Buck Shaw will house professional soccer

By Chris Furnari

The San Jose Earthquakes officially announced that their temporary home for the 2008 and 2009 seasons will be Santa Clara's Buck Shaw Stadium.

In a Thursday afternoon press conference that both former Santa Clara soccer standout Brandi Chastain and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed attended, Santa Clara Athletic Director Dan Coonan expressed his excitement for the arrival of the team.

"This is a great day for Santa Clara," said Coonan. "We are thrilled to be embarking on this partnership with the Earthquakes."

Earthquakes President Michael Crowley echoed Coonan's enthusiasm.

"It's certainly a pleasure to be here today to announce our new home for the San Jose Earthquakes, at least on a temporary basis, at Buck Shaw Stadium," said Crowley.

The San Jose Earthquakes play in Major League Soccer, an American professional soccer league. The Earthquakes franchise is an expansion team owned by Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff.

In addition to the announcement that the Earthquakes would be both practicing and playing games at Santa Clara, the club also announced various renovations that will be made beginning in mid-November.

According to Crowley, the project will include renovating Stanton Field, which is currently used as a practice facility for both the men's and women's collegiate teams.

Artwork on display at the press conference highlighted some of the proposed improvements to Buck Shaw, which will include increased seating in the stadium as well as a new artificial practice field.

According to Crowley, roughly 5,000 temporary seats will be added to Buck Shaw Stadium, giving the venue an approximate 12,000-seat capacity.

Construction of new seating will not begin until the interim library has been closed down. The proposed additional seating is expected to be erected as soon as the new library is completed, according to Assistant Vice President for University Operations Joe Sugg.

Also included in the renovation plans is the installation of a portable, state-of-the-art digital video board and renovations to the lighting at Buck Shaw Stadium.

"The lights are pretty good, but we have to upgrade them for broadcast quality," Crowley said.

While Coonan could not discuss the exact financial arrangement in the new partnership with the Earthquakes, he did discuss several of the reasons for the decision.

"They have made it significantly worth our while financially," said Coonan. "It is a great relationship, and it does so many things for us in terms of visibility and enhances our profile."

According to Coonan, the partnership makes sense for the Broncos financially, as fundraising for some of the renovations would have taken a significantly longer amount of time.

"We would have had to go out and raise a ton of money, and some of the things that we are doing might have been somewhat challenging," said Coonan.

"I think we could have done it, but it would have taken some time," Coonan said.

Correction: The story incorrectly stated the name of the Oakland A's owner. It is Lew Wolff.Contact Chris Furnari at (408) 551-1918 or cfurnari@scu.edu.