San Jose Earthquakes moving to San Francisco?

San Francisco Chronicle: "Mayor Gavin Newsom confirmed Thursday that he has met with Quakes president and general manager Alexi Lalas and other team representatives to talk about moving the Major League Soccer squad north from San Jose." A soccer-specific stadium in China Basin was discussed. Kezar Stadium or SBC Park could be temporary venues until the new stadium is constructed.

Posted on July 23, 04 at 10:51AM

Updated at 10:56PM

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Richard on August 21, 2004 at 10:50 PM wrote: #

It's a shame to think that the San Francisco Bay Area -- supposedly the richest metropolitan area per capita in the United States -- can't even find the means to finance a soccer-specific 30,000-40,000 seat stadium. Oh well, what does one expect when the SF 49ers are having trouble, too. What happened? All of the multi-millionaires in the Bay Area couldn't be convinced to fork over some money? Aside from that, I believe that San Jose, although the largest Bay Area cityby population, is simply too far away from the majority of Bay Area residents. Most Bay Area people live in-and-around San Francisco-Oakland. The logical thing would be to play Earthquakes games in the vicinity. Why couldn't the Earthquakes ownership strike a deal with other existing Bay Area stadiums in the meantime until a new soccer-specific stadium is built? If I had to do it, I would have done the following strategy: (1) play most Earthquake home games at Memorial Stadium (75,662 seating) on the UC Berkeley campus; with (2) selected Earthquakes home games at Hornet Stadium (26,000 seating) on the Sacramento State campus. This strategy would move the team close to the majority of Northern California population base, establishing public awareness in the meantime until a new soccer-specific stadium is up in the San Francisco-Oakland area. Both college stadiums are older, and the fees to play there may be costly to some degree, but the risk could be worth the price. I hope that the Earthquakes do not move from the San Francisco Bay Area. It would be a shame if it happened, and it would probably take many, many years, even decades, to convince MLS to get another team here again.

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Richard on August 21, 2004 at 10:50 PM wrote: #

It's a shame to think that the San Francisco Bay Area -- supposedly the richest metropolitan area per capita in the United States -- can't even find the means to finance a soccer-specific 30,000-40,000 seat stadium. Oh well, what does one expect when the SF 49ers are having trouble, too. What happened? All of the multi-millionaires in the Bay Area couldn't be convinced to fork over some money? Aside from that, I believe that San Jose, although the largest Bay Area cityby population, is simply too far away from the majority of Bay Area residents. Most Bay Area people live in-and-around San Francisco-Oakland. The logical thing would be to play Earthquakes games in the vicinity. Why couldn't the Earthquakes ownership strike a deal with other existing Bay Area stadiums in the meantime until a new soccer-specific stadium is built? If I had to do it, I would have done the following strategy: (1) play most Earthquake home games at Memorial Stadium (75,662 seating) on the UC Berkeley campus; with (2) selected Earthquakes home games at Hornet Stadium (26,000 seating) on the Sacramento State campus. This strategy would move the team close to the majority of Northern California population base, establishing public awareness in the meantime until a new soccer-specific stadium is up in the San Francisco-Oakland area. Both college stadiums are older, and the fees to play there may be costly to some degree, but the risk could be worth the price. I hope that the Earthquakes do not move from the San Francisco Bay Area. It would be a shame if it happened, and it would probably take many, many years, even decades, to convince MLS to get another team here again.

San Jose Earthquakes moving to San Francisco?