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April 30, 2007

Wolff to Chronicle: "It had nothing to do with guaranteeing revenue"

San Francisco Chronicle writer Patrick Hoge covers the end of negotiations between Lew Wolff and San Jose State today and adds something new to the mix: actual quotes from Wolff himself. Not surprisingly, when that side of the story is reported, it results in a different story than, for example, Jon Wilner's recent column in the Mercury News.

Here's the most telling bit of the Chronicle story:

Kassing and Wolff agreed to halt negotiations last week after meeting four times, Wolff said last week. But he insisted Kassing never told him money was the problem or said why he soured on building a new stadium.

"He wasn't comfortable in moving ahead," Wolff said. "I didn't really probe him for any specifics. He didn't offer a lot of them. It had nothing to do with guaranteeing revenue.

"I made it very clear from the very beginning that such a guarantee was not in the cards,'' Wolff added.

The Chronicle story goes on to reiterate the same message that SSV told members last week, quoting Wolff as saying that he's "still looking hard at a couple of sites in San Jose in cooperation with the city."

So that answers a lot of questions about what has happened the last few weeks. Wolff clearly states that a. he made it clear to SJSU early on that guaranteed money was never going to be an option and b. he thinks he can get things done in San Jose without the university.

We're left with the question of why SJSU broke off negotiations in the first place. If it wasn't because of guaranteed money, what could it have been?

We think Wilner's article provides a clue:

So now what? The guess here is that Kassing and Athletic Director Tom Bowen will begin searching for ways to improve Spartan Stadium.

"We'll probably look at some ideas on South Campus," Kassing said, "with the thought that they could become vehicles to renovate the stadium."

In other words, SJSU could sell some of its land and plow the cash into a facility upgrade.

Wouldn't that be something - using Wolff's idea, just without Wolff.

Could it be that SJSU learned just enough about real estate development through their negotiations with Wolff that they think they can do it alone? Did they need a public excuse to break off negotiations, so they claimed Wolff wouldn't meet them half way? It sure sounds like it. Let's hope there's some other explanation, because that one doesn't cast San Jose State in a very good light.

Nor, for that matter, does it make the Mercury News look very professional. They've written stories on a private negotiation by taking numbers from a source on one side and reporting it as fact. Would they do the same thing in a labor negotiation, interviewing sources at a teachers' union and not at the school board? One suspects not, but for some reason the standards that normally apply to this type of reporting seem to have been thrown out the window in this case. It's enough to make us all long for the days when every major city had at least two daily papers.

Posted by Jay at 10:43 AM | Comments (3)

April 21, 2007

Even without SJSU, Earthquakes have many options

Now that San Jose State is out of the picture, the question on everyone's mind is this: Where is Plan B, anyway? A story in today's Sacramento Bee, headlined"Placer could get pro soccer team," might cause South Bay hearts to skip a beat until the subhead is viewed: "If San Jose doesn't work out, area aims to be a stadium site." Bee staff writer Melody Gutierrez spoke with both Lew Wolff and David Alioto on Friday, after the deal with the university fell apart, so it's clear that the Earthquakes' priority is still the South Bay.

The point is made clearer in the story, which notes that Sacramento is a viable option, but not the organization's top priority:

While the Sacramento area is considered a soccer hotbed, Wolff will first explore other possibilities with San Jose where MLS had previously built a fan base, said David Alioto, executive vice president of Earthquakes Soccer, the group trying to bring an MLS team back to Northern California. [...]

"We are hopeful that a team will end up in Northern California, and we've been specifically working with the South Bay," Alioto said. "It would be exciting to bring a team back. There are a lot of fans in Northern California that deserve it."

The story says Greg Van Dusen, a consultant to Placer Valley Tourism and former head of the Sacramento Sports Commission, is working to coordinate a deal with Wolff.

Van Dusen and the Placer group are looking into building an 18,000- to 20,000-seat soccer stadium surrounded by 16 soccer fields for youth teams that would be housed on 180 acres in Roseville, Lincoln or the unincorporated areas of Placer County. That plan also includes baseball and softball fields.

The Placer group has met with Wolff and others involved with the MLS proposal once, but Van Dusen said he plans to contact them again given the failed negotiations with San Jose State.

"I'll send them an e-mail saying we are here and we still care," said Van Dusen, who was instrumental in luring the Kings to Sacramento in the 1980s.

Alioto said his group will step back and analyze the different areas.

"The city of San Jose has been really helpful to us," Alioto said. "We will try to work with them first."

To sum up: Looks like not only do the Quakes have possibilities in the South Bay, but in Sacramento as well. However difficult it has been for fans to endure the news of the past few days, the Earthquakes remain determined to build a permanent home for soccer in San Jose.

Posted by Jay at 06:39 PM | Comments (4)

April 20, 2007

A note from David Alioto

Pursuant to our posts here the last couple of days, we wanted to pass along this note we received this morning from David Alioto of the Earthquakes:

Jay and Don,

I wanted to make sure that all of your Board Members as well as SSV supporters know that your recent article on the Mercury News Story, where you spoke of the deal not being dead, came directly from Earthquakes Soccer. This was not a question of you providing misinformation but instead you went with what we knew as real time information. If anyone is questioning your integrity please know that we stand 100% behind you!

David Alioto
Executive Vice President
Earthquakes Soccer

Thanks, David. We think most of our members were able to guess our source on that item, but now there will be no doubt.

Posted by Jay at 09:44 AM | Comments (5)

April 19, 2007

SSV Blog premature in declaring Merc's story "premature"

Well, the blog is enjoying the delicious taste of crow for the evening meal tonight, and we've brought extra napkins because there seems to be some egg on our face, too. Turns out the Mercury News was right and SJSU really was ready to walk away from a deal, as we found out this afternoon from the Earthquakes.

Obviously it's disappointing that such a neat project couldn't come together. Spartan Stadium, as steeped in tradition as it is, is ready for an upgrade at minimum. Still, if the biggest downside of this is that Earthquakes Soccer finds another site and builds a stadium where a. the Earthquakes will be the primary tenant and b. they won't have to share revenues with another entity, then we think this may work out for the best, anway.

Posted by Jay at 06:37 PM | Comments (0)

Stadium negotiations continue despite premature obituary in Merc

As we e-mailed our members yesterday, the Mercury News is premature in declaring that Lew Wolff and San Jose State have met an insurmountable impasse in negotations. While the article quotes an unnamed source who states that "an expected meeting of Kassing and Wolff later this week could be the final one," SSV's sources paint a much less dramatic picture of the situation. While there are still issues to be resolved, negotiations are ongoing and are expected to continue for a while yet, as might be expected when decisions are being made about hundreds of millions of dollars.

Other items from yesterday's e-mail:

- As we have mentioned before, the USA men will be playing China on June 2 at Spartan Stadium. While that event is not an Earthquakes Soccer production, the Quakes will be assisting in a July 28 match, to be held at Spartan Stadium, featuring the US Women taking on Japan. Earthquakes Soccer has also set up the lodging for the teams for both games, at the Fairmont and Hilton hotels in San Jose.

- Speaking of Earthquakes Soccer events, the Quakes are bringing MLS Futbolito to the South Bay on Saturday, August 11 (exact location TBA). There are two levels of registration for teams, Recreational and Premier. The Recreational teams include youth teams from U-8 to U-18, and any adult teams (men's and women's) that choose to register for the Recreational Division. Registration for the Recreational Division costs $120 per team. The Premier Division is for men's and women's adult teams who will be competing for a $3,000 purse, with the winners taking home $2,000 and the runner-ups getting the rest. Registration for the Premier Division is $150 per team. Teams can register online or by calling (877) 553-7294.

If you'd like to receive SSV e-mails, you can sign up here.

Posted by Jay at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

California Victory offers discount to SSV members

As mentioned in an e-mail sent to our members, the USL-1 California Victory is offering discounted season tickets for their inaugural season to SSV members. Only $50 gets you tickets to 14 home matches, including a Cinco de Mayo showdown with Necaxa of the MFL. To order, access their online ticket sales site here and enter the password "VictoryQuakes1." For more information on the Victory, check out their web site.

Posted by Jay at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)

April 17, 2007

City releases report on stadium proposal

On Monday, the City of San Jose released an eight-page report on the discussions they have undertaken with Lew Wolff on building a new stadium for the Earthquakes and SJSU Spartan football (PDF file here).

Upon reviewing these details, we found one big surprise. That surprise is that anyone could possibly be against this.

Wolff's proposal is a win for everyone involved:

While the Mercury News complains about zoning changes, it's important to look at their final result. While the proposed change at the flea market will benefit the developers, all the profits from the zoning change that Wolff is proposing will be used to finance the stadium and soccer complex, both of which benefit broad sections of the general public.

So, we'll ask again: How can anyone be against this? If the city wants to grow, this is a tremendous way to do it.

Posted by Jay at 11:38 AM | Comments (2)

April 09, 2007

Merc tries to turn molehill into mountain

Whoever first said "controversy sells newspapers" hit the nail on the head, and, in the absence of any genuine controversy, it looks like the Mercury News is attempting to manufacture one on their own. Their recipe is simple: Take the few publicly-known details about Lew Wolff's stadium proposal, slant them in the most inflammatory way, add heat, and stir.

They started their latest attempt at creating controversy from thin air with Friday's editorial headlined "Stadium plans need to be made public," and they've followed up today with a story they're calling "San Jose sidesteps public disclosure on soccer stadium plan." (Interesting that they're finally referring to it as a "soccer stadium" and not "a new stadium for San Jose State football" now that they want to stir the pot, huh? Could it be that they're trying to elicit a knee-jerk reaction in readers? But we digress...)

Here's our little theory on why the City of San Jose doesn't want to spill the beans on the proposed stadium deal right now: It's because there is no proposed stadium deal.

We're all for sunshine laws and open government, and we fully support a public review of anything that will be voted on by the City Council. The thing is, any role the City of San Jose will play in this effort is contingent on developer Lew Wolff and San Jose State reaching a positive agreement on building a new stadium. That hasn't happened yet, so the City doesn't have a final proposal in front of them.

Let's look at what the Merc seems to be proposing, which is the idea that any conversation that a developer has with the City be made public. Does this really make sense? For example, if Home Depot has a preliminary discussion with the planning department about opening a new location, we think they might be more than a little annoyed to read about it in the paper the next day, despite the pleasure that might provide their competitors. We agree with Councilmember Sam Liccardo — if the City of San Jose decides that every conversation between a developer and its staff should be made public, "we can kiss economic development in the city goodbye."

The facts in this case are simple, no matter what the Mercury News would have us believe. The City can't provide all the details of the deal to the public because no one knows what they are yet. Besides, the City of San Jose plays no role whatsoever in the talks between Wolff and the university.

Let's allow those negotiations to reach their conclusion and for Wolff to make a detailed proposal to the City. When it's time for disclosure, let the sun shine in, but until then—well, let's just say you shouldn't believe everything you read in the paper.

Posted by Jay at 07:10 AM | Comments (8)

April 05, 2007

The mother of all tailgates

Metro Silicon Valley's April 4 issue, available at a newstand near you now, contains a column from Gary Singh on Earthquakes Soccer, the Mexico/Ecuador match, and the ongoing negotiations with SJSU towards a stadium deal.

His opinion? Well, we could say he's pro-stadium, but he says it better himself:

Of course, when any similar bigtime forward-thinking proposal emerges here, you never see a shortage of cowtown nincompoops who oppose it—just like the Arena 20 years ago—but I insist on remaining blindly optimistic, relentlessly unobjective, partisan as all bloody hell and highly opinionated about the whole shootin' match. This will and should happen, dagnabbit.

Well said, Gary. (Plus, anyone who uses the word "dagnabbit" gets bonus points from us.)

Posted by Jay at 08:36 AM | Comments (2)

April 04, 2007

MLS kicks off '07 season with new owners, stadiums


Dick's Sporting Goods Park, the new home of the Colorado Rapids.

There are plenty of articles to choose from if you're looking for stories about the upcoming launch of the 2007 MLS season. Rather than give you a big laundry list of stories to sort through, though, we'll refer you to the concise summary of the league's prospects provided by Jack Bell of the New York Times.

Bell writes in depth about the progress the league has made, but the most important information is summed up in one paragraph:

Where the league once had two groups (Anschutz Entertainment and Hunt Sports) controlling a majority of the clubs, there are 10 owners for 13 teams, with the addition of Toronto F.C. (There are new owners in Kansas City and Washington.) After struggling in cavernous stadiums where teams garnered little if any additional revenue, seven teams play in stadiums designed for soccer. Colorado and Toronto will open new buildings to start the season.

We'll add a bit to that: there are two more soccer stadiums under construction for the N.Y. Red Bulls and Real Salt Lake, and DC United is well on their way to their own stadium deal, as are the Earthquakes. (Another story today notes that the city of Sugar Land, Texas, is making a play for a soccer complex for the Houston Dynamo.)

Factor the influx of new owners with sports experience into the equation — people like Dave Checketts, Kroenke Sports Enterprises, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment in Toronto, and Lew Wolff and the A's veterans behind Earthquakes Soccer — and it's clear that the league's dark days are behind it. In fact, we think you can put it in concrete — MLS is here to stay.

Posted by Jay at 09:25 AM | Comments (1)

April 03, 2007

Meanwhile, news stories continue...

The afterglow of the Mexico/Ecuador match may finally be fading, so it's time to catch up on a few news stories that have appeared since then.

First off, Dylan Hernandez of the Mercury News has a story from last Thursday about the media luncheon prior to the match. "A's owner Lew Wolff said Wednesday that he'll know in the next 30 days if an agreement can be reached with San Jose State to build a new Spartan Stadium," Hernandez writes.

The story continues:

SJSU President Don Kassing said last week that the two sides still needed to resolve how to divide revenue from the stadium, which would be built on Alma Avenue and South 10th Street, immediately east of the existing stadium.

Wolff said if a deal can't be reached with SJSU, it would be "only because of complications in terms of activities that the university has to balance."

Wolff added: "I think what Don's trying to do is determine how much revenue that will (mean) to his athletic department. But we do think we can enhance what he has there if he's interested."

We haven't been editorializing about the negotiation process, but we'll throw in our two cents here: we predict if San Jose State doesn't go forward with the deal, they'll be kicking themselves long and hard into the future over the one that got away. The university has to protect their own interests, of course, but we hope they recognize the value inherent in a deal that gives them free use of a brand new stadium plus extra revenues in return for raw land. That's not a deal that comes around very often and we would bet that there are other entities lining up behind them to swoop in if they don't go forward.

Friday's Merc contains a second follow-up story about the Mexico/Ecuador match, this time from John Ryan. We're going to link to the story on his blog, instead of the story in the paper, because it's a bit longer and doesn't cut any of the quotes short.

There's only one part of his story that we would take issue with. Ryan quotes David Alioto on the loud crowd at the match ("I’ve been to many Raider games, and it made Raider games seem a little quiet"), then opines:

But that isn’t the Earthquakes crowd of the past. The Earthquakes crowd of the past is a soccer-mom set that gets twisted if the people in front of them are standing up or if the music is too loud or what have you.

Anyone who attended an Earthquakes match in 2005 will tell you that the crowd generated plenty of noise, and anyone who attended a Quakes playoff match from 2003 on will tell you that they left the stadium with their ears ringing. If the last game Ryan attended was in 2000, well, okay, it was probably pretty quiet because the team did little to inspire positive support from fans, but these things change. Let's hope we all get a chance to show Ryan how loud Earthquakes fans can be in the not-so-distant future.

Posted by Jay at 08:32 PM | Comments (2)