Soccer in Silicon Valley, Web 2.0 Style
So it’s finally official: the San Jose Earthquakes will take Major League Soccer up to fourteen teams next season, as MLS soccer returns to the Bay Area after a hiatus since 2005.
Lew Wolff, leading the investment group behind the new team, had this to say about the news:
While we are thrilled to bring Earthquakes soccer back to the Bay Area, we want to make one thing very clear: this is the dawn of a new era for professional soccer in San Jose. We join the MLS at a very exciting juncture in the league’s – - and the sport’s – - history in the United States. With the development of new soccer-only stadiums, expanded national television exposure and increased fan and corporate sponsor support, coupled with this area’s cultural diversity and long-standing interest in soccer, we expect a very bright future for this team.
But San Jose do not have a definite deal in place for a “soccer-only stadium”. What does this mean for Earthquakes fans and MLS?
Bay Area soccer fans have worked hard to bring back the Earthquakes – not least the folks at the Soccer Silicon Valley Blog – and it’s great they’re using the Earthquakes name, one that goes all the way back to the 1970s, when George Best turned out for the San Jose Earthquakes in the NASL.
The name was resurrected for MLS, only for AEG to move the “franchise” to Houston in 2005, after failing to build a soccer specific stadium in the Bay Area. The Earthquakes had been successful on and off the field, but the recent model for AEG and MLS has been to build soccer specific facilities.
What is perhaps a surprise is that MLS is allowing the return of the Earthquakes to the Bay Area with no soccer specific stadium deal finalised. Only weeks ago, MLS Commisioner Don Gerber noted that the outstanding success of Toronto FC’s launch as being in part due to a soccer stadium already in place for their first game, something that undoubtedly created a buzz in the city and gave the team a real home off the bat.
San Jose, however, will not only not have a soccer specific stadium for at least two years, they won’t even have a single home temporarily: they’ll instead flit about the existing stadia in the south and east bay, perhaps using different venues for different anticipated crowd sizes, and presumably depending on venue availability.
Will this nomadic existence succeed? On the one hand, it will surely make it hard for San Jose to sell season tickets, and the team will lack roots until a soccer specific stadium is built. On the other hand, it will increase the visibility of the team in a variety of communities. And in some ways it makes sense to hold big games in big stadiums (presumably when they play the Galaxy, or international friendlies) and smaller ones (hello, Columbus Crew) in smaller stadia. I’ve even read (though I’ve lost the link) of this described as a “web 2.0″ approach presumably fitting for soccer in the Silicon Valley.
Ultimately, the Earthquakes plan to build a stadium near San Jose airport if a deal can be finalised, as MLS.net explains:
Pending approval from the San Jose City Council, Earthquakes Soccer LLC has plans to build a new downtown privately-financed soccer-only stadium near Mineta San Jose International Airport. The stadium, targeted to open in 2010, will feature an intimate seating capacity of 18,000 to 20,000, and state-of-art technology and fan amenities. If city council members and the Wolff investor group reach agreement, the Earthquakes’ new playing venue will mark the first outdoor stadium built in nearly 80 years in San Jose, the third most-populated city in California.
Call me a dinosaur, but when I think of my team, I like to think of it as attached to the place they play every home game. I know that some Silicon Valley folks have more than condo, but most of us still live in one place and call that home. The sooner Wolff can get a soccer specific stadium built that the Earthquakes can call home, the better.
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Thomas Dunmore
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I’ve a rather large soft spot for the ‘Quakes, as they were my local team when I lived in San Francisco during the ’80s; I probably made it to eight to ten games a season on average (public transit to Spartan Stadium was always very spotty, or it would have been more).
So I’m glad to have them back, but am far from enthused about the nomad plan. Spartan has issues (primarily the fact that it is seriously narrow, with unforgiving concrete stands on both touchlines), but it is the club’s spiritual home and the most appropriate facility in the area. I note the website says that they expect to play “most of their games” in the South Bay, but I think I am right in saying that Spartan is the largest facility in that area (unless they consider Stanford to be “South Bay”, but few locals would). So does that mean most games in Spartan, “big” matches at Stanford, Candlestick (3com, Monster, whatever) or Oakland, and perhaps one or two small matches at smaller venue (college or high school) somewhere in the area? I don’t see what you get from that you don’t get from having a single home with perhaps a few matches further north.
It may be that Wolff sees failing to commit to Spartan as a tactic to get what he wants from the local authorities to build the new stadium, but if it is a tactic it is a dangerous one. Clubs need tradition and continuity, and this one has quite a discontinuous history). People in the South Bay do live in their cars, but they rreally aren’t going to want to drive someplace differenent every second week to watch a soccer game.
And they should bring back the old colors and logo; this one has never appealed to me.
Want to kill game-night walk-up traffic? Make it so casual fans don’t know which stadium to walk up to.
I’m trying to recall a single one of these intentionally-nomadic arrangements that has worked out, and I can’t. Relocation of the odd playoff game due to facility conflicts is one thing. But the only comparable examples I can even think of in a purportedly-major league were from the old ABA, the Virginia Squires and the Carolina Cougars, and we see how well they ended. Better to either pick one sub-par stadium and stick to it except for *one or two* big games, or delay the team’s return until the new one is built.
I’m pretty sure there’ll be no games at Spartan, ursus. Wolff’s pretty bitter about the failure of negotiations of SJSU over building a new stadium down there, from what I’ve read, so I think that option is out of the window permanently. If anyone knows the story any better, feel free to comment.
Josh, I agree, this is a big risk, especially with some Earthquakes fans possibly still bitter that their team upped and left a couple of years ago. I hope it works out – it’s a huge and critical market for soccer in America – but they really need to get a SSS built as soon as possible.
Spartan is definitely out, that’s been clearly stated according to numerous Quakes fans whose team news I totally trust.
Also, the situation with the stadiums was supposedly overblown. Dave Alioto has said that they’ll be focusing on two places or three at maximum. I’d bet for sure that McAfee Coliseum is one and then a small stadium somewhere in the Bay. It would be Stanford Stadium in a perfect world, it was the perfect place for the Chelsea game and our sideline seats were towering over the field. Great stadium for soccer.
The only thing wrong with Stanford Stadium is the university that surrounds it.
Go Bears.