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March 06, 2008
Merc: "Quakes plan OK'd over objections"
We hesitate to mention this because it's completely irrelevant now, but the Mercury News has published Barry Witt's story on Tuesday's Santa Clara City Council meeting. The meeting saw the council unanimously approve the team's permit for use of Buck Shaw Stadium for the next three years, thanks in part to the Earthquakes' comprehensive parking and traffic management plan.
The Quakes' temporary residence at Buck Shaw is a win-win for the team and the university. While the Quakes get a place to play which is only a few hundred yards away from the proposed site of their future permanent home, the university will benefit from a number of improvements to the stadium and other athletic facilities. These improvements, which will be funded entirely by the Quakes, are rumored to be in the neighborhood of $3 million.
There's no mention of those benefits in Witt's story, however. Instead he devotes considerable space to one of the three people who spoke against the proposal and gathered 63 signatures on a petition opposing it. Maybe it's just us, but that hardly seems like a significant number in a city of 109,000.
Witt also failed to mention that one of the plan's critics conceded that, while she was concerned it might not be good for her neighborhood, it was good for Santa Clara as a whole.
We're glad Witt was there, though, if only to hear the comment that SSV president Don Gagliardi made to the council. "The Mercury News says that the universe of people who care about soccer is very small, so if that's true there won't be any issues with traffic anyway."
(Oh, Mercury News, one other thing. The council meeting happened Tuesday night and today is Thursday. Way to stay current.)
Posted by Jay at March 6, 2008 09:47 AM