Major Link Soccer - The Winter of Our Malcontents Edition
by Dizzo on Sep 30, 2011 1:01 PM PDT
in Major League Soccer: News & Analysis
Email
PrintIt's a season defining couple of weeks for the Sounders. Thankfully, they managed to get the party started right by securing a spot in the elimination rounds of the CONCACAF Champions League. The 2-2 tie against Comunicaciones gives them some breathing room with a rough travel schedule to end the season. The Sounders traveled straight from Guatemala to the greater Boston metro area to take on the New England Revolution. A win against a faltering New England team would be nice, but the greater prize is on Tuesday when the Sounders are back at the C-Link to take on the Chicago Fire for their third consecutive U.S. Open Cup. As always, the match recap and photos are available on the Sounders website.
The Tyranny of Discontent: Those superstar malcontents are called locker-room cancer for a reason. Steve Davis looks at two of the worst currently destroying their teams from within. The first being Carlos Tevez and the second being the New York Red Bulls own Rafael Marquez. The Red Bulls should take a page from the Sounders playbook in dealing with Freddie Ljungberg. Keep Marquez isolated from the team until you can arrange a trade.
More links after the jump:
Beckerman Ejected: Real Salt Lake captain Kyle Beckerman lost his head and was ejected for headbutting Chicago Fire midfielder Daniel Paladini. It's possible the midfielder will miss one or two extra games for the incident possibly impacting RSL's ability to hold on to the third place in the West (and their spot as the Sounder's first playoff opponent). The Fire would go on to win the game 3-0 off of a hat-trick by Marco Pappa. Pappa and the Fire are heating up at a dangerous time for the Seattle Sounders.
The Union Are Back: The Philadelphia Union are back in a big way with a vital 3-2 win over D.C. United. Former Sounder Sebastien Le Toux was my man of the match with two early goals. The Frenchman showed again why he needs to be playing up top as a striker rather than a deeper role. Rookie Michael Farfan, the official man-of-the-match took over the play-making duties from the right-side of the midfield rather than being slotted in at his usual full-back spot.
Chivas Looking at New Stadium Site: The Los Angeles Galaxy's little brother final looks ready to move out from the basement and into some new digs. Chivas USA is looking at a potential site in the L.A. suburb of Santa Ana according to a report in the Orange County Register. Santa Ana has a culturally rich and vibrant Latino community which the team has long coveted as potential fans. It is also the fourth most densely populated city in the country making it more like the successful downtown soccer-specific stadiums in MLS.
Quakes Move Closer to Stadium: The San Jose Earthquakes moved closer to building a new stadium in San Jose this week. Local residents were given an opportunity to voice concerns to the city's department of planning before building commences. As a gesture of goodwill the team shelved plans to hold concerts at the new stadium. Concerts are an important revenue base and the decision may financially crimp the team in the future.
Klinsmann Names Roster: USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann released the 22-man roster for upcoming friendlies against Honduras and Ecuador. The list is heavy on European based players, but there are a few important MLS players selected from Seattle's rivals in the West such as Nick Rimando, Kyle Beckerman, Brek Shea and Landon Donovan.
19 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I'm scratching my head on this San Jose stadium thing.
I know they need a new stadium, but building with a cheap stadium next to an airport and angry neighbors and then agreeing to sacrifice revenue by not holding concerts seems like a big waste of money. They could be irrelevant for decades if this goes through.
Bloggin' at JoePasDoghouse.com
no public money + owned by "cheap lew" wolff
we brought 40k out to Stanford for the NYRB match and Lew said it was all just for the fireworks. so looks we are stuck at a 15k erector set.
the 49ers feel a little bit differently than Lew about this market’s potential, and are about to build a $900 million stadium a couple miles down the road.
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Sep 30, 2011 1:44 PM PDT up reply actions
Ownership is everything in MLS.
I can see it now as a Sporting KC member. Fortunately KC never had bad ownership, just a well-meaning caretaker in Lamar Hunt that would rather do nothing than do something wrong. With OnGoal/Sporting Club and the new stadium there’s a level of commitment to the team and the city which is even more satisfying than the wins. I hope Quake fans get the ownership they deserve.
Bloggin' at JoePasDoghouse.com
It should be said
it is much easier to build a nice stadium like KC has when you are given over $200 million of taxpayer dollars:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_Club
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Sep 30, 2011 3:16 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Hunt was a risk taker
He pushed to build the first soccer specific stadiums. The lessons learned from those helped MLS immensely.
Forget Russia...
…sounds like the Quakes should have bought Empire Field. It would have been bigger & better than what they have.
I honestly don't get the complaints...
You have an owner willing to build a stadium with his own money in a market that has never shown that it will support a team on a weekly basis anywhere near the numbers the new stadium will fit. I’m amazed at how many people are complaining about this stadium based on some drawings. No, it won’t be the nicest stadium in MLS, but it will clearly be the best stadium the Quakes will have ever played in. Plus, the location is the next best thing to putting it at Diridon/Downtown.
No matter where you build a stadium, especially in San Jose, you are going to get neighbors complaining. There’s no way taxpayers are going to fund it, nor should they, and if this thing is ready by the 2013 season, people in San Jose should be pissing their pants in joy.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter. You'll Never Yacht Alone.
by Jeremiah Oshan on Oct 1, 2011 8:47 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
I think it's a great step forward for the Quakes
Getting a good location in a crowded and expensive market like SJ was never going to be easy. Hopefully, the new stadium can kick start a team that’s been flagging at the gates. I have my doubts. My concern is that by giving up the concert funding they are going to continue to struggle financially which will slow efforts by the league to raise the salary cap. It’s easy money that helps float ownership groups in less successful markets.
Also, with a stadium finally in place, they’ll be in SJ for the next decade at least. They’re giving up the chance to move the team to a more viable market. I don’t want to see the team move especially since SJ fans have already had a team taken from them once before. But the decision to stay in SJ will impact the league as a whole due to the league’s ownership structure. The successful teams subsidize the unsuccessful through the salary cap, allocation dollars, profit sharing through SUM and other methods.
couple questions
1. Who says they are flagging at gate? Current attendance at more than 100 percent of capacity.
2. Who says they are struggling financially? All indications are they are close to break even now.
3. Why would league want to move them? Where do you think is a more viable market? No where in Bay Area is going to spend public funds on a soccer stadium. No other markets are bigger or more potentially lucrative.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter. You'll Never Yacht Alone.
by Jeremiah Oshan on Oct 1, 2011 1:47 PM PDT up reply actions
On your points:
1 – I was basing that on average attendance. I was unaware they were at 100% capacity. I stand corrected. We’ll soon see how much untapped demand there is.
2 – I find I hard to believe they’re breaking even with such low attendance. They have the lowest attendance baring CLB and the NER (both of which play in stadiums they own). Also, the Quakes cutting of Geovanni after last season, despite some good play from him, doesn’t point to a team that’s doing well.
3 – There are other markets who are discussed here quite often (NY, Las Vegas, Detroit, most of the major cities in the South). You could make the case that none of these markets are better than SJ and you might be right.
Lastly, I don’t support teams blackmailing cities for stadium funds. I didn’t like it when the NBA did it with the Sonics. That’s different from willingly giving up an ancillary source of revenue which the Earthquakes just did.
they aren't willingly giving up ancillary income
they are ceding to neighbors demands.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter. You'll Never Yacht Alone.
by Jeremiah Oshan on Oct 1, 2011 6:58 PM PDT up reply actions
i bet they will get concerts after it's built
that meeting was just a dog and pony show for the stupid nimby neighbors. they can always go back after the stadium gets built and get a concert permit.
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Oct 2, 2011 3:54 PM PDT up reply actions
"successful teams subsidize the unsuccessful"
and cheap owners like Lew subsidize the win totals of the teams willing to invest in their squad! Quakes are second to last in MLS payrolls this season.
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Oct 2, 2011 3:42 PM PDT up reply actions
re: weekly basis
“in a market that has never shown that it will support a team on a weekly basis anywhere near the numbers the new stadium will fit.”
Sporting KC never showed it was able to support 18k/week before it built the new stadium. Its avg attendance was 9-12k.
I understand the 40k at the NYRB game at Stanford was a one-off, but I feel confident we could support a 22-25k seat stadium, if its combined with marketing investment. The Quakes don’t do any marketing right now aside from some local bus stop ads and one tv spot during A’s games. The front office have little incentive to market b/c we pretty much sell out every game in tiny buck shaw, so they don’t see the benefit of spending money on tv spots and billboards to sell a couple hundred more tickets.
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Oct 2, 2011 3:37 PM PDT up reply actions
and if they had public money...
I’d agree. Build it bigger and better. But as long as this is being paid out of Wolff’s pocket, I just don’t see the complaints.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, MLS editor SB Nation. Follow me on Twitter. You'll Never Yacht Alone.
by Jeremiah Oshan on Oct 2, 2011 6:48 PM PDT up reply actions
Lew is not the only owner. We are also owned by his partner John Fischer
Fischer is the heir to the Gap fortune. He is worth $1 billion. Lew/Fischer own the A’s. They are the 5th richest ownership group in MLB. The amount of money they are planning on putting into the Quakes stadium is chump change for them. Spending more money would not be lighting money on fire either. If they spent more, it would be an investment going into a hard asset that has value. It would increase the value of the franchise for when they sell it down the road.
Throw into that all the money they have gotten in the past few years from the league… their share of the $30-40 million in expansion fees from Philly, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and Montreal. Their share of $10mil/year in int’l tv money, $8mil/year in ESPN money, $3mil/year in FSC money (about to become $12mil/year in NBC money). Their share of $75-100 million for the next expansion fee. Their share of $125-150 million that SUM just sold 25% of itself to Providence equity.
Lew also bought the Quakes for an undervalued expansion fee. The team is worth now far more than he paid for it.
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Oct 3, 2011 12:04 PM PDT up reply actions
Always good to see an RSL player lose his head and get sent off
cheaters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7mA-bMl3uo&list=FLRPc6h9TxUhz8jkwokHCEOw&index=28
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Sep 30, 2011 1:39 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Tevez and Marquez story is not the same
Tevez is not an angel, but Mancini is a real problem at City. You are down 2:0, and you are bringing Nigel de Jong when taking Dzeko out? Plus, I am not sure how many coaches would say to their player " to f**k off back to Bosnia" even though Dzeko did not any favors to himself by his dissent at getting replaced in the Allianz Arena.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Sounder At Heart
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
