The San Jose Earthquakes took one step closer to breaking ground on a new stadium late Tuesday evening. The San Jose City Council unanimously approved the measure to re-zone land around the San Jose airport that would allow construction on a new Earthquakes stadium to take place.
Lew Wolff, the Earthquakes owner, will provide $60 million to help finance the project, and pay the city $7 million for the land near the airport. Reports place the planned stadium capacity at up to 18,000 people.
While no specific date has been set to break ground, having the land approved now lets the stadium naming rights to be sold and sponsors to be brought in to help with funding.
What do you think about the news? Glad that another soccer specific stadium is in the works?
Share your thoughts below.
wooohoooo. can’t wait
vic, do you even go to any MLS games? if you’re a euro leagues fan (and only pay to watch meaningless friendlies here in the US) it sounds like you’ve got some envy issues or a chip on your shoulder about our ‘small’ league. you do realize we’ve added 6 teams in as many years- if that’s not growth what the hell is? and there is a big difference between big, EMPTY stadiums and smaller venues packed to the roof (our new stadium in SJ will have a proper one!). it’s all about the game-day experience; my advice, is take a trip and try to enjoy american soccer. otherwise, sit in your living room or watch the PC and stop complaining.
Quakes also don’t need a designated player either- the only MLS team w/ a DP-like player that has ever won the cup was the Crew. Lew is putting up $60 mil+ of his own coin (while also trying to build a new A’s stadium a few miles away), you can bet he’s trying to at least break even in the deal.
as for you Houston fans, you shouldn’t have expected anything less when you got your team gifted to you. when you take gifts from the devil, there’s always a price…
Progress on the stadium issue is just further proof that AEG was never particularly interested in making San Jose work. I appreciate what AEG has done for the league, but the Quakes were never anything more to them than something that they could strip for parts. They didn’t advertise, they didn’t reach out to local partner, they didn’t do any of the things the new owners have done. Their decision to leave San Jose for Houston was a REAL ESTATE decision not a soccer decision and it is nice irony that the decision has so far failed. (Not gloating – I want Houston fans to get a proper statdium.)
Now I don’t think the new group is perfect by any means. But their success so far highlights the failures of AEG in San Jose.
Name me an NBA arena that can’t hold 15,000 people.
He did do some creative negotiating, though – to rezone another chunk of land in an industrial area as “residential” and allow him to build homes there…
Better that than asking for a publicly funded stadium…
Ives,
I like the St. Patrick’s Day touch on the website. It’s good to see another MLS team with a possible stadium deal. The more clubs with their own stadiums, the better the atmosphere will be for the games.
Awesome
You know I’m not a Dynamo fan, I was born and live in LA so go Galaxy, but it bothers me as someone who A) lived in Houston for almost 10 years and actively participates in their weekly soccer radio talk show and comments on the blog almost daily and B) Hated to see the California Clasico lose its lust when the Earthquakes went on hiatus for a while?
But if SJ gets their stadium BEFORE THE DYNAMO, meaning the get the final Okay announced, prints and dates for ground braking and completion before Houston even has an ok from Harris County and the City of Houston, than I would be just in rage if that happens, pretty rediculous, should of just put the goats or an America USA type of thing there? Oh well here’s to hoping by the next World Cup both San Jose & Houston have stadium wich along with Kansas City, New York, Philly will allow every MLS team to have their own stadium, maybe Seattle, Revs & DC have a NFL one but at least the 1st 2 own theirs. maybe then DC will be forced to build one with assisted MLS financing, and then Revs will be forced to get one out of pure embarrassment! LOL
Oh yeah, that’s a problem. Will have to stick to weekend games. Hopefully, the high-speed rail project will mean more Caltrain frequencies in the evening.