What is up with Buck Shaw?
By: Melissa | April 30th, 2008
As I was leaving work yesterday (Chinatown SF), I passed by a giant building, under renovations, with a sign in the window “Fisher Industries.” Clearly, the son of The Gap has an assload of money and he is not afraid to toss it around. Case in point – the Buck Shaw stadium renovations are hitting the $3 million mark yet the Earthquakes investors do not seem concerned. John Doyle spoke with Ridge Mahoney at SoccerAmerica:
“Lew was kind of funny when I started asking about stuff I thought we needed,” says general manager John Doyle, who played for and then assistant coached the original Quakes before their move to Houston in December, 2005. “When we first started talking, he asked me, ‘Do you want to wait a year so we can get all this just the way you want it, or do you want to start playing now?’
“I said, ‘I don’t want to wait, I want to play.’ But everything, or just about everything, we asked for, he’s given us, and not just in regards to the stadium. That’s just the kind of person he is.”
You know, every time I read about the renovations, or the new stadium, or even quotes from the coaches about the owners, I wonder why such great synergy with the Quakes compared to the freakin’ drama with the Oakland A’s? It’s some of the same ownership group with seemingly similar issues regarding City Council decisions to allocate land. Why is Wolff so determined to move the A’s out of Oakland yet keep the Quakes in San Jose? Seriously people. The floor is open. Help me understand this conundrum.
Our reserves take on RSL in the Open Cup tonight. Tim Hainley’s game preview is here.
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Comments
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Let’s not forget that the A’s have already moved twice in their history. Philly – Kansas City – Oakland. I know they’ve been in Oakland for 40 years, but they’re not a native Oakland team (at least not to a Philadelphia sports fan taught to hate teams that leave), and what’s another move?
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Right – what is another move (The Raiders)? The thing that gets me is this: in that 40 years, the A’s have really become a source of pride to residents. So it’s less that one supports the A’s and more that they support the city of Oakland which honestly, doesn’t get much love from the rest of the country. Moving the A’s now is like killing the soul of the team. And I don’t want to draw any parallels here with the Quakes moving to Houston (since you could say they’ve been the San Jose team since the 70’s). Floor is still open…
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According to Wikipedia, the A’s tried a few different sites in Oakland, but couldn’t get any support for a new stadium. In one case Jerry Brown sold the land Wolff was considering for a stadium to a real estate developer that he (Brown) had ties to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_Field#Previous_options
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And the Earthquakes got beat bad tonight…
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20080430&content_id=154239&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
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Yeah – I interviewed a friend of mine who’s been following the A’s saga for a while many months ago on this blog. There have been a few sites Wolff picked out – including the Sears building downtown and an area in East Oakland right outside of downtown (filled with toxic waste, just like the FMC site in San Jose), as well as the area you pointed out in the wikipedia post. But at the same time I think that even if the Evendale (sp?) deal doesn’t go through in San Jose, Wolff may have a plan B in place to pay for the Earthquakes SSS. I guess I feel there’s more support from Wolff & Co in regards to the Quakes than the A’s. Perhaps its because they think there’s more money in the South Bay yet the Giants have that territory so they’ll put the baseball team as close to that area as they can (Fremont).
In regards to the Open Cup game, here’s the text I got from my friend (while I was settling in to a fantastic movie at the Parkway – I think called, Under the Same Moon):
The report from Salt Lake is that your own guys are running into and injuring each other and RSL is up 3-0
Good times.
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4-0, and a yellow for diving apparently for PJP … rough night.
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