Recently I reviewed the success of the Seattle Sounders and why they have done so well in their expansion season, and the excitement this has caused in Seattle. Yesterday, my pathetic San Jose Earthquakes took a giant step toward joining this success club, and it had absolutely nothing to do with their play on the field. The release of drawings of a possible new stadium to be built in San Jose near the airport is quite possibly the sexiest thing I could have seen tonight. Clean sight lines, a great location, and just the dream of a stadium just for the Earthquakes means tonight, I will dream about steel pillars, stadium seating, and guys chanting “Earthquakes.” Slightly creepy, but when you can dream about chanting about your team with other dedicated fans in your own stadium, it is a good dream.

For those of you who don't know, the Quakes currently play a majority of their home games at Buck Shaw stadium in Santa Clara, and bigger match ups in Oakland at the Coliseum. Both of these are nice venues, yet they lack a couple key features. First, neither is in San Jose. This might seem irrelevant, but San Jose is the biggest city in the bay area, and the city of the Clash's origin. Of course the Clash begat the Earthquakes, who then moved to Houston, and then returned two years ago with promises of a new stadium. The second is that the games at Buck Shaw stadium are tough to reach via public transportation. Games in Oakland are easily reachable by BART, which is Bay Area Rapid Transit, or otherwise pretty much the coolest public transportation system around. One of the best parts of BART is the fact that it connects the Fremont area, the Tri-Valley area, the Richmond area, the Pittsburgh area and the San Francisco area together. Then, you take all the cities in between that BART runs through (Oakland, Berkley, Hayward, Walnut Creek and and Orinda, just to name a few) and you think about the numbers you could draw. Three of the major stadiums in the Bay are already connected via BART, servicing the Warriors, A's, Raiders, and Giants, so getting the Earthquakes in a place where BART would make getting to the games easier is a necessity. Finally, a major part of going to sporting events these days is the stadium itself. It is a key factor to why the Giants continue to draw good crowds even though their team has relatively bad for multiple years up until this year. It is the reason we generally go to Giants games instead of A's games, because for the casual fan the stadium experience is huge. Making the stadium part of the draw ensures that the casual fan will come out both in banner years and in leaner times. The Earthquakes have had no shortage of lean times. Rewarding their faithful fans and enticing new ones with a great soccer specific stadium in San Jose would ensure the health of the franchise for years to come.

This current stadium plan addresses each of these problems. The stadium would be located in downtown San Jose near the San Jose airport and in close proximity to both 101 and 880, both major nearby freeways, which would make the stadium very accessible. It would also be close enough to the airport where a future San Jose BART expansion would make a feasible stop, and it would help push for the BART expansion to happen, which in turn would benefit the entire Bay Area. The stadium would be privately funded, and the European horseshoe shape, combined with the spectacular HD video board that would show highlights both to the stadium and to the street outside would make San Jose an incredible place to see a game. The open end would also have a grass berm and a family area. If this expansion takes place as it appears that it will, then the BART expansion is key. The ability to land in San Jose, catch your team play the Earthquakes, then jump back on BART to head to San Francisco for a couple nights, then BART back to whatever airport you needed to fly out from would make San Jose an ideal place for opposing fans to travel with their teams. This would bring in more revenue for the area, making this stadium a great addition to San Jose.

The Earthquakes know that their fan base is in need of a boost for this miserable product they are currently putting on the field, and they responded by cutting prices for both season tickets and for single game tickets for next season. This is nice to hear, and when I am gainfully employed I plan on becoming an Earthquakes season ticket holder so I can support the team I have grown up with. You know you go way back with a team when you see Troy Dayak walk into Starbucks and you laugh, as you not only know who he is, what he has done in his career and how long he played for the Earthquakes, but that he used to tell us as 13 year olds that when he was our age he was out running every summer day and that we should be doing the same if we ever hoped to be as good as him. I don't know if we only speculated or actually confirmed that he shaved his chest hair into a T regularly, but I do know that he was quite self impressed and eager to share his thoughts on life with a bunch of promising young Livermore soccer players, and that we found him much more creepy and disturbing after. So Earthquakes management, I will come if you build it. I will come to your matches regardless, but three years from now, you giving me the gift of beautiful soccer in a beautiful stadium isn't too much to ask is it? Especially since I have remained faithful to you, through the taunts of Shawn in Seattle and his cavalier Sounder fan attitude that makes him think that just because his side won a trophy means he can talk down to me, which is partially true, and through Troy attempting to sabotage any chance of me cheering for any team he was ever affiliated with in any way shape or form. Is it too much to ask?

You can read more on the plans here

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_13378893?source=yahooNewsML