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MLS and baseball team plan football in Bay area
USA - 29 May, 2006
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The Oakland Athletics, a Major League Baseball team, will join Major League Soccer to announce a deal this week to bring a soccer team back to the San Francisco Bay area if the team's owners can develop a stadium plan, reports the Associated Press.
The team would replace the San Jose Earthquakes, who moved to Houston following last season after public financing for a new facility in San Jose fell through.
Lew Wolff and John Fisher, the A’s principal owners, will have three years to buy a team and develop a stadium solely for soccer. The location of the new stadium has not been determined, but the new offices will be located in downtown San Jose. The price of the contract was not disclosed.
Wolff said the decision was motivated by growing interest in football, and nothing to do with moving the A’s. San Jose has long wanted the A’s, but Wolff has reportedly said he will honour the Major League Baseball rules that say San Jose territorial rights belong to the San Francisco Giants.
“We think we’re hitting the soccer world perhaps at exactly the right time,” Wolff said. “It’s not a simple task even to find land in the Bay area, but we think there’s lots of opportunities, and we can be creative if we have to be.”
The two-time MLS champion Earthquakes were unhappy sharing San Jose State University’s Spartan Stadium and blamed money woes and slumping attendance on the lack of a dedicated facility.
The Earthquakes won MLS championships in 2001 and 2003 led by forward Landon Donovan, but attendance dipped to an average of just 13,037 fans last season. City council officials objected to using public funds to finance a new stadium but wanted to keep the team, even trying to persuade the owners of the San Jose Sharks National Hockey League team to buy the Earthquakes.
The team would replace the San Jose Earthquakes, who moved to Houston following last season after public financing for a new facility in San Jose fell through.
Lew Wolff and John Fisher, the A’s principal owners, will have three years to buy a team and develop a stadium solely for soccer. The location of the new stadium has not been determined, but the new offices will be located in downtown San Jose. The price of the contract was not disclosed.
Wolff said the decision was motivated by growing interest in football, and nothing to do with moving the A’s. San Jose has long wanted the A’s, but Wolff has reportedly said he will honour the Major League Baseball rules that say San Jose territorial rights belong to the San Francisco Giants.
“We think we’re hitting the soccer world perhaps at exactly the right time,” Wolff said. “It’s not a simple task even to find land in the Bay area, but we think there’s lots of opportunities, and we can be creative if we have to be.”
The two-time MLS champion Earthquakes were unhappy sharing San Jose State University’s Spartan Stadium and blamed money woes and slumping attendance on the lack of a dedicated facility.
The Earthquakes won MLS championships in 2001 and 2003 led by forward Landon Donovan, but attendance dipped to an average of just 13,037 fans last season. City council officials objected to using public funds to finance a new stadium but wanted to keep the team, even trying to persuade the owners of the San Jose Sharks National Hockey League team to buy the Earthquakes.
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