The Athletics have reached a major milestone in their never-easy effort to procure a new ballpark. Alameda County has formally approved an agreement to transfer its share of the Coliseum site to the team, Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Once fully finalized, this deal will constitute the foundation for one of the two major pillars of the A’s stadium plan. With partial ownership of the sprawling Coliseum site, the team can begin pursuing a redevelopment plan for its current home. That effort would coincide with and support the construction of a new playing facility at Howard Terminal.
With so many balls in the air at one time, this represents a major step. A’s CEO Dave Kaval labels it “a big deal.” Ravani, who has covered this matter exhaustively, says the agreement’s culmination “all but secur[es] the baseball team’s future in the East Bay.”
The Coliseum sale was the result the county and team clearly preferred, so in that sense it isn’t surprising. But the proposed deal had run into major headwinds — namely, opposition from the city of Oakland, which co-owns the site. Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf indicated that the municipality is now on board.
This won’t end the interactions between the city and team — far from it. In addition to working through the complicated undertaking of constructing a new waterfront ballpark, the sides will now have to decide how to proceed on the Coliseum site redevelopment plan. Kaval says “the ball is in [the city’s] court” as to whether to negotiate a sale of the public’s interest or partner on the project.
Plenty of details remain to be sorted. And it’s far too soon to rule out further roadblocks, particularly given the prior course of this effort. All things considered, though, this news marks the clearest indication yet that the A’s will stay put.
Whatever
Exactly…
The Coliseum is a dumpster fire, just like Tropicana Field.
Hey eatdust, the Rays stadium is not a dumpster fire!
If it were that nice I’d go more often.
I realize it’s ancient but it does have some great memories for those old enough to remember. For me the one college year I lived there, billyball under Billy Martin was fun and their sound system was years ahead of any other stadium.
Yet now it is years behind…
Decades…
Oh but they can have many more fun memories with a park everyone can enjoy
Weird priorities.
I go to a game to watch quality baseball being played. Not to see how shiny the urinals are, or how good the sounds system is.
Now, I do expect the basics. I expect a stadium to be structurally sound, and, in a secure area. That means no backing up human feces, no homeless camps on the grounds, and no queue outside the gates introducing fans to their personal mugger/rapist.
If the arguement against going to see a playoff caliber ball club play baseball, or see your cy young pitcher on the mound, is the stadium isn’t shiny enough then maybe it’s time to stay at home with your fidget spinner since youre not actually a baseball fan. “Fans” that can only be enticed to attend by having the newest/latest of building/technology aren’t a viable base since you cannot tear down and rebuild a new stadium every 10-15 seasons except in the very largest of possible markets. Then it’s just wasteful, but still not economical.
Merry Christmas bud, hope someone gives you a better attitude this year.
@AtlSoxFan, that’s a shared opinion. I also love to watch the game being played, plain and simple, whether it be tee ball, pony league, high school, college, minors, majors, independent.
As long as I have a place to park my butt, access to toilets, and availability of reasonably priced food, then game on. While some ballparks are out of my price range, I’m blessed to live in an area where two High-A teams play. Add in the many other levels of play and you’re left with no shortage of viewing opportunities.
Even with all it’s crappiness, Kalifornia still has at least this to offer. But if the chance comes to relocate to Goodyear, AZ, I’m gone in a heartbeat. Year-long Tribe baseball would be awesome!
His attitude is just fine
I’ve never seen a queue that introduces people to their personal mugger/rapist. Apparently I’m going to the wrong games.
nah, cali is still not, and will never be as crappy as the derp south is (you’d probably love it, what with all the nutjobs like yourself running around. remind me again, what party just had a governor pardon a ton of murderers and kiddie diddlers? oh yea, the party of family values).
move to arizona, a magatard like you would love it
Teams can’t survive on fans there just to watch baseball, there aren’t enough of you. BTW, are you aware that you come off and an elitist jerk?
And out of the ashes of fire new things will grow…..
And that has what to do with anything? It being a dumpster fire is why they’re trying to build a new stadium (but redeveloping the existing site is a big part of the financing plans for the new site)
I saw a couple of games at the Coliseum way back when Maguire was a rookie and liked the baseball experience. Nice to see that Oakland should be able to keep the A’s in town. Hopefully a new ballpark will provide an good experience and not over cater to the luxury box crowd.
Finally, now we can focus on getting San Jose a team (Rays…to pair with Sharks?) because holy hell the Bay Area has too much money (and theres more people in SJ than there are in SF and OAK combined) to not have a team there. How you going to have an NHL, MLS and …a single A milb team? One of these is not like the other, give SJ a team already.
California does not need more teams
Sure it does. Why would MLB put a team in a city with half the population of San Jose? The Giants claim that they “need” that area is pure greed, they sell out games plenty from tourists to the downtown area alone.
Because that
state has a lot
of people
making good
money-especially
in San Jose…..
Regardless of San Jose’s population, there will not be another team in California to carv up the revenue. You e got 5 relatively strong teams with invested fan bases. There won’t be another. Portland maybe on the west coast. Vegas also.
Texas: two teams
California: five teams
San Antonio: population 1.5 million, 3 hour drive to nearest MLB team (Houston)
San Jose: population 1 million, sub-1-hour drive to TWO MLB teams (Giants/A’s)
Please tell me again why San Jose and California need ANOTHER MLB team.
Just FYI…
California is the 5th largest economy in the world. Most of the recent US job growth has occurred there. It is the richest state in America.
If that is a “crap hole”, just curious, what does that make the other 49 states?
California is so far in debt they don’t know which way is up – about 2 trillion in debt…
you must live under one of the overpasses in SanFran
The weather
Maybe they should fix their homeless Problems or illegal immigrant problems before they add another sport team.
The homeless problem is an American problem, not just a California problem. Most of Cali’s homeless population (thousands) cone from other states for the warmer weather.
OMG you think California is some strong world economy! California is about bankrupt!
And they remain homeless is California so what is your point
Sufferfortribe nailed it. I feel the exact same way. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, and it used to be a nice place to live. Now it’s so over crowded and expensive it’s a joke. Any house that doesn’t need to be torn down is going to run you about a million bucks minimum unless you want to live in Hayward or something.
Recent studies and head counts show that 47% of the nation’s unsheltered/homeless live in Kalifornia, and that most of those are actually longtime residents who fell victim to job loss and/or unaffordable housing or rental conditions.
It took me all of 3 minutes to find several sources for this info. Maybe before you speak you should do some research.
And in my work with my local city mission’s outreach programs, I can attest to this being true…..with many others barely holding on. Things are only getting worse.
Strike Four:
Let’s also tackle why mlb owners might prefer adding teams (eventually) into cities with smaller populations rather than carving up existing markets.
For simplicity of following, we’re going to use nice round (arbitrary) numbers.
Pretend mlb had 10 clubs, and 10,000,000 potential fans (residents) within its markets Media contracts are worth $1 per fan nationally, and 10 cents locally. One new expansion team is being added. Status Quo has $10m in national media revenue and $1m in local revenue totals.
Option A, a market of 1,000,000 projected fans, and being generous, 200,000 are located outside existing media markets requiring an existing club to give up some territory.
Option B, a market of 400,000 projected fans is 100% outside any existing media market.
If the new team is in market A, the sport now has 10,200,000 fans. National media revenue is 10.2m, and local is 1.02m to draw upon.
If the new team is in option b, the sport now has 10,400,000 fans. National revenue is 10.4m, and 1.04m to draw on local.
So you can see, because the proposal from the “larger” city relies upon by cannibalizing fans from an existing club, and it’s media market is already generating revenue to the sport, the total pie all clubs/owners are dividing up grows more by going into the smaller market in every way.
That is why San Jose is an inferior choice for a team to join unless it is the SF Giants, since they hold the existing revenue streams for the area.
They are places you can live without having to watch where you step to avoid the human feces and hypo needles.
Well, dont let the doorknob hit ya …
Says a fan of a team with a racist name and chant which leaves a relatively new stadium in the city for the suburbs to complete its racist circle of life. If California is a “crap hole,” that must make Georgia the killing floor of a slaughterhouse.
It’s not an opinion moron. It is one of the largest economies in the world based off of gdp, and most other measurable stats. The USA is hugely in debt also but that doesn’t change the size of it’s economy just what they pay in interest.
That relatively new stadium was in dire need of upkeep which the city of Atlanta wasn’t willing to provide and the city didn’t follow through on the redevelopment plans for the surrounding area like they promised they would do. So, yes, turner Field was pretty much in a crap hole part of town. That’s why they left.
Actually, California has a surplus right now in at least the tens of millions…maybe don’t get all your info from Fox News
Without California’s money the federal government wouldn’t be able to pay for all the pissant other states debts.
Don’t get it twisted, one of the worlds largest economies means they have money, how you believe otherwise is nonsense
Maybe mayors from around the nation should stop sending them there. It’s long been a practice of east coast cities to hand homeless or crazy people tickets to the west coast to send the problem somewhere else
@ABStract – as opposed to California politicians deciding to aid and allow illegal immigrants to cross into the country and disperse throughout the rest of the country that doesn’t want them?
Free movement of people, and the obligation to support them, only counts when it’s the people who are wanted – otherwise it’s someone else’s fault and responsibility?
@AtlSoxFan
“Pretend there are only 10 teams…that is why San Jose is an inferior choice for a team to join unless it is the SF Giants, since they hold the existing revenue streams for the area.”
Dude, this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever read on here.
@BKS1110 – yes, I agree San Antonio and Montreal also need teams. But so does San Jose. It is factual that all 3 cities deserve a MLB team.
Its strange how many of you are defending that SJ does not deserve more than a class-A team. MLB needs to step in and tell the Giants their “territorial rights” only exist if their MLB team moves there, which they aren’t, so give SJ their THIRD pro sports team, which their excellent pro sports (not college) fanbases will pack the stadium for.
The problem with homeless in California is due to other states sending their poor here. Over half the homeless are not native Californians but welfare from other states. Just because you can get a job making $20 a hour in California you still can’t afford to live here. I wish these companies would stop advertising for out of state workers because there is no housing here. Most Californians say don’t come here. Stop using up our tax money for out of state poor. Stay where you live and tell your governor to create jobs there.
The state legislature also stated in last year’s budget an estimated total of $287 billion in unfunded retiree liabilities for pensions and health care.
Hmmm, that “tens of millions” doesn’t come close to covering that, now does it?
Kalifornia doesn’t pay other states debts. They can’t even pay their own. And no, I didn’t source this from Faux News or Communist News Network.
Sufferfor the tribe last year’s budget there was a $100 million surplus. You should be more concerned with states like Kansas that has little economy and big deficits. California has a strong economy so there will always be larger deficits but larger revenue.to off set it. Its like making a million but living in a million dollar house. So if you don’t live in California why are you concerned is the question?
I live in Kalifornia. That “surplus” talk is just that — talk. Talk done right before they start to pay their bills on unfunded liabilities. Then the debt just begins its recycling.
And do you know what creates those “surpluses”? Increased taxes and fees, like the increased gas tax, vehicle registration, etc. that myself and my Kalifornia residents have to shell out for. Looking forward to the next round of increases in January……..NOT!
Since it’s obvious you really don’t understand Kalifornia government or the state’s economic shenanigans, I will now discontinue trying to teach you, since you obviously don’t want to learn anything other than what you’ve been programmed to believe.
I hope you have a very, Merry Christmas.
I do know how the fiance is doing in California. i also know that California send out the most money to the Feds to run the country. What did the feds do with the money? gave the rich more tax breaks. Politicians are owned by rich elites. Both parties are owned by them. I been to other states even though California is not perfect I rather live here. You want to complain why do people in California pay 20 cents higher in gas prices than other states even without the gas tax? Because we have more money and supplement other states gas prices. Look it up the oil companies has charged each Californian 20 cents per gallon more than other states. Over the last 4 years you paid a extra $800 because you live in California. Welfare for the other 49 states. have a wonderful Christmas.
California has about 12% of us population, and consumes about 10.7% of fuel.
Neither number is particularly supporting an idea of “subsidizing” costs for everyone else in the us, however, given the increased costs the state’s policies create for business and industry, it IS and would be fair to charge it’s residents extra to recoup those expenses it would be unfair to pass on to the rest of us. I’d argue given all that the state/it’s residents actually need to pay more to cover it’s fair share.
You have a fiance in Kalifornia? Congratulations.
So you know, this state DOES NOT send out money to the federal government to run the country. Whoever has taught you that should be banned from teaching. If this is something you came up with on your own, then you need to seek help for creating this delusion.
3 Bay Area teams? No.
3 Bay Area teams? Yes!
Besides, the Giants own the territorial rights to San Jose and since they blocked the A’s from moving there, why on earth would they allow a third team into the area to move there?
MLB would step in and say “Hey, why are you lording over the biggest city without an MLB team?” to which they have to answer. Because they were supposed to move to SJ, not stay in SF. But didn’t. And yet still claim “ownership” over this area that actually has more people than SF does.
Explain how that is even remotely logical. I’ll wait.
Logic is irrelevant. The Giants have the area and they are going to keep it.
Not if Manfred
throws down
his mighty
hammer!
Manfred works for the owners. He does what they tell him to do.
Ever study Bud
Selig, his mentor?
Manipulate the
owners into
doing what needs
to be done to
increase
revenues. 30
different egos
telling you
what to do?
Ever hear the
phrase “too
many chefs
spoil the broth?”
Put more
money in
their pocket
and they are
sheep…..
Amen to Manfred being a political puppet for the East Coast and West Coast MLB teams!!!!!!
@ Strike Four;
I’ve learned from your posts that things should be shared equally in this country. Wealthy people should not be able to bully the innocent that are just trying to get by.
It’s all about fairness.
So why should the Bay Area have more teams then any other area in America? That doesn’t seem at all fair.
Instead of adding a team, it would appear from your posts that the Bay Area should consent to moving one of their teams to a more needy area. Since the A’s are staying, how about moving the Giants team to be enjoyed by your brothers in Portland? As for AT&T park – it could be turned into a giant homeless shelter paid for by the corporation and Bay Area taxpayers. Seems only fair.
I already made clear that San Jose has twice as many people than Vegas, Nashville or Portland and many other places in America that don’t have teams (although, yes, Montreal and San Antonio also need teams). I’m merely adhering to that logic. If you have the people, you deserve the team. SJ, SA and Montreal need teams.
I keep trying to see the hidden code in your messages but Im not finding it.
@Strike Four:
Your arguement is flawed. To show general numbers I will use equally outdated info for all knowing well a new census is coming.
Metro San Jose has a bit under 2 million people, with a hair over 1 million people in the city itself.
Metro NYC has about 23 million people, with about 8 and a half in NYC itself.
If the argument over who gets a new expansion franchise is based on population of an area with no regard for other teams a resident could go see nearby, NYC is far more underserved even with both the yankees and mets.
If your argument is that SF can give up market rights to a new team without hurting bottom line operations money, then breaking up the NYC market further is even more desirable – it takes guaranteed fan support/money/media market and immediately makes a new team viable, if we extrapolate your argument.
What’s more, it makes great strides in creating better parity in baseball.
You could have 3 metro NYC teams each serving a population of about 8 million. That’s a far greater good than chopping a 1-2 million person enclave off SF’s market.
It would also be a stupid move to add an expansion franchise to NYC because it is already served by other teams both in stadium access and local TV rights deals.
Bring in someone new like puerto rico (San Juan) & Montreal where you grow both those things.
Strike Four getting schooled as usual!
@wordonthestreet not understanding anything as usual!
@AtlSoxFan
San Jose, Brooklyn, Montreal and San Antonio all should have MLB teams. I’m sure your IQ isn’t over 100, nothing you wrote made any sense at all or added to the conversation. You clearly have never been to those cities, or even your moms basement.
If you’ve been to Montreal you’d understand it still wouldn’t work. Another wrong statement Strike Four. This time try not to panic and flag a comment you don’t like this time around.
Strike four fights for equality…..Then proceeds to insult someone’s IQ. A person who typed out a well thought out post. Preach equality but treat others as trash because they defeated your poor argument. Congratulations on being a complete arrogant moron. You are what you claim to hate— and you don’t even know it.
yawn. the “territorial rights” card is so overplayed.
Wow, I had no idea they held the rights to SJ area. That’s pretty interesting. Do you think they could generate the support for a third team in that area if they were permitted to host a team?
Oakland had the rights to santa clara county till ’91 when they gifted them to SF since they were either moving to St Petersburg or SJ until the city of SF played ball on a new park. Giants just never returned them like dicks!
Absolutely true. Also true that the Giants won’t give up those rights come hell or high water.
A’s finally got smart and focused on Oakland. It’s finally starting to pay off.
Use that money to fix the Bay Area homelessness. Simply hand them tickets to A’s games if they haven’t done so already.
Uh, so they can sleep there!!??
Well it’s better than empty seats.
A’s already gave away free tickets to a game last year and still couldn’t pack the house, even though they are a good team. Only time it’s packed is for the Bay Bridge series.
That’s actually not true. They had a 50th anniversary game with complimentary admission with 55K+ in May on a Tuesday but… whatever
it was the year before last, and they had 55k+ in attendance, typical uneducated Giants fan comment
Delete your account. You shouldnt be allowed online.
Look in the mirror… that’s exactly how everyone feels about you and your nonsensical posts
Here’s my question:
What will a San Jose team do to drive fan growth? Don’t talk to me about potential ticket sales, as that is misleading and wouldn’t be an accurate measure.
Talk to me about bringing in new fans that are too far away geographically from supporting another team. Any mlb expansion team should seek an untapped market, and thus bring in new fans who currently are not engaging in baseball at all because geographically they are too far away from an available outlet. (Don’t confuse “not as convenient an outlet” with not having an outlet at all.
In today’s MLB more revenue comes from TV market deals than net gate receipts after operating/maintenance costs of a stadium. So really, an expansion team should open new tv markets that arent already covered by local contracts as well.
San Jose has the Sharks and Quakes, and both have massively huge local fanbases who are chomping at the bit to spend on sports, because SJ is kind of a boring place otherwise. There is MASSIVE money being left on the table here.
Also the Giants are (including traffic) an almost 2 hour drive away. The A’s are a little closer at about 45 minutes, so this whole thing about the three teams being too close is a bunch of BS. Theres a mass of local SJ residents who would undoubtedly bring the same energy they bring the Sharks (btw it doesnt even snow in the Bay, talk about a weird place to put a hockey team – nevertheless, the fans make that team one of the best in the NHL).
What hockey teams play in San Francisco? Or Oakland? Or is it that those fans from SF and OAK travel to SJ for games? No, it can’t be that.
If you are comparing downtowns only then you may be right but immediate metros puts SJ far behind SF.
Once those raiders fans are out of here, we can pimp this place out. – Oakland mayor. (Probably)
Raider fans were the pimps.
too bad their owner has the haircut of a 4 year old, and acts like one too
Daily reminder that Foul Davis RUINED a decent venue with his idiotic pigscrum franchise
The real stupid thing was that they demanded Mt Davis, and then after like 3 seasons never opened it themselves outside of playoff games.
glad the league has this nuisance (hopefully) dealt with
We all know how the A’s operate, who’s gonna pay for it? Sell it to another team for a site to be named later.
the good thing is now they own it so tax payers will not be paying for it. Raiders got a new stadium and every property owner will pay over $1000 in new taxes so a football owner can be rich
The A’s model is the one the Braves used. Get a good deal on land for real estate development to help team revenues and pay for the new stadium…..
They are like the only team in the last 10 years in all the major sports to pay for the stadium themselves instead of sticking the city with it. Look at how much Santa Clara was supposed to pay for Levi’s.
The city should have been on the hook for like 300M originally and ended up paying like 1.3B instead. They have had all of like 20 concerts there since it opened, and the NFL rental is like 1.5M a year for the 8 home games. So yeah that venue is super nice, built specially for the 49ers, and costing the city insane sums.
The A’s are actually funding everything including the sky tram to bring people to the park from public transit downtown.
The Mets and Yankees each funded one-third of the cost of their respective parks that each opened in 2009. State and City I believe equally paid the other two-thirds.
Yes 1/3 OAK is paying all and Oakland is paying none. Only team to self fund the full costs.
In about seven months, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood will be home to the Rams and Chargers. The stadium is financed by Stan Kronke, owner of the Rams. The City of Inglewood is putting in some infrastructure but is being reimbursed by the Rams over time. The Chargers just pay rent to the Rams.
Nashville A’s
San Jose has twice as many people than in Nashville, Portland or Vegas. Just admit, SJ is the place (along with Montreal and San Antonio) that needs teams the most.
Personally, I think Puerto Rico would be a great place to see an expansion team, coupled with Montreal.
Then pull a realignment of AL/NL into 4 teams of north/south/east/west, the two highest seeds get a bye, and two lowest seeds play a best-of-3 short series against two wild card teams.
Puerto Rico sees an AL franchise, Montreal gets an NL club to balance with the AL Blue jays. As far as other cities are concerned, maybe relocation for a club or two that just don’t have the fan base where they are.
Puerto Rico makes a lot of sense. A whole lot of sense.
I live in P.R. That is a terrible idea the island economy is not good at all and many people on the island cheer for other teams
Puerto Rico would be great if their economy wasn’t depressed. Like as much as Cleveland struggles because their local fanbase is relatively poor, Puerto Rico would be worse. Add to that the struggles of financing and constructing a ballpark worth a MLB team in the first place.
Local economics is also why Memphis, San Antonio and most southern cities are often overlooked in these discussions. Despite having the population.
I’d say require any new ownership group to have their own stadium construction assets in place as a condition of being awarded an expansion franchise. Not debt package, actual assets so the team isn’t saddled to start with. Teams are worth billions, it’s not unreasonable to require a couple hundred million capital improvement investment at startup beyond the purchase price.
As far as the economy argument, well, gate receipts aren’t the funding driver for teams anymore. I’m sure advertisers will pay well for a good media contract covering puerto rico.
And if you want to “grow the game” it’s one of the kinds of places you look to start.
Who knows, maybe foreigners would pay on a dock excursion to see some american baseball for part of an afternoon as a novelty? Income taxes for player salaries wouldn’t hurt local finances.
I think much of the overlook comes from stadium/public money. But if we require those costs to be prepaid as a condition of getting the franchise award, and, put limits on how much debt can be transferred to the team (should be near zero), then the local economy isn’t really the driving factor it was.
San Jose is a one hour drive from San Fran and Oakland. You don’t put teams where there are already teams. You put them in places that don’t have teams.
So… Sheboygan?
No, you put them where the people are. You are saying you want a team in Wyoming? Stop talking.
Wyoming might draw better than Oakland. Would certainly draw better than Montreal – your 2nd favorite city.
Nashville Metro Area has only 60,000 fewer people than SJ, and is 4 hours away from the nearest existing MLB team. It makes a lot more sense than San Jose.
“Fewer people make more sense” – goddamn a whole bunch of rocket scientists in here
No need for that language. And it does make more sense. Nashville is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. And as has been stated numerous times here before, there are already 2 MLB teams relatively close to San Jose.
If you want to use population as your argument, then ALL major sports franchises would be in CA and NY !
Montreal deserves a team far more than SJ.
Montreal AND San Jose AND San Antonio AND Brooklyn all deserve teams.
Omaha A’s.
A’s aren’t going anywhere- Nashville, Portland, Vegas etc. Time to find a new team to troll.
Good for the A’s – maybe they can get their ballpark.
If u want to talk biggest cities with no pro sports ( well, soccer ) I suggest u look at Austin – 11th largest city in the USA
I live in Austin and that could be problematic depending on where you build the ballpark and who pays for it. The Round Rock Express are supported by fans in Round Rock. You can’t build it in the South Side suburbs to highlight the San Antonio connection because our traffic is so bad all the rich people from the north side won’t brave crossing Town Lake on the few bridges we have (shades of Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg). That leaves the north side where the soccer team took the last empty desirable large piece of land the City of Austin owns. And who will pay for it? There’s is a sizable number of people here who will fight and sue any subsidy that adds to our already horrendous property tax bills. Houston might not want to give up this area and the Express. There’s a lot of Astros fans here. I go to Astros games every year. Minute Maid is a very nice comfortable park to enjoy a game in. A park here would have to be domed-too hot. That’s a billion dollars easy. Nice dream though…..
Manor or Pflugerville might work! Although Austin has the right mix of Rangers fans and Astros fans so MLB might not like cannibalizing the fanbases.
MLB should be looking to put a team in Brooklyn. Larger than Austin & SJ combined.
no they shoudlnt. no city in this country should have 3 teams. a much better expansion idea would be a city not near any teams, such as OKC or Vancouver, where a local team would actually draw more fans overall to the game. also I doubt the Yankees, with their clout, agree to another New York team.
No disrespect meant to any of the posters but population to support a franchise is only one criteria to consider. Other than Montreal and Tamoa, winning teams in the past have mostly been supported. That said even big markets don’t always support a losing team. NYC has three area hockey teams and as stated above, all three are supported when winning. That said, the Islanders for years had support problems that were blamed on the Coliseum when it was the biggest home ice advantage in the league IF the team was good enough to make the playoffs. In basketball, the Nets moved to Brooklyn and are doing well now but wait ten years. If the team again stinks, their support would hinge on corporate sales like the Knicks. If San Jose wins, they will draw but if they don’t, there will be plenty of empty seats.
There’s more people in San Jose, California than Austin, Texas.
Dude, SJ is never going to happen. The Giants own the rights to all of South Bay. They wouldn’t even let the As move down there. Now that the As are staying put, there’s no way in hell they are letting a third team into the market.
Even if the MLB overruled their land rights, they probably would screw the new team with the TV rights deal (see WAS and BAL) giving them little chance of fielding a competitive payroll.
Keep dreaming.
After the MASN debacle I don’t think either MLB or ownership groups want to deal with another such arrangement. New team will either go into a virgin media rights area, or, there will be a buyout of the rights territory being paid for as part of the franchise award process above and beyond the fee that’s already split among owners.
To get approved owners will want to see 3 things: can ownership afford expenses to avoid needing to be bailed out; do we get an acceptable franchise fee to split among ourselves; does the new location add enough value to our league level media rights contracts we get a split of by increasing new market?
Dude, the Giants already said they wanted to move there in ’91 AND LIED ABOUT IT – hence their illogical “rights” to an area 2 hours away from their home base.
Manfred needs to step in and tell SF that those rights don’t exist anymore and they never meant anything to begin with.
Oakland has no business having an mlb team. Even with a great park in Oakland the As won’t draw fans and be able to sustain a real payrol.
Mlb needs to step in either by waiving the territorial rights of san Francisco or if that is not possible move the As completely out of the bay area. The reason they don’t draw is oakland and not the Coliseum and building a new stadium in oakland would be a huge waste of money.
You underestimate the power of a bright new shiny toy to attract fans.
The A’s want to pay for their own stadium IF they get a good land deal and can redevelop the old Coliseum site…..
I bet you do not know that the A’s in the 80s out drew every team in MLB one year. They also had the highest payroll in baseball. My guess is your a giants fan. So just wait when the giants lose all the bay area bandwagon fans. Empty seats and loss revenue. First time in 10 years the giants are not raising prices but lowering them. Only way to fill any stadium is with a winning team.
A’s had 3rd highest attendance in 1990, so youre wrong, it is possible. They also had the highest payroll that year, he what dya know….
The 80’s Oakland A’s say ” HELLO!!!!!!!”
Oakland has no problem supporting the Warriors for years.
Or the As in the 80s & 90s…
Or the Raiders in the 80s…
Good news for a’s fans … BOTH OF EM!!!
*yawn* so creative and not even valid
Aww the old dodger fan is here. how did another choke in the WS go for you guys. Alays the bride’s maid and never the bride.
“Transfer” meaning “free’?
Too bad, I was hoping they’d move to Vegas like the Raiders! We still might get a baseball team yet!
Seems odd that the city and county is essentially gifting them the land so they can build a new stadium in another location.
No they’re not. The A’s are paying $170 million for the existing site. The redevelopment is supposed to include social housing, deferred rent & reduced taxes for small businesses etc etc etc. The new site is entirely self funded. No one is gifting them anything – in a city like Oakland it would be reprehensible.
$170M is a steal for that land and has nothing to do with baseball other than a hand out to the developer owner of the A’s. The Raiders would probably still be here if they were given that deal.
Great but what do you propose the city do with that land otherwise?
Instead of basically giving it away, auction it off to the highest bidder. It’s a huge land parcel with great freeway access and a bart stop. The A’s owners are going to make billions off of it. A lot, lot more money would be paid for that land if it was a public bidding process. The A’s ownership group has done nothing for the city (or the fans) beyond using the team as leverage to score a public handout.
The land was appraised at $147M in 2016, for the Fortress Group attempt at keeping the Raiders.
A’s are paying market rate+.
170m is for alameda county’s half… the city of Oakland still owns half the land
85 is the county’s half with the other 85 being the city’s
Was hoping they’d move to Vegas.
Relax, Nevada is about to get the Diamondbacks….
Matt Chapman will be traded to the Dodgers in the month of January. I hear this from a very good source and this will be the first you have heard of it. However, when it happens next month, remember this post. Chapman’s agent is Scott Boras (hunt on where I heard this).
Doesn’t make sense Dodgers have to give up a lot for him 4 more years of control
Lux and who on the return.
Can only see this if they miss out on Donaldson
It’s sad that Bob Nightingale has resorted to trolling the MLBTR message board.
If only all the people who live in California and hate it to the point that they threaten to leave it would actually go, and all the rest of you who hate Calfornia would stop using our tax dollars to support your “tax free” states…
What? You think California pays in more taxes than it receives back. It probably does but the money isn’t sent to other states it goes to your beloved war machine.
If only California would secede and create their own country.
All the athletics have to do just to get a new stadium no wonder the Raiders decided to head on over here to Vegas.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the As relocated. I’m no As expert or know any of the commitment or contractual status of the ballpark with the city, etc, but they’ve had 3 homes. Philly, kc and oakland. wondering if there are any whispers in Manfreds office of contraction or relocation..
your second sentence should have stopped you from even making your post…
Considering this land deal also comes with a financial stipulation, I don’t see them going anywhere. The county gets $85M no matter if the A’s move or not, so they’re pretty all in on this.
If this deal works out and the Athletics stay in Oakland, as hard as it may be to believe, they are only three seasons away from having been in Oakland longer than they ever were in Philadelphia (54 seasons). So, their roots in the Bay Area have grown pretty deep.