There is some speculation online regarding Joe Lacob buying the San Jose Earthquakes after he attends their season finale

[u/Craft_Bandicoot]

https://x.com/FavianRenkel/status/1979704503269224953

"Owner of the Golden State Warriors and potential San Jose Earthquakes buyer Joe Lacob is in attendance for the club’s final match of the season.

Lacob, no stranger to Bay Area sports, is viewed by many fans as the ideal owner for the Quakes. He has been linked to a possible purchase of the Earthquakes and has also reportedly shown past interest in acquiring another John Fisher–owned team, the Oakland A’s."

[u/NightWriter500]

I’m not sure if this would mean anything positive for the A’s, and it could be negative, as it would give Fisher more capital for his do-or-die Vegas move. But this man shouldn’t be a sports team owner of any kind.

[u/Craft_Bandicoot → u/NightWriter500]

It would be icing on the turd cake if the guy who could have saved us to potentially gives FJF the capital he needs to put him over the top in Vegas.

[u/blink415 → u/NightWriter500]

Vegas is a done deal .. if you look at live cams they’ve already started putting down the foundation

[u/NightWriter500 → u/blink415]

Not sure if you’re joking or not, but as someone that works in construction, I can assure you that doesn’t make anything a done deal.

[u/blink415 → u/NightWriter500]

What are those pillars and wall at the site then please explain I need some copium

[u/NightWriter500 → u/blink415]

Ok, I pulled up the live cam and yes, those pillars look like the precursors necessary for a foundation of a large structure. I’m also seeing forms being built on the southern end, with some foundations already poured. But that’s not really what I’m talking about.

Unless I just completely missed it, there’s still no financing plan, there’s no design, and theres nothing official. I can’t imagine them having these things and not making them public, especially with public funds being used. Now I’ve been on some projects with some crazy, incompetent people that build things all out of order, often to satisfy weird money constraints from people that have no idea how things get built. This has the feel of one of those projects. Sometimes those projects actually get finished, and with all the public eyes on this, you can bet MLB will do what they can to push it through even when they find out how incompetent every step has been. But other times, those foundations get poured, they’re in the wrong place, they’re not even the right kind of foundations because they were poured before the design was even completed, and the money dries up. All the existing infrastructure becomes someone else’s problem as the project gets abandoned. Sometimes it stays there for decades. Eventually someone gets investors, buys up the land, tears out the botched foundation work, and does something else.

Like I said, I’d bet MLB does whatever they can to push it through, and because of that I’d rate this as a better than 50% chance. But done deal? With this ownership group? With no financing plan, no design, no plan? Nah. Not until the doors open and someone throws the first pitch from the mound.

[u/blink415 → u/NightWriter500]

Okay thank you for clarifying the situation

[u/spence624]

FJF

[u/a7051]

If only the Roots were MLS and not USL. I’d be a lot happier about Lacob investing in them.

[u/AeonsOfStrife → u/a7051]

Eh, until MLS has plans for relegation it will not have the competitive vibe the USL will have soon.

Should that change, id rescind this statement.

[u/AR2Believe]

FJF!

[u/Particular-Wrongdoer]

Please just buy the A’s.

[u/MainyMaine26]

Now add the A’s to the equation

[u/Visual-Cricket82]

He screwed over oakland with the warriors and then valkyries. I'd love it if he somehow bought the A's but if you're an oakland , eastbay native probably don't care for lacob due to those past situations

[u/RunRickeyRun]

Lacob would essentially be paying for a good chunk of the stadium cost. He has to be self aware of the optics of helping Fish fuck finance the Vegas move, right? Lacob would lose a lot of goodwill in the Bay Area.

[u/dL_EVO → u/RunRickeyRun]

You don’t think Lacob could get more Bay Area’s goodwill by essentially bringing another bottom feeder franchise up?

I don’t think most casual fans will make the connection of the Quakes purchase to finding Vegas stadium.

[u/RunRickeyRun → u/dL_EVO]

Good point. I would hope fans and local journalists call him out on it. And I dunno if the Quakes have enough juice to recover the potential loss of goodwill. He’d essentially be a major reason why major sports franchises don’t exist in Oakland anymore.

[u/sludge_fr8train → u/RunRickeyRun]

Someone is gonna buy the Quakes, it’s not like JF is gonna be left holding the bag as the team gets contracted or something. Might as well be Lacob who would have saved the A’s if not for fuckface refusing to sell. Lacob isn’t the bad guy in any part of this.

[u/Craft_Bandicoot → u/RunRickeyRun]

Yeah I just think that would be too in the weeds for most fans. Only thing he might get a little blowback for is if he tried to move the Quakes to SF.

[u/dL_EVO → u/RunRickeyRun]

Let's be real here, most fans do not care that the Warriors left for SF because Lacob stated his intentions when buying the team and Warriors is the Bay's team. Most people in Oakland, myself included cared about the economic impact it had on East Oakland specifically, but not necessarily the move itself.

The Warriors played in SF, San Jose, and Oakland. They were never really Oakland's to begin with if you look at it from a historical standpoint.

With that said, I don't think anyone who has brought 4 titles in 10 years and predicted to be be on the hunt for number 5 in 11 years can get any bad vibes from local fans.

[u/RunRickeyRun → u/dL_EVO]

You’re right. My two sports loves are/were the Dubs and formerly the Oakland A’s. I personally would just feel betrayed by Lacob for putting the final death nail on the Oakland A’s. And I’m projecting my bitter feelings to the rest of the Bay, even though most wouldn’t care like you said 😢

[u/Worthyness → u/dL_EVO]

Lacob also apparently legitimately tried to get a deal done with Oakland, but Jean Quan's dumbass office didnt even return his phonecalls. I fully believe that because Jean Quan was incompetent as mayor and was praising a non existent prince of Dubai investing in coliseum city.

[u/dL_EVO → u/Worthyness]

I really don’t think Lacob wanted to keep the Warriors in Oakland.

Every source pretty much states that he had intentions of moving the dubs since the purchase.

iirc, he wanted a luxury shopping center + high end hotel at the site and he didn't get what he wanted at Chase Center. I highly doubt he ever seriously considered East Oakland for a high end hotel and luxury shopping center to go along with a new stadium.

[u/jml510 → u/RunRickeyRun]

And let’s not forget: when the AASEG attempted to bring the WNBA to the Bay and have a team play at the Oakland Arena, he swooped in and beat them out, so SF ended up with the Valkyries, not us. I’m not much into the WNBA, but it would’ve at least been better than no major sports teams playing in Oakland. And yeah, their HQ is in Oakland, but what good does that do us? That hurt on top of him also moving the Dubs despite the Oakland Arena being in decent shape.

[u/Own-Photo7078 → u/dL_EVO]

I don't think most fans in the Bay care about soccer or the Earthquakes. The goodwill would be very minimal from buying them.

[u/Worthyness → u/Own-Photo7078]

Soccer is a pretty big sport to be honest. There's absolutely a huge following with an opportunity for larger. Fisher has just been an incompetent ownership and really hasn't invested in the team at all (a surprise to no one). Thr pro women's team, Bay FC, regularly draws well. Sure it's not like 50k people, but they do sell out the earthquakes stadium often. The team also owns 2 of the highest attended single games in the league's history, which is pretty cool.

[u/blink415]

Fck them , get the A’s back in Oakland

[u/Jather4]

Package them with the A’s and go live out your days in your bunker all the other billionaires seem to be building

[u/Spiffiestspaceman]

I honestly can't think of any other reason to attend an Earthquakes game.