Comments on: MLS History As Seen Through Its Stadia: Top 20 Countdown!

By: bayarearefugee

bayarearefugee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:29:24 +0000

No, you’re not dreaming … but the situation you described basically required SJS giving away a significant chunk of land and losing control of the stadium. It sounded great on paper (heck, I was excited about it) but the details made it pretty easy to understand why the school didn’t think it was a very good deal.

Truth be told, I had actually forgotten about that, but I did manage to find the Chron article after discussions collapsed. Here’s the money quote:

“If the San Jose State deal had gone through, the school would have gotten a free 23,000-seat facility that could be upgraded to 30,000 seats. But it would have lost access to much of its 64-acre South Campus, now mainly sports fields, during construction and later during events ranging from soccer to concerts, Carr said.

In any case, and I realize you backed off the statement, you can hardly say the Quakes weren’t given a chance to work it out.

By: Peter Wilt’s Top 20 MLS Stadia (Part II) | Pitch Invasion

Peter Wilt’s Top 20 MLS Stadia (Part II) | Pitch Invasion — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:41:31 +0000

[...] Last week I wrote about the bottom half of my personal top 20 stadia (out of 32 total) in MLS history. This week I share with you my top 10 (really 11). My bottom seven were all larger stadia with capacities of 30,000+ and the next three were each smaller stadia. Today’s list reveals nine smaller soccercentric stadia and two of the jumbo variety. Let’s start with one of the big ones: [...]

By: kaos

kaos — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:19:09 +0000

Cardinal Stadium is my best stadium, Great playing surface..My heart trembling so fast when watching football game..but iam happy. Great stadium.

By: Peter Wilt

Peter Wilt — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:09:00 +0000

Bayarearefugee: i recall Quakes wanting to build new stadium with SJS near Spartan and SJS telling them thx but no thx. Maybe my description of the situation is a little harsher than the reality, but i know there were efforts to try to stay and for what may have been very legitimate reasons, SJS didn’t want to go along with the Quakes. Am i dreaming?

Chazsoccer, yeah i like the CB, too. Great playing surface. Good atmosphere on the side opposite the press box. Lot of history there….Marquette vs. TCU and Slingin’ Sammy Baugh in 1st Cotton Bowl!!

The fact it wasn’t in the rankings didn’t mean i didn’t like it. Just wanted to limit picks to 20 and only wanted to put one Dallas stadium in there. PHP will end up in the Top 10 this coming Wednesday.

Flynn, i’m surprised you have any recollection from our first meeting….i suspect your memories are more likely coming 2nd hand from others!

By: Flynn

Flynn — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:34:39 +0000

You know Peter, we first met in the concourse of Cardinal Stadium in the spring of 2003. And a few weeks later we had our first conversation in Section 8. We discussed how you were a genius for signing Andy Williams–because Andy always played better against his former teams & half the Eastern Conference was composed of his former teams. I also remember us agreeing that a young rookie named Nate Jaqua was going to be “something special”.

By: Chazsoccer

Chazsoccer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:17:19 +0000

I respect that your reviews are your opinions. But the old Cotton Bowl was a World Cup venue, and its spacious field was almost always in pristine condition. Players and teams from around the league considered it one of the very best stadiums in the USA. As a fan, the old ‘chair monster’ got a few of us every week, but that’s what legend’s are made of. The place was rocking back in the day, with the family friendly “Library” side and the fan-friendly GA ‘Festive side’.

By: bayarearefugee

bayarearefugee — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:33:08 +0000

I’m kinda curious where you get the info about San Jose State basically kicking the Quakes out of the stadium? I was living there at the time and the way I remember it is the school wasn’t interested in letting the Quakes play there for free and the ownership was more than happy to play its games in the much-more intimate Buckshaw. The quakes invested some money in capital improvements and both sides seem to have got what they wanted.

By: Pattrick

Pattrick — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:25:02 +0000

My first fire game was an open cup match vs the Rapids in Naperville. I stood in the last row of the section in front of section 8 and watch Ante Ravoz net a pk about 15 yards in front of me. if i had only known what that would lead too

By: McCrum

McCrum — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:04:27 +0000

Ruiz, I’ll tell you you missed a great time out there. The town would have 15,000 red-clad fans descend on it and party in town all afternoon before heading over to the game. And such an atmosphere! Intimacy, right on top of the field. Some of the most passionate fans now went to the local high school. It was the best lemonaide this league has ever made out of the crappiest lemons.

It had its down moments, too far from trains, a minor-league feel and horrible field conditions, but what a team! It was the best of a very bad situation and was never as bad as some said it was.

By: A. Ruiz

A. Ruiz — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:25:58 +0000

I always wonder why I didn’t get into the Fire around 01-03 when I was in my late teens. Then I remember, they were in naperville at the time and I absolutely heard nothing about them. Despite my post-2002 world cup soccer obsession. *sigh*