The San Jose Earthquakes achieved a landmark victory last night in their attempts to build a new soccer-specific stadium to permanently house the MLS team. The Planning Commission of San Jose voted unanimously to deny the local neighborhood’s appeals to block the stadium construction. No more road blocks. The Earthquakes’ stadium will proceed forthwith.
Reading the tweets last night from Robert Jonas, who runs SB Nation’s Earthquakes blog Quake, Rattle And Goal, left me both proud and jealous. Proud that the league has grown to the point where 18 of 19 MLS teams will now be playing in a stadium that is designed for soccer, or at the very least a stadium that is controlled/owned by the team’s ownership group. But jealous because that should be us. That meeting should have taken place in D.C. That should be a D.C. United stadium receiving approval for construction.
There but for the grace of God…
With the Houston Dynamo’s stadium construction underway and the Earthquakes’ stadium now approved, United remains the only team in MLS without a solid plan in place to have a home of our own. While the team has made some minor progress on its stadium search in recent months, we’re still far far away from approval, farther from breaking ground, and still farther from bouncing in a new set of bleachers. But man… that day sure will be awesome when it arrives.
Instead of #builditnow, let’s just #builditHERE.