In the latest wrinkle in the Athletics’ quest to build a new ballpark, Oakland’s City Council decided in a “nearly unanimous” vote Thursday to start negotiations about selling the city’s half of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum site to the team, Phil Matier of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The A’s already own the other half of the site, having completed the purchase with Alameda County over the winter. The city of Oakland is looking for a similar version of that sale, which would see the A’s pay the city $85MM over an unspecified time frame. Those funds would greatly help a city that, like virtually everywhere else in the world, suddenly faces major financial issues in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After the coronavirus shutdown, we are looking at a very,very serious budget deficit, and they are saying it could cost us $6MM just to maintain the site,” city councilman Noel Gallo said prior to the closed session of council. “We don’t have that kind of money. This way we can get some badly needed help.”
The deal is based around the A’s ultimately staying in Oakland, and assuming that the Coliseum site deal goes through as planned, the club would now have multiple options towards that end. The Athletics’ first choice is still to build a new ballpark at the Howard Terminal site in downtown Oakland, and should that ballpark be completed, the A’s would then look to develop the Coliseum site themselves. As per Sports Illustrated’s John Hickey, the 155-acre property that currently houses both the Coliseum and the Oakland Arena (the former home of the Golden State Warriors) would become “a shopping, cultural and residential area…The Coliseum itself would be razed, although the baseball diamond would become a large park.”
The other possibility is that the site could be used as a backup plan for a new A’s ballpark. The Athletics would continue to play in the Coliseum until a new stadium was built in what is currently the site’s north parking area. As Hickey notes, however, that the pandemic could make this scenario more realistic if the A’s aren’t able to borrow the funding necessary to convert the Howard Terminal area.
Earlier this month, A’s president Dave Kaval said Howard Terminal was still the team’s priority, though “we’re just focused on taking it quarter by quarter and seeing how much progress we can make.” While some obstacles remain in the way of the Howard Terminal project getting a full green light, that endeavor looked to tentatively be on track, with the Athletics originally hoping for an opening by the 2023 season prior to the coronavirus shutdown.
This is purely my speculation, but if financing becomes enough of an issue, the Athletics could theoretically look to sell the 155 acres to another developer in order to generate the money necessary to finalize the Howard Terminal concept. Such a next step would add another major layer of complication to what has already been a drawn-out process, of course, and obviously the A’s would prefer both their new ballpark and the Coliseum residential area as dual revenue-generators.
It’s fair to say that some fans could be a little perturbed to hear about another potential multi-million-dollar development deal during a time when so many teams are claiming economic strife. The A’s have long been one of baseball’s lower-spending teams, and their cost-cutting measures have often drawn criticism — even just recently, owner John Fisher had to admit fault and reverse the team’s initial plan to eliminate the $400 weekly stipend given to Athletics minor leaguers. A’s ownership has insisted for years that a new ballpark is necessary for the team to remain in Oakland, and if nothing else, today’s news should deepen the ties between the club and the city.
Wonder why teams like the A’s and Rays don’t get the same amount of criticism that a team like the Expos got about their stadium situation.
Not sure what you mean, since the Rays have gotten criticism about their stadium situation since before the stadium even opened for the first game.
You mean the stadium that was created to lure a baseball team there prior to the 1993 expansion draft?
They didn’t come around until 1998.
Broke ground in 1986 and opened in 1990. It’s like buying a new car when you’re 16 and hoping it makes you popular, but not driving it until you’re 24.
It was built to lure the White Sox there didn’t quite work since Reinsdorf was able to leverage Illinois for a new stadium instead.
Tampa was trying to convince the White Sox to move down there. You can thank Governor Jim Thompson.
The A’s and their dump of ballpark have been in the news a lot. Raw sewage filling up the dugouts.
I think they had Plumbers night ans everyone got a wax toilet ring.
Tampa was also trying to lure the Giants after the White Sox deal fell through. The Giants deal actually came closer to going through than the ChiSox if my memory is correct.
They also tried luring Seattle in the mid-90’s. After the 1995 playoff run they secured Safeco Field.
Weren’t they also trying to get the Giants down there?
And yet we’re consistently better than ur trash team that is literally wasting the career of the modern Mickey Mantle and the Japanese Babe Ruth, pathetic!
I mean, i hate the a’s ownership as much as the next A’s fan, but the sewage problem was in 2013. Come up with something new.
A’s and Rays fans have gotten screwed over for years. It’s amazing there are still some loyal ones. Empty promises about “improvements” and competitiveness. The real shame is that they have both made the playoffs with so-so teams. Imagine if they had a more competitive budget how far they could have gone instead of losing either the WC game or in the first round. Think of teams around the league with moderate budgets who consistently don’t sniff the playoffs. Seattle, Cincinnati, San Diego, Toronto come to mind but I don’t have teams budgets in front of me.
A’s and Rays fans have gotten screwed over for years. It’s amazing there are still some loyal ones. Empty promises about “improvements” and competitiveness. The real shame is that they have both made the playoffs with so-so teams. Imagine if they had a more competitive budget how far they could have gone instead of losing either the WC game or in the first round. Think of teams around the league with moderate budgets who consistently don’t sniff the playoffs. Seattle, Cincinnati, San Diego, Toronto come to mind but I don’t have teams budgets in front of me
You are correct
Have you been there lately? It is STILL a problem
The Rays desperately need a new stadium. Teams like the Marlins and Rangers got one. Why wouldn’t the Rays get one. The Marlins are good every 10 years. They can’t sell out unless it’s the WBC. Yet Miami approves a $1billion stadium.
Sorry for the simple answer, but… money.
Miami is a huge tourist destination, bringing millions of people with billions of dollars to spend during all parts of the year. No one without a specific agenda is going to visit St. Petersburg, and certainly aren’t driving 30 mins out of the way to watch an outdoor game played indoors on a garbage turf field, and CERTAINLY will not be going there for anything else than a ballgame.
It’s a shame, too, because the Rays should have a much more faithful fanbase, given their success rate since the late 00’s.
I went to the Rays stadium last year (I’m attempting to see all the MLB stadiums and go to at least a different one every year) and to my surprise it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The location sucked but the stadium was fan friendly. Although the lights seemed too dim in there to pick up the rotation of the ball. I’ve definitely been to better stadiums, and yes they should get a new one in a better location. I’d honestly would rather go to TB games over Miami.
I went to the WBC pool play games in Miami and even though that’s a new stadium, it is terrible. And the location…who thought it would be a good idea to put it in the middle of a neighborhood? It was an absolute nightmare to get in and out of there.
The flip part of it is that Florida is, as you said, a tourist state, as well as a retirement state.
So a huge amount of people who live or go there already have allegiances to other teams. You’d hope they’d come out just for their own team visiting the Marlins or Devil Rays, but even if that works out it is only a handful of games a year.
Arizona also suffers from the retirement thing as well, though to a lesser extent.
Arizona also has a ton of transplanted Californians, particularly LA folks. So the D’backs play in a split crowd at best when the Dodgers are in town.
I live about 2 miles from where the Rays wanted to build in Tampa…. the location of the Rays stadium within st pete actually isn’t bad at all. A ton of bars and restaurants right across the street… it’s just that damn peninsula that sucks. Tampa to St pete is about 30-45 mins on a good day. The stadium it’self is nice, it just is such a weird venue for baseball. The entire thing “isn’t as bad as everyone says” but I find myself not wanting to go to any games, and i love baseball. k.
Was 515 million for marlins park
Man I wish I could visit every ballpark
I believe A’s and Ray’s get their fair share of criticism for their Ballparks. Rather it’s location or the stadium smelling like sewage all summer, there has been plenty of criticism for each organization. To believe the league favors over another, is fair fetched.
As for the Expos issue, if memory (I was 14-15 yrs old when they moved) has it right, it was more than just a ballpark issue when they were forced to move to Washington and become the Nationals. I believe it was also a ownership issue with Montreal that played a factor in MLB seizing the club and moving them. I know the ownership was stripped of the club for multiple reasons that violations and poor attendance draws.
With that said, if you argued why Expos was taken out of Montreal when teams like Pirates in Pittsburgh or Marlins in Miami are doing similar things the Expos did. Then I would have to side with you because that is truly favoritism. Both clubs are penny pinching and not improving their organizations to be competitive. These teams including Tigers are tanking each year for draft picks and revenue sharing money. It’s sickening to watch and feel that they are no better than the Expos when they used similar philosophies. Pirates and Marlins also have one of the lowest attendances in the league. So, I’d definitely agree on favoritisms to American baseball teams. Canada should have 2 more teams and that includes Montreal and the other being Vancouver. But that is my opinion and will say no more.
To be fair Miami is under new ownership and are doing a rebuild, hard to be too upset at them at this point. They went the correct direction. And the Tigers are rebuilding as well. I don’t have a problem with either situation, it is just good strategy. The Pirates on the other hand, I just don’t know what to say about that
The tigers sure are taking their sweet time.
How many years did Houston tank to build their farm? I wouldn’t say Houston rushed thru the process.
MLB ripped off the Expos from Montreal.
Expos had the best record in MLB and were headed to the WS when the baseball strike happend , That is what derailed a new baseball stadium in Montreal. MLB should put an expansion team in Montreal.
Montreal drew very well for most of the Expos time there.
Montreal was run as a lower budget team and still won consistently .
Get better ownership in Montreal, and that City would rock with a New MLB franchise. They still draw big crowds for multiple Blue Jays exhibition games in Montreal every year.
They should relocate TB and the Marlins ti Montreal and Portland. I thought Srkug rules in 12 that the Giants owned the territory. Right or wrong it’s worth a shitload and the won’t give it up without a fight. Why didn’t Alameda County and the City of Oakland di this 5 years ago. The Fiji’s have kept the Raiders and put two complexes at the Coliseum site?
No! They territory was shared 50/50 by the A’s and Giants.
Former A’s Ownership agreed to give Giants that territory if they were to relocate to San Jose/Santa Clara County and stay in SF Bay Area and not move to Tampa Bay. Giants moving vans were loaded for Tampa.
A’s saved Giants baseball for Bay Area. Then, Giants broke the agreement by not building stadium in Santa Clara County.
Giants built their new stadium in downtown SF 50 miles away from downtown San Jose.
A’s should reclaim Santa Clara County/San Jose and move there.
It is much more viable for revenues, corporate sponsorship’s and fans than downtown Oakland.
Most fans in S Bay are A’s fans, not Giants fans.
Srkug?????
Finally someone who also knows the truth about Montreal and the Expos and Olympic stadium.
Where did you learn your expos history? The Expos were consistently one of the lowest drawing franchises for virtually their entire existence. They had 3 years in the early 80s where they averaged just over 28,000 a game. In 1994 they averaged 24,000 a fan. Their last 7 seasons they never averaged more than 12,600 fans a game (and that’s because they drew better playing games in Puerto Rico). The Expos were a disaster of a franchise, which makes their incredible turn-around in DC even more impressive.
Jeffrey Loria was the owner of the Expos. He acquired control of the Miami Marlins at the same time he sold the Expos to Washington as part of a deal he worked out with Bud Selig.
Yes the same owner that ran the Expos into the ground also used the same exact business practices in Miami to achieve similar results.
He is as corrupt as they come and sold the Marlins to Derek Jeter’s group around the same time an FBI investigation was opened over bribery/corruption charges involving the Marlin’s new stadium.
Sportsfanoooo – Srkug rules in 12. What don’t you understand?
The A’s tried several times to move to the South Bay, specifically San Jose. They even had the site picked out as well by the downtown train station. The Giants refused to give back the territorial rights that the A’s gave to them so they could never complete the deal. So the A’s saved Giants baseball in the Bay Area and the Giants torpedoed the A’s South Bay stadium chances.
“Most fans in S Bay are A’s fans, not Giants fans.”
Yeah, no. This is, wow, do you just make stuff up? There are barely any A’s fans in San Jose. The majority of them are in Oakland and Fremont.
I don’t think you know your history as well as you claim. The A’s didn’t save Giants baseball for the Bay Area. Give me a break. McGowan and his team of investors did. The Haas family did give their territorial rights away and the Giants took it – that’s true. At the time the A’s were perfectly content in Oakland and were crushing it. They had a nice stadium that was destroyed a few years later when Mount Davis was built.
You can thank Fisher and Wolff too. They got a huge discount (just $172 million in 2005) when they bought the A’s by agreeing to the Giants’ rights, just so this stuff wouldn’t continue. Yet, four times this has come up and four times MLB has re-affirmed the South Bay is the Giants now.
Since 1992 the Giants have done a lot of marketing to the South Bay, including naming their single-A team the Giants, and now say Santa Clara County represents over 40% of their territory.
I live in the South Bay and would be thrilled to see the A’s move here. I really would. However, from a business perspective, I get why the Giants don’t want them to move down there. MLB will never cave in. The A’s made a seriously bad business decision. You all got to move on.
Down here in Aptos its more Giants fans.
Wasn’t Loria the owner in Montreal? The guy who ran the practice of gutting his team at every opportunity?
Also, the Giants did try to move down to San Jose, getting as far as the ballots twice before SJ area voters turned it down both times.
Jek is correct, it was in the sale of the A’s to Fisher that the rights were 100% hammered out, but SJ rights were also included in McGowan’s group’s purchase back in ‘93. It was kept in to give them another reason to purchase the team and keep them in SF area.
MLB didn’t want the Giants to move to Tampa. Walter Haas (the A’s owner at the time) didn’t want them to move either, thinking two teams doing well in the market was better business for both of them. Haas also grew up in SF as a huge Giants fan himself and wanted them to stay.
The real irony of the entire thing, Fisher’s dad, Donald, was part of the group that saved the Giants in the purchase of 1993, and locked in those rights for the Giants. Then his son buys the A’s in ‘05, agrees to the terms. Only later, everyone wants the Giants to give them back. Doesn’t work that way.
Al davis Jr doesn’t want to pay for a stadium, Oakland doesn’t want to pay for a stadium. The A’s didn’t want to pay for one until they canned lew wolffe a few years ago.
Loria should have been banned from MLB ownership.
The Expos were better off with Canadian ownership
Loria ran the Expos into the ground with the express purpose of
moving that franchise. Loria also mismanaged the Marlins badly.
The Expos developed a huge stable of top, young players.
Expos had best record in MLB in ;94 and a star studded lineup.
Expos were World Series bound.
They played in Old Olympic stadium that was way too big for
baseball and not fan friendly.
A World Series would have helped the Expos get a new baseball stadium in Montreal and Expos would not have moved to DC.
MLB, by getting Loria involved, was looking to move the Expos and did not really try to make it work in Montreal.
Montreal drew very well when they were a minor league team..
MLB did did not make efforts to make the Expos successful in Montreal.
Not sure what you mean by that
BS….I know the market very well. I lived in the area when it was happening. The A’s ownership at the time interceded behind the scenes with other well heeled investors to talk up a last minute deal to save the Giants. The moving vans were already packed for the Giants to go to Tampa. Tampa Bay Investors actually purchased the Giants from Bob Lurie and had loaded the Vans to move the team to Tampa.
The A’s ownership only agreed to let the Giants have San Jose and Santa Clara County as territory,IF THE GIANTS MOVED TO SAN JOSE AND BUILT A STADIUM THERE,,,GIANTS DID NOT DO IT.
SO, San Jose and Santa Clara County should revert to a 50/50 shared territory like all other cities with 2 MLB teams.
That stadium The Expos played in was a dump. Similar to Qualcomm where The Padres used to play in. That turf ruined a lot of players knees.
Jack Murphy used to be very good for baseball.
Chargers expanded it and made it less good for baseball.
Then, Chargers bailed out..
Well said. It’s such a damn shame to see cities who don’t deserve a team have no fear of them up and leaving, when places like Montreal, a potentially huge market, lose their team because of BS policies. Just look at the two exhibition games that the Jays play there right before the season starts- I understand two games is hard to extrapolate through a whole season, but the crowds are always amazing those two games… MLB is missing a huge opportunity to not only expand into a different country, but reviving a much loved fanbase.
I 100% agree that any team pinching pennies instead of improving their team should lose the team. I know it’d never happen, but I’d love to see MLB force any team who ends up bottom five in spending for more than five years in a row be forced to relocate.
ThisIsTheYear – Montreal drew crowds for the Blue Jays because Blue Jays fans drove to Montreal to make a weekend (or week) out of it. Some visiting teams drove to Montreal also. Montreal does not care for baseball. Thanks to televised games there are more Expos fans across Canada than in Montreal.
Re-check the attendance records for the Expos. You will see how little they cared for baseball.
That would be a huge nightmare, and would destroy the sport.
It is already hard to get a city to pitch in for a stadium. But give them the added liability that team might up and leave at the drop of a hat just because, and no one is going to help you build a stadium. I am not even talking public finding, but simply the political will to get it done.
It would also put the owners at a huge disadvantage to pretty much everyone else if they could lose their team that easily. They’d have almost no leverage, and the league is not looking to weaken their own power in any way like that.
Montreal, Charlotte, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Vancouver, and Nashville could all use a baseball team.
Orlando to and could had a team before Tampa Bay got one and Tampa Bay did play some home Games in Orlando at Cracker Jack Stadium and maybe New Orleans,OKC,Hawaii,Mexico City,Putero Rico,Jacksonville.
Keep Oakland Arena maybe could get an NHL or WNBA team to go their.
San Jose Earthquakes have a Staduim where A’s can play.
Stadium issue, stadium safety issue, ownership issue, Canadian dollar issue, fan interest issue, media relations issues.
I’ll never understand why there is so much push to have a team back in Montreal. It was a joke watching Expos games. Their stadium was terrible, it was always empty, and they didn’t spend any money on the team. They were essentially a farm team for the rest of MLB. I’m glad MLB took the team from them and moved them to DC, and I hope they never let a team go back to Montreal.
Rangerslegend I think some people feel like the Expos were “cheated” in 1994 and thus push this idea that they deserve a team. Atlanta ran down San Fran from further back AND with a better record in 1993 than Montreal in 1994 at the same point. Atlanta could have won the division with the Expos taking the Wild Card.
I would look to the AAA teams with the best attendance like Indianapolis, Nashville and others before considering Montreal, their weak Canadian dollar, weak economy and awful stadium.
Expos had the best record in MLB in ’94 with a young, all star studded lineup primarily from their rich farm system. A World Series would have helped them finance and build a new baseball stadium.
Selling the team to Loria in ’99 was the kiss of death.
:Loria had no ties, roots or commitment to Montreal
Without proper revenues, Ex;pos were forced to trade away many of their best players so instead of a dynastic team, Expos became a farm team to the richer teams in both leagues.
Most pro sports teams are primarily in either the real estate or television business.
The pro sport is just the drawing card.
Don’t kid yourself. Teams make a boatload of cash, tax breaks, franchise values skyrocketing etc..
I’ve tried to explain to the people stuck in 1930 that the owners don’t need to sell a single ticket to make money.
They are crying on the owners’ behalf because of reduced profit, not losses.
You’ve tried to explain something that isn’t true, and people using facts and logic will not buy your false argument. Start over if you know how.
Oh so they can pay their minor leaguers but just chose not to
Yes they can and should pay their minor leaguers better wages and benefits.
Not sure negotiating for a bad stadium in a terrible market is sound business sense. Perhaps a market that would enable a competitive payroll might be what pushes your baseball operations team from literally pulling contenders out of their miracle sphincters to a consistent powerhouse able to retain their players.
Really hope the A’s can pull threw on this new stadium. I saw some plans on what the new stadium would look like and it looks really cool. I think with the Raiders moving the team can manage to stay in Oakland.
hope they design sewer system much better than they had.
Was/is it that bad?
They had sewage overflowing into the dugout/s.
Yeah, pretty bad.
They had a plumbing problem. They fixed it. Bet the toilet at your house backed up before. Doesn’t make it worth mentioning constantly. Must be that you ‘re jealous about the A’s ability to just keep winning.
‘2 wild cards and you’re out’ doesn’t mean the a’s are constantly winning!
I wouldn’t let my toilet overflow liquid feces all over my floor, a multi million dollar franchise should do better.
Yes I assume any season the A’s are over .500 is considered a win for you.
I’ve like this idea for a while. Take something that currently costs the city money and turn it into something that gives the city an immediate boost and generates long term tax revenue.
The A’s should be building their new stadium in downtown San Jose, CA
in Santa Clara County….
There are Plenty of corporate sponsorships, land and money in “Silicon Valley”. and public support from the City of San Jose and the County of Santa Clara.
A’s former Ownership stepped up and saved the SF Giants from moving to Tampa Bay. They agreed to let the Giants built a new stadium in Santa Clara County and give them that territory if they stayed in the SF Bay Area.
The Giants ended up staying in SF , but the Giants built Their stadium in the City of SF and not in Santa Clara County so that territory concession deal was off….
The A’s and Giants previously shared the SF Bay Area territory 50/50 including San Jose and Santa Clara County.
The Giants are in the NL and the A’s are in the AL: so the SF Bay Area territory should be shared equally 50/50 like in most cities with two MLB teams.
The Giants, oddly enough, are now trying to claim San Jose and Santa Clara County as “exclusive territory” which is a load of BS since without the A’s “stepping up”, the Giants would be in Tampa Bay. The Giants had loaded their moving vans for Tampa when former A’s ownership interceded and helped the Giants stay in the SF Bay Area….even helped find another well funded ownership group for Giants locally..
Current Giants ownership attempts to, repeatedly, stab the A’s in the back after former A;s ownership saved the Giants for SF. (Giants have been blocking an A’s move to build a new stadium in San Jose, CA/Santa Clara County..
San Jose and Santa Clara County want to build a new baseball stadium for the A’s in downtown San Jose. They have even filed lawsuits to make it happen..
MLB should intercede and let the A’s move to Santa Clara County/San Jose not to far from the SF 49ers new Levis stadium.
Silicon Valley is where the money and sponsorships are for sports franchises.
This has been a long running soap opera with an easy solution.
The San Jose A’s would work financially. w ith corporate sponsorships from Silicon Valley etc…
Many of the A’s fans commute to their home games from San Jose/Santa Clara County anyways…
Get it Done!!!
As a diehard A’s fan who commutes to games from Santa Clara this has been my ideal location for a new stadium but I don’t see any way the giants allow that to happen.
MLB Commissioners Office and Ownership needs to step it up, intercede and help make the San Jose Giants happen.
It is ridiculous to build a stadium in Oakland just across the Bay from the Giants stadium in SF.. You have two stadiums just a few BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit District) stops apart?! That is dumb and economically unfeasible. It is why they A’s have struggled financially.
Loads of Silicon Valley companies that could sponsor the A’s.
Loads of Silicon Valley Execs and professionals who would pack and sell out an A’s stadium in Downtown San Jose…
And, MLB would not have to pay anymore “revenue sharing”: dollars to the A’s.
MLB is headquartered on the East Coast in NYC,
Great place to visit and live.
But, MLB and New Yorkers do not understand the SF Bay Area MLB market at all….
All very valid points, no argument from me, we seem to be on the same thought process.
The A’s and MLB have tried the San Jose route…the Giants wouldn’t let them as they have the rights to San Jose.
MLB should over rule the Giants since the Giants were only given Santa Clara County and San Jose if they moved there and built a stadium in San Jose. Giants did not move there and built their stadium in downtown SF. So that deal should be rescinded.
All other MLB cities with 2 teams share their markets 50/50….LA, Chicago, NYC etc….Either team in those markets can move anywhere in those markets.
See link for more
espn.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=bryant_howard…
The Angels and Dodgers can move anywhere in LA County, Orange County and The Inland Empire (Riverside County) without the other teams okay. But they can’t bring in a minor league team without the other teams okay. Angel owner Arte Moreno recently blocked minor league team from playing in Woodland Hills. Nobody can figure out why. unless Arte was planning on moving the Angels into LA County.. We may never know why.
woodland hills is full of large houses. i don’t know where the dodgers planned to build a stadium. a con man lives there, too.
Warner center. Promenade is coming down
That’s where. That a cool place for a minor league ball park. Too bad Arte put a monkey wrench into their plans.
Vizionaire, if you’re as interested as I am in “future that never was” sports and entertainment stories, the LA Times published a very good article about the Dodgers’ proposed A-ball stadium there.
Agree with your comments on the Dodgers and Angels.
Most Cities with 2 teams have the same set up like the Chicago etc……
MLB needs to rethink the SF Bay Area market.
It can support 2 successful MLB franchises (one in each league).
However, 1 team in SF downtown(Giants)
And, 1 team in Downtown San Jose/Santa Clara County (A’s)
is the only solution that makes sense. Downtown SF and SJO are like 50 miles apart?! Plenty of room to breath and compete equally.
And, the teams should share the SF Bay Area and its 7-8M people 50/50.
What happened to capitalistic competition?!
MLB does not favor it?!
SF and San Jose are the two biggest cities in N Cal.
And the 3rd and 4th biggest cities in CA.
(LA is #1 and San Diego is #2).
It makes zero sense to put a team in Downtown Oakland rather than in San Jose/Santa Clara County unless MLB wants to write revenue sharing checks to Oakland for another 20-30 years?!
Arte wanted leverage to get a better deal.
He is now buying the land and stadium in Anaheim.
He may build a new stadium there…
I suspect Moreno did so because of how little compensation the Dodgers allegedly offered and on the assumption that the Dodgers ownership would never do the same for him regardless of whether Moreno granted them permission to move their A-ball franchise to Woodland Hills.
Very true
Fully agree
Kaval needs to go. “Quarter by quarter”???
I don’t think he even understands the sport that the A’s are playing.
I know what your saying. Down here in SoCal sometimes I can get the A’s broadcast on the radio. Last year Kovall was in the radio booth. And they asked him what he would do if he were managing A’s down 2 runs?
Kaval- Onside kick? Punt ? I dunno lol
Fosse-WTF
Kinda off topic It’s funny how when all the teams in the NFL finally got a new or refurbished stadium they finally let Los Angeles have not one but two NFL teams. They kept The LA Market open from 1994 to 2015 so there teams could threaten to move there unless tax payers ponied up the money to give a billionaire a new stadium.
Yes, several team owners benefited from having with the threat of moving to Los Angeles in negotiations with their own cities for years before the Rams finally followed through.
California is an oversaturated market. Even if the A’s buy that property and build a new stadium, will it really fix their attendance issues?
CA has 40M people.
It is not over saturated market.
Businesses/teams just have to position themselves in the best
markets to succeed like anyplace else.
They have done attendance and support surveys and found that a big chunk of A’s fans travel all the way to their stadium from Santa Clara County and San Jose.
Why not just put the team where a huge chunk of their fans live and work and start selling out a big chunk of their games?!
Are the A’s sure they want to stay in Oakland with the the ‘Defund the Cops” initiative and the over-all radicalism of the city council? Fans already don’t want to come downtown due to all the crime and with only the “social workers” left to keep them safe…
That would clearly be something they’d have to evaluate, mouthbreathe.
I am 100% pro police, and agree I would not want to risk my investment in an area where people do not feel safe, but the problem for the A’s are a lack of alternatives to the Coliseum site. The only teams that are assured a new facility are those that will be finished this year ( Rangers. Raiders, Rams and Chargers) or next year ( Islanders and new. Seattle NHL team), even the Angels and San Diego State are not guaranteed to get what they want.
That is not a factor…Protests come and go…Business and Sports go on and on and on..
Blue Jays bought then-Skydome and it was a better investment than paying for rent. If Oakland buys the stadium they can control it, make alterations, massive renovations and turn it back into a ballpark. Looks like it might be their best option.
I always enjoyed visiting the “older “ stadiums during my tour of all MLB cities, Old Comiskey Park, County Stadium Milwaukee, Colt 45 Stadium, Candlestick, Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, etc. I wish I could have seen a game at Shea Stadium, but the experience at Citi Field was very nice.
Shea was actually nice for quite awhile but then it kind of wore out and wasn’t so great. It had its time.
Why not put people to work and build a COVID-19 stadium. Seats properly distanced. Multiple ways in and out of the park. Fencing around the entire playing surface to keep the balls on the field (safety). No cell phone service so fans actually have to watch the game. Every day is mask day. Get creative with that. Serve antibacterial soft drinks to clean the inside. Shine overhead lighting inside people so they can see if they’re sick. Place elected Republican officials around the infield for targets during batting practice. This can work. Maybe America will be great again if we kick out the current regime. We can only hope and prey. Don’t forget to vote MLBPA. Good luck.
what are you even on about?
This is a baseball stadium not LEGO
Oh give me a break. Just stop with this Oakland and A’s! The city of Oakland is a disaster. They are the RC Cola of the Bat Area
oakland hils are pretty nice!
Top 5 A’s Rumored New Stadium Spots over the last 30 years:
5. Israel
4. Mexico
3. Sacramento
2. San Jose
1. Las Vegas
Oakland should be an up-and-coming city, but their government really does a disaster of a job. They are not only a sanctuary city, but encourage lawlessness. They report when INS is coming to town. Try riding BART through Oakland without getting robbed. Downtown should be thriving but it’s still got nothing – weekends there are desolate and nobody wants to visit. The only thing going for it is it’s more affordable for tech workers who work in SF so they commute. If BART didn’t ride through there the city would be empty.
To be blunt. – The city doesn’t care about the A’s, the A’s don’t care about their fans, and MLB doesn’t know what to do about it so they turn a blind eye.
The A’s should move to Japan and join the Japanese league
To the people who suggest Vancouver as a potential spot for a franchise …
Vancouver is a beautiful city, and I’d love to see a team land there.
However, the truth is that they had an NBA team there, and couldn’t draw. It wasn’t a perfect team, I agree, but they fell to the bottom of the league in attendance before they moved. Worse, they didn’t get corporate support.
The Vancouver Grizzlies were horrible. An expansion baseball will not be good either.
Any Vancouver expansion group would have to prove corporate support, prove baseball interest, and realistically explain how a city that didn’t support basketball is going to draw 15-20 thousand more fans for double the number of games in a season.
Plus, they still have to deal with the exchange rate issues.
Here is the story of the Giants being sold to Tampa/St Petersburg investors and heading for Tampa Bay.
The league nixed the move.
It came up 1 owner vote shy of approval.
Local investors were recruited to save the team for the SF Bay Area
cbssports.com/mlb/news/photos-remember-when-the-gi…
BASEBALL
BASEBALL; Baseball’s Giants Reach Agreement To Move To Florida
By Murray Chass
Aug. 8, 1992
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Thirty-five years after they left New York and helped open the West Coast to big-time baseball, the San Francisco Giants put themselves in position yesterday to move back east and help open Florida to the major leagues.
A group of investors from the Tampa Bay area of Florida announced that they had signed a memorandum of agreement to buy the Giants and move them from San Francisco to St. Petersburg in time for the 1993 season.
Bob Lurie, who has owned the Giants for 17 years, has tried to keep the team in the San Francisco area by getting a new stadium built to replace Candlestick Park, which is an undesirable place to play because of forbidding and chilling winds. But voters in the city and elsewhere — most recently San Jose in June — have defeated four referendums in the last few years that would have approved construction of a new stadium.
The transaction is subject to approval by three-fourths of the 14 National League club owners and a majority of the 14 American league club owners, and approval, especially in the American League, is by no means a certainty.
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The proposed move would also have ramifications for the realignment of the National League that Commissioner Fay Vincent ordered and that the Chicago Cubs have at least temporarily blocked with a Federal lawsuit.
Mr. Vincent, who was traveling yesterday, said through his office that it would be premature to comment on the development. Bill White, the National League president, was also traveling and had no comment.
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The owners have a quarterly meeting scheduled in St. Louis next month, but the earliest they could be expected to act on the sale would be at the following meeting, in Louisville, Ky., in December. Before the sale reaches the owners for a vote, an eight-man ownership panel must approve it.
“It’s all so new we’re going to have to think about it,” said one owner. “This one will go pretty slowly.” Third Deal in Two Weeks
The Giants, whose move from New York to San Francisco was announced on Aug. 19, 1957, are the third major league team to be sold in two weeks.
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Drayton McLane Jr., the second largest stockholder in Wal-Mart Stores, purchased the Houston Astros and the Astrodome lease from John McMullen for $115 million. Mike Ilitch, the owner of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team, reached agreement with Thomas Monaghan to buy the Detroit Tigers for a sum between $80 million and $90 million. But those transactions, which have yet to be approved, would not alter the location of the teams involved.
Earlier this summer, the sale of the Seattle Mariners to a group headed by Nintendo was approved by the major league owners, keeping the team in Seattle.
If the Giants’ transaction is approved, it would mark the first time since the Washington Senators moved to Texas after the 1971 season that any franchise has relocated.
The Tampa Bay group, with Vince Naimoli, chief executive officer of Anchor Industries Incorporated, as the controlling investor, was said to have agreed to pay $110 million for the Giants.
Residents of the Tampa Bay area have for several years tried zealously to lure a major league team, going so far as to build the Suncoast Dome, which is in St. Petersburg, without a commitment for an expansion franchise.
The area tried unsuccessfully to lure the Chicago White Sox there several years ago and lost out earlier this year in an effort to get the Seattle Mariners to move. The St. Petersburg-Tampa area was one of six finalists in the race for two National League expansion teams, but the franchises were awarded to Miami and Denver.
The St. Petersburg-Tampa bid faltered when some key investors withdrew their support at a late hour. Now Florida, which has never had a major league team, could be a double winner in 1993, as California was in 1958 when the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers began play on the West Coast after abandoning New York.
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“Baseball works in mysterious ways,” Jack Critchfield of Florida Progress, a member of an investment group seeking a franchise, said at a news conference today in St. Petersburg. “I never felt good we were going to get the Mariners for various reasons, but I feel awfully confident about this one.” Some Hurdles Ahead
There are reasons, however, why the Giants might not reach St. Petersburg. At the owners’ meeting in June, Mr. Vincent gave Mr. Lurie approval to explore all options, including moving or selling the team to someone who would move it, but that action was not tantamount to approval.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ owner, Peter O’Malley, whose father induced Horace Stoneham to abandon the Polo Grounds and move to California with the Dodgers, was said by other owners and officials to be concerned about the prospect of losing the Dodgers’ historic rivalry with the Giants. If Mr. O’Malley wants to oppose the move, he would need to recruit only three other owners to block it.
And in the American League, some owners do not like the idea of ceding Florida to the National League. What About the Marlins?
Then there are the Florida Marlins, who paid $95 million to join the National League.
Carl Barger, the Marlins’ president, was quoted last winter as being opposed to the move of an established team to the Tampa Bay area, but he and Wayne Huizenga, the Marlins’ owner, held a news conference last February to alleviate fears that they would block such a move.
In statements yesterday, they reiterated their support for a team in the Tampa Bay area.
There is also the issue of realignment. Last month, acting at the request of six National League owners, Vincent ordered the Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals to move to the Western Division and the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds to move to the Eastern Division.
One of Mr. Vincent’s reasons was the geographical rivalry that could develop between the Braves and the Marlins, who are being placed in the Eastern Division. If the Giants move, the area could become a baseball hotbed, and it wouldn’t make sense to have the three teams in different divisions.
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To have all three in the Eastern Division, though, a team in the National League East would have to be shifted in addition to the Cubs and Cardinals. San Francisco Isn’t Happy
San Francisco officials and businessmen, meanwhile, do not want to let the Giants leave. The Giants would not be leaving for lack of fan support. In 1989, the club set a season attendance record, drawing 2,059,829 fans. Last season, the Giants drew 1,737,479 fans from the nation’s fourth-largest metropolitan area.
“I’m not going to let it happen without a fight,” Mayor Frank Jordan said. “This is not a done deal.”
But no San Francisco group stepped forward with an offer quickly enough to counter the Tampa Bay initiative.
A group led by a developer, Walter Shorenstein, had been expected to anounce a bid by Thursday, but no offer was forthcoming. Another potential purchasing group, led by a businessman, H. Irving Grousbeck, said it was several weeks away from a decision on making offer.
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Seventy-five of Silicon Valley’s top CEOs, representing more than a trillion dollars of corporate and personal wealth, signed Guardino’s letter as a show of force of commitment to use their combined power to lure the beleaguered Oakland A’s to San Jose.
Conceptual plans for the A’s proposed ballpark in San Jose. For more images, visit the photo gallery. 360 Architects
Signed by the heads of some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful and recognizable technology companies — Cisco, Adobe, Yahoo! and eBay, among others — the letter was intended to stoke the tantalizing prospects of more baseball growth: luxury suites, a new 34,000-seat baseball stadium and an exciting and healthy new start for the A’s.
The letter went out Sept. 8, 2010, but Guardino’s return mailbox has been empty ever since.