Major League Soccer in Elk Grove is a bad idea

I had something real to rant about. I did. Honest. Then I sat down for lunch with my wife. PB&J on wheat bread with a pro-biotic chaser. Not bad. The wife makes the best PB&J sandwiches. So I break out my newspaper and what do I see—a story about my little town.

So the story is this, in a nutshell. Fabian Núñez and some attorney are heading a group that wants to bring a Major League Soccer team to Elk Grove. The City Council is going to vote on exclusive negotiating rights with this group. If you don't know Fabian Núñez, Google him. If you don't know Major League Soccer, please stop reading this. Seriously. If you are reading this and you don't know MLS, you really shouldn't read anything I write. Really. I promise.

So where to start? Should we start with Fabian Núñez? Dude was Speaker of the State Assembly. Dude's son killed a guy. Yes, we all make mistakes. I have made plenty. Just ask my wife. But, murder, manslaughter or anything close to it? Not on my list of sins.

I get it: People screw up. Dad shouldn't be held responsible for the mistakes of the kid. I would hope not to be judged by what my kids do. But Fabian—and I can call him Fabian because I have seen him try to play soccer—used his influence to get his son's sentence commuted. That means shortened. Did it in a sneaky way that has generated two lawsuits.

I'm sorry—right or wrong, if you have money and you can afford to do it, then you should hire the best person to represent you or your family. But to use your political influence after the fact to try to get your son a reduced sentence is flat-out wrong. We all can bust our butts and make money, but we all don't have political connections. We aren't all on a first-name basis with the cheating former Governor. We all don't have his cell phone number and we can't get it. That's playing dirty pool. And it sits wrong with 99 percent of the country.

So, does the City of Elk Grove want to do business with this guy? Let's say we enter into an agreement and he doesn't like something, does he call Jerry Brown to get the new Governor's influence to change the rules? Does he ask the Senate President, who is a good guy even if I disagree with some of his politics, for help in dealing with the City? How on earth can you trust him? No offense to any politician reading this, but I trust politicians as far as I can throw them, and unless they are on a TLC show called "Little Politician," I can't throw them that far.

But beyond that, MLS in Elk Grove? Really? Major League Soccer? Okay, a few basic points. First, Sacramento could not support the Sacramento Knights, a minor league indoor soccer team. Stockton, our neighbor to the south, could not support the Stockton Cougars, another minor league indoor soccer team. We can barely keep the freaking Kings in Sacramento. We have lost two, or is it three, pro football teams. Heck, San Jose lost the Earthquakes several years ago. Yet, somehow, Elk Grove is going to support professional soccer.

Elk Grove has a mall that hasn't been finished. Elk Grove has a ridiculous number of foreclosures. Elk Grove has unemployment around 10 percent. Elk Grove schools are struggling. Yet, these people are going to support a professional sports team?

Oh wait, I know: no public money will be used. Sure, and cows will fly over the stadium dropping ice cream to the fans. Chocolate or cookies and cream? Every sports stadium uses some public money.

Oh, I know, things are different here. Really? We can't get our freaking youth soccer leagues to play nicely in this town. I am the biggest soccer fan you will find. Wanna bet? Gladly. Pele autographed jersey in my office—I win! End of discussion. But I couldn't get this town to support a fundraiser for breast cancer. Literally, I got the mayor out at my game. And that's it. The city? Very little support other than some great small businesses. The local soccer community? No support. At all. Coaches telling players not to come because they might get hurt. Yeah, they might get hurt crossing the freaking street, too.

Look, MLS is a great thing. The quality is improving. We have some big names playing. But they can't support MLS in some big cities. What makes anyone think we can support it here? Seriously. Let's politely tell Nuñez to take his political influence and shove it. We don't need MLS in Elk Grove. The list of things we need more is staggeringly long. Homes. Jobs. School funding. Support for local businesses. We don't need some washed-up politician (who, by the way, would get schooled on the pitch by my 10 year old) and his cronies coming to our town to ruin it. This is a travesty and we should put an end to it now.