San Jose walks away from soccer plan

The hopes of bringing major league soccer back to the city of San Jose will have to be realized without $80 million from the city.

The proposed deal would have seen the city donate $30 million in land and contribute $50 million to the actual construction. However, Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, who is running for mayor, said, "Before the Quakes left, there was a lot of momentum in the soccer community to keep the Earthquakes. Now that the team is gone, I do think we're starting from scratch. It's a brand-new playing field.''

Now focus turns back to the same field that the former team's owners had a problem with in the first place. The city would like Spartan Stadium to update its facilities to make them more appropriate for soccer's needs. However, the University’s president Don Kassing addressed his concerns via email:

"We will always explore ideas with the city. We would be open to a discussion about south campus and Spartan Stadium development ideas with the city. . . . Our own football program is our first priority, but we would explore ideas with the city. We will see what happens.''

Without some sort of improvement in the stadium situation, it will be difficult for MLS to move back to San Jose. Until some big news comes out of the city, I don't think Earthquake fans will have much to cheer about.

In other stadium news, Jay Evensen has an interesting piece on using hotel taxes to pay for a new stadium in the Salt Lake stadium.