The were a professional
Soccer club located in
San Jose, California that participated in
Major League Soccer from 1996-2005. The club won the
MLS Cup in 2001 and 2003. The Earthquakes played their home games at
Spartan Stadium located on the South Campus of
San Jose State University . They were known as the '''San Jose Clash''' from 1995 to 1999.
The ''San Jose Earthquakes'' was also the name of the
North American Soccer League (NASL) team that played from 1974 to 1982 and the
Western Soccer Alliance team from 1985 to 1988. The NASL San Jose Earthquakes were known as the ''Golden Bay Earthquakes'' from 1983 to 1984. The team also played
Indoor Soccer in the original
MISL . The name Earthquakes originally came from a newspaper contest in the ''
San Jose Mercury News ''.
The owners of the Earthquakes, the
Anschutz Entertainment Group , announced on
December 15 ,
2005 that the team was moving to
Houston for the 2006 season. This was due to the failure of securing a new
Soccer-specific Stadium for the team. The team was renamed the ''
Houston Dynamo ''. However, MLS commissioner
Don Garber has said that the Earthquakes' name and history will not be transferred, similar to the
Cleveland Browns deal in the NFL. He also announced that the league will continue to work on a stadium deal in the area, leaving open the possibility of the Earthquakes returning as an "expansion franchise" as early as 2007.
''regular season/playoffs''
- 1996: 17,232
- 1997: 13,597
- 1998: 13,653
- 1999: 14,959
- 2000: 12,460
- 2001: 9,635
- 2002: 11,150
- 2003: 10,465/15,127
- 2004: 13,001/8,659
- 2005: 13,037/17,824
- All-Time: 12,905
