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March 06, 2008

Quakes permit for Buck Shaw approved

Late last night, the Santa Clara City Council unanimously approved the special use permit for the use of Buck Shaw Stadium as the Earthquakes' home stadium for the next three years.

We want to thank everyone who attended the meeting. It turned out to last a lot longer than we originally anticipated, thanks in part to an item on the agenda about a proposed ballot measure for the 49ers stadium project which generated a lot of comments from the public. (Ironically, no one in the gallery wore Niners gear, compared to the 40-50 people there who were supporting the Quakes.)

Only a few citizens addressed the council with their concerns about Buck Shaw, and they focused primarily on traffic and parking issues. Since the permit was unanimously approved, it is clear that the Santa Clara City Council felt that these concerns were already appropriately addressed in the Quakes' traffic and parking mitigation plans. Kudos to the Quakes as well as Santa Clara's city staff for the work done studying the issue, as seen here in the report delivered to the city council (PDF, 80+ pages).

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Meanwhile, there are a couple other Quakes-related items in the news today. Mercury News reporter Elliott Almond spoke with Quakes GM John Doyle about why the team didn't select anyone in the waiver draft.

'We don't want to give away cap room or allocation room for somebody that isn't going to be an upgrade for what we already have," Doyle said. "That says a lot for the players we have."

Almond also states that the Quakes spent much less than $300,000, an amount that was reported by Grahame Jones of the L.A. Times, to acquire midfielder Ronnie O'Brien from Toronto.

The Chronicle's Tom FitzGerald also spoke with Doyle about potential upgrades:

"We're pretty happy with the core of players we have now, although we'd like to add one or two elite players," (Doyle) said.

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All-time Quakes scoring leader Ronald Cerritos can't be considered an elite player any more, but he's found a new team: USL Divison 2 expansion side Real Maryland F.C. Cerritos has some interesting things to say about the emerging depth and quality in American soccer, even at that level:

‘‘I’m telling you, it’s about the same level,” he said. ‘‘Physically, all the players in the United States are stronger, faster, athletic. My first year, when I was 20 years old coming to this country, players from my country were technically very good. But we’re slow. We’re slow against these guys, and that’s the truth.”

That's a pretty solid endorsement of American talent, especially coming from a three-time All Star who bagged 70 goals and 56 assists in MLS.

Posted by Jay at March 6, 2008 06:59 AM

Comments

Posted by: RD 84 at March 5, 2008 02:26 PM