WASHINGTON, DC (Mar 12, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- A new club with a built-in history, San Jose might be the answer for the intelligent gloryhunter. then again, it's a new club with many of the same problems that sent it to Houston oh so many years ago. Ok, it was two years ago, but we're working the drama.
So what have I gotten myself into?
The most dysfunctional MLS champions in League history, with the original Quakes holding two Cups and a great lineup before getting shipped to another city and promptly winning a championship.
Wow, what are the odds?
Minus the existing championships, the same thing happened to the Quebec Nordiques their first year as the Colorado Avalanche.
So what of this championship history?
After joining Colorado and Kansas City in the pantheon of low drawing and troubled MLS clubs, San Jose made things worse. Management and name changes, no ownership, and the feel that they would be racing Kansas City, Dallas, and Tampa to see who would get moved anywhere else. Instead, the Clash turned Earthquakes fielded some impressive squads and won two championships. Then they got moved anyway.
Explain.
The situations feeding the early problems never really changed. Spartan Stadium had width and convenience issues. The ownership was never more than caretaker, and the results on the field ended up not meaning as much as we'd like to expect.
With Anschutz Entertainment following Kraft Soccer as the club's operator, a decision was made that either local investment step in or the club would look for a nice new home. Hello Houston, with the San Jose faithful immediately pushing for a remedy to get them a team. Enter pro baseball?
Pro baseball?
Indeed. Your new club is investor/operated by the fine folks that fill our summers with Oakland Athletics baseball. Apparently Billy "Moneyball" Beane is quite the soccer enthusiast, and his ownership group decided to give American pro soccer a go. The long-term result is a soccer stadium. The short-term is playing big games at Oakland's baseball stadium.
You mean there's still a stadium 'situation?'
Indeed, with The new look Quakes playing in Buck Shaw Stadium on the campus of Santa clara University. It's an 11,500 seater with an odd layout. Technically a soccer-specific venue, if only because the school shut down the football team and the baseball team got their own stadium. Is it better than Spartan?
You're saying more than you intend, and we'll leave it at that. Revamped small college stadiums do not appropriate MLs venues make, and all involved are aware of that. Any game expected to actually draw gets moved to the Oakland Athletics stadiums in downtown Oakland. So the revamped Battle of California with the Galaxy gets played in a baseball setting with 40k seats.
And where am I exactly?
Downtown San Jose for the regular games and downtown Oakland for the revenue spinners.
And what colors will I be painting the formal dining room?
Black shirts and blue shorts home, white shirts and the same shorts away. Yes, they're wearing black shirts this time out, not the old blue ones from the championships era.
Ok, let's stop pretending. I'm here for a revamped trophy. What are my chances that the Quakes pull a Houston in '08?
If the space/time continuum holds, not very good. San Jose lacks the advantage of a ready-made team. Instead, they've brought back some former Quakes as coaches and players, but they'll still be filling out the roster with journeymen. That should make for a very rough season filled with rumors that heroes from the past might deign to return. Don't fall for them.
It will likely take a couple of years for the Quakes to be respectable, even longer to content. Then again, the Seattle and Philadelphia expansions should weaken the player pool to the point that even a marginal team will once again be playoff caliber. We would recommend looking forward to that.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves. What should I say as my E-Quakes façade melts away?
Apparently anything knocking Houston won't do it. The former Quakes returned for a preseason game against Quakes 2.0 and it was a borderline love-in for the visiting team. So maybe slapping De Rosario's name and number on the back of your new black Quakes shirt will make more sense than it ever should.
