Analyzing the sked…
By Jeff Carlisle · January 28, 2009
In 2008, the San Jose Earthquakes pinned their playoff hopes on a spate of home games late in the season. If the 2009 schedule is anything to go by, an early run of home dates places a premium on getting off to a good start.
Four of the Quakes’ first five games are in the Bay Area, with their sixth match an away date at Seattle. Included in the season’s opening weeks are a March 28 encounter with Houston, as well as an April 18 match against the Los Angeles Galaxy at the McAfee Coliseum, with or without David Beckham. Manager Frank Yallop is on record with regards to the importance of being tougher at home, and a poor start similar to their ’08 campaign could doom their playoff chances before the season has barely begun.
San Jose faces two particularly difficult stretches during the campaign. A three game road trip in May that will take them to New York, Houston, and Columbus is daunting in terms of distance as well as the quality of the opponents. But perhaps even tougher is the three-game road stretch that concludes the season. The Quakes will end the season at Toronto and then two trips to the Home Depot Center against Chivas USA and the Galaxy. Yallop will be praying that his team’s playoff fate doesn’t rest on getting results from those games, although if the Quakes are in the hunt, chances are it will go down to the wire.
The biggest opportunity to get rich at home, aside from the opening month, is a four-game home spell in late July and early August when the Quakes host D.C. United, Seattle, Columbus, and Kansas City.
Earthquakes announce 2009 schedule
By Jay Hipps · January 28, 2009
For those of you who’ve been waiting for the Quakes to release their 2009 schedule, wait no more! They released it this morning and you can find it here.
The 30-game fixture list includes two visits to expansion Seattle, who make their only Buck Shaw Stadium visit of the year on August 2. Four of San Jose’s first five matches will be played at home while the last three of the season will be on the road at Toronto, Chivas USA, and LA.
There’s no information yet on the local broadcast schedule but the Earthquakes will make nine appearances on national TV: three on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, two on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports Español, and four on Telefutura.
Wolff reiterates plans for intimate stadium
By Editor · January 27, 2009
Earthquakes owner Lew Wolff, left, with Amway Global managing director Steve Lieberman at Tuesday’s press conference announcing their new commercial partnership. Photo: Jay Hipps, centerlinesoccer.com.
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Today, San Jose Earthquakes owner Lew Wolff provided an update on the team’s plans for a new stadium, telling Center Line Soccer that their conceptual guidelines called for an intimate, 15,000-seat facility with a berm at one end for lawn seating. Read more…
Amway? Yes, Amway
By Jay Hipps · January 27, 2009
A 30-foot inflatable Earthquakes jersey with the Amway Global logo was on display outside the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Photo: Jay Hipps, centerlinesoccer.com.
When the Earthquakes’ new three-year deal with Amway Global was first reported in the press this morning, the response among CLS readers, many of whom were seemingly hoping for a company with Silicon Valley geek credibility, was less than enthusiastic. At today’s press conference at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, even Amway Global managing director Steve Lieberman acknowledged that “most people who remember us think of us as the people who knocked on your door to sell cleaning products,” which means that Amway dealers were the historic forerunners of telemarketers in terms of providing annoying interruptions to your home life.
That’s not the company that exists today, however. Today’s Amway Global is an $8 billion company that operates in 78 countries. You may not have heard of them lately because they’ve operated under the name “Quixtar” in North America for the past decade. The company is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and has chosen the occasion to return to its traditional name, and is partnering with the Earthquakes as part of their effort to reintroduce themselves to the American public. They’re paying the team between $1 and $2 million a year to do it, which is no small sum in the current economy.
That’s good, but it’s not the best part. The company has soccer cred: the company, via its Nutrilite brand of vitamins, sponsors AC Milan, and Nutrilite is also endorsed by Rossoneri star Ronaldinho. You can bet that the Earthquakes are very much aware of their new commercial partner’s association with Milan, one of the most successful teams in world football history. It turns out that Amway Global has geek cred, too: Lieberman noted that the company “is the number one online retailer of health and beauty products in the United States.”
Even that is not the best part, though. That would be Amway’s extensive reach into the local Hispanic community, which has been a target market for the Earthquakes since they wore cloudy jade and answered to the name “Clash.” This morning’s Reuters story on the new deal notes that one reason for the deal is that “Amway also was attracted to the large and growing Hispanic population in San Jose, which boasts the fourth largest concentration of Amway’s field representatives.” The Earthquakes are getting more than cash out of this deal; they’re getting a new avenue into one of their target markets.
There’s also significant potential for an increase in shirt sales due to the partnership. Amway has approximately 3 million dealers worldwide, and if just one of every hundred were to buy an Earthquakes shirt with the Amway Global logo, that would mean sales of an additional 30,000 jerseys. Put it another way: if you’re an American Amway dealer and your kid plays soccer, guess what you’ll be buying for their birthday this year. In any case, the team has just expanded its casual fanbase substantially, and gotten paid to do it.
Actually, come to think of it, even that’s not the best thing. If Amway Global is selling online now, that means they’ve probably dropped the door-to-door thing completely. And they’ve probably never used telemarketers.
And so it begins…
By Jay Hipps · January 27, 2009
At the first day of camp, even goalkeeper Joe Cannon played a field position in the small-sided games. Photo: Jay Hipps, centerlinesoccer.com.
A cold but clear day greeted the Earthquakes yesterday for their first training session of the 2009 season, and Stanton Field buzzed with activity all morning. The first two-thirds of the session was devoted to fitness, as players ran a complex circuit around the turf, with small-sided games taking up the last hour or so. There were a number of trialists in — Jeff Carlisle reports on them here — but here at the Solar Powered Soccer Blog, our attention fell to the team’s efforts to bring in a few new faces.
Despite voicing some frustrations with the on-again, off-again nature of some of the discussions, both GM John Doyle and coach Frank Yallop were optimistic about the process. “We’re in a good position to get a few players,” said Doyle. “We have allocation money, we have cap space. We’re all right.”
Yallop concurred, noting that their evaluation process has revealed a number of players that they’d be comfortable bringing into the team. “We’ve got enough people that we’ve gone down the line with that we like,” he said. We don’t want to overpay anyone, but we need bodies and we need players for the start of the year, and we’ll have that.”
Doyle also explained that their job is easier this year, in part simply because they have a dedicated workspace for viewing game footage and DVDs on prospective players. That’s a step up from last year at this time, when their current facilities were under construction.
“I think in some ways it’s a lot easier because we have a locker room,” he said. “There were certain things (last year) that made it difficult just to work on a daily basis.”
Even bigger than that is the fact that the team now has a history together rather than just a memory of past San Jose glories. “We had our great history of the team before, but we had a season together last year… we have players under contract that we know are going to be back, we have a team, we have structure, we just have to add two or three pieces to the structure.”
It marks for a sharp contrast from last year, when the team could have used name tags on opening day because so few players knew each other.
Doyle noted one thing that was more difficult about this season, though. “One nice thing about last year is that we didn’t have to get rid of anybody, either, and the contracts were all in place so we didn’t have to sign anybody to any new contracts last year. Guys were all on options and the options were picked up. On the negative side, we were spending a lot of time just evaluating what we did last year and how we were going to move forward with contracts for players, and that takes a little bit of time.”
Report: Amway to become Quakes’ jersey sponsor
By Jeff Carlisle · January 27, 2009
The Quakes put out a press release yesterday that “a major announcment” will take place at 1:30 PM today at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Reuters is now reporting that the Quakes will unveil Amway as their jersey sponsor in 2009.
Training camp opens with plenty of new faces
By Jeff Carlisle · January 27, 2009
Since the Convey and Hernandez news has been covered, here is a brief recap of the opening day of training camp.
Hernandez expected to miss first month of preseason
By Jeff Carlisle · January 26, 2009
Calf strains aren’t normally considered to be serious injuries. At this point Jason Hernandez probably would beg to differ, as the injury he sustained on national team duty earlier this month will cause him to miss the first month of training camp.
Quakes still pursuing Convey
By Jeff Carlisle · January 26, 2009
San Jose General Manager John Doyle confirmed to CLS following today’s opening of training camp that the Quakes are are continuing their pursuit of U.S. international midfielder Bobby Convey. Read more…
Quakes announce preseason schedule
By Jeff Carlisle · January 22, 2009
For those of you wishing to visit such far-flung locales as Fresno and San Luis Obispo, you are in luck. The Quakes announced their preseason plans late today and will be visiting both of those fine cities.
