THIS WEEK, still more construction and still more promising things to come. As of three weeks ago, the San Jose Earthquakes now have their own handy-dandy training field on a 2.5-acre tract of land just off Coleman Avenue. Sponsored by Nutrilite, the field sits right behind a larger parcel on which the team expects to build its own stadium.
As a result, the Quakes no longer have to squeeze between other events at Santa Clara University or West Valley College in order to train and practice. Devcon Construction and Robert A. Bothman Inc., collaborated on the project, and Colony Landscaping will look after the field, which measures 72 by 115 yards, exactly the same size as the Buck Shaw Stadium pitch, where the Quakes now play their home contests.
The practice field also contains a few small areas for goalkeeper drills, exercises and warm-ups. It may not look like much to the skeptical observer, but with other teams in the league already playing in their own newly built permanent stadiums funded by their own corporate sponsors, this is a step toward something hopefully much bigger.
On one hand, the locale of the training field is a peculiarly picturesque panorama of incongruity, since the pristine soccer pitch is surrounded by nothing but industrial wreckage, empty parking lots, corrugated metal warehouses in various states of decay, defunct bulldozers and construction trailers, sun-cracked asphalt, 5-foot-high weeds, cones, piles of gravel, garbage, discarded traffic signs and all the other shattered facets of the old FMC property across Coleman Avenue from the airport. For decades, FMC used the property primarily for design, production and testing of military tracked vehicles under Defense Department contracts. The city of San Jose bought the entire property in 2005.
The Earthquakes practice field is now a smidgeon of beauty amid the ugliness. The pitch is made of Tifway hybrid Bermuda grass overseeded with rye from West Coast Turf, and the irrigation system includes a Watertronics pump with a Rainmaster controller and Hunter irrigation heads. Yeah!
Since the FMC property is one of the last remaining examples of postcard-perfect industrial decay left in this area, the urban-blight exploration junkie checked it out last week, as the Quakes played a practice match against the Los Gatos Storm, the senior team from the Pacific Soccer Academy.
To actually get to the facility, I entered from Coleman, just past a defunct weed-covered building sporting the address of 1125. The edifice looks like it hadn’t been occupied in a decade. The wasteland surrounding the field essentially looks like a deserted movie set. You could easily see Mel Gibson showing up a la Mad Max and setting the entire acreage ablaze. The pristine practice pitch right smack in the middle of it all adds an even more surreal element to the landscape. The only thing missing is Umberto Eco waxing poetic about the history of beauty and ugliness.
As the junkie snapped photos of the industrial wreckage next door, a security guard emerged from the corrugated metal building. Without waiting to find out who the guard was, or what he was doing there, the junkie scampered over to the other end of the field. At that viewpoint, I was able to scan the entire horizon, getting a 360-degree view, including exactly where the stadium will sit.
Which brings us to the stadium itself. I’m sure Quakes owner Lew Wolff understands that a good portion of the Quakes fan base, as well as the general public, needs to be assured that this project is going forward. I’m sure he realizes that the longer he keeps the team in a temporary third-rate ersatz facility like Buck Shaw, the longer people will continue to perceive the Quakes as a temporary third-rate ersatz operation. He must do something to show everyone that this new stadium is actually going to happen, and soon. He hasn’t done that yet. With that in mind, the urban-blight exploration junkie escaped the security guard’s eagle eyes and left the area unscathed.
