The city of Oakland released a 3,500-page environmental report related to the Athletics’ planned waterfront ballpark project, per a report from Sarah Ravani and Roland Li of the San Francisco Chronicle. This is a mandatory step towards actualization of the project, with A’s president Dave Kaval calling it an “enormous accomplishment.” Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf remarked, “Releasing the final environmental impact report is a major milestone on our path to build a new waterfront ballpark district.”
The next steps will be that the city’s Planning Commission will now review the report and vote whether to recommend approval, with that vote coming on January 19. Then City Council will decide about whether to approve the project or not in February.
The project appears to be quite ambitious, including much more than just a ballpark in its scope. It also includes “3,000 units of housing, 1.5 million square feet of offices, 270,000 square feet of retail space, a 3,500-person performance venue, up to 400 hotel rooms and 8,900 parking spaces,” per the report. Kaval says that the inability to develop such a dynamic project is what caused the Warriors and Raiders to depart Oakland, leaving the Athletics’ as the only major sports franchise in the city.
The ability for the city and the team to reach some kind of satisfactory agreement has broad implications for both the team and the league. The club has been looking into the possibility of following the Raiders by moving from Oakland to Las Vegas, going so far as to make an offer on a piece of land that could act as their future home. The current stadium lease in Oakland runs through 2024. As for the league, it has been reported in the past that Commissioner Rob Manfred would like to resolve the ongoing stadium sagas of both the Athletics and Rays before considering the addition of expansion franchises.
The developments of this scenario will also have impacts for some players. For instance, agent Scott Boras said in July that extension negotiations between the team and his client, Matt Chapman, would wait until the stadium situation is resolved. That may end up being a moot point if Chapman is dealt as part of the club’s anticipated post-lockout selloff, but a trade is certainly not guaranteed.
Despite the release of the environmental report marking a step forward in the process, there are still obstacles ahead. As detailed in the article from Ravani and Li, there are still many elements to be negotiated between the team and the city, such as the financing structure and affordable housing, as well as opposition from a group called the East Oakland Stadium Alliance. Even if all of these issues are overcome and the project goes forward, the ribbon isn’t going to be cut anytime soon, as the piece says that construction “could take eight years or more.”
Does the Bay Area actually support a two team model? It’s got to be more than frustrating watching a team become a contender then disbanding before the team is a finished product.
The Ponzi scheme by the wealthy owners has involved growing salaries at an unsustainable rate over the past few decades until the organizations that cannot continue at that excessive rate have to acquiesce to being defacto minor league suppliers of talent to the remaining wealthy market teams. It’s worked.
Baseballl is a great game. The business of baseball can stuff it.
Most professional sports are making as much money off the TV audience as the in-person attendees. Further they’ve realized that by pricing games as a luxury good they can make just as much money – if not more – by filling 25k seats at $70 per head vs 50k at $35. While this may sound like smart business – reducing the need for staff at the ballpark, making a boutique stadium look full for the larger TV audience – it reduces the long term gain of giving young families the chance to afford a ticket.
Baseball is making much, much more from TV. 2./3 of all revenue in baseball is from TV.
yea it’s the owners that are pushing higher salaries…Wow…you obviously don’t have a clue about the ‘business of baseball’. But you are right about 1 thing, escalating salaries do cause higher ticket prices.
Salaries do NOT contribute to to higher ticket prices. Demand does.
Of course they contribute. It’s not dollar-for-dollar, but they contribute.
Salaries do not drive ticket prices up, at least not directly. If a team signs a major FA to a monster contract it may drive interest in the team, and demand may escalate price. If no one is buying $20 tickets they won’t just raise them to $25 because payroll goes up.
One has to be wary of ABSOLUTE statements. A myriad of both expenses and revenues exist. To say that any of them is NOT considered is silly.
To say that payroll expenses doesn’t drive a business’s prices is ridiculous.
Payroll should never drive a business’ pricing decisions. Why? Because in order for a price increase to be worthwhile it must raise overall revenue. If it could, the business would already have done so regardless of payroll costs. To say that ball clubs raise tickets to cover salaries also implies they were leaving revenue on the table before, which they aren’t.
Actually they both do.
The Ballclub sets the base price of the tickets based on a number things.
Team Payroll,Stadium Rent Etc….
What drives up the price of tickets is supply vs demand on secondary sites.
Lived there for a decade. I would say no. Many East-Bayers myself included routinely just drive across the bridge to watch the SF Giants play. Its an easy drive without much traffic congestion. And I’m not even a Giants fan but the stadium is far and away better than Oakland Stadium which is horrible and the area is not nice either, definitely more dangerous.
There is no such thing as a routine drive across the Bay Bridge. That’s ridiculous.
And many fans from SF drive across the Bridge or take the BART from SF right to the Oakland Coliseum or drive north from Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley to watch the A’s games.
Gotta love BART!
Drops you off just outside the Oak stadium.
My kids met MC Hammer inside the ballpark back in 2009. Got autographs and pics with him. “Hammer time”!
He charge you for them?
I don’t know what area or neighborhood you are talking about. I have been going to the Coliseum since 1970. You take the freeway, take the Hegenberger exit and drive right into the stadium. The Colosseum is next to the freeway on a parcel of land that is 150 acres; the size of Disneyland.
It is important for everyone to know that the reason everyone is pushing for a new age ballpark in a new location has nothing to do with safety issues at the Colosseum site. The reason everyone is pushing for a new location is because the 150 acre parcel where the stadium is now is worth a fortune. Alameda county, the city of Oakland and the Oakland Athletics will make a lot of money from the sale of that land.
The Bay Area has the top 2 highest metro areas in terms of average income. It also has #s 9, 11,, & 13.
The A’s owner inherited part of the Gap fortune.
There is more than enough economic support.
Is average income an appropriate stat for these purposes though? I wouldn’t think so. I’d think it was more about quantity than wealth.
A quick Google search shows the Bay Area population to be 7.753 million as of 2018. That compared to 20 million or so in NYC metro area, and 18.7 million in the Greater Los Angeles population.
Yeah they need that income when making $200K a year doesn’t go far in that area.
geg42 The idea that income from an area should determine available spending on sports is futile. Silicon Valley has a lot of wealth but they do not have a lot of people interested in attending professional sports events.
Has to be weighed against cost of living…the Bay Area has ungodly real estate prices.
Yes. The SF Bay Area can support the “2 team model like LA, New York, Chicago etc.. The population of the “Greater San Francisco Bay Area is 7.753 million ample fans to support 2 teams. Population of Bay Area Cities:
1) San Jose 1,013,240
2) San Francisco 873,965
3) Oakland 440,646
Most of the Tech companies and Wealth are Headquartered in Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley. San Jose is the Capital of Silicon Valley.
The San Francisco 49ers built their New Stadium in Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley.(and offered to share it with the Raiders (like the Rams/Chargers in LA or the Giants/Jets in New Jersey). before the Raiders moved to Las Vegas…The Raiders may have been negotiating in “Bad Faith” with the SF Bay Area.
The A’s should be moved to Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley.
It is the only SF Bay Area “Two Team Solution” that makes business dollars and sense. AND
CONGRESS SHOULD REVOKE MLB’S ANTI TRUST EXEMPTION SINCE the MLB Commissioner’s Office and the SF Giants appear to have been CONSPIRING TOGETHER FOR DECADES to block the A’s logical move to Santa Clara County /Silicon Valley and the only long-term solution that makes business sense.
San Jose is 42.5 miles South of Oakland and 1 hour+ drive (or more depending on traffic and time of day).
MLB and the A’s may be negotiating in “Bad Faith” with SF Bay Area communities on the New A’s Stadium issues and already have at least 1 foot in the Las Vegas market for the A’s.
‘Even if all of these issues are overcome and the project goes forward, the ribbon isn’t going to be cut anytime soon, as the piece says that construction “could take eight years or more.”
–
The problem I see is this……
Politics.
All it’ll take are some grandstanders that run for Oakland City Council that get elected, and block any agreement in those 8 years.
I lived in LA when Al Davis moved the Raiders down from the Oakland Coliseum to the LA Coliseum (a part of USC). What LA offered that Oakland wouldn’t were the construction of luxury box suites – whereby businesses could buy them and write them off their taxes as an entertainment expense. The other teams were getting large revenues that way but Al wasn’t, making it impossible to compete financially.
He moved his team down, then had to put out excessive legal expenses to try to get the suites built. But City Council members that were elected after the Raiders deal was signed kept stalling construction. Finally Davis reached a deal with Oakland and moved the team back there……only to see new City Council members there block maintenance and upgrades to the Oakland Coliseum (finally his son moved the franchise to Las Vegas).
As noted above, the Giants didn’t have problems getting their park built, and other facilities as well. But Oakland and its politics have been a problem for years. As for LA and football – the area went without an NFL team for years until new stadiums were built outside of the city of Los Angeles.
As for moving the A’s to San Jose – good luck with that. In order to get the A’s to move to Oakland Charlie Finley signed an agreement that the Giants would hold the rights in the West and South Bay (and parts of the East Bay). No groups are “conspiring” – there’s an agreement and that’s that.
This story has been a soap opera for more than 10 years now. It’s not going to end anytime soon. MLB and the A’s owner need to pull the plug.
Some of your FACTS ARE WRONG.
Charlie Finley had sold the team long before these issue came to a head in the SF Bay Area.
The post Charlie Finley A’s Owners helped to SAVE THE GIANTS FOR THE SF BAY AREA. The Giants almost moved to Tampa Bay.
The moving Vans were packed and fueled up for the Drive to Tampa with all the SF Giants equipment loaded for Florida.
The A’s Ownership USED ITS CLOUT AND WEALTH TO RECRUIT NEW OWNERSHIP for the Giants to SAVE THE GIANTS FOR THE SF BAY AREA. instead of letting them leave in the middle of the night for Tampa.
A Deal was made by the A’s that in effect made the Giants promise to STAY IN THE SF BAY AREA AND BUILD THEIR NEW BASEBAL L STADIUM IN SANTA CLARA COUNTY /SILICON VALLEY/SAN JOSE IN EXCHANGE FOR THE A’S GIVING THE GIANTS THEIR SOUTH BAY TERRITORY.
The A’s really did not gain anything from such a deal and, arguably, lose money on such a deal. AND, THE GIANTS RENEGED ON THE DEAL.
THE GIANTS STAYED IN THE BAY AREA, BUT THE GIANTS BUILT THEIR STADIUM IN SAN FRANCISCO (50 MILES AWAY) AND NEVER BUILD THEIR STADIUM IN SANTA CLARA COUNTY SILICON VALLEY/SAN JOSE AS OUTLINED IN THE AGREEMENT SO THE AGREEMENT SHOULD BE THROWN OUT AS NULL AND VOID. THE A’S NEVER RECEIVED CONSIDERATION OR A BARGAINED FOR EXCHANGE. THEIR INTENTION WAS NOT TO SAVE THE GIANTS FOR THE SF BAY AREA AND BE FORCED OUT OF BUSINESS AND/OR TO LOSE MONEY ON THE DEAL
That stated, The A’s “SHARED BAY AREA TERRITORY” 50/50 SHOULD BE RESTORD BY MLB COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE. And the A’s should move to Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley/San Jose so as to remain economically viable in the SF Bay Area and in MLB….
The Post Finley A’s Ownership Group Recruited the Peter Magowan Group of Investors (Safeway Supermarket chain) to buy the Giants and keep the Giants in the SF Bay area and to stop former Giants owner Bob Lurie who had made a deal to move the Giants to Tampa Bay Florida. MLB Ownership then used its power to block the move to Florida by a Slim 1 vote margin of MLB ‘s Ownership Group.
All caps gives the impression of an unreasonable person who is frothing at the mouth as they type.
Your comment does not address the issues in an intelligent manner.
It is classic logical fallacy used by Soviet propagandists “what about isms”
.You are, obviously, “PROJECTING”.”…
As someone who grew up in the Bay Area and moved away in my 20’s but is still an A’s fan…. Yes. There were plenty of fans of both, but once the giant’s got their new stadium and started building contenders the attendance shifted in their favor. There are PLENTY of A’s fans, we just don’t want to give the owner’s our money, because they clearly aren’t putting it back into the team/city.
Just move them to LV
They belong in Vegas instead of wasting time in Oakland every season
MLB has greater problems than just the stadium issues in Oakland and Tampa. The stadium issues are just a symptom of the massive financial inequalities between the richer and poorer franchises in baseball that lead to competitive inequalities as well. Tampa Bay and Oakland have done great putting together competitive teams on the field despite not having the finances to spend like the bigger teams in baseball. But there are several other franchises in baseball that have the same financial challenges but not nearly the success.
The major question is whether or not settling the stadium issues will make them financially viable enough to be able to retain their best talent and make serious runs at a championship. What each franchise has done has worked well in the regular season but leaves them short come playoff time. If it can’t, then there is no sense pursuing expansion, as expansion franchises will face the same, if not greater financial challenges.
There will be expansion ( like it or not). Why? To begin with this is something Owners and Players can agree upon. I suspect after the A’s situation is settled and there is a new CBA there will be expansion. The possibilities are. 1: Las Vegas ( unless the A’s move there). 2: Portland. 3: Nashville. 4: Mexico City. 5: Montreal ( unless the Rays move there). My bet is Mexico City snd Portland.
Nashville and Portland, although I’d prefer Nashville and Charlotte.
both those cities have small t.v. markets. of course once teams are playing games ratings will increase. but by how much? i don’t know.
Charlotte Knights already there.
Don’t need more baseball teams at any level in Charlotte.
nobody follows baseball here in Oregon. I can’t imagine enough support for a team in Portland. just not going to happen
Mexico has big problems. Very big underworld control in Mexico City. Police have been known to work hand-in-hand and have gone in business for themselves. MLB works with the FBI ,and the FBI will not sign off on Mexico City
Yea I just don’t see Mexico City working
Should have put a team in Mexico City 20 years ago. The tourist areas are safe, the stadium area would be too. The gangs, cops, and politicians would protect the area due to the big money involved.
@ny_yankee regarding mexico and montreal on paper they seem logical but in reality i don’t see either city being a fit for these reasons.
i’m going to start with montreal, the city has the size and economy to support a mlb team but will they have a fan base. now i’m saying mon. area doesn’t like/love bb but the strike in 94 killed bb in the area hence why we have the nats and given that it’s looking like another 94 this year unless a miracle happens i don’t think there is going to be next year (that’s a personal opinion but we have dumb and dumber trying to negotiate with each other leaves me with no hope but i’ll digress). my point with bb in mon is can the bb fans there deal with the soap opera that mlb has become.
now on to mexico at a glance it’s the perfect place for a team they love the sport and have a lot of good talent. the big problems i see with a team in mexico city is safety and economy (basically the opposite of what montreal has). the country of mexico is basically ran by drug cartels and the turf wars are only getting worse, and unless either the team or mlb hires mercs to run security why would anyone other than those born in mexico would even want to play there. not to mention that athletes get special treatment when it comes to checkpoints for the most part, how long is until the cartels get wise to that and strong arm a young kid coming up or give money he can’t refuse to smuggle contraband across the border. also who is going to go watch the games mexico is one of the worst countries that the division of wealth is extreme (basically only countries worse are the conflict countries in africa or cartel countries in sa) who are actually going to be able to go to the games or watch them. we often forget while we’re cramping on our 2019 model tv because it’s not a 320k tv that can hack into nasa it’s junk, this is a country where there happy they have a tube tv from 03 to watch.
long and short in theory mexico and montreal are great places for a team at first glance but when look into maybe there not
I agree with your assessment that several owners are more concerned with putting more money into their pockets than their teams.
The Rays are a perfect example. St. Louis, on the other hand, is not a small market team. Huge fan base, TV ratings, packed ballpark in a great location. Oakland is the opposite: ballpark in a bad area, very low attendance, TV ratings okay not great.
In the 80s the A’s outdrew the Giants because they had an owner that was competitive and invested heavily to the product on the field and the whole franchise at all levels. Then they got a owner who was more interested in baseball as a lucrative investment enriching himself than in being competitive. They can certainly afford to do more, they just refuse to. This is why they have been cut off from revenue sharing because the game they are playing is not the one the rest of the teams are playing.
St. Louis is indeed a small market. Market size is determined by population base, not attendance or fan support. The Cardinals are just a very well run team. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Tampa Bay and Kansas City are also small markets. The Brewers, Rays, and Royals are all well run organizations. The Reds and Pirates used to be well run but not anymore. The A’s owners are just cheap.
In other words. The tax payers have to continue to bail out Billionaires? If You can’t spend money and field a competitive team, Maybe you shouldn’t have bought the team to begin with.
Wrong. Market size translates to media deal size. Need a cap and floor. Ever hear of the NFL? “Money equality” in sports means “opportunity equality” in sports. Doesn’t remove luck or stupidity from the equation but having the same money immediately puts you in the game.
Salary caps do not create parity. That’s the Kool-Aid owners want to serve the public. Caps just suppress salaries. In my opinion they also ruin sports.
They create the OPPORTUNITY for parity. Again, teams can be stupid or unlucky but that’s not the fault of a cap.
Soon they will add more teams more teams will make the playoffs it will be like the NHL playoffs
NHL playoffs are the best show in professional sports, but I don’t think it would translate to MLB.
It would not
Please educate yourself a little more on the topic. While you mention the SF group east Oakland stadium alliance (Look it up on who funds them and then who donated to that group) you didn’t mention that Kaval lobbied with the state to get AB734 which limits the lawsuit to have to be filed in 270 days. This project won’t be held up in the courts and the city got all the funding the A’s requested for off-site infrastructure. Also hard to Invision the city turning away this huge development (tax revenue) that will extend Jack London square and the Oakland waterfront.
Wow you really are a pompous know it all, who is too cheap to get a membership but plenty happy to lecture and criticize.
mike schiano1 A’s Ownership and MLB are “Yanking Oakland’s chain”.
By their actions, I don’t think A’s Ownership and MLB are making good faith efforts to solve the A’s New Stadium situation in the SF Bay Area.
They are doing the least amount possible…..want to say in the end that they tried and are really trying to pivot to Las Vegas or some other City/State,
This is a “Dog and Pony Show” Neither the A’s or the City of Oakland want to look bad, so they will keep playing around until the A’s formally announce they are moving to Las Vegas: Then the blame game will begin.
BOHICA, Bay Area taxpayers.
Why should a taxpayer in Oakland who doesn’t care about baseball be forced to subsidize the for-profit enterprise of the billionaire owner of the A’s, John Fisher, the heir to the GAP fortune? Why, for that matter, should ANY taxpayer be forced to fund Fisher’s scam?
Remember, these are monopolistic billionaire Owners who are more “risk adverse” at this stage of their lives/careers,….They want corporate welfare to pad their very wealthy portfolios. They have little or no loyalty to their City, State, Fans etc that supported their franchise for over 60 years….Their goals include : much more money to hoard at the expense of taxpayers. For more free corporate welfare money, they would relocate just about anywhere…..
I am one who hopes the A’s stay in Oakland, but this sure seems like “window dressing”
Having been there many times as an East Bayer I can confidently say Oakland Coliseum is absolutely the worst stadium in America. It’s basically a giant urinal…
3,500 page environmental report!?!?!?!?!?!?!
That’s crazy!
That’s not Crazy. That’s California
so that we get to live without chemical exploding. twice!
California is crazy, though. Building regulations are unreal there.
what is crazier is eastern and central states not having stronger building regulations. california has earthquakes and wild fires. however, new madrid earthquake #2 will not only ruin mid-west but also south and east. it will be the biggest earthquake u.s. has ever seen.
States like Oklahoma and Texas are now experiencing the problems with lax building standards and codes… A good chunk of Houston is built below the Federal flood plain…Next hurricane and huge rains and your house will be underwater, flooded and ruined inside and out.
Oklahoma us experiencing more earthquakes than California with all the fracking that has destabilized the ground under housing developments and businesses….
Low building standards, climate change lead to the destruction of New Orleans during the W Bush years. Climate change is leading to equal or greater storms more often…
Lax Zoning and slipshod building standards leads to more, very expensive, Federal taxpayer supported disasters on a more frequent basis.
California’s higher building standards and zoning laws have prevented the destruction of thousands of homes and businesses from earthquakes, flooding, fires etc…
Climate change has made prevention even more important and cost effective…
Vizionaire- CA has wildfires because the Forest in CA is not properly maintained. They’ve shut down several Mills. over the course of several years.
The CCA (Californian Conservation Corps) is an outgrowth of an agency that used to work with California forest’s going back to the 1840’s. Since then California had somewhere around a dozen droughts. Additionally, during times of the year the underbrush in forests dries out, and any flicker can result in a major forest fire.
The agencies used to both remove the underbrush year-round, as well a prune areas of the forests each year – rotating around the area to assure that if a fire started at some point it would not spread. Consequently the fires that did start had limited damage, and within 2-3 years the forests came back (I saw this in the Toganga Canyon area near where I lived).
Sometime in the 90’s the Environmentalists started up demanding that nature be left alone. Sounded good. The politicians liked it because they could cut the proactive maintenance of the forests saving the state money, and they changed laws no longer making utilities responsible to clear the underbrush at their expense (for which the politicians got handsome political contributions to run for re-election).
The rash of fires over the past 5-10 years are in fact unprecedented – but they have nothing at all to do with the bogyman – i.e. Climate Change.
Like millions of others – including close friends and families – we left Southern California in the early 2000’s. Anyone with a half a brain could see what was coming (by the way – did you know that California ranks 2nd in the nation in wage disparity behind New York, with Illinois and Massachusetts behind them? You know, all those conservative states).
Governor Jerry Brown established the CCC in 1976. Not 1840s.
“The California Conservation Corps is legislatively mandated to respond to natural or manmade disasters in California. Corpsmembers have assisted with a variety of emergencies, including fires, floods, oil spills, earthquakes, and agricultural emergencies.”
The things the CCC does has never changed. They still do it today. What has changed is the level of funding. In 1991 Pete Wilson cut funding for the CCC by 70%. That funding has never recovered.
California has seen unprecedented drought in recent years. No one can dispute that fact.
“Parts of the Sierra Nevada and Northern California are experiencing the worst drought on record, said John Abatzoglou, a UC Merced climate researcher.
Last winter was California’s third driest since 1895, and the past 90 days have been the hottest in at least 125 years. The two conditions are related.”
ocregister.com/2021/09/27/unprecedented-drought-he…
I found more than 400 scientific papers and more articles than I could post here in a month that all say the same thing.
California’s population is going UP, not down.
California was #5 in wage disparity in 2019, the last year we have complete data for, right behind Louisiana and Mississippi.
statista.com/statistics/227249/greatest-gap-betwee…
Anything else you would like to be shown you are wrong about?
I was a Wildland Firefighter on a hotshot crew for years before moving over to the structure fire side. I am also a former California resident….Samuel is 100% correct.
Why Are you shouting ? WE get it you don’t like Trump. Sheesh.I bet you love that new DA in Frisco.
Whoops. Something wrong with my caps lock lol!
Don’t take it personally!
I don’t even know who is the DA in Frisco, Texas ;o;!
I figure having them review a 3,500 page report buys the city another 24 to 30 months!!
Did you read the article? They will vote on it January 19th.
It’s California
Nobody in Las Vegas has even “hinted” at paying for a stadium.
So there!
Yeah, It’s going to be interesting if and when it comes to financing a new ballpark. in Vegas. They raised the bed tax and some other finagling went on to getthe Raiders Stadium built.
Yes, they did. Sisolak said that there would be no increases in TOT (taxes on hotel rooms), but that there were other ways to finance the $750 million of public money that it would take to build a $1 billion retractable roof stadium bring the A’s to Las Vegas. He also said that depending on the area where real estate was able to be acquired, that an additional $70-110 million in infrastructure costs would be publicly financed.
They like to hide the details, keep it quiet, sell the sizzle and no the steak details of how much the public will be paying in taxes for those new stadiums.
The A’s are not going to wait another 8 years to play in that dump. By that time those concrete termites will have turn that stadium into dust. This is a prime example why NOTHING in California gets done or fixed.
Bureaucratic red tape slows everything to a crawl. California has wild fires because the forest is poorly maintained. California has severe droughts because they never developed a system to store rain water. It all gets pushed out into the ocean.
The Angels stadium development has been slowed down because Governor Newsom requires a certain % of the housing development requires low income housing.
so, how long did padres moving took? rams?
I believe when the Rams moved from L.A. to Anaheim, I’m sure they had to do a Environmental Impact Report back in in 1978 when they first announced the move. Also when they moved from St. Louis they had to have the same environmental impact report the A’s are required to have..
Rams to Anaheim announced 1978. First game 1980
Padres from Mission Valley to Downtown, I don’t know.
He is just throwing out complete BS with zero basis in facts.
49ers New stadium in Santa Clara County was built quickly.
Warriors new stadium in SF was built relatively quickly.
Rams/Chargers new stadium in LA/Inglewood was built quickly.
Padres new stadium in downtown San Diego was built relatively quickly.
The Oakland A’s situation has been a stall tactic for decades by the Obstructionist Giants and MLB Commissioner’s Office.
The Commissioner of MLB and the Owners could
end the Oakland A’s Stadium dilemma tomorrow if they wanted to by Voting to Allow the A’s to move to Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley
(1 hour south in or near San Jose) tomorrow.
It is all BS and stall tactics to move the A’s out and give the SF Giants a monopoly on the SF Bay Area market.
The last Commissioner Bud Selig was WEAK AND WIMPY ON THIS ISSUE.
The New Commissioner has not shown any leadership on this issue at all
(another weakling).
Congress should just revoke MLB’s Anti trust exemption
and let the A’s move their business to San Jose if they wish to do so. It is anti free enterprise to block the A’s from moving to Silicon Valley/Santa Clara County/San Jose.
The Oakland project/proposal is just “window dressing” to set up the A’s to reject it as undoable or that it will take too long and open the door to a move to las Vegas. It is nothing but a shell game. The financing deal puts the City of Oakland and Alameda County in a precarious financial situation when that is not necessary in one of the richest areas of the country.
The league will say, “we tried, it was not workable in Oakland” blah, blah, blah.
I CALL BS ON THIS BAD FAITH EFFORT BY MLB….
Petco park took 8 years to jump through all the legal hoops. Kroenke’s stadium in Inglewood took 3 years to build after 6 years of securing a site. The 49ers stadium is in Santa Clara because it was impossible to secure a site in SF. Took them over a decade to begin construction.
What is bad faith by MLB is that they know they won’t move the A’s out of the 6th largest TV market into the 40th largest TV market. Too much money at stake. MLB has been lying about every single thing having to do with Las Vegas.
Sportsfanoooo
They were referring to the time it took from conception to a actual shovel going into the ground.
Not from the time construction started and was completed.
Here in California it takes a helluva long time to get ANYTHING done.
Because of all the red tape.
Case in point. Back 94 when we had the Northridge Quake.
The 10 freeway overpass at La Cienega in West LA collapse.
Because the over pass was re constructed by a private company,
it took them 3 months to complete the project.
Had Caltrans been in charge of the project, It would of took them 3 years to
do the same job.
The private company was paid $200K for every day it was completed ahead schedule.
FAKE NEWS, FAKE FACTS FROM THE PANTS ON FIRE LIARS RIGHT WING MEDIA.
FinkleSteinSh*tkid3 hours ago
Contrary to your fake facts and biases against California,
California “gets things done” and is the trendsetter for the entire country.
SOFI Football Stadium in Inglewood Section of Los Angeles was: built in record time, is a cutting edge state of the art Football facility, entertainment district, housing etc..that is shared by the LA Rams and the LA Chargers.
Levis Stadium in Santa Clara County Silicon Valley New home of the SF 49ers
is a state of the art NFL football stadium built relatively quickly. It could have supported 2 NFL teams, but the Raiders may have negotiated in “bad faith” and intended to move to Las Vegas all along.
Golden State Warriors new home Chase Center in San Francisco is state of the art and was build rapidly in San Francisco.
Petco Park the Padres New Home in San Diego is State of the Art and was built relatively quickly in San Diego.
SOFI (Rams/Chargers) and Chase Center (Warriors) were built with team financed private funds. Levis Stadium(49ers) and Petco Park (Padres) had some shared public/private financing.
So educate your self before you bash the 40 million Californians and the 5th largest and richest economy in the World(California) WHEN COMPARED TO COUNTRIES.
Sportsfan0000- I’ve lived in SoCal all my life. One thing I know buddy is California draaaags things out.And it’s all about$$$ With their EIR’s and such.
Tell the thousands of homeless people in California how CA get’s things done. California is taxing it citizens to death will little in return.
That’s why they’re leaving in records numbers.
Pretty soon they want to start taxing us for driving during certain times of the day on the freeways. If that’s what you call trendsetting for the Country, then were all in trouble.
@dinkle The population of California is going UP. worldpopulationreview.com/
The economy is one of the fastest growing in the country in 2021.
“Since the turn of the millennium (2001), California GDP expanded by nearly 60%, going from nearly $1.71 trillion in 2000, to an annual average of $2.72 trillion in 2020.”
Care to try again?
Population is going up, but it’s not due to people from other states moving to california.
FinkleSteinSh*tkid You don’t get out much do you!? There are homeless people in every city and state in the country and in most foreign countries.
Homelessness is a nationwide and world wide problem. CA has 40M people and is the most populous State in the USA. CA will continue to grow. Those leaving are the under educated and under skilled. Highly skilled people, college graduates, successful people continue to pour into California from all over the World…..California had 17M in the 1970’s-1980’s . California attracts talented people from every other State and from countries around the World. CA is expensive like most “in demand” places to live (Hawaii, New York ,Washington State, Oregon)…….That is the product of free market capitalism and supply and demand. People want to live on the Coasts, in better climates, in beautiful areas with a lot to do etc…
The homeless problem began in earnest with failed Republican policies such as Reagan’s deinstitutionalizing the mentally ill and not providing funds and alternative programs to house those populations. Google it. And the Republican economic policies that hollowed out the Middle Class……Educate yourself. And, don’t let your biases spill out into a baseball forum. We come here to get a break from those discussions..
CA has a GDP of 3.2 Trillion which is the 5th largest and richest economy in the World when compared to other countries (just behind Germany).
Then why don’t you give us a break?
Their are other states paying homeless people to leave there state and go to California.
California a “Sanctuary State”. Welcomes illegals and anyone else who wants to come here and CA will give you the right to vote, A drivers license.
And anything you want for FREE!!
The Taxpayers?? Screw them.
Complete nonsense with no basis in facts..
If you don’t like CA, then move.
Alabama or Mississippi seem to more suitable to your tastes and comments.
Based on the link you provided, while you are correct that the “population of CALifornia is going up”, it’s only less than 1%. The undocumented illegals bumps this number unofficially.
Btw. Texas and Florida shows on the same report that it is growing > 3%
If by “trend setting” you mean falling into the ocean, catching on fire, and people leaving the state faster than rats on a sinking ship, then fine. Cali is for the weirdos. Ridiculous taxes for a state trying to welcome anyone and everyone, whether they belong there or not. And yes, you know what I mean.
ruthplayedthetuba5 I am glad that someone of your low skills and low education levels won’t be moving to California. You would not make it there. Your facts are challenged to be sure…”Cali” is in Columbia in Central/South America.
California is in the United States, West Coast
What’s record time? It took 4 years to build SoFi. It was delayed 1 year because of rain water filled uo the hole that dug into the ground. Originally the Super Bowl was to be played there this year. 2021 But because of the delay they switched it 2022. Tampa Bay had the Super Bowl this year.
NFl rules stipulated the stadium must be open 2 full years before a Super Bowl can be played there.
That may have been the dumbest post I have ever seen @dinkle.
So you complain about the housing shortage in CA(a nationwide problem by the way) BUT, Then you criticize the Governor of CA for allocating billions to build lower cost housing for that people can afford to live in CA for those in those lower brackets?!
You are just a series of contradictions, unfounded complaints etc..
“3,500-page” report says it all.
It says that they do their homework and do “smart building” unlike some other States and Cities that build in flood plains, on earthquake faults, on toxic waste dumps, by oil refineries with unbreathable air etc…It does not take as long as you would think to crank out a report when communities, cities, states, private and public groups have compiled much of the data already for City, County, State planning purposes etc…Just click a few buttons on your computer, test the specific site, adjust the formulas, parameters, data etc to be site specific, send out inspectors to do some site and nearby site testing, incorporate that data and print or PDF etc…..They are not reinventing the wheel for every project in those specific areas etc…
The INDEX of the Yankee Stadium Project Environmental Impact Study was 41 pages and the actual report was 3800 pages. 3500 pages for a project with that many aspects to it is not particularly long.
Just move to Vegas already
What’s the point of releasing a 3,500 page report? No one’s going to read that.
You do that sort of stuff for the sole reason of saying you did something.
Props to the guy that read it
“Here. Read ‘War and Peace,’ three times…”
“Here. Read ‘War and Peace,’ three times…”
Or it’s original title, “War, What Is It Good For?”
Is there a 2500-page Cliff Notes version available?!
Maybe here in CA. A Tagger can spray paint it on the freeway ound walls. It will give us something to read while we’re stuck in traffic. He will have plenty of sound walls to work with.
There is less traffic in Wyoming and North Dakota…
Why not move there?!
There might be a rare butterfly or lizard that becomes extinct if they build the stadium. They have to make sure everything can co exist in crazy California.
It was mentioned that the report includes concern about bird nests being disturbed during fireworks shows lol
Yet, I’ll bet they have a feral cat program to spay/neuter and immunize the strays. No concern with their impact on the songbird population.
Hundreds of people will read it. They are the ones that count.
The people enforcing the laws in CA and making sure people and companies build things “up to code” and up to earthquake building standards etc will be inspecting at every stage of construction and making sure there is no slip shod building, no cutting corners like in Florida where apartment complexes are collapsing and killing people.
Sad story… teams move, I get it but every time a team moves, they lose a generation of fans. They lose the city. Sorry, A’s fans in Oakland
I’m wondering if the 3500 page book has any pictures in it.
only a few but they pop up….. win win for all parties
Lots and lots and lots. Photos and graphics and charts.
They are making progress. Howard Terminal is a win for everybody.
If it ever happens it will be like the issues the Padres faced, one law suit after another. Just because it’s California and they can
They can do it anywhere. Look at all the lawsuits when they were trying to get the ballpark built in Phoenix/Maricopa County.
The A’s WILL get a new ballpark….in Las Vegas.
A’s left Philadelphia, Kansas City and on day will leave Oakland.
Teams used to supplement their ticket revenues with concessions. Now days you have to build half a city to support the team’s player payroll by controlling the rental market in the square mile surrounding the stadium.
Not in this century. Or the last 2 generations in the previous century. 2/3 of every team’s revenue is from TV. ALL payroll, player and non-player, is paid for by TV.
Move them to trumplandia
you meant in a fed pen?
It’d be cool to see a baseball team in vegas. Other than the 51s(I’ll never call them the aviators) such a terrible name.
The A’s didn’t put an offer on a property in Las Vegas. They made an offer on an OPTION to purchase a property at a later date. No real estate transaction has been recorded.
From what I have been hearing in Las Vegas is that they will be given the Stadium land….I think it would be great to for the A’s to move to Vegas! The organization and the players will benefit from no taxes for income and property taxes are non existent in comparison to California.
if the rich or the highly compensated don’t pay enough taxes, how are the feds able to build roads and provide temp housing for tornado victims and hurricane victims without california and new york? or even texas which pays 3rd most fed taxes?
There’s about 2 dozen sites they’ve looked at.
So many of the comments here are full of lies and misconceptions, or else downright hatred of ALL THINGS CALIFORNIA.
Please let me clarify things for some here who seem to need it. At any time, a major earthquake or wildfire can happen almost anywhere in California. Tens of thousands of people have died in this state due to these disasters since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Environmental reports help ensure that builders and developers follow rules and regulations that are likely not needed anywhere else except Oregon, Washington State, and possibly Alaska.
Gasoline costs more here because back in the 1960s, the skies used to be orange instead of blue. The smog was that bad most every day, and the lifespan of most living things, including humans, was being affected. The gasoline sold in California is much cleaner than the gasoline being sold in your state. Yet, the oil companies produce it. Why? Because it sells and the companies handsomely profit from it.
Almost every single freaking article here on any free agent possibly signing with any California team ALWAYS includes comments about the high taxes in California. It’s like a drinking game already! Do you know why they are so high? Because California pays more money in taxes to Washington, DC. than any other state. Because there is more business and commerce here than where you live. This, despite Texas trying to steal any company it possibly can from California.
These tax dollars from California help support all of those states which do not charge its citizens state taxes. If your state takes money from Washington, DC for anything, many, if not most, of those dollars can be traced back as having come from California. Talk about large market teams subsidizing small market teams!
The SF Giants almost moved twice, once to Toronto in the 1970s, once to Tampa Bay in the early 1990s. When the Giants did not move, the Blue Jays and Devil Rays were created to fill those vaccums. Both times the Giants nearly moved, the Dodgers and A’s stepped in to prevent this from happening. The A’s now look foolish for providing this help. The Dodgers stepped in to keep their rival in California. The A’s, back when it had an owner who cared about his team and MLB, TEMPORARILY ceded the San Jose area to the Giants. This was necessary for the Giants to get loans from the original Bank of America–not the vile NationsBank version of today–to be able to help build their new stadium, now known as Oracle Park.
The Giants had promised to once again share San Jose with the A’s once their stadium was complete. I guess the Giants meant after they had built the stadium and then did as much development around the new stadium as possible. I don’t know. Someone please ask the Giants. If the A’s co-owned San Jose as they once did, they would have been the San Jose A’s by now, with a new stadium completed several years ago.
Teams move here, and players want to be here. Get over it.
Oakland loses teams due to politics. San Diego loses teams to L.A. because the taxpayers there are fed up with supporting rich owners with their taxes. The Chargers belong in San Diego, but Spanos refused to do the right thing and build a new stadium in the Jack Murphy/Qualcom parking lot. The Clippers are here because the owner. Donald T. Sterling, got tired of driving from L.A. to San Diego to watch his team play. His friends refused to do it more than once or twice a season. Sterling felt he couldn’t live like this.
The Chargers piggied-back on the Rams, the Clippers wedged themselves into Staples Center with the Lakers and Kings. With a wealthy owner, the Clippers are now building their own place in Inglewood, down the street from SoFi Stadium. The Clippers owner from Seattle, a place in need of an NBA team, simply refuses to move the Clippers there. Does he hate the SuperSonics name? Are the taxes even higher in Washington State? The answer is no to both questions.
For those who claim to live here, and hate it, just leave already. Join your relatives and friends who have left, and who you now obviously envy. The sooner the better for the rest of us here.
I have been commenting less and less on this site because the politics are creeping in more and more. I come here for a break from my work and the daily news. I would think that I am not alone.
@alanaofla: while I agree with many of the things you wrote-especially the part of politics, I do not agree with income tax segment.
Nevertheless, I have lived in California for over 45+ years. It pains me to tell that the state is deteriorating fast. California is a state of over-everything: overpriced homes, overtaxed base, overpopulation, over abundance of lawyers and litigation, over promised social services and pensions, overflow of homeless, overcrowded homeless shelters and prisons, overstayed immigrants, over opinionated entertainers and celebrities, overpaid politicians and non-essential government workers,…. the list goes on.
The only thing that is “under” is the the pensions which is funded at 60% and decreasing.
But hey it’s still a beautiful state and beautiful weather. (Just not worth the price of admission)
Move them to Sacramento.
Alanofla
Was this part of the 3,500 page report? lol
I lived in California for 15 years. it’s just things that people do. Finding affordable housing, good paying jobs and good schools in other areas of the US isn’t hating California at all. People are finding jobs that pay almost the same, housing that’s more affordable in other places and shoving the kids in private schools. I don’t see anything wrong with anyone doing that.
Anyway back to Oakland. My guess is that they move if they can get a stadium built elsewhere faster. They won’t wait a decade and stay at the park they currently play in.
Las Vegas Athletics….Sucks to be an Oakland fan.Warriors,Raiders, & now the A’s.All World Champions,just a shame!
The truth is that the city of Oakland strives to stay broke and in poverty while being located in a highly profitable area. Many cities in California have this problem. They have more interest in keeping people government dependant than job creation. Mismanagement of land and resources available run rampant all over this state.