Earthquakes announce 2009 schedule
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.
Maybe Wolff will go to the two matches in Seattle and see how a real vision of Soccer and the MLS can work, then he might change his mind about a 15k crappy stadium in San Jose.
San Jose can do whatever Seattle does and more if they would just try to think like a major league team instead of a minor league citizen. Mr. Wolff, baseball is dieing, don’t confuse Soccer with a dead sport like baseball.
More than half of our national matches are on Spanish speaking stations, GREAT! this might really encourage the Mexican population of San Jose to attend the home matches.
Oh wait, we can’t fit them in our crappy, small new stadium and because of our crappy small new stadium we will never have the kind of money we need to sign a DP that might bring in the big crowds.
I guess Wolff thinks the Quakes are some kind of disposable toy for his entertainment and not a business to be grown.
PS, Anyone else notice this match?
05/27 – Wednesday @ Columbus Crew 12:30 a.m.
12:30 AM..????? WTF ????
What is the status of a stadium for the Quakes? The last bit of news I found was before the economic world was taken down to its knees.
Columbus Wed at 12:30!
WOO WOO TAKING THE DAY OFF!
12:30 am or pm would be strange for a wednesday, but they changed it to 4:30 pm. which is too bad, i think a game just after midnight would be kinda neat…
15k is perfect for a stadium. And baseball is not a dying sport. Sure I cant stand it but It consumes sportscenter, billionaires pockets and advertising money. When will soccer be that big in the united states? maybe never. Maybe in ten years. But right now noone gives a flying beep about soccer.
Soccer in the United States has a unique crowd compared to the big leagues. People who attend soccer matches here actually like the sport where as compared to the other american leagues, they have the best players in the world. That attracts fair weather fans who go to the game because it is the “place to be”. They don’t know who Mo Williams, Big Z, Daniel Gibson or others on the Caveliers are besides Lebron James. Our market is not close to ever competing with these big leagues.
Instead our market relies on the soccer fan, the immigrants and those who want to watch good soccer. There’s plenty of those fans around. They filled Buckshaw every weekend last season.
The future of the MLS is tomorrow, not in thirty years or whenever we can go par with the big leagues. That is why the stadium being built is going to be 15k and not larger. I think Lew Wolff is trying to build a market and fan base with the small stadium. What better way than to create a demand than by limiting the number of seats and make real fans buy season tickets?
In the end i would rather have 15k screaming fans than 18k in a 27k stadium where the fans are too busy eating pretzels and talking on their cellphone to even learn who the players are.
Seriously.
People keep having these delusions that soccer in the Bay is a 20k per game affair. The only time the Quakes topped 15k in average attendance was 1996. Even during the championship years it was at 13k.
If you have a 15k stadium that can be expanded by 3k or so without much trouble you’ll be good for a long time. Being realistic and sensible isn’t minor league. If you really want a bigger stadium go out and start yapping away at all your friends to get season tickets so there is an actual demand for a bigger stadium.