MLS' San Jose Earthquakes move to Houston

[TexasHSFootball]

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The San Jose Earthquakes are moving to Houston.

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber said Thursday the team's owners were attracted by the chance to play in front of an ethnically diverse population willing to support a soccer team.

"We've always believed that the city has great potential to be a soccer market," Garber said. "We're excited about what our opportunities are there."

San Jose officials had worked to keep the team from leaving, and even considered subsidizing a new stadium.

The Earthquakes' current owner, Anschutz Entertainment Group, had expressed previous interest in moving the team to Houston. It is unhappy with the condition of the Spartan Stadium on the campus of San Jose State University and with the team's share of proceeds from parking and concession fees.

San Jose will keep the Earthquakes team name, logo and colors, and the city already has signed a letter of intent with the hopes of attracting a MLS expansion team, perhaps as early as 2007.

"It is our intent to return to San Jose as early as possible," Garber said.

MLS officials said AEG has entered "positive discussions" about finding a soccer stadium in Houston.

"It is with great regret that we were unable to find a solution to our facility issues in San Jose," AEG president Timothy J. Leiweke said. "It was not for lack of effort."

Garber said all the coaches and contracted Earthquakes players will transfer to Houston.

"We've worked long and hard for several months to try to bring MLS soccer here," said Frank Michel, a spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White.

Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment, the San Jose Sharks' parent company, had expressed interest in buying the Earthquakes, but only with the city's help building a stadium.

Led by Landon Donovan, the Quakes were MLS champions in 2001 and 2003. Attendance, however, has always been low. This past season the Quakes averaged just 13,037 fans at home.

[Manck]

Another reason to hate Houston...Check.

For those that don't know, I'm a rabid FC Dallas supporter, and this new rivalry (we hated San Jose too) is eaxactly what we needed, and the Inferno has already started planning road trips.

It's a beautiful, hateful thing.

[Pmoney]

is earthquakes gonna change?

[TexasHSFootball]

the team will get a new name, logo and colors

[TexasHSFootball]

• MLS press release >

Unable to come to an agreement on financing for a new soccer-specific stadium in San Jose or find a new Bay Area owner for the club, AEG announced Thursday that the San Jose Earthquakes are moving to Houston, effective immediately.

All players and coaches currently under contract with the club will follow the organization to Houston, and full details of the move will be announced during a press conference Friday at 10 a.m. CT at Houston's City Hall. The move is not the end of Major League Soccer in the Bay Area, though, as the league and the City of San Jose have signed a Letter of Intent to bring an expansion team to town as early as 2007.

"It is with great regret that we were unable to find a solution to our facility issues in San Jose," said AEG President and CEO Timothy J. Leiweke in a written statement. "It was not for lack of effort and financial investment made by AEG, providing a lifeline to this team for three years, to turn around a difficult situation. Unfortunately, despite efforts by the City of San Jose, there was never a solution to the facility issue. We thank the fans for their support and are hopeful that a team will be back in this marketplace in the near future."

In Houston, AEG and the league feel they have found a market that will quickly get behind an MLS team. The league and its marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing, have had great success hosting international friendlies and the Mexican InterLiga tournament in Houston, the nation's fourth largest city. MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that enthusiasm leads the league to believe a new investor can be found and a soccer-specific stadium can be built in Houston.

"There's been a willingness to develop public-private partnerships, and there has been some progress in discussions on a soccer-specific stadium (for Houston)," Garber said. "There's lots and lots of reasons why we think this market can be successful. But again, it's going to be a market (where) we must make progress on a soccer-specific stadium in order for it to achieve everything we need it to achieve."

The Earthquakes had been in limbo for nearly their entire 10-year history. Originally a league-run club, the team was taken over by Kraft Sports Group -- the investor-operator of the New England Revolution -- in 1999. Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment, the owners of the NHL's San Jose Sharks, then became the club's operator in 2001, with AEG joining the mix a year later.

The arrangement through which AEG ran the club was always meant to be temporary, and for the past three years, the company has looked for a new investor to buy the team. Tied in to the search for a new investor has been the search for a place to build a soccer-specific stadium. The club's lease at Spartan Stadium has been deemed by AEG to be unsatisfactory, particularly in the amount of concessions and parking revenue given to the Earthquakes. Leiweke has been quoted as saying AEG has lost $20 million on the Quakes.

Negotiations with the City of San Jose and potential investors -- including SVS&E -- had heated up in the past month, after Garber announced on Nov. 15 that MLS had given AEG permission to move the club if a deal was not struck within 30 days. A deal crafted behind closed doors last week reportedly fell apart abruptly Monday night.

"Though we all worked hard and thought a deal can get done, a deal for a stadium and local ownership couldn't get finalized in time for us to prepare for the 2006 season," Garber said. "The city worked hard to try to keep the team in the market for '06. We ran out of time and had to make a decision that was in the best interest overall of Major League Soccer. But that doesn't take away their interest in having an MLS team there. They've been working hard with us over the last 24 hours to finalize this Letter of Intent.

"We believe that professional soccer can be very successful and will return to the Bay Area. This will be a major priority of mine and the rest of the league office over the next year."

Garber said Thursday the league has had productive meetings with Oakland A's owner Lewis Wolff about becoming the investor-operator of the new Earthquakes and that discussions with Wolff and others will continue after Jan. 1, 2006. The commissioner noted that with some extra time to sort out the Bay Area's MLS future, a deal that will benefit both the city and the league can be ironed out. It will also help to put an end to the revolving door ownership of the team.

"We need to start anew," Garber said. "It's just not the way to properly manage a very high-potential market ... What we need to do is take a deep breath. We need to rally behind the scenes. We need to get this done right with a local owner in a long-term facility. If we can do that -- and we're confident we can -- then we layer over the fact that we believe so much in the market."

Garber also believes that the public can get behind stadium financing when a plan is ultimately put to the voters.

"We know that any expenditure will require public support ... We had public referendums in Dallas and public referendums in Denver, and it's going to be our view that this facility -- with the other benefits that it's going to provide to the market -- will be something that the public could support."

The Letter of Intent the league and City of San Jose signed provides a framework for an assortment of elements that will allow the league to put an expansion team back in the city as soon as possible. Those elements include a stadium financing plan; the Letter of Intent will be voted on at a future San Jose City Council meeting.

In anticipation of the return of the Quakes, the league is retaining the club's name, colors and competition records to be restored when San Jose is granted an expansion team. An identical situation existed when the NFL's Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996; the Browns returned to the league as an expansion team in 1999.

Jason Halpin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs

[Manck]

The Bay Area will keep the Earthquakes' name, color and records. Sort of like the Cleveland Browns a few years back.

Bay Area will hopefully get an expansio team aroun 2007-2008-ish

[sinton66]

Wow! They actually got an average of 13000 idiots out to watch the most boring game in the world? I'd rather watch paint dry.

[Manck]

Originally posted by sinton66
Wow! They actually got an average of 13000 idiots out to watch the most boring game in the world? I'd rather watch paint dry.
die in a fire.

[sinton66]

John Wayne didn't watch soccer, and neither will I.:D

[Manck]

John Wayne didn't use internet message boards either................

[sinton66]

neither should rabid soccer fans.;)

[BlueBlood]

More communist infiltration into Texas

[Phil C]

Good news indeed! Our state is now getting to diverse itself in the great world of sports by finally having a team that plays the most popular sport in the world! We should all be greatful for this great event. I just wish they could get a team in Laredo or El Paso. Progress is coming and just the best thing to do is get behind it and enjoy it! Good news for our great state indeed. And this, I am sure, is just the beginning of great things for this state in this sport. :)

[Manck]

Originally posted by Phil C
Good news indeed! Our state is now getting to diverse itself in the great world of sports by finally having a team that plays the most popular sport in the world! We should all be greatful for this great event. I just wish they could get a team in Laredo or El Paso. Progress is coming and just the best thing to do is get behind it and enjoy it! Good news for our great state indeed. And this, I am sure, is just the beginning of great things for this state in this sport. :)

What do you mean "finally"?! We've had one in Dallas the last 10 seasons running.

[District303aPastPlayer]

Originally posted by Manck
What do you mean "finally"?! We've had one in Dallas the last 10 seasons running.

FC Dallas :D


but i love Chivas USA Uniforms. . . look like walking candy canes :)

[Phil C]

Yes but we only had one team and that was in Dallas. Houston is closer and more convenient to South Texas so we can go to games easier. Now if only they would get one in San Antonio and later on the border cities such as El Paso and Laredo.