Expansion Failure: San Jose’s New Stadium In Doubt
There has been a lot of focus in Major League Soccer on the expansion success stories of the past three years — Toronto, Seattle and even the surprisingly solid Salt Lake — but one new team sticks out like a sore thumb: rooted to the bottom of the Western Conference standings and with an attendance average barely scraping five figures at Buck Shaw Stadium, 2008 expansion team the San Jose Earthquakes are not looking so rosy.
And now it looks like the number one need for the team, a new dedicated soccer stadium, may be postponed. Owner Lew Wolff told the San Jose Mercury News he was backing off the $50 million stadium project near Mineta San Jose International Airport. He told the newspaper the Quakes were struggling to find sponsorship for the stadium due to low attendances and season ticket sales.
“You can’t do it out of magic,” Wolff said. “There’s no sense
building a stadium unless you have some flow of revenue.”
Wolff’s naivety over the relaunch of the team in 2008 is clear in the following comment: “It didn’t catch on the way I thought it would,” Wolff said. “I thought it would naturally fall into place. We expected to have a waiting list — before we fielded a team. While we did OK, it is about half of what I expected.”
Wolff has failed to come to terms with the legacy of AEG’s decision to move the original Earthquakes franchise to Houston in 2005. While what AEG did obviously can’t be attributed to him, he seems to have underestimated the damage to the more casual fanbase such a move did. Why would fans believe that this time the Earthquakes would be worth a lasting investment? Why would season tickets sales suddenly rocket because a team with the same name returned?
Wolff’s front office has hardly excelled themselves in marketing and promotion of the team. The relaunch was a dud: the club’s badge looked like soccer clipart, and there was none of the creative buzz Toronto and Seattle launched with. The club has some hardcore support, but has failed to attract the casual fan needed to fill even a 10,000 seat stadium.
This is not all Wolff’s fault. The Bay Area media is hardly soccer-friendly, and the rather fragmented nature of a giant metropolitan area clustered awkwardly around the Bay makes the location and branding in San Jose less than ideal. But it’s still a city of almost a million people itself, enough (theoretically) to support an MLS team, especially with little summer sporting competition in the city.
Off the field, Wolff should listen to his own words — “You can’t do it out of magic.” It takes investment and engagement to build enough support to even fill a 10,000 seat stadium when your team is bottom of the league. If the local newspaper isn’t covering your team enough, then you better be bombarding new media — especially in this region — with engagement instead. Failure on the field is hardly going to reengage fans after a championship winning team was unceremoniously moved to Houston just a few years earlier.
After all, the team — after some promising moments in 2008 — has been an unmitigated disaster in 2009. Wolff seems unwilling to make a change. While that’s his prerogative, in the interview he commits the cardinal sin of saying “I don’t give a damn what the fans say. It is not something that happens overnight.” While Lew might be right, and it may well not matter what the fans say, you just don’t say that to the media when it’s your fans spending their money on what you are selling. And frankly, fans won’t spend enough money to attract sponsors for the new stadium until the Earthquakes do a better job of selling themselves.
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What is a Huckerby?
This is such a shame for San Jose. The new stadium would have made them a much more attractive prospect for players to join. When a player comes to view a new club, one of the first things they will look at / make a judgement on is the Stadium.
The results have been poor as well, so overall San Jose isn’t looking great right now. They might as well have Phil Brown in charge! He is Hull City’s manager and seems to put off every potential new player.
Hopefully things will pick up for San Jose. They are a good club with excellent fans.
Oh, the fallout from the “don’t give a damn” comment will be something to behold. Quakes are my team, I live in San Jose, and I can tell you that there’s effectively ZERO marketing. We get a dumbass mascot who walks in the holiday parade every year, and that’s about it. Maybe the supporters clubs need to get involved and do some guerrilla marketing on their own.
The team is in the wrong part of the bay. This will piss off a lot of Quakes fans but to bad it is a fact. By putting the team basically in the southern most part of the bay, a large portion of bay area soccer fans just aren’t willing to make the trek to that pit known as Buck Shaw. It is 45 minutes by car each way for me coming from the city so the north bay and large portions of the East Bay just aren’t able or willing to take the trip to Santa Clara. Also I have tried to get many of the guys from the city to come to games and they just will not root for a team from San Jose, Oakland or San Francisco sure but San Francisco and San Jose might as well be on different planets. The lack of marketing is shocking and just shows that Wollfe is running the Quakes the same way he runs the A’s, on the cheap. Downtown Stadium in SF or even at Hunter Point would increase attendance because all points of the bay can get to SF with public transportation, plus there just isn’t shit to do after a Quakes game. San Jose may have more people than San Francisco but San Francisco is the true city. San Jose is just a really big suburb. Please don’t site soccer history for the team being in SJ because the last team got moved to Houston, so much for history. If the Quakes aren’t careful, well can anyone show Lew the way to St. Louis. Move the team north Lew and we could rival Seattle and Toronto.
I’ve gotta agree with Tony. SF is the City. There is a stigma to rocking a jersey that says San Jose in every other part of the Bay Area. But everyone in the Bay Area is willing to support a SF team. Don’t bring up the Sharks. Hockey demographics fit San Jose and their marketing was fantastic. But SF has the cosmopolitan market to support a team, access to transport and bars that will rock our colors.
Here’s an idea. Put a stadium on Piers 30/32 in SF. That place is a dump.
I think that’s all pretty much true, much as I don’t like it. The long-term vision is sound–a new soccer-specific stadium directly adjacent to both Caltrain and BART, adjacent to a new mixed use retail/medium-density housing development–that’d be a win. The problem is that the base needs to be there.
No offense to the big little brother up north, but the south bay has plenty enough people to make a solid fan base–just look at the Sharks. But we can all agree that Wolfe’s marketing has been… god, it’s not even bad, it’s just not there at all. SJFD has a firetruck with a shark’s fin on the back, for chrissakes.
skip: I’m going to bring up the Sharks because there is not, as far as I know, any stigma attached to rocking a Sharks jersey. I’d also love to hear an explanation of how San Jose has the right demographics for pro hockey but not pro soccer.
BTW my previous comment was re: Tony, not skip.
Chris as I agree with you that there are plenty of people in the south bay, I must point out that the level of apathy is unreal. You can have a 10 million people but if they don’t give a crap the stadium is empty. Plus since Lew bought the rights to northern California not just San Jose it’s all the rest of got to so it isn’t just San Jose’s team. For the good of soccer in the entire bay area moving the team to a more central and a more easily accessible area (more public transportation available). Makes sense for the health and growth of the sport. If not Lew could just move the team again then MLS in this are a dead for decades or forever. That said if San Jose gets it done I will support it, but I am in the minority up here.
Chris,
This ain’t going to be pretty. But I’m going to go there.
San Jose is a sprawled-out suburb with a huge immigrant population. The second-generation kids are a bit more rough and tumble. There is nothing elitist or pretentious about them. They take very well to collision sports like football or even hockey, where fighting is a part of the game. San Fran, Palo Alto and Los Altos consider themselves to be more elite and enlightened than San Jose and they try to get outta there before nightfall – party for safety reasons and partly to avoid boredom.
San Francisco is a true urban cosmopolitan center with effete intellectuals, homosexuals, and snobs who think they live in Paris. AT&T park is a boutique ballpark for yuppies at high prices. And it works! If you look at MLS in Seattle, Portland and Philadelphia; the success is coming from going to urban center where people like the European feel of attending soccer games.
Leave the yuppies, effete intellectuals and snobs up in their city to fight over Niner and Giants tickets. Why in the F would we want those people at Quakes games? To make, what, a great gameday atmosphere? We already have Santana Row here in SJ, we don’t need to turn Buck Shaw or the Epicenter into such dreck. Crass corporate BS doesn’t a longtime soccer fan make, anyway. And no SSS will be built in the City – even the Niners are moving down here to the South Bay, as will the A’s. Seems like the momentum is swinging in our direction. Sharks do just fine (part owners of the Quakes).
We’ll all see the new stadium renderings in a month, and it will get built, not later but sooner. Lew won’t wait for expenses to go up.
Even without a stadium the first version of the Clash/Earthquakes were in the bottom third of attendance the last four years of their existence at Spartan Stadium, even though they were a championship team. AEG is pretty smart, and so them moving the first team out should have said something.
I don’t know much about the Bay area fan base, but it seems increasingly, the most successful teams are ones that are close to a city’s main core. Not sure if a San Jose named team out at the airport, even in a new stadium would do any better than at Santa Clara. As for the Sharks demographics, maybe what they for whatever demographic there is, is a downtown stadium where there are things to do before and after games. MLS really needs to look at where stadiums are located and how it comes into play with transportation infrastructure and density of fans nearby and not just that they could find a cheap place to build.
Re: Skip
San Jose has the largest population of any of the big 3 cities in the bay area and the highest per capita income of them. Santa Clara County has a higher per capita income than all the other Bay Area counties save San Mateo, which is equi-distant to SJ and SF. So moving to SF or Oakland wouldn’t help get any more San Mateo fans out to games. Santa Clara County also has far more corporate headquarters and business wealth than SF and Oakland. These businesses invest tons of money in buying luxury boxes and ticket packages from Sharks games. The Quakes just need to do a better job marketing to them. A new stadium would go a long way towards getting more money from the corporations.
The Sharks are the 3rd wealthiest and most attended NHL franchise in the league. There is a reason why the Niners and A’s are trying desperately to move to the South Bay. There is more money to be made here. The Quakes are just suffering from the legacy of being screwed over by AEG and being in last place both last season and this season. If you did that to Seattle or Toronto in a few years it would have the same effect on their fan bases.
DC:
Imagine DC United has Landon Donovan and wins the MLS Cup. Then imagine MLS uses some shenanigans and sends Donovan to your most hated rival, New England or New York, and you get nothing in return. Then imagine the rest of your championship squad gets moved to San Antonio and you have no team for two years. Then imagine they come back and are in last place for their first two years back. What do you think it would do to your fan base?
maybe people in the bay don’t watch to watch the Quakes, cause the level of play and refereeing in MLS is laughable compared to the teams they grew up watching and supporting. and the experience sucks unless you’re a soccer mom or a 6 yr old kid or a wannabe hooligan who learned everything you know about being a ’supporter’ from watching Green Street Hooligans. just a thought.
@skip, soccer is “the people’s game”. Why would you take a game that appeals to the masses and then market it to the elitists? People get so hung up on SF. “Oh we’re ‘The City’”. Give me a break. Did you see the inter vs club america friendly? I did. That place was rockin (35k people? Not too bad) and most of them were Club America fans. In fact, here in SJ I see tons of Pachuca, America, Pumas, etc badges. People here are hungry for soccer. It’s up to the management to figure out how to get them into the stadium.
@lol, well then I guess we should just give up on the whole idea of professional soccer in America because it will obviously never work. Thanks for showing us the error of our ways.
Don’t feed the @lol troll. I’m sure he won’t be back, anyway.
good article…
as a earthquake fan i have been to most every game this season and love being at the games.
but i would have to agree with most people here the marketing is terrible.
most people that live in san jose or the bay area for that matter don’t even know that there is a professional soccer team in the area. what kind of marketing is that?
I have never heard nor seen an earthquakes ad on the radio\TV\billboard\anywhere. How are people even supposed to know that there is anything going on unless they are die hard fans?
I still don’t believe that the city is the problem. Look at New York.. the biggest city in our country and look at their attendance this year… its about the same as san jose not to mention dallas and kansas city.
and lets not forget the team is in last place for two years running now.
you put any team in last place in any league and you are going to have an attendance problem. MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL
They don’t even have good marketing materials on their own website. Banners with “What’s a Huckerby?” and “Where’s Salinas”? That’s supposed to get me pumped up… how? At least “Are you with us?” had a call to action.
Is it a coincidence that Seattle has great marketing, a great stadium, an international superstar, and the highest attendance?
SJ needs a stadium worth visiting, players worth paying to see, and an on-field product worth watching on weekend nights. Everything else is there.