Lew Wolff, owner of Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes, is fond of talking. Sometimes he says things though that I find to be truly unbelievable and possibly insane. Let me explain…
Wolff is a real estate magnate and the owner of MLB’s Oakland Athletics. He also used to own the St. Louis Blues of the NHL and the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. Most really, really rich people collect cars or houses. Wolff is so rich he collects sports teams. He makes the really, really rich people feel poor. That must be nice.
Wolff’s San Jose Earthquakes have asked the Tottenham Hotspurs to come to the U.S. to play them in Summer 2009. The San Jose-Tottenham exhibition match would be the culmination of the two teams’ recently announced partnership.
Now, I don’t think Wolff saying his squad should play the Spurs is ”truly unbelievable and possibly insane”. In fact, I think the Quakes could give the Spurs a decent game. Tottenham is bad this year. 3-7-7 bad. Second to last in the league bad. Let me correct myself: really bad.
I still think the Spurs would blank the Quakes at least 2-0 though. Why? Because the Spurs are just flat out better. They wouldn’t dare lose to an MLS side. They have too much talent and too much tradition. The Spurs were founded in 1882. The Quakes? 2008. Well, unless you count their previous incarnation, which would put them waaaay back to 1996.
But, the Quakes v. Spurs game could be good for both teams. Wolff isn’t crazy for saying they should play. So, what did he say that was “truly unbelievable and possibly insane”.
Well, he also said he wanted games against foreign opponents, such as the Spurs, to count in the MLS standings. This assertion makes no logical sense and would completely destroy MLS’s level playing field. Geez Lew, why not also force some teams to play some games with their strikers handcuffed together? Or, why not have cheerleaders run around naked behind the net on PKs to distract the penalty taker (Wait a minute, I vote in favor of that one, actually). They all sound like ideas a Mickey Mouse league would employ and MLS certainly does not want to be considered a frivolous league.
What else did Wolff say that makes me question his credibility?
He also went into details about how his agreement to purchase the Quakes involved a contingency clause wherein Beckham and the Galaxy would have to play at least one game in San Jose during each of the Quakes’ first three seasons. He used this fact as some sort of excuse regarding why his club wouldn’t bring in a high-priced designated player.
OK. Maybe no one ever explained the rules of the league to Wolff, so I will. San Jose and L.A. are in the same conference, so L.A. has to come to play in San Jose every year.
I don’t know which is crazier: that he doesn’t know the league rules before he buys a team or that he thinks bringing in Becks for a game a year saves him from having to spend money on a player for his team.
Either way, if I were a Quakes’ fan, I would be concerned.
