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November 30, 2007

Kamara plays 90 minutes against Real Madrid

's reserves.

Sorry — it made for a better headline if we didn't mention the fact that it was the Real Madrid Reserves, AKA Real Madrid's B team that plays in the Spanish second division, that squared off against new Quake forward Kei Kamara and his Generation Adidas teammates. In any case, a match report on the Chicago Fire's web site notes that Kamara played 90 minutes and was effective:

The Generation adidas squad dominated possession in the first half, with Kamara and Barrett each having good scoring chances in the early going. Guzan was not threatened in the first half and did not need to make a save. Kamara and Sims were effective in the first half, causing the Madrid defense trouble. The second half was an even affair, with each team getting good chances, but neither finding the back of the net.

In other news, despite yesterday's sterling analysis of some of the players available in the MLS Waiver Draft, no players were chosen during Thursday's event by any of the participating teams. We still think "Zach got back! Zach got back!" was a funny chant, though.

Posted by Jay at 06:33 AM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2007

Quakes pick first in today's waiver draft

As we near the end of November, there seems to be some important news about the Quakes every day.

On the heels of yesterday's news that Ian Russell would be hired as an assistant coach — the Mercury News has a story here which includes some quotes from the new coach himself — it was announced late yesterday that MLS will hold its waiver draft today, beginning at noon Pacific.

In all, 45 players have been waived by 13 MLS clubs. Chivas USA have released a whopping 10 players, nearly 40 percent of their roster, which seems surprising considering they were contenders for the 2007 Supporters' Shield. You can find the full list of available players at the link above; here are some names that jumped out at us:

* * *

We have a couple other items to pass along today. Tuesday's Boston Glob featured a commentary on what soccer contributes to the American professional sports scene. Highly recommended.

Finally, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that construction is set to begin next week on Red Bull Park.

Red Bulls managing director Marc de Grandpre said the construction timeline is 18 to 20 months, with a target date to open in the summer of 2009.

The final design has been modified to become a soccer-specific facility, which will seat 25,189. The plans with AEG included a concert stage built into one end of the stadium and a cantilevered roof that would have covered the majority of the crowd. The Red Bull version eliminates the stage, reduces the number of luxury suites from 50 to 30 and features a translucent polycarbonate and aluminum roof that will cover every seat.

OK, we are now suffering from roof envy — it's amazing! Have a look for yourself. Oh, and enjoy the waiver draft.

Posted by Jay at 06:32 AM | Comments (1)

November 28, 2007

SI: Ian Russell to serve as assistant coach

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated is reporting that the Quakes have hired Ian Russell to serve as Frank Yallop's assistant coach. (No wonder he's smiling!)

Freedman, who always seems to be first to press with breaking stories about the Quakes, also adds this:

The club is also reportedly trying to bring another former fan favorite, Ramiro Corrales, home from Norwegian club Brann and may explore acquiring Bay Area natives Danny Califf and Kamani Hill, who currently play in Europe.

(Psst, Jonah — Califf is actually from SoCal. We'd love to have him back, though.)

Posted by Jay at 03:46 PM | Comments (2)

Kamara on Spanish tour with Generation Adidas team

We thought it would be 2008 before we could talk about the performance of the Quakes on the field, but it turns out that new forward Kei Kamara is playing with the rest of his Generation Adidas cohorts on a tour of Spain right now.

According to MLSnet.com, Kamara played 90 minutes yesterday as the GA team beat the Rayo Vallecano Reserves. MLSnet reports that, "Generation adidas came close to scoring on several opportunities but the Spanish goalkeeper came up with some excellent saves on point blank shots by Kei Kamara and Chad Barrett."

After the match, the team traveled by train to Sevilla to see the Sevilla/Arsenal Champions League match. They're going to Madrid today and will play the Real Madrid Reserves later.

For those of us who haven't been following MLS very closely for the last couple years, Generation Adidas is the latest version of the league's player development efforts which started with the old Nike Project 40 program. According to MLS, "the youth players who join MLS as part of the Generation adidas program receive unprecedented opportunities to develop their game and hone their skills at the professional level in Major League Soccer. In addition to training and playing on a weekly basis with one of Major League Soccer's professional clubs, Generation adidas players will also receive educational grants to further their college education."

Judging from the date of the press release announcing last year's crop of GA players (linked above), we'll probably find out who will be in the 2008 class by mid-January. The Quakes have the first overall pick in the 2008 MLS SuperDraft, so this could turn out to be important — Toronto FC picked midfielder Maurice Edu first in '07 and he's already getting caps with the U.S. National Team.

* * *

We've got a couple links to add to the Generation Adidas discussion:

* * *

In other news today, the Sacramento Bee's Debbie Arrington offers a summary of the Quakes' recent player moves in her weekly "Soccer Beat" column.

Posted by Jay at 05:50 AM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2007

Season ticket sales begin tomorrow

While the Quakes have been taking deposits for season tickets for some time now, we've been waiting to find out exactly when the tickets will go on sale. Well, the wait is over — ticket sales begin tomorrow! (Deposits are still being taken here.)

There's one surprise if you want a front-row seat and are willing to pay for it. The e-mail we received from our ticket rep included this:

A very limited number of seats will be available on the playing field. These seats will start at $2,550 for the full season. Please contact your sales representative for more information.

One other thing: If you're looking for a supporters' section where you can stand (not sit), sing and cheer all game, ask your sales rep about tickets in The Casbah (Section 109, a family-friendly supporters environment) or the 1906/Ultras (Section 101, some R-rated content).

FYI: Player benches will be on the 103/104 side.

Please note: Those of you who have already placed your deposits, your season ticket rep will contact you when it's your turn to pick out your seats. They will contact you — you don't need to call them. We just wanted to say that to avoid any confusion.

Posted by Jay at 11:56 AM | Comments (1)

More trade coverage, plus analysis from Soccer America

Press coverage of the two trades made yesterday by the Earthquakes is pretty light. There are a few paragraphs in the Mercury News and other papers are running wire service stories on the acquisition of Kamara and Burpo.

The most interesting story of the day comes from Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America, who is impressed with the Quakes' ability thus far to fill in significant portions of their roster without breaking the bank. For example, Mahoney notes that Kamara will keep his Generation Adidas status for at least one more year, meaning that he is not counted as part of the 18-man senior roster, nor does his salary count against the cap.

Mahoney continues:

The cap is going up slightly, from $2.1 million to $2.25 million, so that leaves the Quakes with more than half of their 18-man roster filled and nearly two-thirds of the salary cap to play with, as well as three allocations as an expansion team, which in the past have been worth $250,000 each.

Do the math. San Jose has 11 players. All slots are filled and at least two guys can play at least two positions: Frank Yallop has a goalkeeper, four or five defenders, three or four midfielders, and two forwards. What do you call that? A good start.

We didn't watch the Crew play very much last year, but Kamara seems like an interesting acquisition to us. Five goals in 36 games doesn't sound very impressive, but nearly two-thirds of his appearances in Columbus came as a sub. If he started and played 90 minutes every match, his 1,405 career minutes would total about half a season's worth of playing time. That doesn't mean that Kamara can be expected to score 10 times in '08, but it's at least a small indication of the 23-year-old's potential.

We'll end today with an item from Jack Bell's story today in the New York Times:

- During ABC/ESPN’s halftime show of last Saturday’s Kansas-Missouri college football game, the former (Notre Dame and South Carolina) coach Lou Holtz was asked which of the many vacant coaching jobs he found most appealing. “England,” Holtz said, with a laugh.

Posted by Jay at 06:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2007

Quakes announce trades for Kamara, Burpo

Will the Casbah be singing, "You'll never beat the Burpo!" next year? Could be.

The Quakes will be announcing the acquisition of goalkeeper Preston Burpo from Chivas USA for a fourth-round draft pick as well as forward Kei Kamara from the Columbus Crew for expansion draft acquisition, midfielder Brian Carroll.

From the Quakes' press release:

Kamara appeared in 17 games in 2007 and scored two goals. In 2006 Kamara appeared in 19 games as a rookie, starting nine of them. He also scored in his MLS debut on April 1, 2006. Kamara appeared in one US Open Cup match entering the 2007 season.

Kamara was a member of the Generation adidas Euro Tour squad that played three games in England in December 2006. He appeared in all three games and scored a goal in 3-0 win over the Watford reserves.

Burpo played three games for Chivas USA in 2007. He joined Chivas USA on March 17, 2006 from USL Division 1 club Seattle Sounders. In 2006 Burpo started 19 regular season games for Chivas USA. Before joining Chivas USA, he played for the Seattle Sounders for nine years. In 2005 Burpo was the Sounder’s leader in several goalkeeper statistics, including games played (143), saves (631) and minutes (12,846) and has a career GAA of 1.19. Recording 20 shutouts from 2004-2005, Burpo helped the Sounders capture the 2004 A-League Western Conference Championship and the USL First Division Championship in 2005.

Here's a Burpo highlight reel from a 2006 match against the Revs, and a "day in the life" feature on Kamara. You can also see a couple Kamara goals here.

Finally, here's Kamara's MLSnet.com bio, which notes that he is a Generation Adidas player and therefore did not count against the Crew's senior roster or salary cap in 2007, as well as Burpo's.

Posted by Jay at 09:45 AM | Comments (2)

Friedel's new academy gets underway

Goalkeeper Brad Friedel was one of the heroes of the USA's 2002 World Cup run, and he continues to start for Blackburn in the English Premier League. He may be making his biggest contribution to American soccer, though, with his new venture: the Premier Soccer Academies in Lorain, Ohio.

The PSA is the focus of several stories in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer. The main piece, headlined "Goal Oriented," recognizes the organization as "the country's first nonprofit soccer academy," adding:

In August, 23 boys from eight countries ranging from 12 to18 years old arrived at PSA in Lorain to live and train year-round.

They live on an $10 million campus that covers 58 acres, in rooms better than most college dorms. They are cooked meals by a top-level chef, have 3½ soccer fields to train on -- including one indoor facility just steps from the dorms -- and elite coaching.

And it's all free.

That's just the beginning of the paper's coverage. There are also features on how the "soccer kids" are selected, academics at the PSA, the economic benefits the PSA will contribute to the greater community, how the kids cope with being away from home, the food served at the academy as well as some recipes, and a list of the members of the school's first class.

All in all, quite an amazing story, and one that is unique in world soccer.

Posted by Jay at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2007

More expansion draft coverage

Friday has come and gone but there was no announcement about the trade and player acquisition that were expected after they were mentioned at Wednesday's expansion draft party. From a PR perspective, it's probably just as well — better to make those sorts of announcements after the holiday weekend. That's our guess, anyway.

Soccer America writer Ridge Mahoney's story on the draft has made its way online. He offers this interesting tidbit:

Yallop is researching the possibilities of bringing back former Quakes Ramiro Corrales (Norwegian club Brann) and Danny Califf (Danish club AaB Aalborg) from Europe.

It was mentioned not long after John Doyle's hiring that Corrales' agent had contacted him, but the Califf connection is new. Califf, 27, is currently captain of AaB, a team which is currently second in the Danish league (on goal differential) and competing in the UEFA Cup in a group that includes Tottenham Hotspur and Anderlecht. In fact, the team's next UEFA Cup matchup, against Spurs at White Hart Lane, will be televised on Thursday, November 29 at 11:30 a.m. on Fox Soccer Channel, so we'll have a chance to see Califf on live TV. (We're going to go set up the Tivo now.)

* * *

In other potential player acquisition news, Germany's Kicker magazine reports that German club Wolfsburg is ready to let go of Berkeley native Kamani Hill, a 21-year-old forward who made his U.S. National Team debut at last summer's USA/China match at Spartan Stadium.

Posted by Jay at 06:33 AM | Comments (1)

November 23, 2007

Four years ago today...

Quakes fans know the date well: November 23, 2003.

It was the day the Quakes won MLS Cup in a brand new stadium, built for the team's biggest rival.

Thanks to BigSoccer's DataFerret, we have some video clips from that day at the Home Depot Center.

Here are:

* * *

We also wanted to pass along a couple other items.

Posted by Jay at 08:29 AM | Comments (1)

November 21, 2007

And the expansion draft picks are...

1. Ryan Cochrane (Houston Dynamo)
2. Clarence Goodson (FC Dallas)
3. Ned Grabavoy (Columbus Crew)
4. James Riley (New England Revolution)
5. Joseph Vide (New York Red Bulls)
6. Ivan Guerrero (Chicago Fire)
7. Brian Carroll (DC United)
8. Jason Hernandez (Chivas USA)
9. Gavin Glinton (LA Galaxy)
10. Chris Pozniak (Toronto FC)

The only other news so far is that the Quakes will be announcing two more players on Friday, one of whom will be obtained in a trade of one of these players. From the tone of the announcement, it's safe to say that neither Cochrane or Goodson will be traded. Also, Yallop mentioned that they are aware that Goodson is currently out of contract but he felt that they would be able to resolve that situation.

Audio from the event is here (MP3, 10.3 MB).


Posted by Jay at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

UCSC players to attend open tryouts

We're still several hours away from the day's main event, the expansion draft, but news of other potential Quakes makes the Santa Cruz Sentinel this morning, as reporter I.A. Stewart notes that several UC Santa Cruz players will be attending the upcoming open tryouts at Chabot College, Hayward, on December 2.

Stewart writes that seniors Jeremy Abrams, Stefan Clemens, and Adam Smarte will try to follow in the footsteps of former Slugs Aaron Lanes and Steve Wondolowski, both of whom made the jump to MLS after their collegiate careers.

Good luck — as of this morning, there are quite a few roster spots available, but that will change a bit later on today.

* * *

We also wanted to pass along the results of the Mercury News poll we mentioned a few days ago. It asked, "Is there a large enough fan base in the South Bay to support professional soccer?" The results seem pretty conclusive: 136 answered "yes," and only three answered "no." Let's call that a landslide, which seems appropriate enough for a team called Earthquakes.

Posted by Jay at 05:25 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2007

Quakes to hold expansion draft party at Downtown Brit

Quakes fans will be able to start their holiday weekends early tomorrow as the team holds an expansion draft party from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Britannia Arms Downtown, 173 West Santa Clara Street in San Jose. Coach Frank Yallop and GM John Doyle will be on hand to answer questions about the picks, and the Quakes say that other "special guests" will be on hand.

If we can get a WiFi connection down there, we'll provide a live update from the party. If not, we're sure that you'll be able to find a list of picks on the Quakes' web site.


View Larger Map

Posted by Jay at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

More about the Expansion Draft

As we noted late yesterday, the details are out on the Expansion Draft and the Quakes will have a lot of choices to make tomorrow.

You can find the official rules at the link above, but we'll sum it up. The Quakes get to take one player from up to 10 teams. Once they make a pick, the Quakes will have the right to renegotiate a drafted player's salary (either up or down).

If you're interested in playing general manager and putting together your own list of picks, the best resource we've found is this Wikipedia page, thanks mainly to the links to pages on most of the players who are up for grabs.

There's some good info here. One of the criteria that the Quakes are sure to be looking at is the player's contract status. Checking out the Wikipedia page on DC United midfielder Brian Carroll, for example, tells us that he was on trial last fall with Olympique de Marseille (France), but re-signed with MLS in January. DC goalkeeper Jay Nolly has a similar story: trials with Celtic FC and Dinamo Bucharest last fall, but eventually signed with MLS in February. Chances are that both players now have a multi-year contract in place. Compare that to players like Clarence Goodson of FC Dallas and Andy Dorman of New England, both of whom are said to be eager to move to Europe now.

The Wikipedia pages also note that former Santa Clara University and Quake defender Ryan Cochrane has just finished his fourth season in MLS, which may mean he's out of contract. (MLS tries to sign rookies to four-year deals.)

It's also possible that the Quakes will take a player solely for the purpose of trading him to another club.

In any case, there are a lot of presents under the Quakes' tree, and we get to see what's in them tomorrow.

Posted by Jay at 08:19 AM | Comments (1)

Six years ago today...

Posted by Jay at 07:49 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2007

And the available players are...

...right here, courtesy of the Washington Post's Steven Goff.

They've also been posted on MLSnet.com, too, along with the rules for the event. The big surprise? The Quakes only get 10 picks, not 11 as was previously reported. (We're not sure where anyone got the idea that there would be 11 — Toronto only got 10 picks last year, too.)

Posted by Jay at 05:53 PM | Comments (0)

The Cowboy and Los Terremotos

So tomorrow MLS will release the list of protected players, which means we'll be able to see just who's going to be available for Wednesday's expansion draft. Personally, we think John Doyle should sign himself to a playing contract beforehand, just so he can be the first player ever for both San Jose's 1996 and 2008 incarnations, thereby becoming the answer to a great trivia question.

The Quakes have already started their search for players, though, as Embele Awipi notes in his weekly column for the Salinas Californian. The Quakes have held open tryouts in several cities to date (you can find pictures here), and none other than longtime Quakes' defender Troy Dayak is heading up the scouting committee. Check out Awipi's story for several quotes from Dayak.

Also interesting is the Mercury News' story on the Quakes' marketing efforts in the Hispanic community. The paper is also running an online poll asking if there's a large enough fan base in the South Bay to support professional soccer. (Our answer — yes, and there's a large enough fan base in Northern California to make the Quakes the most successful team in MLS.)

The story, written by the Merc's Javier Erik Olvera, highlights some of the front office's work towards building a lasting relationship with the region's multitude of Hispanic fútbol fans. Key to the Quakes' approach is the word "lasting." The idea is not simply to bring in a star from Mexico and expect people to show up, the way the Galaxy tried to do (and failed) with Luis Hernandez in 2000 and 2001. To draw a further distinction, the Quakes aren't trying to capitalize on Hispanic soccer fans a la AEG; they're trying to turn them into Earthquakes fans.

You know what they say: "The more, the merrier." ¡Bienvenido a la fiesta!

Posted by Jay at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2007

Today's fashion tip

Congratulations to Wade Barrett, Brian Ching, Ricardo Clark, Ryan Cochrane, Brad Davis, Dwayne De Rosario, Brian Mullan, Richard Mulrooney, Pat Onstad, Eddie Robinson, Craig Waibel, and Chris Wondolowski, coach Dominic Kinnear, and trainer Bruce Morgan, each of whom won another MLS Cup today. (That's four for De Ro, E Rob, Dominic, and Bruce. And Waibelinho, too, except he won his first with L.A.) Well done, guys.

We know you're all celebrating and we don't mean to be impolite, but we just have to say this:













You all looked better in blue.

Posted by Jay at 04:35 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2007

News bonanza from Garber address, MLS meetings

With MLS Cup weekend in full swing, there's a ton of news coming out of DC as league Commissioner Don Garber gives his state of the league address and the Board of Governors gets together. Here are a few highlights:

Posted by Jay at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2007

Barrett interviewed for US Soccer Players site

One of the first groups to support SSV was the U.S. National Soccer Team Players Association, the union that represents the mighty men of the U.S. National Team. Back in August, 2004, the USNSTPA authored a letter supporting SSV's mission of keeping the Quakes in the Bay Area.

We've always appreciated that, so we're happy to pass along a link to USSoccerPlayers.com, a soccer news site focusing on the Nats that's owned by the union. Today they've got a nice interview online with former Quakes captain Wade Barrett.

Here's a sample:

USSoccerPlayers: You were a major part of the Earthquakes for so long. How does it feel to see the Bay Area getting another chance?

Barrett: I think it's fantastic for soccer to go back there. It was a great place to play, and a great area for soccer. There's a lot of fantastic youth clubs around the Northern California area, specifically in the Bay Area. I think it's a great city for there to be soccer in the United States.

At the same time, for me, it's a little disappointing to see them go back there. They just kicked us out a couple of years ago, so it's a little bit sour to see a team so quickly, particularly when there's a possibility that they're going to have a stadium built soon and we've moved here to Houston and that hasn't happened for us just yet.

I don't want to sound too negative about it, because I'm really excited there's going to be a team back in San Jose. A team should be in that market. But we were successful in that market, so it's disappointing that we couldn't find a way to work there for us.

And I'm certainly not complaining about how things have turned out, because this experience for all of us has been fantastic. None of us thought that it was going to be when it was first announced. It was a real shock for us to learn that we were going to be moving. I don't know that anyone was really embracing it with open arms. But things have worked out here better than anyone could have imagined, and the fans here have shown that they are top class. They've continued to support us this year, and it culminated in the last two playoff games, which has been unparalleled in any other market in the league.

USSoccerPlayers: Have you talked with the other former Earthquakes about what it's going to be like, from an emotional standpoint, when you go up there next year?

Barrett: We haven't talked about it too much. I'm sure we will next year. But we've been pretty focused on what's been going on with our team week in and week out. I'm sure it will be interesting when we go back.

To sum up, it sounds like Wade is happy that we'll have a team next year but disappointed that the team ever had to relocate in the first place. Hard to disagree with him on either count.

Posted by Jay at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Former Clash defender finds work with Chelsea

Long-time San Jose soccer fans will recall Michael Emenalo, the Nigeria international who played with the Clash in '96 and '97. Turns out that he landed a new job last month — he's the new chief scout at Chelsea FC.

(Thanks to Scott Wulf of the sanjose-mls mailing list for the tip.)

Posted by Jay at 09:36 AM | Comments (3)

Houston paper profiles Waibel

Our hats, cowboy or otherwise, are off to the Houston Chronicle. We've praised their coverage of the Dynamo twice this week already — once for their coverage of the MLS Western Conference final and again for a profile on Dominic Kinnear — but we have to compliment them again, this time for a story on defender Craig Waibel. He was a favorite among fans in San Jose, where he was somewhat kiddingly dubbed "Waibelinho," and it sounds like Houston fans have embraced him as well. Good story and good for a chuckle or two as well.

Posted by Jay at 06:36 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2007

Goff provides expansion draft details

Steven Goff of the Washtington Post has posted some details about the MLS Expansion Draft on his blog:

We are learning more about next week's expansion draft. It will, indeed, take place on Wednesday. Pending final league approval, San Jose will select 11 players total, which means two current teams will not lose anyone. MLS will make public each team's 11-man protected list on Tuesday, so you will have to figure out yourself who is in danger of being selected. The event, if we can call it that, will take place around 2 p.m. Eastern. So by mid- to late-afternoon, we will know the starting XI, so to speak, for the expansion Earthquakes.

We think it's fair to call it an event out here. More info to come when we have it.

Posted by Jay at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)

Seattle gets it

And no, we don't mean their new MLS expansion team — we talked about that yesterday.

No, we're talking about Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley, who writes today about the incremental growth of the sport in the U.S. as seen through the eyes of Hollywood producer Joe Roth, who is the majority owner of the new Seattle team. Kelley also has this to say:

This is the way... with much of the establishment media in this country. Rather than learn about the game, it makes jokes about rioting fans and nil-nil results. Guys in my business love to bash soccer, then wonder why soccer lovers in this country seem so defensive.

Gee, that description sounds familiar for some reason.

So, uh, Mr. Kelley: If that wet and rainy thing starts to get old, you're cordially invited to relocate to the Bay Area. Another voice of reason is always welcome and they're pretty scarce around here.

Posted by Jay at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)

Soccer America: No Interliga in Oakland

Today, Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney writes that there will be no Interliga matches in Oakland next year. The matches, which will be played January 3 and January 8, will take place instead in Houston and Los Angeles.

So far, the Quakes have shown a strong appetite for hosting these sorts of matches, so it might seem odd that they're passing on the opportunity to hold Interliga games here. What if they had something even better in mind, though? Hmm...

* * *

Also today, The Vancouver Sun offers a lengthy story about Vancouver's potential as an MLS candidate, focusing primarily on the Whitecaps' efforts to build a new stadium on the waterfront in downtown Vancouver. We're big fans of bringing Pacific Northwest teams into MLS, so we'd like to see both Vancouver and Portland join the party. As for Vancouver, take a look at the photo illustration below (the stadium is on the left, on the water) — now that's a great setting for a stadium! C'mon, Vancouver, get it done!


Courtesy Vancouver Whitecaps

Posted by Jay at 07:21 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2007

Drew Carey abandons Galaxy and other news

Comedian and TV personality Drew Carey has been one of American soccer's biggest boosters in recent years. He travels to U.S. national team World Cup qualifiers, hosted a show on the Travel Channel about his adventures at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and owns Galaxy season tickets.

Carey announced yesterday that he's abandoning Team Beckham after next season, however. Why? Because he's a minority investor in the new Seattle MLS franchise. The team, which was announced formally yesterday, will begin play in 2009.

With the perspective of a true fan, he's bringing some interesting ideas to the ownership group in Seattle, which includes Hollywood producer Joe Roth and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen:

First, Carey wanted to allow fans to buy memberships that would allow them to, among other things, vote on the fate of the team's general manager.

"If you don't like the job he's doing, if he doesn't have a winning team, if you don't like the product, if you don't think the hot dogs taste good when you go to the stadium, you can just vote him out," Carey said, with co-owner and general manager Adrian Hanauer grinning in the background.

"We're not afraid to let the fans have the power," Carey added.

Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain and Atletico Barboa in El Salvador institute this democratic system and were Carey's inspiration. He even became a member of Barcelona after a recent European trip.

"I went to Europe and saw how Barcelona's organization was structured; I thought we should have that in America," said Carey, 49, a Cleveland native who became a soccer fan after attending an MLS game in Los Angeles and has been active in pursuit of a soccer fix all around the world ever since.

"No other fans in the United States will have the chance to do what Seattle soccer fans will be able to do," he said.

Second, Carey wanted to be part owner of the only professional team in America that has a marching band.

The ownership group of Hanauer, Roth and Paul Allen agreed to Carey's demands and brought him into the fold.

You can find more info at the team's web site or at GoalSeattle.com, a site dedicated to Seattle-area soccer news. KJR-AM radio has also posted a podcast of an interview with Carey about his involvement with the new team.

* * *

Meanwhile, Toronto FC announced Monday that they've topped their 2007 total by selling 16,000 season tickets for the 2008 MLS season. It's not hard to understand why the games are so popular, despite the team's lackluster performance on the pitch: Toronto FC matches are the best party in town, as evidenced by the legions of red-clad fans who stand, sing, and cheer throughout each match. The atmosphere actually reminds us a lot of Earthquakes playoff matches, actually, except Quakes fans wear blue. Kudos to Toronto!

* * *

Other items:

Posted by Jay at 10:22 AM | Comments (1)

November 11, 2007

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Here at the blog, we recognize that the easiest way to drain any humor out of a joke is to analyze it. Humor is all about context, and we'd really like to simply join in the cheap laugh provided by John Ryan's recent column in the Mercury News in which he takes aim at SSV president Don Gagliardi and our Visitor Projection Report (PDF, 4 MB). The best humor also has the ring of truth, though, and that's where Ryan's column falls short.

The column that appeared in Thursday's paper was previewed in an entry on Ryan's blog, which we discussed here. Ryan changed a few things for the print edition, most notably removing his contention that "Gagliardi's out of touch."

Gagliardi posted a response on BigSoccer.com that we reprint below. You can also find the whole thread here, including comments from three different soccer fans who cancelled their subscriptions to the Merc. (One reader of the blog left a message to that effect as well, bringing the total number of cancellations over this story to four — four that we know about, anyway.)

I want to extend my thanks, on a personal level, to everyone on these boards who rose to my defense on the Mercury News' Morning Buzz blog and dead tree edition. It's very heartening to me.

I'm of mixed feelings about what happened. On the one hand I'm kind of flattered in the sense that, as Jay Hipps wrote on the SSV blog, all publicity except one's obituary is good publicity.

On the other hand, there was a breathtaking malevolence and manifest bad faith about what John Ryan, with the connivance of his papers' editors and possibly its lawyers, did which gives me shudders about the Fourth Estate in this country. I have a much fuller appreciation why athletes and celebrities and politicians hold them in contempt. The media, at least certain segments of the Mercury News, is indeed contemptible.

Even after the paper had my electronic rejoinder yesterday afternoon, pointing out as others have that I was quoted grossly out of context, they went ahead and printed a dead tree edition without providing their readers the alternative version of events directly from the source — me. There was no balance, no fairness, and it was not inadvertent, but as I've said, malevolent, being apparent payback for pointing out their previous unprofessionalism and disdain for Earthquakes fans.

Now, I'm not ashamed of being an Earthquakes fan or of making what some might perceive as over-the-top statements about what this team means to me and to this city. You can read my June 11 letter to the city council, which Ryan has, since he quotes from it on his blog, to know that I can fill pages doing so. I stand by eveything I wrote or said in that regard. And I'm not afraid to be ridiculed for it, and I can (and did) laugh along with Ryan's joke, strained though it was.

Yet, this stadium business is a serious matter for us fans and for the city precisely because of the extraordinary benefit it will provide, as a unanimous city council has recognized twice now. And fairness demands equal time, and Ryan and his paper already had from me in writing my view (correct or not) that I was being quoted out of context. They were ethically obliged to make note of it and to print it in this morning's edition if they intended to run the Morning Buzz. But Ryan and his paper's editors (and perhaps its lawyers) chose not to, presumably because that would have given me the chance to explain to the paper's diminishing readership just WHY I think Lew Wolff's is the most extraordinary and generous development proposal which the San Jose City Council has ever seen or is ever likely to see again (for all the reasons I mentioned in my online rejoinder on the blog yesterday). As I said at the council meeting, despite his obvious profit motive (more power to him), Lew Wolff is a saint.

I mention the paper's lawyers, because one of the differences between the blog and dead tree edition the following morning was the removal of Ryan's aspersion that I am "out of touch." I found this to be his funniest line because it is so gratuitously ad hominem and so obviously false, showing just how little Ryan knows about me. With all modesty, I know quite a few well-connected folks in San Jose, including numerous professional and hard-working reporters (both) still at the Merc and recently laid off, and they know I'm sometimes over-the-top and often an SOB, but always in touch. Someone evidently thought Ryan's statement in that regard was defamatory and excised it. So Ryan and his paper's editors and its lawyers had time to — and plainly did — premeditate about the morning edition, and yet they made a conscious choice to disregard journalistic ethics and ignore fairness and balance in their smart-alecky screed by not printing my rejoinder alongside the Morning Buzz. That was inexcusably unprofessional.

Everyone should of course feel free to circulate this where-ever you like but I will not dignify Ryan or his paper by offering any further comment directly to them. I will be cancelling my subscription, as well. And I will no longer be returning the calls of any other Mercury News reporters on any of the multitude of subjects they call me about. If they want to be "in touch," they can call someone else to offer insight for their reporting. Which is too bad for them because, as Ryan recently learned, I'm damn quotable.

As we hope is clear from the usual tone of this blog, we appreciate a good joke and a snarky attitude. Unfortunately, soccer in general and the Earthquakes in particular are not quite established enough that we can just ignore it when the Mercury News spouts misinformation about our sport, our team, or our organization. That includes the document on which Ryan chose to focus his ridicule, SSV's Visitor Projection Report.

Here's Ryan:

It researched a Visitor Projection Report that concluded a new soccer stadium would generate $750 million in economic benefit over a 10-year span. That's three-quarters of a billion. From Major League Soccer.

Wow. The 49ers should hire these accountants.

That would be quite a claim if it was true. No, we don't mean the $750 million claim — we explain the rationale for that number in the report, and it's based primarily on the San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau Economic Impact Calculator. We didn't even come up with that number — we calculated the number of anticipated visitors and plugged it into their equation. No, the part that's not true is Ryan's contention that we claim Major League Soccer will generate all that money. Here's the relevant quote from the VPR:

This report demonstrates the economic power of soccer; over a ten-year period a new 25,000 seat stadium (which we call "The Epicenter") will create a positive economic effect of nearly six million visitors, half of those from Earthquakes activities alone.

So, Ryan is wrong by half right out of the gate. What's his excuse? It's not like Ryan would have had to dig through the 140 pages of appendices and supporting documentation in the VPR to find that statement — it's on page two, and page one is a title sheet. Even us short-attention-span types should be able to get through the first three paragraphs of a 149-page document. If not, it's time to switch to decaf.

It may appear as though we're a bit thin-skinned about these things, but ignorance is our enemy. AEG's ignorance of how to do business in Northern California caused us to lose our team in 2005.

Ultimately, people can form any opinion they like of soccer, SSV, Don Gagliardi, or our Visitor Projection Report, but we think it's much more useful to base those opinions in accurate information. We hope the Mercury News, as a professional purveyor of information, respects and shares our belief in the power of facts.

Posted by Jay at 06:21 PM | Comments (1)

San Jose vs. Houston

San Jose boosters have trumpeted the city's move into the top 10 cities in the U.S., ranked by population. Houston, a city with over 2 million residents, sits at number 4 in that ranking behind New York, L.A., and Chicago. It may be inferred, then, that Houston is in some ways the city that San Jose wishes to become.

So let's take a look at how the Houston Chronicle is covering yesterday's Houston/Kansas City match, which saw the Dynamo win a berth to the MLS Cup final. At the time of this writing, the match is the lead story on their web site's sports page, which includes a feature photo of Brad Davis and Craig Waibel. There's also the following:

We don't recall quite that level of enthusiasm from the local press when the Quakes won MLS Cup in 2001 and 2003. Let's hope the local paper aspires to that level of coverage in the future.

Posted by Jay at 01:03 PM | Comments (1)

November 10, 2007

Under the big top

Taking a look at Grahame Jones' story on the hiring of Ruud Gullit in L.A., we see that Wednesday's Ann Killion column in the Merc got noticed down in Galaxy-land.

As we noted, Killion had some rather pointed things to say about Frank Yallop's previous employers:

Yallop never got (the chance to put together a functional soccer team) in two seasons with the L.A. Galaxy. He had to kowtow to the preposterous Lalas, the Galaxy's director of ridiculous thinking. And then he was handed an injured international superstar who effectively turned his team into a three-ring circus.

Today, Jones reports the following:

Tim Leiweke, chief executive of AEG, which owns the Galaxy, responded to that criticism during Gullit's unveiling. "I understand that there are some who don't like the circus," he said. "Well, I love the circus.

"If people want a retirement home, they can go someplace else. We're not a retirement community here. We live in the circus and we should relish the fact we have 94,000 people coming to watch us [play an exhibition] in Australia.

"I like that. I like the fact that half the media in that room today was not from L.A.

"Ruud's going to make us bigger. He's going to create even more demand and expectations, and I like that."

So, is Leiweke the ringmaster or just another clown? Time will tell. He certainly seems to be a disciple of P.T. Barnum's "every crowd has a silver lining" philosophy. Meanwhile in San Jose, we'd prefer a team that's notable primarily for playing brilliant soccer.

Posted by Jay at 10:06 AM | Comments (2)

November 08, 2007

KRON's Radnich interviews Yallop

In order to help meet the ongoing, insatiable need for video footage of our new coach, here's KRON 4's Gary Radnich interviewing Frank Yallop.

Radnich isn't known as much of a soccer fan and it shows a bit, but we have to give him some credit for giving it the old college try. Besides, he's one of the genuinely friendly people in broadcasting. Thanks for the interview, Gary, and you've got an open invitation to come see a game next season.

Posted by Jay at 01:56 PM | Comments (3)

Catching up with Quakes news

It's been a busy week and we've missed a few items. So, here comes the lightning round:

Posted by Jay at 05:55 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2007

Greetings, Mercury News readers!

There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary. — Brendan Behan, Irish dramatist

One of the fun things about being part of the group that started SSV three years ago has been the great support we've received from the media. Our first rally drew over 1,500 soccer fans to Plaza de Cesar Chavez back on August 20, 2004, and was covered by the New York Times, the BBC, local TV and radio stations, and the Fox Soccer Channel (then called "Fox Sports World"). Since then, we've been the subject of stories on ESPN.com, SportsIllustrated.com, and the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal.

It's easy to see why so many journalists think we're a good story. In a sporting landscape filled with petulant athletes like Barry Bonds and egotistical owners like George Steinbrenner, many find the idea of a grassroots, fan-based group dedicated to first saving and then resurrecting their beloved soccer team refreshing.

What makes our story even more remarkable, or so we have been told, is that we have been successful. SSV succeeded in convincing AEG to keep the Quakes here for the 2005 MLS season, and when the team finally did move that December, our lobbying led MLS to agree that the team's colors, records, and trophies would remain in San Jose, awaiting new owners.

Now that Lew Wolff and his team have arrived on the scene, our work has been embraced as we have joined together with the intention of forging a successful future for both the team and the sport that we love. At the danger of seeming immodest, we think that it is quite amazing, in this day and age, for a group of knowledgeable amateurs to find themselves working side-by-side with what is generally considered one of the most capable and professional management teams in sports.

But there was one hurdle we have not yet been able to cross, at least until today. To be truly noteworthy in America, to truly know you have arrived, you have to suffer at least one pointless slap in the media. We have been hoping that this would occur for some time, because despite all our progress towards achieving our goals, we know that we will never find validation in the eyes of the general public until some journalist, bent on taking us down a peg, finds an action or statement made by one of our board, takes it out of context, and tries to twist it back against us.

Thanks to John Ryan of the Mercury News, we finally have achieved that bit of recognition that, for so long, seemed to be just beyond our grasp. (OK, it was just in the Merc's blog, but we hold out hope that someday we'll make the dead tree edition.)

Thanks, John. We couldn't have done it without you.

P.S. We had no idea that an act of the San Jose City Council was needed to secure the future of the silicon chip. We must have missed the Wikipedia entry on that.

P.P.S. Looks like we made the dead tree edition after all! SSV has arrived!

Posted by Jay at 05:47 PM | Comments (3)

Tuesday follow-up: The press weighs in

It's the day after Big Tuesday, so the press is all over yesterday's events. Here's a sampler:

Posted by Jay at 08:23 AM | Comments (1)

November 06, 2007

Live from the council meeting

3:40 p.m. — The vote is taken — it's unanimous in favor of the stadium deal. Go Quakes! (And off to the Brit!)

3:39 p.m. — Bill Sherry, aviation director of Mineta San Jose International Airport, takes the floor as the public comment period ends. He explains that the Airport West site is no longer part of the airport's plans, so he has no issues with the proposed development.

3:36 p.m. — Two stadium naysayers provide their two minutes of input. To be frank, it appears that they have not been paying attention to the details of the proposal as explained in the Economic Development department's recent memo, as it seems that most of their concerns have already been addressed in that document.

3:31 p.m. — Gagliardi notes that the Silicon Valley Leadership Group also supports the proposed stadium and offers his personal perspective that the stadium deal is the virtual epitome of "extraordinary economic benefit." Don concludes by saying that he knows that Wolff has said that he is intersted in this "because it's a good businessman, but to soccer fans in the Bay Area he is a saint. Thank you, Lew Wolff."

3:30 p.m. — Dando compares the benefits that have been demonstrated by the HP Pavilion to what the soccer stadium would offer.

3:29 p.m. — Mayor Reed opens the floor for public testimony. Pat Dando of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce is going first, to be followed by Don Gagliardi of SSV.

3:27 p.m. — Councilmember Cortese is suggesting that the city might create a list of "extraordinary economic benefits" that the city might seek from other developers in the future.

3:21 p.m. — Councilmember Cortese asked about the relative worth of changing the zoning of the iStar property as compared to other potential sites in the city, and Krutko gave a thorough explanation of why iStar was appropriate for the proposed change. Cortese observed that it sounded like the iStar property was already a good candidate for rezoning and that the extraordinary economic benefit associated with the soccer stadium made it even moreso.

3:11 p.m. — Councilmember Liccardo opens his comments by congratulating Wolff on hiring Frank Yallop. He asked a question, too, but we were so impressed that he's paying attention to the team's progress that we lost track of what it was. Krutko is responding with an answer about how long the environmental analyses will take on both the iStar and Airport West properties, so we think the question was about the timeframe for finishing the deal. Liccardo concludes his comment by telling Krutko, "We appreciate that you're trying to take the time to do this right and that $100 million stadiums don't grow on trees, and if they did grow on trees they would probably require a lot of watering by the city, so we appreciate that this one doesn't require any of that."

3:02 p.m. — Councilmember Campos is asking how using entitlements as currency is different from a public subsidy, which would require a public vote. The city attorney answers by saying that the municipal code specifies that the use of tax dollars to build a sports facility is what triggers the vote, that the proposed deal does not involve tax dollars, and therefore does not require a public vote.

2:59 p.m. — In response to a question from Councilmember Nguyen, Wolff is explaining that the $80 million they hope to net from the rezoning of the iStar property may be enhanced by revenues from assets such as naming rights, so he is not overly concerned about the ups and downs of the housing market in terms of the value of the iStar land.

2:54 p.m. — Lew Wolff is making some brief comments. He's updating the council on the team's progress to date and mentioning the value of the team in giving the city more exposure, via both news stories and the images of the team with "San Jose" written across their shirts. He is also pointing out that there are no hidden angles to this project whereby the city will get stuck for paying for anything. He is also re-emphasizing the nature of the transaction whereby the city would use entitlements (the rezoning process) to create the funding for the project, and that he views the city as partners in this transaction — in other words, it has to make sense for both parties.

2:51 p.m. — Krutko notes that the next steps include a cost-benefit analysis (scheduled to be completed in February 2008), a site visit by some council members to recently completed MLS stadiums, completing the negotiations for the FMC site, and a complete environmental analysis.

2:39 p.m. — We're on item 4.2. Economic Development director Paul Krutko is making his presentation to the city council. Also, the audio from the Yallop press conference has been posted in the previous entry.

* * *

Greetings again from San Jose City Hall, where we await the city council's vote on extending the negotiating period for the soccer stadium and the approval of the progress to date made by city staff. We are currently on item number 2.6 in the consent calendar, and the stadium item is number 4.2, so we have a ways to go yet.

The turnout is solid -- there's at least 50 fans here in blue. We're impressed that so many were able to get here in spite of the last-minue schedule change. Lew Wolff and his partners are here and Lew looks relaxed — he's even skipped the suit and tie today. He's ready for action, though, as evidenced by the Blackberry sitting in his lap.

Well, we're not on to item 3.3, so progress is quick. The stadium is on the next page of the printed agenda, so we may get out of here well before 4:00.

Finally, we'll remind you that if you want to watch live, you can find a video feed here. We'll update this entry as progress is made — hit "refresh" in your browser to see updates.

Posted by Jay at 02:07 PM | Comments (4)

Introducing Frank Yallop

There was a pretty good turnout at the Quakes press conference today. In addition to a camera crew from Univision, several reporters were on hand, including Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America, Ann Killion of the Mercury News, and Jeff Carlisle from ESPN.com. You can here the audio from the press conference here.

Posted by Jay at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Big Tuesday starts now

Welcome to Tuesday, November 6, the latest big day in a series of big days for the San Jose Earthquakes. We've already seen San Jose enter into exclusive negotiations with Lew Wolff on a project that would turn a piece of blighted land near the airport into a modern, elegant soccer stadium; we've seen the official return of the team; we've seen the hiring of a general manager and the announcement that the side will play at Buck Shaw Stadium until el estadio Terremotos is completed. Today, we get a doubleheader: the introduction of Frank Yallop as Earthquakes coach and an expected vote by the San Jose City Council to continue the already fruitful negotiations between city staff and Wolff.

It's going to be a busy day but what the heck — let's play two! We'll provide photos from both events and get you the results of the vote as soon as they happen. You should also be able to watch the city council meeting online via the city's web site. (They have an agenda posted as well — looks like we're item 4.2. Oh, and just in case anyone missed it, the stadium vote has been moved ot the afternoon city council session, starting at 1:30, with the Quakes vote expected to be between 2:00 and 4:00.)

Until the excitement starts, we'll pass along Nick Green's weekly soccer column from the L.A. Daily News, which is headlined "Yallop was wise to leave Galaxy." Green calls Yallop "a man of candor and integrity," and notes that "The suits' meddling on the playing side in a desperate attempt to salvage a season sabotaged by corporate greed undermined Yallop's authority and autonomy."

The best part is this, though:

"There is certainly an interest in a high-profile, for lack of a better word, a sexy type of candidate," Lalas said. "We're looking to bring in someone who can do something different at the Galaxy.

"The criteria is not that you have to be an international coach or you have to be a domestic coach, you have to be a good coach. We are going to use this as an opportunity to once again push the envelope and do something that has not been seen in MLS."

Translation: the Galaxy will go after a big-name foreign coach, despite their almost collective unfamiliarity with such arcane American sports edicts as the salary cap or draft.

What Green didn't add to that last sentence, but could have, is this: "...thereby almost guaranteeing another season of befuddlement, in-fighting, and confusion among the Galaxy brass." Ah, couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of fellows.

That's it for now — we'll be back around 2:00 with photos from the Yallop press conference.

Posted by Jay at 06:54 AM | Comments (2)

November 04, 2007

Frank Yallop to return to San Jose

Note: We'll be updating this story with new links and information as they become available on Monday.

As SSV noted in an e-mail to its members early Sunday evening, Frank Yallop will be announced as the new coach of the San Jose Earthquakes in a press conference on Tuesday (time and location to be announced).

Full details are being reported here by Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated and here by Jeff Carlisle of ESPN.

Both stories note that the Quakes will compensate L.A. for acquiring Yallop. Carlisle gets specific, saying:

Obtaining Yallop's services came at a price, but not a steep one. According to one source, San Jose parted with either a third or fourth-round pick in the 2008 MLS SuperDraft in order to bring Yallop on board. Such a low cost has led some to speculate that had the Earthquakes not been interested in Yallop, he would have been let go by the Galaxy.

The L.A. Times also has a story on Yallop's departure from L.A., in which former Quakes star Landon Donovan is quoted:

"I like Frank as a person and I think he's a great coach," said Donovan, who starred on San Jose's 2001 and 2003 championship teams. "The unfortunate part is, he hasn't been allowed to show what a good coach he is this year.

"He's not been able to be himself. He's had people in his ear telling him what to do, and he's not been able to just get on with it. When he finally was left alone, we went on a seven-game unbeaten streak.

"I don't think anyone wants to work in those circumstances."

Donovan expanded on those comments in the L.A. Daily News:

"Frank is probably the last one that should have gone," Donovan said. "He's been handcuffed all year. That's unfortunate for him. He's a damn good coach and he's been unable to show it."

Asked who handcuffed him, Donovan said: "You can figure it out. He wasn't allowed to be a coach. People were trying to make decisions for him."

People above (Galaxy president Alexi) Lalas? (The Galaxy is owned by sports entertainment conglomerate AEG)

"No," Donovan said. "I consider Frank a friend. As a professional, I feel sorry for him that he went through this because it's unfair. But as a person I'm glad he got away from this. Unless some things changed, he was never going to be given the real opportunity to be a coach."

The AP story, available here, adds quotes from David Beckham:

"Obviously, we're disappointed," Beckham said to reporters gathered outside the team's locker room. "We felt that he was the right man. We felt that he's a good manager and a strong character with the team.

"But, we've all said, he's not walking away. He's looking after himself and he's looking after his family. It's what we would all do. We're sad to see him leave and we wish him all the luck and all the best."

Yahoo's Martin Rogers offers his own take on the situation, saying, "Frank Yallop was a victim of circumstance with the Los Angeles Galaxy, a good man whose spell as coach was ruined by factors largely beyond his control," and lauding Yallop for being "a man with manners, integrity and strong knowledge of the North American game."

Yallop's move is also getting some play in the international media. The London Times weighs in here, and so does the BBC, although their stories focus primarily on England manager Steve McClaren's visit to LA to watch last night's charity match between the Galaxy and Hollywood United.

The Mercury News also has a short piece on the move. We're guessing there will be a much bigger piece later this week, after Yallop arrives.

Finally, it looks like Andrea Canales was at Home Depot Center last night, so we expect she'll have something to say on the subject as well. We'll update this story with a link as soon as her story is posted. (See bottom of post for an update.)

Speaking personally, we think this is a great move for Earthquakes fans. One of the things that SSV fought for was to retain the colors and records of the San Jose Earthquakes, but really those things were symbols of something larger: the spirit of the Quakes. Frank Yallop had a big hand in first bringing that spirit to San Jose, and we hope that his return means that he'll assemble another team that exemplifies the Earthquakes spirit.

Welcome back, Frank, and good luck. We're behind you all the way.

Additional new stories:

8:00 a.m. — Leaving L.A., Yallop finds his way back to San Jose, Soccer Times
8:00 a.m. — Yallop leaves Galaxy to coach Quakes, Andrea Canales, MLSnet.com
8:00 a.m. — Frank is gone, Andrea Canales' Sideline Views blog
10:00 a.m. — Yallop heads back to familiar scenery, Jeff Carlisle, ESPN
2:45 p.m. — Yallop named head coach of San Jose Earthquakes, SJEarthquakes.com
3:30 p.m. — Yallop knows the way to San Jose, FIFA.com
3:30 p.m. — Yallop quits Galaxy to take San Jose coaching job, International Herald Tribune

Posted by Jay at 08:52 PM | Comments (1)

November 02, 2007

Reed, Pyle endorse staff report, recommendations

This just in:

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and council member Nancy Pyle have issued a memo recommending that the full city council vote to approve the recommendations in the report issued on October 12 by Paul Krutko, director of the Office of Economic Development (OED).

Here's the full text of today's memo:

Subject: Acceptance of the Update on Soccer Stadium, Airport West and iStar Site Negotiations

Recommendation:
Approve Staff Recommendations (a) through (c) with the following additions:

1. A status report of the negotiations and timing of the environmental review be presented to the Community and Economic Development Committee in March 2008; and

2. An update to be given to City Council at the Annual General Plan Review Hearing of the status of all development applications in the pipeline that may or may not be ready for the 2008 annual hearing, including the status of this particular project.

Background:
In June 2007, San Jose was presented with a development proposal that could, if successfully implemented, achieve several objectives of the City's Economic Development Strategy and General Plan Guiding Principles. The proposed project provides for the development of a soccer stadium, housing, office, R&D and retail space, to be financed solely by private development entities.

Based on the progress made to date, we concur with the staff recommendation for additional time through June 2008 to continue negotiations that are currently in progress. The proposed project is complex and detailed, and we should provide staff with the time necessary to generate an agreement that meets the expected outcomes of City Council and the residents of San Jose.

The San Jose Earthquakes had a loyal following of supporters throughout San Jose and the Bay Area region and brought two Major League Soccer (MLS) championships to San Jose. The Earthquakes have recently announced their intentions to play their 2008 season at Santa Clara University and we wish them a successful season.

This is good news but everything is still subject to the vote of the full City Council on Tuesday. We hope to see a lot of soccer fans there, wearing Quakes blue.

Posted by Jay at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)

Wolff audio available online

As we noted Wednesday, Lew Wolff appeared yesterday morning on KQED FM's "Forum," with host Michael Krasny. They did not talk about soccer very much, but if you're interested in hearing it for yourself, they have released the full show as a podcast which you can download here (MP3, 28.3 MB).

Posted by Jay at 07:32 AM | Comments (1)

November 01, 2007

Mercury News endorses Wolff's stadium plan

To paraphrase Sally Field's famous Oscar acceptance speech, "They like it! They really, really like it!"

Sometime when we weren't looking, a big light bulb appeared over the heads of members of the San Jose Mercury News editorial board, and we see the result today: a ringing endorsement of Lew Wolff's stadium proposal and a recommendation that the City Council vote to continue negotiations when they meet Tuesday night.

In fact, not only does the Mercury News endorse the plan, the paper even suggests that some freshly-minted city rules be stretched, if necessary, to get the deal finished as soon as possible.

The extension adds another layer of controversy because it will require the council to break a rule it just passed: limiting general-plan changes to just one set of hearings a year, so the cumulative effects of the land-use decisions are clear. Those hearings are likely to take place in March. But Wolff and city staff believe it may take months longer to tie up details of the complex stadium deal, requiring an additional general-plan session.

Why is this proposal worth all the trouble? Because it may well deliver an extraordinary public benefit that's not attainable any other way: a professional soccer stadium at no public cost.

We understand that, as soccer fans, we are seen to have a vested interest in Wolff's proposal. We think that despite that, however, we can give an unbiased appraisal of the deal, and it's honestly just too good to pass up. We're happy that the Mercury News has recognized that, too.

See you all Tuesday night.

Posted by Jay at 07:16 AM | Comments (3)