group try find a buyer and coordinate a deal between that buyer, the City fo SJ, and AEG. A tall order by any measure and it is amazing that SSV made as much progress as it did. Given MLS' history in this market, the promise that it plans to return and do it right next time is a little hard to believe and, frankly, kind of insulting. I know it's the holidays and all, but I stopped believing in Santa Claus a long time ago. I'm not exactly going to put aside my '07 season ticket deposit just yet.
Expansion team?! Who will play the role of Dom? Who will be our Pwamme? Where will we be able to find a surfing Hawaiian goalscorer? Can we just call our right midfielder Mullan? Will Noah b*tch as much about our goal-keeper? WTF...? We just GOT Davis from Texas - will we have to do that again? ....
I just read that they are talking to Lew Wolfe, owner of the A's, to buy the rights of the expansion Quakes. Now isn't that interesting. Would that mean that the stadium plans would be to convert the baseball stadium that SJ wants to build for the A's over for Quakes games, then back for A's games?
So let's look at potential ownership candidates: 1. SVS+E. They're probably looking at this as much for an additional venue that can hold 20-25,000 for summer concerts and other events. They'd want a deal similar to what they have with HP Pavilion, where they run the place and have a simple lease agreement with the city, but the venue is city-owned. 2. Lew Wolff and the A's. Preliminary talks have taken place, and the further talks will continue into the new year. It was said that he'll look throughout the Bay Area for a site. Maybe it means downtown. Or next to an A's stadium in Oakland or San Jose. Or a complex like Frisco. Wolff's interest is a good sign because his group has deep pockets and deep, deep local ties. Plus he's shown a willingness to loosen the purse strings for players. 3. The Fry brothers. I suppose they could be interested, but seeing that they're struggling to raise attendance for the SaberCats, probably not. 4. A dot-com billionaire. We've talked about this for years and it has never materialized. Seems as though the nouveau riche are more interested in luxury suites than team ownership.
It would be possible. There is a stadium in Korea that they just built for the world cup where the soccer field slides out and it becomes a baseball field.
I would certainly support the New Quakes, though a lot will have to fall into place before we get too excited. I doubt I will ven follow MLS until it has a team in the Bay Area. I will return my focus to the SPL.
This is nothing more than a typical AEG-MLS lie coming out of the an AEG-MLS mouthpiece they pay a lot of money to lie when they ask him to. It's spin to make us feel better for which MLS apologist will allege is some form of kindness....giving us hope. I think it has little more chance than an ice cube in hell unless it's some convoluted way of wresting new stadium use rights away from AEG because it would be a negotionation with all the owners re expansion as opposed to just AEG as I/Os. And I don't think that's even vaguely likely.
Actually, no. Only one hit! Surprisingly, the threads where I get most rep are the ones where I ... um... "aim to steer the discourse" towards the middle, away from the ... extremes. 'Course, I'd gladly turn all those green nips to red for the chance to see SJE take on the Galaxy in '06.
Strange. Well I gave you some a few days ago, but it still says that I need to spread more around. 2007 ... and it will be an odd year ... beware
Could happen but the most expensive part will be the hydraulic system which converts the fields and stands, and it will take a considerable amount of land if I recall. Oh it's in Sapporo, Japan. Won't mind it but the trend right now is that the teams want to control their own dates and scheduling.
Fixed your post. Actually, that's what sucks about this, is that it'll take quite a few years to bring the squad up to a decent standard.
An expansion team as part as MLS! No ********ing way! No ********ing way in hell! ******** MLS! Stay the ******** out of my city **************s!
Yeah, I posted that a while back as a sort of joke. I read the cost was somewhere near $400 million.... UGH! That won't happen here.
we couldn't keep our current team but, we should rest assured that a new and improved one is on it's way back! he must take us for a group of idiots!
next thing you know, the insurgents will be throwing down their rpg's & lining up to vote! crazy world. although in a rather uneasy way, Carlos has a way of growing on you...kind of like a fungus
I will help SSV in whatever way I can to help bring about the expansion Earthquakes. I will watch occasional MLS matches on TV, just as I've been watching one or two non-Quakes matches a week for the past couple years. I will be sad, but resolute. And when we get our new stadium and team I will be there to cheer on the team. I know we will probably not get our old players, FO staff, or coaching staff back. But I expect they'll finagle Dom or Doyle to come back, and a couple of players transferred from Houston or wherever they may be, just like how we got Cerritos and Barrett back this year. Plus the expansion draft could bring back some of the lesser current players. In the meantime, let's get the Seals off to a good start. We'll need someone for the Quakes 4.0 reserves to practice against.
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/12/12/daily48.html Don't know if that's what you read, but there it is.