San Jose City Council Adopts EIR

Last night, the San Jose City Council adopted the Final EIR for the new Quakes stadium - a unanimous vote at that! Nice meeting coverage by Jay Hipps of Centerline Soccer

Tonight is the pre-season game vs the Dynamo at Kezar. H and I will be there warming up the drums for the season and H is bringing along some friends to introduce them to Quakes fever!

Let's Go Earthquakes....bang...bang...bang-bang-bang!

Conflicted

All of the stories in the recent news about Lew Wolff and where his Oakland A's may or may not be going to play in a few years has resulted in me being conflicted. As a Q's supporter - I'm grateful to Mr Wolff for bringing the franchise back to the Bay Area. The Quakes belong in San Jose - their roots. All Q's supporters are looking forward to the proposed Quakes stadium that is being pursued. All of the botched attempts to move the A's, including the latest to Fremont has all but failed. What kind of message does this send, if at all, with respect to the future home of the Quakes? I beleive the basic message is, "Believe it when you see it."

My views:

(1) The A's BELONG in Oakland. Period. Do what has to be done to keep them there. The existing Oakland Coliseum site provides the most logical location for a new stadium. GET IT DONE.

(2) The Quakes can survive at Buck Shaw for awhile - there is still alot of room for growth in the fan base before a new stadium can be filled on a regular basis.

2009 Gold Cup, etc.

H texted me about this: A couple of first-round CONCACAF Gold Cup games will be played in Oakland this year on July 5th. Here is the schedule and US venues:

SCHEDULE

First Round

July 3 – The Home Depot Center (Los Angeles)

July 4 – Qwest Field (Seattle)

July 5 – Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (San Francisco)

July 7 – Crew Stadium (Columbus, Ohio)

July 8 – Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (Washington)

July 9 – Reliant Stadium (Houston)

July 10 – Florida International University Stadium (Miami)

July 11 – Gillette Stadium (Boston)

July 12 – University of Phoenix Stadium (Phoenix)

Quarterfinals

July 18 – Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia)

July 19 –Dallas Cowboys New Stadium (Dallas)

Semifinals
July 23 – Soldier Field (Chicago)

Final

July 26 – Giants Stadium (New York)

(*Gonna have to talk to Adam Z about tickets....)

QUAKES vs GALAXY April 18th in OAKLAND

I have a group attending this game - I've promoted the game with a flyer featuring Joe Cannon, Becks, and post-game fireworks. So know it sounds like Becks will still be in Milan for this game - so the fireworks show better be good. (Actually, I already have 44 out of the 50 tickets sold already so we should be in good shape).

QUAKES STADIUM

With the recent news that the A's are not going to move to Fremont and that San Jose is eyeing them, I can't help but wonder if this will affect the progress on the soccer-specific venue for the Q's. I hope that Lew doesn't start thinking about a multi-use park - for the A's and Quakes to share. I think I would prefer to stay at our current home - the South Bay San Siro (aka Buck Shaw) - than have Q's games played on a field with huge portions being infield dirt!

...One day

Real Salt Lake is moving into their new stadium mid-season. They must be grateful to get off of that astro turf. I can't wait until the Quakes get to put together their own "new home" video promo. I do have to say, the SB San Siro has grown on me. The field is always in perfect shape and the home supporters are filling the stands.




We also got our email saying that it is time to renew our season tickets for 2009. I am not ready to think about that just yet - I want our 2008 season to go on a little longer (all the way to the MLS Cup). One can dream, right?