In order to get the blessing of the locals, the Quakes agreed to remove the ability for the stadium to host concerts to help reduce noise pollution in the surrounding area. Most MLS venues use concerts to help facilitate more revenue but the Quakes felt they can get by without them.

“Our main focus is soccer and I think we made a big concession here,” shared Keith Wolff with the audience. “This is to try to get a soccer stadium done because we are getting such great fan support in Santa Clara, but there is only so much we can do there. So we really want to get this stadium done. We are willing to forego the concert revenue to make this happen.”

“The neighbors can declare victory given that there will not be concerts hosted at the new stadium,” said Councilman Liccardo, who has been involved in planning and permitting procedures in conjunction with the Earthquakes since the beginning of the process.

From the sound of the report, the locals were very worried about loud noises. Seeing how the stadium will only host 18k, it really shouldn’t be that bad.

The Quakes now have some good momentum in this project and hope in the coming weeks to being building their very own soccer stadium. A positive sign that soccer will be staying in the Bay Area for the long run.

BC Place is getting awfully close to opening up again in Vancouver. I noticed this post over at stadiumporn.com (awesome name btw). The light panels on the outside of the stadium are pretty sweet. And that roof. Wowzers.

Chivas USA co-owner Antonio Cue confirmed Thursday to MLSSoccer.com that the club has intentions of moving out of the HDC and is in talks with several cities about building a soccer specific stadium to host Chivas USA.

“There are a lot of cities asking for us to move and we’re evaluating that, but it’s going to take some time and right now, we’re focusing on playing here this year,” said Cué. “We will study all the locations and when we are ready to make a move then we’ll let everyone know. We’re not ready now though because all of [the cities] seem to be pretty good.

“But we’re obviously talking to a lot of cities that are all within LA and there is nothing outside of LA County,” Cue added.

In their six years of existence, Chivas has been rumored or discussed to move nearly every season. The club says they intend to keep the team in LA but some out there believe they do want to move to San Diego before long.

Like I said from the start, moving into their own stadium will only help the LA derby with the Galaxy. Its been a tense rivalry from the start since the two share the stadium but Chivas has had an identity crisis since day one because of being a tenant there at the HDC. Moving out into their own digs would not only help their fan base but help bring in more revenue to the club as they probably have to pay an arm and a leg to rent the HDC.

What do you make of Chivas looking at getting their own stadium here? Is it about time?

Before long we could see a larger PPL Park in Chester, PA. The Philadelphia Union have done well so far to keep the place packed in their first couple of games this season but could more seats be added here soon? It is possible.

The University of Villanova is trying to make the jump to the big league’s in college football and are potentially looking at PPL Park to host their home games. The catch is they’ll need to expand it to hold 30,000 seats. Currently it holds 18,500 seats.

For Villanova to be a BCS school, they need 15,000 in actual or paid attendance for all games in its home stadium. Currently their home stadium only seats 12,000 and doesn’t look like a candidate for expansion any time soon.

So that is where PPL Park comes in.

PPL Park has four possible sites where expansion could take place, raising the capacity from 20,000 to a little more than 30,000, according to Sakiewicz. The addition of an upper deck on the south end, or “River End,” section would add about 2,000 seats. Additionally, the concourse level on both the east and west portions of the stadium and the east suites, or “Founding Members” section, can accommodate more seats.

The bigger concern will come down to maintenance on the field. Never mind the ugliness that is football lines on a MLS pitch, but the possibility that the natural grass will be beaten up a good bit during the fall while both MLS and college football are going on.

A big test for this will be coming up this summer when PPL Park hosts the collegiate rugby championships on June 4-5.

I think for the most part adding some extra seats to this stadium will have to happen eventually. I could see Philly as one of those clubs that have a stadium of this size that will need a few extra thousand seats from time to time. Plus, it could mean they’ll be able to host better international matches there. From a MLS side of things, I do wonder if they’d be able to fill 30,000 seats on a fairly regular basis for league matches.

What do you think of PPL Park expanding to 30k seats to make way possibly for a college football team to move in with them? Do you think the Union can handle a stadium that size?

According to the club, more than 7,000 seats will be added to the current stadium: 3,500 seats in a new West grandstand, 1,250 additional seats in the Southeast and Southwest grandstands (corners), as well as 1,000 additional seats in the East grandstand. The total expansion will bring the stadium from 13,034 to 20,341 seats.

What do you all think?

Good gravy, now that is some stadium porn. Wow. You have to give some credit where it is due, when people dream big out in the desert, they really do dream big. This insane, $1.6 billion, yes billion, price tag for a sports complex is designed to attract a MLB team, a NBA team, a NFL team, and even a MLS team.

The article linked above admits that Major League Soccer is the most likely candidate for playing in the big stadium shown in these images.

The official proposal (.pdf) for the multi-facility Las Vegas National Sports Center is rather impressive. Give it a read if you have some time.

I’ve talked recently about Vegas and their potential MLS dream. According to the article, the price tag for the complex also includes costs to buy a team. Now, they mention a NBA team in that reference, so I’d imagine they’ve also taken in account for a MLS expansion price tag. If they want to get down to cutting some of this price tag down a MLS expansion fee would be so much cheaper than courting a NBA team for instance (they say the price includes costs to spend $500 million for a NBA team!).

Okay, enough talk, time for some more stadium photo love.

Here’s a little sliver of photos for your enjoyment, view the rest at the link above.

Kansas City:

Portland:

Last night the San Jose city council voted unanimously 10-0 to approve rezoning the 95-acre property near Mineta San Jose International Airport to allow development of a professional soccer stadium of up to 18,000 seats for the Quakes.

This news out of San Jose is positive but it isn’t a definite meaning that a new stadium for the San Jose Earthquakes will actually be built. But as we’ve seen in Kansas City, small steps usually go a long way in getting a deal done and dirt getting moved on the ground.

This is a positive step for the club and the league, which have had so many issues in getting a stadium in the Bay Area over the years. Even if the stadium is as small and without so many bells and whistles that say Red Bull Arena has but it will be a place of their own nonetheless.

Quakes owner Lew Wolff will privately fund the stadium build and provide $60 million to help finance the project, and pay the city $7 million for the land near the airport. He is still in the hunt for a major sponsor to help him out in terms of naming rights. The council’s zoning approval will help him out in that area too, companies are more likely to buy into this project now that it has some backing on the government level.

We all know the importance for the league to get all the clubs into their own facilities. With Houston and San Jose both close to moving dirt along with Kansas City, the next couple of years could be very promising for the league in terms of being able to work out schedules in their favor, among other things that come with these stadiums. Now if we can only get that team in Washington D.C., a stadium of their own…then we’d be set.