SJSU: Stadium deal is dead
By Barry Witt
Mercury News
Article Launched: 04/19/2007 05:59:12 PM PDT
Unable to reach a financial deal, San Jose State University President Don Kassing and developer Lew Wolff called off months of talks late Thursday over rebuilding Spartan Stadium to accommodate a new Major League Soccer team.
"They came to an agreement that the deal just wasn't going to work," said Larry Carr, the university's associate vice president for government and community relations.
Wolff had proposed paying for a new stadium to house a revived Earthquakes soccer team and Spartan football games on land next to the existing stadium. But the deal also would have required use of most of university's 63-acre south campus to park cars for stadium events, including concerts. Kassing believed Wolff was not offering enough money to justify giving up the university's land for that purpose, Carr said. Kassing wanted $6 million a year from stadium-related revenues.
"We weren't able to get to a place where the financial return for university land would offset any negative impacts to what our students' needs are," Carr said.
Wolff wasn't immediate available for comment.
Where Wolff will turn next for a soccer home is uncertain, although he's said in the past he has other options. He was counting on paying for the stadium through a real estate deal in South San Jose - a deal that would require the consent of the San Jose City Council.
If the stadium is not built in San Jose, the city would have little incentive to grant Wolff the rezoning he needs on a 74-acre parcel in Edenvale that would have generated the stadium construction money.
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