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October 22, 2007
Community & Economic Development Committee unanimously endorses progress on stadium deal
Back at blog central, we've just returned from today's meeting of the San Jose Community & Economic Development Committee. We've got good news for stadium fans all around — the committee voted 4-0 to accept the recommendations set out on October 12 by Paul Krutko, director of the Office of Economic Development (OED).
Lew Wolff was in attendance along with development partner Ed Storm, the latter of whom may have had the quote of the day. (More on that later.) Also in attendance were Ann Rodriguez and John Doyle from the Quakes, three members of SSV's board including president Don Gagliardi, San Jose Sports Authority chairman Gary Fazzino and executive director Patricia Ernstrom, and Marlene Bjornsrud of BAWSI.
When it came time to discuss the stadium, the first presentation was made by Krutko, who summarized the PDF linked above. Prior to the committee's Q and A with Wolff and Storm, Ann Rodriguez made a brief presentation on the team's progress, focusing primarily on the fact that the team has already received 1,500 deposits for season tickets, which they estimated as approximately 6,000 individual season tickets.
Wolff and Storm made brief statements and Storm really clicked with the crowd when he coined the term "cultural capital" to describe city resources like museums, theaters, arts facilities, and sports facilities such as the HP Pavilion and the proposed soccer stadium, and how these resources benefit a city.
Another highlight was a dialogue between Wolff and committee member Nora Campos, as Campos expressed her disappointment that the unique benefits presented in Wolff's proposal had yet to be expressed properly in the local newspaper. Wolff agreed.
A few brief statements were given during the public comment period before the committee quickly moved to take a vote on the issue, which resulted in the 4-0 verdict as its four members — councilmembers Nancy Pyle, Nora Campos, Sam Liccardo, and Pete Constant — voted to pass along the Office of Economic Development's recommendations to the full City Council for a vote on November 6.
We'll be sending out this information to our members as soon as the audio from the meeting is posted on the City of San Jose web site. In the meantime, we can say that it will be very important that we get a good turnout to the November 6 City Council meeting since it will determine the framework for the final deal. While it now appears that this will not be the final meeting we need to attend en masse, it will be a crucial step on the way to a new, permanent home for the San Jose Earthquakes.
Posted by Jay at October 22, 2007 04:45 PM
Comments
Video of yesterday's meeting is here:
http://sanjose.granicus.com/ASX.php?view_id=23&clip_id=2134
Posted by: Will at October 23, 2007 05:48 PM
Scroll to 13:16 minute mark in above video where they start talking about the stadium.
Posted by: Will at October 23, 2007 06:11 PM
Lew Wolff and bunch of Earthquakes people come in and talk in the video at around 34:00 minute mark. This is very cool.
Posted by: Will at October 23, 2007 06:42 PM
I don't know how you found that link, Will, but thanks for passing it along.
Posted by: Jay Hipps, SSV at October 23, 2007 07:23 PM
I have my ways of digging for information. Let's just say, I'm your "residential link finder". ;-)
Posted by: Will at October 23, 2007 07:36 PM