Yesterday, I attended what many are calling a seminal event in the history of sports and business. At the headquarters of Cisco in north San Jose, most of the northern California media assembled with CEO, John Chambers, and the owner of the Oakland Athletics in the person of Lew Wolff. Also present were Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and A’s General Manager Billy Beane of “Money Ball” fame. It was a quartet that few reporters could resist. They didn’t and the cast did not disappoint.
In the worst kept secret since supposed WMDs in Iraq, Cisco and the A’s have a partnership to acquire 143 acres in the city of Fremont to build the park of the future: Cisco Park. Now it is official. It will be a combination of Camden Yards, Santana Row, and a Las Vegas consumer electronics show. With a titillating glimpse at the technology that a fan can indulge in at the new Cisco Park, we were treated to a look at what a clever sports team and one of the finest companies that ever existed can do in tandem. We got a bit of a feel of this technology workshop, but only a brief one.
Chambers was at his courtly best, exhibiting why his leadership at Cisco has been such a resounding success: modesty and competence and a nice persona. Wolff conducted the presentation with a number of Jay Leno-like quips and a panache that shows why he is one of the most successful developers of public/private projects in the world. And, operating in a public fishbowl in the maelstrom of an omnivorous media, few are as adept as Wolff—or as practiced. The elected officials of Fremont are going to be in for an interesting ride, and if they are smart, one that will be very beneficial for their city. I know that Wolff delivers on what he promises—a rare and enjoyable treat in that developer’s realm of overstatement and confusion.
One can only be amazed, when seeing yesterday’s event, at watching the botched opportunities and hysteria-on-steroids that was initiated by the 49ers announcement of a move to Santa Clara. This contrast is stark; the comparison painful. A betting man would give the odds of a Cisco Park as very good and the possibility of a Santa Clara 49ers as likely as a Super Bowl win for the red and gold this year.
Before getting too excited over the prospect of a great new stadium complex in Fremont, I’d like to know if Major League Baseball intends to allow us San Joseans to attend ball games there. After all, it’s not as if we’re endowed with unalienable rights. We must remember who we are: residents of a territory already awarded to the San Francisco Giants—a territory with the distinction of deserving a team of its own but doomed by being near cities incapable of supporting the teams they have.
It doesn’t seem possible that MLB, an organization that fiercely protected the Giant’s territorial rights when faced with San Jose’s stadium plans, is now going to allow the A’s crafty new owner to move the team south for the implicit purpose of increasing its gravitational tug on that same territory. No, Bud Selig must have a plan up his sleeve to keep San Jose baseball fans out of Fremont—certainly he can’t think the designated hitter rule will be repulsive enough. But what is his devious plan to repel territorial violators? Will he erect an apartheid-like fence to keep us out of Alameda county? Fit valley residents with black and orange ankle monitors? Make Ignacio De La Fuentes the stadium announcer? Name the complex after Norm Mineta, Rod Diridon, or Quetzalcoatl? Pave the parking lot to San Jose street standards? Or will the commissioner do something so effective and distasteful it makes me shudder to even consider: will he name, as the A’s new manager, San Jose’s own Ron Gonzales?
I think it’s offensive how SF politicians have threatened to make life difficult for the 49ers if they decide to continue to use “San Francisco 49ers” as the team’s name after the move to Santa Clara. I guess nobody told them that the “New York” Giants and Jets play in Jersey.
Other Cities- 2
San Jose- 0
#1 – very creative!
#2 – Newsom really showed his bad side, just the look on his face said it all. I never thought much of Willie B, but he could appear confident without being threatening.
Why not the Silicon Valley 49ers?
I thought that Diane Feinstein cheapened herself with her reaction and statements this week regarding the move of the 49’rs down to Santa Clara. It is understood that she was the mayor of San Francisco during the glory days of the team. But today, she is the senior US Senator from California and to align herself with one city or group over another appears to be bad politics.
Great post Finfan! I believe Peter Magowan and MLB are proposing a “DMZ” just north of Milpitas and Alviso, complete with razor wire, mines, and fully armed SFPD. As for Dianne Feinstein, where was her sports outrage when San Jose was trying to lure the A’s; she must have been appalled that San Jose was (and is) banned from acquiring a MLB team (was she not?). As for Cisco Field; would have been nice down at Diridon/Arena. However, Fremont will work. Lastly…NBA at HP Pavilion! Enough said.
It’s been kind of funny watching San Francisco unravel this past week at the prospect of the South Bay rocketing ahead of SF in the potential for sports recognition. First came the snarky remarks, then psychological denial followed by Feinstein promising to take it up in the U.S. Senate.
SF blaming York for giving up their Olympic bid was a load of hooey. SF’s previous bid for the 2012 Olympics called for stadium events to happen at Stanford, just a few miles away from the proposed 49ers Santa Clara stadium. If SF did not have a backup plan for it’s 2016 bid it’s clearly not York’s fault.
Then we have Senator Feinstein using the power of her office to lean on a private business owner. At the same time she’s threatening federal legislation to block use of the name “San Francisco” if the team moves. Has she forgotten that she was elected to represent the entire state? Then again, “The San Jose 49ers” has a nice ring to it.
Gavin Newsom and the SF Supes? It takes a lot to be outclassed by the Santa Clara City Council, but the brain trust in SF managed to pull it off.
Now if San Jose can build a soccer stadium and get an NBA franchise…
– If Wolff “is one of the most successful developers of public-private projects in the world. ” and owns San Jose property and
– If Chambers ” exhibited why his leadership at Cisco has been such a resounding success ” and Cisco is a San Jose based business then
Why can’t they both work together with Chamber and San Jose elected officials who both are responsibility for San Jose local economic development to work out details and get approvals on economic development projects, new jobs and sports teams ?
Feinstein, Newsom, Willie Brown, Burton’s etc and San Francisco residents have always been selfish, spoiled, angry badly behaved neighbors only interested in what is best for themselves and San Francisco not the region or any neighboring cities while pushed their issues and if they do not get their way behave badly – the very defination of ” badly behaving neighbors “
San Francisco has alway fought any regional cooperation or projects since they believe regional cooperation takes away from San Francisco special ” Star ” position, what benefits San Francisco and it’s unequal regional political and economic position
San Francisco and their politicians has always believed themselves better than their neighbors, entitled to be treated differently and deserving an unequal share of taxes, public spending and any decisions that benefits them etc
Ops sounds like our Downtown San Jose businesess and residents but without the Bay views and better retail stores and restaurants
Feinstein could have helped San Jose get a baseball team but it would have taken away from San Francisco Giants, her home town team
She never does anything that does not benefit San Francisco first and disproporationally
I was appalled at Feinstein’s move until I realized that what was at stake was the Olympics. I think she had every right to step in and try to help mediate the problem as that is an international event that, spread around the entire bay area, could have been incredible. The “Olympic Village” would have also produced permanent long term low income housing that is desperately needed.
San Francisco’s biggest industry tax revenue source is tourism. Not having 49’s NLF football team in SF takes away hotel and other taxes and shows their decline since every “major city ” has a NFL team
Can’t those unworthy “shopping mall” Yorks see why they should be grateful and honored to invest hundreds millions in San Francisco since we deserve a new 49ers Stadium
Besides SF’s ” definately better than us” progressives would have to take CalTrain public transit to ” unworthy ” Santa Clara suburbs to see ” their 49ers ” or even worst take BART to Oakland Raiders football and it would prevent them from getting a NFL team – territory rights
Why not
– NBA team and Sharks at HP Pavilion
– New pro soccer / San Jose State football stadium near Diridon station
– New SF Giants / San Jose State baseball stadium / housing complex near Spartan / Municipal stadiums
If San Francisco ” played well with others ” and was willing take a regional leadership not their traditional dictatorial role of “ we know better than you and will tell you what to do “ we could all have Northern California Olympics by having many local cities cooperatively work together and share financial costs and benefits
Olympics could use new Stanford football stadium, Fremont A’s baseball Stadium, San Jose’s HP Arena and potential soccer stadium which with public transit improvements to BART, CalTrain, VTA, San Francisco Muni etc could easily get people to events
San Francisco has never ” played well with others ” on regional projects or shared with other local cities.
So guess they will take their Olympic “ ball and go home” since their ego and selfishness demands that San Francisco be the ” Star ” of the ” San Francisco Olympics” not a partner with other local cities in a ” Northern California Olympics”
Sad, really sad since it would be great for Norhtern California and bring many local jobs and needed construction of public facilities and low income housing
What will be Mayor Reed’s Regional and Local Leadership role?
What about Regional Leadership –
– Northern California Olympics?
– Regional public transit planning, combined transit operations and revenue sharing?
– Regional cooperation on air quality, development, envirnomental, parks, open space traffic, highways etc ?
Others ??
Local Leadership –
– Chamber, City, Community and Labor working together rather than fighting over who get more and we all lose as last 8 years have shown
– Clear jobs, building development, economic development, tax subsidy justification, city service level, retail store, auto mall and resturant development policies that increasse city sales tax revenues policies
– How we will invest in and maintain city facilities and services within out tax and other resources
Others ??
I agree with #14, San Francisco has always had a condescending attitude toward San Jose.
Going to be interesting to see if Newsom runs for office again; remember his interview about 3 weeks ago when he indicated he may not. This current situation could be the last straw.
“Wolff delivers on what he promises – a rare and enjoyable treat in that developer’s realm of overstatement and confusion” –
This is why soccer fans in the Bay Area should be excited about the realistic prospects of the Earthquakes return to San Jose. Lost in the hub-hub surrounding the 49ers proposed move to Santa Clara (because the Mercury News did not report it until four days later)— was Wolff’s opening of a new office for the Earthquakes at the Fairmont hotel. This event, combined with his message on soccer at his recent Chamber of Commerce appearance, confirm that he is serious about building a privately financed soccer stadium and field complex in the South Bay. The Quakes will return and soccer players of all ages in San Jose will have the opportunity to play their game on necessary new fields.
We can’t get the ill-advised war in Iraq right; we can’t get the tax code right; we can’t get health care right; we can’t keep coal miners from dying; we can’t get immigration right; we can’t get lobbyists’ under control; we can’t get decent roads; we can’t educate our children properly…yet Senator Feinstein finds the time to weigh in on where the Forty Niners are going to play in2012!!!???
Jesus bloody Christ, where are the priorities?
The new office that Lew Wolff opened at the Fairmont is for both the Earthquakes AND the A’s; get the facts straight! And let’s not kid ourselves here; bringing MINOR League Soccer back to San Jose is no consolation prize for not getting Major League Baseball/The A’s downtown. It’s amazing that we are even entertaining that thought after MLS took the Quakes out of San Jose and transplanted them in Houston; now playing in a college stadium on par with Spartan (go figure!). Anyhow, if the City of San Jose decides it wants to throw taxpayers money at Quakes part 3, it better be in conjunction with SJSU football. That way, if (or when) MLS folds in a few years (the product is downright horrible!), said stadium could still be used for Spartan football. And please San Jose and Mr. Wolff, build it at South Campus or the Fairgrounds, and not Diridon South. Actually, I beg you to keep the “world sport” where it belongs…SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD!
If the city of san jose can’t get the A’s because it can’t give money without voter approval.
What is fremont giving to the project? Is Lew Wolfe doing it with his own money there? Why not do it with his own money in San Jose?
WOW This is a funny posting site. Every one’s got sh+t to say and no body is fessing up with their emails or names. This is the dummest thing since the Flash Gordon Rocket Ship.
I really miss Down Town Brown. Where are you Dr Zarkoff?
D.O.A.
#22,
I imagine if the A’s were allowed to move to San Jose proper, you would of had hundreds of A’s fans present at the opening of the Fairmont office. So who needs a SSS with a capacity of 22,000; save money by keeping it at 250 capacity! Remember, this isn’t about bringing the NFL, MLB, or NBA to the nations 10th largest city; it’s about bringing back an inferior product/league that had two teams fold over the past 4 years. San Jose has been “kicked in the face” to much already over the past year; we don’t need any more embarrasment!
Lew Wolf can and will get a soccer stadium built. Hopefully, it will be in cooperation with SJSU so we can continue to watch Spartan football. It was sad when Santa Clara University dropped their football program.
Wolff’s San Jose interest is baseball. He’s moved into downtown under the guise of bringing soccer “back” to San Jose to gain a ticket sales foothold in the south bay.
Wolff’s not really interested in soccer. Why would he be? #25 has it right. San Jose was kicked in the teeth by MLS and AEG. And now there’s a clamor to get back in that league? Why? Surely Wolff can see that. MLS is a bad business model. Otherwise why aren’t more investors knocking down the MLS doors?
And read between the lines. When MLS pulled up stakes they threw the poor soccer lemmings a bone by letting them “keep” the Earthquakes name and history, in case MLS ever comes back…sorta like a Cleveland Browns scenario. There’s one big difference. The NFL committed to placing an expansion team in Cleveland with a committed date. MLS has made no such commitment. They might decide to place a franchise in San Jose if Wolff comes up with an acceptable new stadium. Wolff has a 3 year option to make a bid for the franchise, but there’s no commitment from MLS that they’ll place a franchise here if those conditions are met. MLS threw Earthquakes fans bait and they bit. MLS will continue to string them along and make them believe they’re guaranteed a future expansion franchise, when all the while MLS is distancing themselves from this acrimonius situation.
And while that’s going on, Wolff will be selling tickets for the San Jose A’s of Fremont from his Fairmont offices while soccer becomes a distant memory that didn’t “pencil out”.
Somehow those delusional types in SF still think they have clout and that their town houses the economic engine of the Bay Area. We went through this when Bob Lurie tried to move the Giants to Santa Clara and Feinstein quickly killed the attempt. If I read the account correctly, part of that effort to move the Giants south included developing the whole territorial rights thing to make it easier to move an SF team to SC. What Lurie thought would facilitate that move has turned out to be a roadblock in ever getting a MLB team to locate in SJ.
The facts are clear. Neither the city of SF or Oakland provide much of the fan base for their respective MLB and NFL teams. Everybody knows the majority of fans and bulk of the money are here in SC County.
If we manage to get the SJ name attached to the A’s, that’s the most we can hope for. And I don’t think it’s a big deal if the 49ers move to SC, that their name be changed slightly to SF “Bay” 49ers and everybody ought to be happy. Bottom line is, SF will survive just fine without the 49ers. Their ego has been bruised becasue Mr. York has had the guts to advise them that their town is no longer a viable location for an NFL franchise.
I’m no fan of Santa Clara. I think that town is way quirky and and generally too conservative for my tastes. No sense of historic preservation, no sense of aesthetics anywhere, and hardly deserving of a football team. If SF ends up devising workable plan to keep the 9ers, I won’t shed any tears for Santa Clara. All those suburbanites will still enjoy driving their red SUV’s with gold trim 50 miles to the game just like they’ve always done.
#19, why do we need a bunch men in tight pants throwing fast balls when we have city hall. SJ politics is by far the most entertaining sport.
Yes, the new office at the Fairmont is technically for both the A’s and the Earthquakes, but you will have to excuse Colin, at the opening of the office there were 250 soccer fans and 2 A’s fans present. Wherever Lew decides he wants a stadium I am sure he will get the job done!
Sorry, maybe I’m just too gullible. But Lew Wolff has spent way too much money on the Earthquakes idea to let it go at this point. My favorite quote from the opening gala at the A’s/Earthquakes office? “I like soccer better than baseball.” Of course, who could attend a World Cup and not come away with that attitude? I’m sure he’ll get it done.
As for the 49ers, the Santa Clara threat sounds like just a threat to me. I don’t think there’s even room for a NFL stadium on that land, much less the necessary parking. It’d be a great spot for an MLS stadium however!
I wonder why “Can’t Stand Soccer” doesn’t just use the name “Ignorant”.
Which two MLS teams folded in the last 4 years?
#27, the conditions of Wolff’s deal with MLS are almost identical to that of the NFL’s deal with Cleveland. Cleveland was promised a team by 1999, provided it built a new stadium. Wolff has been promised a team within 3 years, provided he builds a stadium.
Excellent post RIPavilion! After the 2001 MLS season, the MONEY LOSING Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion contracted! Speaking of ignorance, don’t believe MLS and their inflated attendance reports! The league averages 10k fans per game; hence they have been a money loser ever since their conception ($350 million to date).
MLS “downsized” its Florida teams (Tampa Bay and Miami) after the 2001 season.
#14, read up. The plan for the olympics in the bay area would have used venues all over the area, not just in san francisco.
I am a huge Quakes fan as well as a fan of all the other local teams (but I like the A’s a lot more than the Giants, sorry). All the vitriol on this blog over potential or forthcoming moves is painful to read.
I honestly think that Wolff will resurrect the Quakes. MLS, for all it’s faults, is a young league and is working to find it’s footing financially. The key (and the demise of the Quakes in San Jose, ironically) is teams having a soccer specific stadium. The teams that do are profitable. Not wildly so, but still making money. This has been attracting new ownership groups to stablize the league.
Wolff is local, has money and has surrounded himself with good people. Plus, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and 3 more years to land us a new team. After all, what is more difficult? Buying an MLB team, building a new stadium and moving the team OR getting a new MLS club with a stadium?
I wish EVERY team in the Bay Area success.
“can’t stand”, just shut up before you make a bigger idiot out of yourself. The only thing people can’s stand here are ignorants like yourself.
OK—let’s correct a couple things here:
– Yes, MLS folded two teams after 2001. 2006 minus 2001 is five years, not four as “Can’t Stand Soccer” claimed. Besides, if you keep reading, you’ll see why that is completely irrelevant.
– RIPavilion claims that Lew Wolff really isn’t interested in soccer. Evidence to the contrary is the fact that Wolff, A’s president Michael Crowley, and A’s GM Billy Beane spent two weeks at the World Cup in Germany this summer—right in the middle of baseball season.
– RIPavilion also wrote the following: “MLS is a bad business model. Otherwise why aren’t more investors knocking down the MLS doors?” Some of the recent investors in MLS, besides Lew Wolff, are the following: Maple Leaf Sports in Toronto, who also own the NHL Maple Leafs and the NBA Toronto Raptors; Dave Checketts, who also owns the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and is former president of both the Utah Jazz and Madison Square Garden, the company that owns the NHL’s New York Rangers and the NBA’s New York Knicks; Dietrich Mateschitz, the Austrian billionaire behind Red Bull energy drink; Antonio Cué and Jorge Vergara, who own soccer teams in Mexico and Costa Rica; and Stan Kroenke, who also owns the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL Colorado Avalanche, and is co-owner of the NFL’s St. Louis Rams. If MLS has such a bad business model, how come these people, all of whom are experienced in other major league sports, are investing in American soccer? Oh, and I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up: All of those investors got involved with MLS after the two Florida teams were dropped in 2001.
– Finally, RIPavilion writes that “Wolff has a 3 year option to make a bid for the franchise, but there’s no commitment from MLS that they’ll place a franchise here if those conditions are met.” I think Lew Wolff is smart enough to have negotiated a guarantee from MLS, as well as a final purchase price for the team, in the deal for his option. If he builds a stadium, the team is coming back.
– Finally, there are some questions regarding why Wolff has stopped pursuing the idea of building a stadium in San Jose for the A’s. He made that very clear when he addressed the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce in August. I covered this on the Soccer Silicon Valley blog—click my name below for the story.
Ask yourselves this, Earthquakes fans.
If MLS is really committed to bringing your team back, wouldn’t it just be good PR to resurrect your team in Spartan Stadium as a temporary measure while Wolff makes the stadium deal happen?
MLS has already announced 2007 expansion in Toronto. That gives them an odd number of teams. They would rather screw up their entire 2007 schedule with an odd number of teams than operate a team in San Jose.
It’s apparent from reading this discussion that MLS needs all the positive PR it can get. They could do that with one bold move in this market. The truth is they don’t want to be in this market, or else they’d be here already.
#37 Good points but the league did not move the team, the owners did. MLS wanted to keep the team here and know this a graet market for them. Unfortunately, it was ownership that decided to move them. Nobody local stepped up other than Wolff & Co. When the move as announced, Wolff was quoted as saying that it was his understanding from the Quake’s owner that staying at Spartan while a stadium was built was not an option the owner wanted.
Needless to say, the Quake’s ownership was not local. Wolff is local. He knows San Jose and has made money there. He does how to operate here and can get a team back.
I think the Bay Area is big enough to support all the teams it has and then some.
No, it wouldn’t be a good idea for MLS to bring back the team in Spartan Stadium while Wolff works on the deal. The new Quakes need a stadium to be profitable. They aren’t going to bring the team back until they know they have a stadium deal in the bag. Otherwise they risk having Wolff’s efforts prove unsuccessful, and they’re left again with a team in an unworkable situation, which would probably get moved or folded.
#25 You said, “I imagine if the A’s were allowed to move to San Jose proper, you would of had hundreds of A’s fans present at the opening of the Fairmont office. So who needs a SSS with a capacity of 22,000; save money by keeping it at 250 capacity! “
My response to you is…when locals were trying to gain support for an A’s stadium they held a rally in downtown San Jose. Less than 150 people showed up. When a rally was held not long after in support of soccer well over 1500 fans showed up. So, your “hundreds” of A’s fans never showed up when it counted.
Wolff may decide to resurrect the Quakes at Spartan temporarily but I think MLS wants shovels in the ground for a new SSS before the team returns. I think the Bay Area is one of the top soccer markets in the country (World Cup ratings were very high for the bay area, for example).
Colin (#17), you are absolutely right on the money!
Unlike the Anschutz Entertainment Group (the San Jose Earthquakes’ previous owner), Lewis Wolff and John Fisher are offering to build a soccer-specific stadium (“The [Corporate name] Epicenter at San José”, perhaps?) and surrounding training and youth soccer fields completely with their own money, asking only for a good deal on the land and perhaps some surrounding roadside infrastructure improvements.
Besides hosting San Jose Earthquakes home games, The Epicenter would also host exhibition games with other soccer teams from around the world as well as the U.S. National Team (both men’s and women’s) and the occasional MLS Cup final and MLS All-Star Game. The stadium would also have many non-soccer uses, and the surrounding youth fields would see year-round use as well in an area that’s currently underserved with youth soccer fields.
My preferred site would be at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, mainly for all the space there that would allow everything to be built in one location (stadium, training and youth fields, parking space, surrounding housing and retail outlets, etc.). The Diridon site and the SJSU South Campus site are also good locations for various other reasons, the former for its close proximity to the Diridon train station and to the downtown area, and the latter for its direct benefit to the SJSU football and soccer programs.
Also, any of these three locations would allow the team to rightfully keep its “San Jose Earthquakes” team-name intact, the way the team-name has been around for most of the last +30 years. The importance of this can’t be emphasized enough!
As has already been mentioned here, Lew Wolff has shown that he knows how to build and finance a stadium the right way, and at only a fraction of the cost of a baseball complex (the approximate cost of the soccer complex for Wolff and Fisher would be about $70 million – $100 million or so), the San Jose Earthquakes and its new privately-financed stadium would make a proud and, now with a local owner, more permanent addition to the San Jose (and by extension, to the entire Bay Area in general) landscape.
-G
#31: Exactly! On Wednesday, May 24, 2006, Lewis Wolff and John Fisher signed an exclusive three-year agreement to complete a soccer-specific stadium deal here and own the new San Jose Earthquakes. There most definitely IS a time-period that they have to work with like in the Cleveland Browns situation.
#24: The reason the A’s didn’t come to San Jose is because they CAN’T come to San Jose. The San Francisco Giants officially hold the territorial MLB rights to Santa Clara County, and as much as Lew Wolff tried to get Commissioner Bud Selig and the other MLB powers-that-be to change it, he couldn’t. So for those who think otherwise, it’s NOT like the Earthquakes would get the Diridon site (or any other San Jose site, for that matter) instead of the A’s… the A’s aren’t allowed to come anywhere NEAR there, with or without the Earthquakes.
#37: Lewis Wolff and other A’s top brass did indeed travel to Germany for the World Cup this last summer – during baseball season, no less.
Fact is, Wolff has never NEEDED the Quakes and a soccer stadium to have gotten Cisco Field. He would’ve gotten CF regardless, yet he continues plugging away spending money at getting the new San Jose Earthquakes up and running anyway. “The [Corporate name] Epicenter at San José” WILL happen sooner rather than later, and it’ll be as much a jewel of a soccer stadium as Cisco Field will be a jewel of a baseball stadium (as a fan of the San Francisco Giants and their own stadium jewel, that’s really saying something!).
#42: The shovels don’t necessarily need to be in the ground, but a deal for a new stadium must officially be struck. Stiill, Wolff would like to field a new San Jose Earthquakes by 2008, most likely in Spartan Stadium for a season or so until the new stadium is ready for use, but the deal must be struck first.
In any case, see you all at the San Jose Earthquakes home opener in 2008 (most likely at Spartan Stadium for a season) or, at the very latest, in 2009.
-G
Bring all the sports teams you want to town, as long as no public money is spent and that no city services suffer as a result. Otherwise, play away.
I am thrilled about the new Cisco Park plans, but will be over the moon when Lew brings the Quakes back. I see no reason to tear down one sport in order to elevate another, and evidently, neither does Lew. You soccer haters have a very limited view of what will benefit our community. I say, the more teams, the merrier we (all) will be!
Tom McEnery says that if the city leaders of Fremont, if they are smart, can get something very beneficial for their city. The same goes for the leaders of San Jose. If they have any foresight, they should be able to recognize what soccer can do for them – just as Lew Wolff has recognized this. Today on KLIV radio I heard that Director of Public Outreach Tom Mannheim was looking to a Palo Alto company Global Fluency (if I remember correctly) to help spend the $200,000 the Council had discussed using to tell the world about San Jose. I would humbly suggest getting on the Earthquakes soccer bandwagon that Lew Wolff is assembling. Do you want “the world” to know about San Jose? Soccer can be the vehicle. You can set up “sister city” games with San Jose’s “Sister Cities”. Do you want to make contact with high-tech in Ireland? Well, George Best played for the Quakes years ago and San Jose is known over there for that. Do you want business opportunities in a Japan-San Jose connection? The last time the Japanese national team played in this area there were 37,000 tickets sold and a huge contingent of Japanese fans came to see that game. It is unfortunate that the Mercury-News can be so parochial as to virtually ignore soccer, but city leaders should be able to look a few years down the road, recognize the value of a Lew-Wolff backed stadium combined with a valuable “brand-name” like the San Jose Earthquakes, and see that they can use that to deliver the message that San Jose can be a cosmopolitan “world-class” city that can use soccer to get its foot in the door around the world, and then use that opportunity to promote this area. Do you want to differentiate yourself from “The City That Knows How (to lose a football team)”? Connect yourself to “The World’s Game”. Earthquakes soccer can do that if you put city support behind it (and I don’t necessarily mean financial – I mean help promote and boost it). I am not trying to knock other sports – I am only saying that soccer has natural worldwide advantages for promoting the San Jose area business and tourism that those other sports don’t have. Tenth-largest city in the US? Make yourself the US soccer AND tech leader and promote the heck out of that world-wide.
Ah, good work Goodsport, Jay, Tony H, John J, O C, Bill, and others!
For those of you who don’t like soccer, get over it. The sports “market” in the USA is huge and very fractured. Most sports fans follow only a single sport or league, maybe two. Most of us don’t have the time for more, not to mention the tolerance of spousal units!
Soccer isn’t going to take fans away from other sports, nor the reverse. The Quakes have been playing in San Jose in one form or another since 1974, with a couple of interruptions. The Quakes belong in San Jose as much as any team belongs in the Bay Area. At least they didn’t move here from elsewhere.
And before anyone notices that I don’t live nearby, I grew up in the Bay Area. I only recently moved away, and I still had Quakes season tickets in 2005.
QUAKES FOREVER!!
GO WOLFF!!
– Mark
Cisco and Wolff got it right – find a way to show off the best of what Silicon Valley can produce to the world, while fulfilling needs and wants of its residents. So it makes perfect sense that since there are a number of local professional teams that need stadia ASAP (coincidence?), forward-thinking people like this would choose to create monuments to the innovation that has driven the state’s economic engine, in the form of crazy-tech-happy state-of-the-art stadiums that ought to make owners and investors the world over drool.
Can you envision this being the beginning of a race of sorts by the tech community to get one of these for their own company or conglomerate to show off their wares, while entertaining regional fans of this or that. sports franchise? Surely the idea of a company throwing millions out just to slap their name on such was a laughable plan? Who’s laughing now? [The NY Mets for one, if you care to check the figure on that naming deal].
So Fremont gets one, Santa Clara gets one…gee, who do you think gets the next out here? Mr. Wolff is working that one out right now, and, yes he IS serious about making this work. Just makes you wonder what all the local tech giants are plotting to one-up Cisco Field (Ellison? Jobs? got game?)
The San Jose Earthquakes are coming back. Deal with it. We will!
Hey all! Cease fire between all baseball and soccer interests! In regards to the FUTURE OF SPORTS, can we all agree that an NBA franchise should be on San Jose’s radar? Sharks CEO Greg Jamison has already stated his interest in obtaining a basketball franchise for HP Pavilion. He and Oracle’s CEO (his name slips my mind at this point…Ellison?) came pretty close in the Spring at purchasing the Seattle Supersonics ($450 million!). I’m pretty sure the Maloof brothers (Sac Kings) and Paul Allen (Port TrailBlazers) are contemplating selling their franchises. And as I stated in another post, the Warriors don’t have territorial rights to San Jose (NBA doesn’t have an anti-trust exemption like MLB); so no problems in that sense. And most importantly…the facility is already there! With upgrades coming soon. NBA basketball would be awesome at HP Pavilion…do you all agree?
The lack of econ knowledge bugs me. Just because baseball is more popular than soccer doesn’t make it a better investment—it sometimes makes it worse. See, the thing is, every bum on the San Francisco sidewalks knows how popular baseball is, so you can’t beat anyone to anything.
Wolff is gonna spend ~5x what a premium soccer facility costs on the A’s, and he’s gonna get a stadium that from the very day it opens is only mid-tier (it would have cost ~8x as much to build one that competes with the top stadiums in baseball). Then he’s gonna spend ~20x as much on the players every year. All this after having paid 20x as much for the team.
This is all because there are 30 other multimillion other baseball teams whose standards you have to measure up to, becasue baseball is an established sport. Getting in on the ground floor of something is where the real money is, so it’s not very surprising Wolff wants to take a shot.
I had to laugh when Dianne Feinstein made the assinine comment: “…you can’t take them out of SF and still call them the 49ers…” Right Dianne. I’m reminded that many decades ago when a grizzled old Gotham resident heard that Horace Stoneham was moving his baseball team: “…you can’t take them out of NY and still call them the Giants.”
Feh.
Actually Mark, I find it remarkably funny that San Jose’ans would accept a team with San Francisco in the name.
For all the bravado the city puts out about being the largest city in Nor Cal, its economics, and wanting to be considered a world class city, it’s quite pathetic that they would glom on to a real world class cities’ identitity instead of trying to create their own. SF is perfectly within their rights to take measures to keep the name and identity. just as San Jose wanted to keep rights to keep he SJ Earthquakes name. Is it SF’s fault that your politicians are corrupt pansies with no weight?
What people don’t realize is the experience there is with the Earthquakes. If a person who is not familiar with soccer goes to an Earthquakes game, they will get hooked into it easily and I’m sure Lew Wolff got hooked when he, Michael Crowley and Billy Beane went to Germany for the World Cup. Even Beane told the media that he had a blast and he is the GM of a baseball team. I guarantee everybody that once Lew Wolff revives the Earthquakes, he’s going to be hooked into the team and is going to go wherever they go.
People complain that soccer is boring because nobody scores. Well, it’s not that easy to score a goal, especially in the professional level. In my opinion, soccer is more active than baseball, ten players on the field have to run for 90 minutes which is not easy.
What is great about the Earthquakes is the fanbase, despite how small it is, the fans are so loyal to the team, in fact the Earthquakes have the loyalist fans in the league and what people don’t realize except Quakes fans is that the players loved it. The previous Quakes have done so much community service than Barry Bonds will ever do (never). They coached kids when they are not practicing, attended to charities and some players even received awards for their participation. That’s the sad part that SJ didn’t recognized a championship team showing care for their city. None of the players didn’t want to leave San Jose. Even though they are settling in Houston, I’m sure they still miss the Bay Area and it’s fans.
The Earthquakes have set so many records in SJ and it’s still there. San Jose was the city where MLS’ first game was held and who won? The Clash (The team’s name back then until 1999). Who hosted the first international match and won it? The Clash. The Quakes finished dead last in 2000 and all of the sudden then head coach Frank Yallop turned the team around and they became MLS Cup Champions (The first worst to first team in league history). 2003 was another incredible year, the greatest match in MLS history was held in San Jose as the Quakes were down 4-0 against the rival Los Angeles Galaxy (which I will get to). It seemed to be over for the Quakes but they came back and tied it before the end of regulation sending a hellacious scream at Spartan Stadium and the Earthquakes won it one it on overtime with the fans doing nothing but chanting. They also won their second championship that year. And let’s not forget 2005, the Quakes had nothing but we still considered out players stars, they turned into a whoop ass machine and beating every team standing on the field. They set a league record for fewest losses (4) and they also became the first team to go unbeaten at home for a year (the record still stays in SJ so when the new team arrivees they can add on to that streak). All these records are still in SJ.
The Earthquakes-Galaxy rivalry has rised so fast that they caught up to the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, they proved to the world that they truly hate each other. I know for sure that the rivalry will picked where it left off when the new team arrives because even the Galaxy and their fans miss the rivalry even though they got a new one with Chivas USA but it’s not the same as they have with the Quakes.
All of what I said is now in the hands of Lewis Wolff so he has my biggest support on bringing back the most historical team in American soccer.