Per an article on SI.com, MLS has given Lew Wolff the owner of the Oakland A’s the green light to restart perhaps the proudest franchsise in the history of American Soccer: The San Jose Earthquakes.
From the early 1970s onward the San Jose Earthquakes were a bay area attraction. The Earthquakes along with the equally well supported Tampa Bay Rowdies were the last surviving NASL clubs when the league folded in 1984. In 1999 MLS renamed the struggling San Jose franchise the Earthquakes (As discussed in my podcast interview with Lindsay Dean had MLS taken the same steps with the Tampa Bay and South Florida franchises those teams would likely still be around) and the team almost instantly became a bigger draw and more successful on the pitch. But in 2005, despite having won two MLS Cups, Phil Anschutz who owned half the league’s teams at the time moved the Quakes to Houston seeking a better stadium deal. When AEG moved the team, MLS vowed to come back to the Bay Area, but for many the promise seemed hollow. Thankfully MLS has kept their word.
