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November 15, 2006
SF still interested in Earthquakes?
We haven't seen the words "San Francisco" mentioned in the same breath as "Major League Soccer" for quite a while now, but the San Francisco Chronicle does just that today. Matier and Ross, the Chronicle's reporters who work the inside angles at City Hall, state that the San Francisco Olympic was hoping to salvage their bid with help from soccer:
...local Olympic organizers huddled over the weekend to try to come up with a plan to change (U.S. Olympic Committee executive Peter) Ueberroth's mind -- focusing on a scheme to build an 80,000-seat Olympic stadium at Candlestick that could later be shrunk down and converted for use by Major League Soccer. In the end, however, they concluded that San Francisco's credibility had been put in what committee boss Scott Givens called "an unrecoverable situation.''
That "unrecoverable situation" was created last week when 49ers owner John York suddenly decided, on the same night as the grand opening of Earthquakes Soccer's new San Jose offices, that he preferred Santa Clara to anything San Francisco had to offer.
Addendum: The Contra Costa Times reports today that, with San Francisco no longer mounting a bid, the Spartan Stadium and Stanford Stadium could become part of the Los Angeles Olympic Committee's bid to host the 2014 games:
Los Angeles officials said Tuesday they will consider using stadiums at Stanford and San Jose State for preliminary soccer matches if they win the bid."We certainly could use an additional venue or two," said David Simon, president of the L.A. Olympic bid committee...
L.A. officials haven't discussed the plan with anyone in the Bay Area yet, but Dean Munro, executive director of the San Jose Sports Authority, welcomed the idea.
"I would think they would have plenty of soccer facilities in Southern California," he said. "If not, we would enthusiastically listen to what L.A. has to say."
Simon said Stanford's new 50,000-seat stadium would be the first choice. Spartan Stadium holds 30,456. The Los Angeles Games used Stanford Stadium in 1984.
Posted by Jay at November 15, 2006 10:16 AM