First of all, my condolences to all San Jose Earthquakes fans. To others posting here, ffff******** off. What the ******** is with you people who feel some perverse need to stop by with bags of salt rather than flowers? Did you spit on your grandmother when they buried her? I wonder how many reunions you get invited to now... It's Anshutz Entertainment Group, not Anshutz Soccer Group. They started the goddamn league because they had to as part of bringing the World Cup here in '94,not because they're some magnificient benefactors of soccer. If anyone, that would be Lamar Hunt, not Phil Anshutz... Cowpie stadium (which is owned by Hunt Sports Group), is primarily for soccer for many reasons. But that's another story. AEG didn't swoop down and save the Quakes. Look at it this way... You remember those teams in Florida, right? That's one point. Losing San Jose would isolate LA (an AEG team...drr) at a bad time. They can't build their "cathedral of soccer" while shutting down the team next door... Point two. Chivas comes to town to play rivals for a day, and strike three. Don't you dare give me any ********ing **************** about AEG losing money. Especially in the same sentence where you exclaim that "they're businessmen, after all..." Losing a few million a year is just an investment for them. The return is, as has been stated earlier, (and as I have been calling them sarcastically for quite some time now) Concert Specific Stadiums that are publicly funded and corporately run. Give me control over a single good stadium venue for a few decades, and I'll make you back all the money AEG's ever lost and more. Especially if I already have all the other associated expenses under my own control. I'll end my rant here, though I could very seriously go into surprizingly minute detail...but time & place... RIP SJ Earthquakes
You didn't seem to have a problem with this when the Quakes were here. Nor did anyone else. When we had a team, there were only a select few complaining about the fact that AEG owned more than one team. To them, and to you, I say - if you don't like it, leave. This is the only way a professional soccer league is going to work in this country. If you expect 12 different bazillionaires to have a passion for the game, and fork over the millions, you are out of your ********ing mind. As I said before, most of you now complaining about AEG having more than one team kept your mouth shut during the season, because they were all we had. Now that they are gone, you are going to run your mouth? Sweet. If you are going to boycott AEG and/or MLS, you go have fun with that, and get off the boards, so those of us who are going to man up and support this league and this sport can do so.
A little over a decade ago, I could only dream of a local team to support. Now they are gone and I have the bonus of being angry, bitter and majorly bummed out. Whatever good memories I have of the past decade area little dimmer now because I cannot add to them. This does not feel like a benefit to me.
Pleanty of investors stepped up but AEG promised Houston a team from what I heard. There was no intent to keep San Jose here. Really sad. Fans were happy when we won the championship with LD, its the media who doesn't give the glory to FOOTBALL. You only see heroes in baseball or american football.
San Jose State was working with the Quakes to lower costs but AEG PROMISED a team to Houston. People knew but couldnt say.
As mentioned by Purdy in the paper, and comfirmed by SSV on Saturday, Spartan Shops did send an offer to AEG to reduce the cost of using Spartan stadium, but AEG did not respond to it. Whether it was a worthwhile offer or not is debatable, but it was a starting point that AEG declined to work from.
i think another part that led into the demise of San Jose was the fact that your city council pushed such an urgent issue back another month. really, if i were an owner of a team and the city i was in pushed something back that they had known about for a year, i would feel that the team was unwanted. the fact of the matter is, unless city council pushed it into a public vote and you could actually get it to pass, there would never be a SSS in San Jose.
You seem to be assuming that everyone of the fans didn't mind the fact that AEG was i/o of this team. You could not be more wrong. There were a hell of a lot of people that didn't want them. And that goes, too, for the idea of one corporate entity having more than one team. Anyone with half a bit of logic can see how the troubles are going to brew when this happens. We saw it with the Krafts, in several different ways, and we saw it with AEG.
Actually, you're wrong. I did have a problem with it and I posted that many times. Don't make assumptions just because you can't remember who said what.
Now what kind of reply is that? AEG and the City of San Jose behaved like corporate and political theives in this whole thing. AEG may be out of San Jose but THEY TOOK OUR TEAM WITH THEM when they really didn't have to!! I wonder about you sometimes spejic.
Good point but don't forget AEG rejected a compromise towards the end of the drama from Spartan Shops. Maybe the offer came too late but it came nonetheless.
A perfectly fine one. UrawaRed complained about how ... and guess what? They aren't the owners any more. It isn't AEG's fault someone didn't buy the Quakes.
I was just listening to the conference call with senor Garber.. Michael Lewis asks why he thought moving to Houston would work for the team, and Garber replies with "Well, you know, the Anshutz Entertainment Group is one of the best sports and entertainment groups in the world. They're focused, they're committed, and it has to get done, so they're going to put whatever resources against it that they need to in order to ensure that we have a successful launch in April." I nearly choked when I heard that. Is there another AEG out there that we didn't know about?!
It sounds just like the AEG we know. There is nothing in that statement that says MLS thinks AEG is committed to getting an SSS in Huston, just getting an office setup to sell tickets, practice field space for the team, rush job turf installation. All the important things that need to be done for a long term commitment...
Exactly. They stabilized us, but made no effort to call a doc, who would take over patient care to resuscitate us.