The Official 2024 San Jose Earthquakes related Blogs/Press thread

I’m giving you reasons why a community leader would see his contribution to the community in a positive light. You’re not refuting them.

 

You’ve been whining about lack of progress on the training facility and now the Quakes are trying to push it thru, and now you’re against it?! :facepalm

 

Thanks for admitting you don't care if San Jose kids have a place to play soccer.

 

If we ever get a training facility built at the fairgrounds or anyplace else, I’ll be delighted.

You’re more impressed with the fact that it’s taken Fisher since 2008 to get this far. And generally you have a more favorable opinion of him than me.

No need to be a dipshit about it.

 

This is just funny, and silly. Like I said, if it gets done, wonderful. I’m skeptical.

 

So far there is no agreed upon solution, obviously.

That’s my point. If one day there is an actual agreement (a solution), I’ll be thrilled.

I’m not convinced it’s going to happen on County property but I could be wrong. We’ll see.

 

OK, then we can all agree, it would be a good thing, and therefore we shouldn't instead be trying to tear down the parties that are trying to make it happen. That just makes it less likely to happen, which is not something we want? #logic

Name-calling / personal insults contributes nothing to the debate and only reflects badly on you.

 

and being a dipshit is uncalled for. duh.

and Fisher sucks, I’ll believe we’re going see an academy facility once there are shovels in the ground.

 

There you go again. Personal insults / name calling do not add to the conversation and only reflect poorly on you.

Great so let’s support the parties that are trying to get it done and encourage the county to approve a project that can be beneficial to the community and team.

 

BTW I don’t believe the fairgrounds is going to be an academy facility. Shea and others talked about how pros and youth would be playing right next to each other. I thought I heard Jared say the Quakes would practice there. And some other article i read post-meeting was that the Quakes need a club dining room and better training facilities. So if you had 4 fields at the fairgrounds or the 1 practice field at PPP, where would you prefer to practice?

I don’t believe this is an academy facility.

 

It's a training facility for all levels of the Quakes, from the academy to Next Pro to the first team.

 

At school, at work, and in life, sometimes it's helpful to read the material before the meeting.

https://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/...e-earthquakesplan-to-partner-with-city-of-san

 

“The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has stopped short of letting the San Jose Earthquakes build a private soccer complex at the county fairgrounds under the current proposed terms.

Some county leaders on Tuesday slammed the Earthquakes’ proposed terms as a “laughable” sweetheart deal that low-balled the public on community benefits — and expressed little confidence in the Earthquakes as a “good faith” partner for the county.

Even if this is a nonbinding agreement, it doesn’t sit well with me,” Supervisor Sylvia Arenas said. “We have not included our community in this conversation. This is not our money — this is the public’s money.

The Earthquakes would keep all revenue over the 25-year term, but after that would be required to pay to the county 50% of any net income earned from the management of the public fields.

The team would also provide just 250 hours of free community use of the public fields every year, amounting to less than one hour per day."

This is a political process, and the supervisors are keenly aware that this property needs to be open to the public, first and foremost. This doesn't even sound like a serious proposal by the Quakes. 250 hours/year of free community use??

The County was always going to be tough to deal with (they've been going around and around on what they want to do there, for decades), and Fisher's reputation precedes him.

Fisher should've bought some land years ago and built an academy facility.

This was always going to be a long shot, at best.

 

So Fishers proposal is that this complex will be available to the public for 250 hours/year?! And beyond that all revenue for renting the fields goes to the Quakes, for 25 years?...doesn't sound like the Quakes are at all serious about balancing their needs with the needs of the community.

“The Santa Clara County Fairgrounds belongs to the public. This is a great way for our youth to have access to outstanding soccer fields year-round for generations to come,” said Chavez, who has worked on developing the SCC Fairgrounds property for many years and represents the area.

 

Doesn't sound like the Quakes are even negotiating in good faith. They must know how the County views this land. It always seemed like a long shot. Sounds like the Quakes said they have another option (right beside PPP) as if to say, "if you don't like our offer, we can walk." That just makes it even easier for the County to reject their offer.

At this point it feels like a colossal waste of time and still no facility in sight.

 

The county has been trying for decades to find someone to do something with this land. But maybe it should just continue to pay $2 million per year to maintain blighted property because Fisher is a big poopyhead.

 

Your words, not mine, although I don't entirely disagree. The supervisors were never going to accept an offer like that...250 hours/year is ridiculous. They're in no hurry...they'd rather pay the upkeep than do something to further enrich Mr. Poopyhead, at the expense of making the space available for the good of the public.

 

This is a pretty slanted piece. If you were actually at the meeting with the slew of supportive true Quakes fans, academy players, and team staff, and soccer proponents from the community, you'd have more context. Only one person made comments like "laughable / sweetheart deal". That was Simitian - the one curmudgeon. Sylvia Arenas didn't make comments like that, she was more concerned about immediate local community benefit. And that led to some conversation about possibly guaranteeing some use for the immediate neighboring community, which seems perfectly reasonable and is something I even mentioned before the meeting happened..

As for Sylvia's comment that it's "not our money - it's the public's money" I don't know what she's talking about. If the Quakes don't do the project they can continue to get negative money from the land and pay $2M to upkeep the blighted property. If the Quakes do the project they'll be earning money from the land which has been sitting idle for many years.

As for the pay for the fields or free time, the Quakes said that they were perfectly happy not managing those fields, and then the county or city can maintain and manage them just as they would any other city or country park or playing fields. Then it just comes down to the training facility and training fields, which the Quakes would build and operate, and hopefully they could come to some compromise on what would be a reasonable rent. But you can't base the rent purely on the value of the land because what are they going to do with it, build condos?

 

It's currently doing nothing for the good of the public. The 250 hours thing is definitely something the supervisors should negotiate on if they don't like the current terms. That's what the process is for. But rejecting the whole project because Oh No Fisher Is Bad is helpful to no one.

 

They have to weigh out what's in the best interest of the public at large, some would say building affordable housing and using it to help the homeless is more of a community service than 250 hours/year of free public access. The community has all kinds of needs that could be served there - and it's the last sizeable parcel of land the County has to work with. This was always going to be a tough sell when balanced against much more pressing needs in the county.

 

Fisher has himself to blame for the reputation he's built in the Bay Area. And even if he wasn't Mr Poopyhead, this is a chunk of land that everyone has been looking at for years as a place where we could serve some of the neediest in our community. The politics in play go far beyond building a community sports center in an area that's not particularly accessible for kids. And clearly the Quakes are missing the mark on balancing the needs of the community with Fisher's business goals.

 

Simitian had his own personal, private agenda that had nothing to do with public benefit. A congressional candidate scorned, settling scores.