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Earthquakes to open Levi’s Stadium in 2014 vs. Sounders

Earthquakes Sounders (SoundersFC.com)

By FRANCO PANIZO

The San Jose Earthquakes’ season may have just ended, but that has not stopped them from making plans for the 2014 campaign.

The Earthquakes announced Thursday that they will open Levi’s Stadium, the new home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, next year when San Jose plays host to the Seattle Sounders on Aug. 2. The MLS regular season match will be the first event held at the 68,500-seat stadium, which is located in Santa Clara, Calif.

“We are proud to open Levi’s Stadium against Sounders FC,” said Earthquakes President Dave Kaval. “Santa Clara and the 49ers are great partners and they are constructing a world-class venue that all the Bay Area can be proud of. We have seen great crowds around MLS over the past five years, especially in Seattle, but we are confident that this match will once again demonstrate that the Bay Area has the most passionate soccer fans in the country.”

The Earthquakes are expected to again play most of their home matches in 2014 at Buck Shaw Stadium before opening their soccer-specific stadium in 2015.

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What do you make of this development? Happy to see an MLS match be the opening event of a football stadium?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Boys, I’m your real father. That’s right, yer mom was a road-wench. (BTW, change the spelling to Lawless like I did – much cooler.)

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  2. I hear even this new San Francisco NFL stadium has a GRASS PITCH. (Oh, how I wish Arthur Blank wasn’t an idiot.)

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  3. what’s the hold up on the new stadium?

    btw how many stadiums will that make? It’s really impressive. 20,000 stadiums is exactly what we need. don’t need those 40-50,000 seaters. need to make it more intimate for the fans

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    • i think it all depends on location, if seattle were to get a SSS limiting it to 20,000 would be foolish cause it just limits potential money. however in some markets which are smaller (columbus for example) limiting it that small is smart cause then you have a good shot of filling it

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    • Best stadiums are the ones in the 25k range that can open up to 55-70k for the big games. They black out the top sections so they dont count as not selling tickets but are available for US games and the like

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    • The hold up is they started digging and they found secret WWII bunkers that had been covered and forgotten. It became a larger project than originally considered and they pushed the grand opening back.

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  4. They have drawn 50,000 st Stanford Stadium playing against the Galaxy in regular season games. I think MLS needs to start looking at stadiums bigger than 20,000 to 25,000.

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  5. They should have some arrangement to play at a more respectable stadium, other than Buck Shaw. Not only capacity wise, but look at the field dimensions and the open area to take a proper corner kick. Pathetic & damaging to MLS.

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    • dude, buck shaw is 74 yds by 115 yds. why are you still complaining about something you dont even know the facts of? i’ll agree that the signage is too damn close to the corners, but the Quakes are hardly the only team in the league who does this to earn the $$. and the playing surface is easily among the best in the league, just ask the players. bright new shiny stadiums opening next year and ’15, so lets just move along shall we?

      Reply

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