The latest: the Merc's Tracy Seipel press-release story of a group of 75 Silicon Valley leaders endorsement and "urging the timely approval of moving the Oakland A's to San Jose."
Indeed, even Merc veteran sports writer, Mark Purdy, has written numerous pieces extolling the virtues of an A's move to San Jose. Purdy has a right to his opinion. He's a columnist and thus, his opinion and semi, pet-project advocation of the A's Southbay pursuit is within protocol.
His paper's dogged pursuit is another story.
Meanwhile, MLB and Bud Selig has given no indication of a pending ruling regarding the A's future---and let's assume San Jose gets the nod. Then what?
The Giants own territorial rights in the Southbay and have directly and indirectly threatened to protect those rights in court, (it helps when your owner is a former Microsoft lead lawyer), in addition, what about these little ditties:
-- How will San Jose secure financing, (of its portion of the project,) when its just layed off numerous police and firemen; the city, in fact, has an estimated $117 million budget deficit.
-- In the worst recession in over seven decades, how politically feasible and viable is it to sell your voters on the idea of subsidizing a billionaire's stadium project? In this climate? Good luck with that.
Maybe the Merc knows something we don't know.
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Well, for starters, San Jose has a Mayor that knows what the hell he's doing. Contrast poor pathetic Oakland's leader. San Jose's financing comes from redevelopment funds, separate bucket from funds used to pay cops et al. It's not that tricky if you weren't as partisan for Oakland as you claim the Merc is for San Jose.
ReplyDeleteSan Jose really IS a good idea.I'm positive far more people would enjoy seeing the A's in a climate where it's actually warm in summer,night games pleasant.
ReplyDeleteOakland or S.J.,is immaterial as those billionaires wait for welfare funding from either city. Wolff is just managing partner,the multibillionaire Fisher family are the ones who sit back doing nothing good,and don't get me started on them...
Wolff doesnt care about the Oakland fans, never has. He just cares about himself an making himself even richer.
ReplyDeleteOakland has a rich baseball history going back to The Oakland Oaks and it would be good to keep that going. And while there are ways to get to AT&T via public transit, having BART come right by the place like the Coliseum is one of the few things the As have better.
ReplyDeleteBut territorial rights or not, I think the Athletics in San Jose would be fantastic. There is more money in the South Bay from those tech companies to help buy those luxury boxes, the weather is a little nicer, there are still huge open chunks of land south of downtown, and is still an up and coming city with a vibrant population. The A's would thrive down there.