As if Major League Baseball were to give the green light, then the A's would be off and running to Silicon Valley, pronto.
Not so fast, says Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
Full disclosure: I am an avid fan of the A's. I grew up in Oakland. I began my obsession with the "Swingin' A's" in the early 70's when "Captain Sal Bando", "Campy" Campaneris, and Reggie Jackson were a part of the great teams of the 70's that won three straight World Series.
Do the A's belong in San Jose? Yeah, I suppose if you're Lew Wolff, the team's front man and a real estate guy from the Southbay who's been trying to relocate the franchise since he bought it in 2005. His contention that he gave Oakland a chance is utter bullshit. Wolff is a liar. He's had San Jose on his itinerary since day one. His "I-tried-to-get-it-done-in-Oakland" spiel is bullshit too, and oh, by the way, he and the A's made money, (millions, in fact), several years in a row, thanks to the luxury tax, but that's another story.
This is a ballgame I hope the Giants win big time. Territorial rights, luxury taxes, whatever, the A's will always be the "Oakland" A's.
The A's belong in Oakland but look at it's leaders. They can't even deal with the Occupy movement. I can understand why Lew Wolff probably wants to take his business elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe A's just collected a 40 million dollar check from MLB welfare office. Beane and Wolff and the Fisher family had no problems getting in line after exiting their respective Bentley. No doubt after a decade..its not chump change even to the super wealthy.
ReplyDeleteALL A's fans know the "New Stadium" issue is a phony baloney crutch story for losing and making lots of money the A's group has concocted. The Big Lie..how ironic,the A's don't even promise to spend for a winner if they GOT the new stadium. It would be the rich getting richer at no cost to themselves..A problem that has brought this country to its knee's on the edge of collapse.
I agree with you Rich but baseball is such big money nowadays and what corporations are in Oakland? Clorox is huge but they don't seem to want to be part of this equation
ReplyDelete1:05 PM Hit the nail on the head...put a mediocre to average product on the field and collect the cash one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteSan Jose is a boring, yuppie infested cultural waste land. Sprawling plain suburbs, bleh. The OAKLAND A's have a great winning tradition that has been hijacked by Wolff and billionaire Fischer.
ReplyDeleteI'm no big A's fan, though I do follow them in the news and like to see them win.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'd like to see the A's move to San Jose because, if it ever actually happens, it should further point out what an incredible wanker Bud Selig is, by virtue of the fact that it's taken about 3 years (and counting) for him and his "blue chip committee" to get off their useless behinds and do something. Anything.
In truth, I suspect there really is no "blue chip committee" and it's all just Bud being a shiftless git, dragging out the issue as long as possible in hopes that it'll somehow just go away, so he can yet again avoid actually doing anything and duck as much responsibility as possible.
Oakland sucks in general. Depressing to go there even via lightrail. It's downtrodden. Bring them to San Jose where it's fresh and good.
ReplyDeleteTom
We don't need or want the A's in the south bay, where the majority of fans have always rooted for the Giants.
ReplyDeletePlus, moving the A's to San Jose would almost certainly doom the San Jose Giants, which is one of the last great sporting bargains in the bay area, as well as being a really fun experience.
I'm all in favor of the A's moving - to Sacramento or Las Vegas. Nobody around here wants them. A few years ago, a televised Giants rain delay still had more viewers than an A's game going on at the same time.
Oakland. San Jose. I don't care as long as they're near BART or Caltrain. If they would have moved to their proposed site in Fremont, I never would have gone to a game.
ReplyDeleteSan Jose may or may not be a boring, yuppie infested waste land but it has Money. Silicon Valley money! It is still a city that is expanding, growing, defining its self and still has the room to build a stadium. In short, a city for the future. It is no cultural waste land either with a huge hispanic community. And that yuppie computer money sure hasn't hurt the Giants attendance over the years.
ReplyDeleteAnd Oakland? The only money being invested in Oakland is for more police to combat the Occupy Movement. Right or wrong, that is the perception people are getting lately.
But Oakland has worked before. That place was rockin' back in the late 80s and early 90s. But the problem is the current owners do NOT want to compete and prefer to benefit by being one of the baseball welfare recipients.
And Rich, somewhere back east, there is an old fart baseball fan in Philly saying, "The A's will ALWAYS be the Philly A's!!"
Maybe Rich can get Occupy Oakland to build a ballpark out of their own feces.
ReplyDeleteOakland sold it's soul to get the Raiders back. Now you have the worst stadium in major league baseball by all accounts, player polls, sportwriter polls, anyone with a brain polls. Oakland is a city run by total idiots, and it was that way before #3 choice Quan showed up. And you wanna rip Wolfe for avoiding this place? He's been holding his cards waiting for baseball to get off it's ass and decide about San Jose. And sniveling about Oakland losing it to the South Bay is nonsense. The South Bay is where the big companies are that will fill those luxury boxes. Ask the Niners.
ReplyDeleteWhen did Oakland get lightrail?
ReplyDeleteSupposedly the Fisher family, with their wealth / GAP resources) would be an INVESTOR in the A's (quality athletes, venue, promotion, etc.). We have seen ZERO movement.
ReplyDeleteHaven't been to A's game in years. Who wouldn't want to avoid the 'riff raff' there ... whether by BART or thugs checking out your parked car. No thanks.
San Jose is OK ... but, interest is still there for a COMMITMENT by ownership. Put a new stadium in the Dublin / Pleasanton area. Plenty of land available ... The Raiders even sent Mark Davis out there 3-4 years ago looking at possibly of stadium property.
Hey ... Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando & Rick Monday were my dorm-mates @ ASU... had to battle Al Michaels at ASU Radio / TV station!! Go A's!!
San Jose is bigger than SF. Deserves a couple of franchises. 49ers will be in Santa Clara, call them SF that's fine. Call the A's whatever, it doesn't matter. Agree with 4:04 on SJ Giants. It would be bad if A's impacted that.
ReplyDeleteTom
If Baer prevails over Selig, then Baseball & the A's have no choice but to build a ballpark near Jack London Square, no matter what is going on with the City of Oakland, the Occupy issue, the possible Mayoral recall, or the Commissioner's dissatisfaction with Wolff & the Fishers. Should be interesting how that will transition if the owners side with Baer.
ReplyDeleteThe 49er's are moving to Silicon Valley and the A's will do the same. The economic center of the Bay Area is the South Bay. San Francisco is nothing but a tourist town and there is nothing in Oakland except Wal Mart's and three professionl teams falling over themselves to get out. Read it and weep: Saratoga, Los Gatos, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, San Jose, Campbell, Santa Clara, Morgan Hill, Gilroy. Add to that Hewlett Packard, Cisco Systems, Apple, E Bay, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AMD, Intel among others and you tell me if you owned a sports team, where would you want to be? In a free market, the South Bay is the destinatiion. Sorry San Francisco and Oakland, time has passed you by.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand people like Anonymous 4:04 PM whose argument against the move is that there are much more Giants fans than A's fans currently in SJ. That is certainly true but unfortunately the A's are going after the corporate base that lies in the San Jose - not the average/everyday/"real" baseball fans. The corporate base is huge in San Jose/Silicon Valley, I don't even think MLB is stupid enough to ignore it.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is -The Fishers and Wolff and Beane have made for a crappy ownership group in Oakland and they will make for a crappy group in San Jose. That's the truth.
ReplyDeleteWe here in the city will welcome the A's with open arms!
ReplyDeleteAnd Rich-you did hear Kruegers rant on Lowell Cohn?..Hated Lowell's Harbaugh questions as irelevent. Thats from the guy who questions the IQ of Caribbean players vs the "regular" geniuses that play baseball. THATS real reasoning on Larrys mind.
ReplyDeleteThe guy must be close to the biggest phony and coward in local media..and Radnich IS sitting to his right,how ironic.
Radnich? a passive defense of Lowell....his usual way of sounding like he doesnt agree-but wink,wink,keep it up Larry. Right Gare?
Should Gary not hear what he likes on his show-it stops. But Larry went on and on. A good hour of Lowell bashing.
Gary is such a good guy.
Richie, your mindless boosterism for Oakland should have gotten you a great job with the Chamber of Commerce.
ReplyDeleteOakland, look no further than "Larry Stone," the Santa Clara County Accessor as the culprit trying to steal Your Oakland A's. He is also the MoFo who has put the make on the San Francisco 49ers.
ReplyDeleteLarry's problem is that he wants to put San Jose/Santa Clara County on the map by "Stealing" other Municipalities Civic "Home Teams." Psst...Larry, San Jose WILL NEVER BE A DESTINATION TOWN! I don't care if you're into trying to Steal the New York Yankees Larry.
As a SF Native, & advid 49er Fan, I have seen the "same" Arguements made by the South Bay natives on just why the 49ers deserve to be in the South Bay "Waste Land." Now those "same" lines are being used to steal the Oakland A's.
"San Jose is Bigger than SF/Oakland, the Fanbase ALL lives in the South Bay, SF/Oakland had there chance, SF/Oakland don't care about the 49ers/A's, all the money is in the South Bay." All this BS from a County, & City that don't even know what in the hell to call their effin Airport!....San Jose International Mineta Silicon Valley Airport.
Get a Clue Santa Clara County/San Jose...its NOT all about you! There are fans who Love the 49ers & the A's that live in Sacramento, Marin, Santa Roaa, Davis, Tracy, Livermore, Eureka, Stockton, and all point North too...And for their Money San Francisco & Oakland are "More Centrally" Located that San Jose & Santa Clara.
And peep this out South Bay residents...Don't count your Chicken b4 they are hatched! The 49ers Stadium is far, far, from a done deal, a lot of the shit you hear coming from the 49er brass in SC is nothing but Spin & Hype...SF will go down "Swinging" to "Keep" the 49ers in the City of their Birth...
One last word, the Media in the Bay Area Sucks...More of them should Stand Up against this THIEVERY by the South Bay Politicians!
Nice piece, Rich. Couldn't have said it any better myself. I grew up nearby in Alameda and have followed the A's since 1970, and would be heartbroken if they leave Oakland. These last two ownerships have been just horrible. Carpetbaggers to no end. Comon Giants, win this battle and hope the team is sold to someone who cares, like Walter Haas did.
ReplyDeleteIf you read Purdys article-the best answer is Wolff sells to those WHO WILL SPEND to keep the team in Oakland and will make money and win. Its been done by multiple Oakland A's owners up to now. But-that best case solution Wolff says he's not interested in. Back to he's in it for profit or bigger profits..winning and fans he couldnt care less about.
ReplyDeleteHow lucky can Beane get? the local media is hands off as he tells them to their faces "Kiss the best players good-bye". Beane needs more money for himself.
'S'
Hmm, The Oracle A's....Nice ring to it...
The "Great Society" destroyed Oakland. I can't see any Pro team wanting to stay and play at the Coliseum..
ReplyDeleteActually, before the economy tanked, it seemed like parts of down town Oakland were on the upswing with renovation and new business. But nothing like the growth the South Bay has seen with business.
ReplyDeleteWe're so connected in the Bay Area that does it really matter where in the Bay the team is as long as it has easy access via public transit? Having its own BART stop always made the A's nice and easy.
I would LOVE to see Larry Ellison buy the A's. Sell to another buyer and the A's will probably be moving. Keep the same owners with no movement on the SJ rights and we get more of the steady diet of underperforming for that baseball welfare check. Hell, might be better to just get the check directly from the Yankees and call the A's their farm system.
The plain and simple fact that everyone seems to ignore is that the A's aren't moving south and the Niners are probably not going to move south either (at least for awhile).
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because the economy has cratered and even with all of the 'private' money available, it's going to be very difficult if not impossible to convince a majority of the voting citizens of the south bay to approve a measure to spend some public money on building a playpen for millionaires and billionaires. Most Americans don't want to do that when nearly 20 percent of our citizens are now living close to the poverty line. And many more will argue: "How about spending public money on improving our schools and infrastructure!?"
And one other thing...remember when the Giants tried to get the good folks of the south bay to approve a ballot measure to build a stadium in the south bay not once, but twice? It failed with the voters, and that was during much better economic times.
I know Mark Purdy likes to play super-booster for his adopted city, but Mark, these are not the 1990s or early 2000s when stadium building was in vogue and the country was riding the 'bubble' of economic prosperity. So stop thinking about moving the teams and enjoy them (at least enjoy the Niners, the A's are hopeless!) where they play right now.
A lot of people say "hell no to San Jose" and "it's Oakland or bust". These people are talking with their hearts and not their heads. You can believe that Lew lied about trying in Oakland or you can face that fact that even if he did try to make it work in Oakland, it won't work. Nobody has come with a feasible site for the stadium that would be MLB approved (downtown areas). There are also pre-existing businesses who don't want to move (Victory Court). You have Oakland leadership that has much bigger issues to worry about than building a ballpark (JQ) as well as the city not showing "enough" interest in getting a project moving (EIR release). And most importantly, there are not enough corporate dollars that have showed interest in the A's in Oakland. Now you can spew about how the ownership group is one of the richest in the league & collects a revenue sharing check every year and therefore has tons of money, but these owners are businessmen. MOST businessmen are not willing to lose money year after year to put a winning team on the field. Do I wish they would spend more? Of course. I also know that they spend a certain percentage of their revenue on players (as do most teams). San Jose leadership has shown more than just interest in the A's moving to town. The ownership group is willing to spend it's own money to build in San Jose. The corporate sponsors have come out in the masses to support the A's in San Jose. A good amount of people have also shown their support for San Jose. Sure the Giants may lose some revenue from the A's moving further away from them. But this is all done for the best interest of baseball, not the Giants. I know most of the Oakland only people will never change their minds, but in the end facts can't be ignored.
ReplyDeleteYou SF and Oak guys are very bitter people. San Jose is the largest city by far in the Bay Area and Santa Clara County is the largest county by far.
ReplyDeleteLow crime, corporations, and affluent fans everywhere.
The 49ers are almost a done deal. They have sold 200M+ in luxury suites already with more left.
Stadium builder licenses go on sale in January and if luxury suites sold at such a ridiculous rate what makes you thinks SBLs won't sell when they are far cheaper? This plus the team is 9-1 and is a budding dynasty....what timing!
The 49ers get 35% of their season ticket holders from the South Bay. Why? Because SF is full of people not from SF and Candlestick is a dump. Sorry Pro-SF people, your team is long gone. Their deal is closer to being done than you think.
As for the A's, Oakland has never supported the team. Only 7 times in 44 years have the A's gone over the median in attendance. In 2001 and 2002 they were in the bottom 1/3 despite winning a ton of games.
It shows Oakland is not a viable city. Meanwhile the "cultural wasteland" of San Jose has sold out the Sharks for years, good or bad they get fans in a non-traditional hockey market.
This plus Oakland has no site and no EIR to build on.
San Jose on the other hand has a downtown site ready to go and Silicon Valley Leadership Group has pledged to buy sponsorships and luxury suites for the A's in San Jose.
Cisco has already thrown 120M in for naming rights, has any corporation in Oakland done that? I think not.
Oakland dug their grave with the Raiders years ago.
Since the citizens of San Jose are getting a "Free ballpark" the vote will pass with ease. The citizens have no issues selling the land for cheap if they build the stadium without public funds.
San Jose gets a free ballpark, Santa Clara gets the 49ers and the Raiders most likely while SF and Oakland can cry knowing they are the ones why never tried....
As a Santa Clara resident, I hope all the talk from Niners ownership about the stadium in Santa Clara *is* just talk. Santa Clara can't afford a stadium or the Niners. No city of about 100,000 people could, and it's crazy and irresponsible to try.
ReplyDeleteThe real beneficiaries of a Niners move to Santa Clara (city) are the rest of Santa Clara County. San Jose police, fire, EMTs, etc. will get their gameday overtime (Santa Clara can't afford to keep the public safety officers they had). San Jose (and elsewhere) workers will build the new stadium (if it happens), San Jose blue collar workers will staff and clean the stadium, concessions, etc. -- probably some of the same people who work the Shark Tank. You get the idea.
All this talk about local Santa Clara businesses and employment getting a boost was a whitewash, and the Santa Clara City Council bought it all, and sold the public a bill of goods.
Where are all the out-of-town game day folks & reporters going to stay? Mariani's? Seems more likely they'll be staying in SF or SJ. And maybe the Bennigan's on Great America Parkway will get more customers, but my guess is the traffic over there will be so bad it won't matter.
There is still no money to build a 49er stadium anywhere. Keep dreaming and maybe it will happen. Sillicon Valley is no longer a growing area. Business contiue to lay off and close down, and they are not coming back. The salaries of those who are employed are low. There will be more layoffs because many of the manufacturers of the stuff needed have been flooded out in Asia and will take years to recover.
ReplyDeleteComputer development is now located in Israel, India, China and the New York and Boston area. Silicon only exists because certain business owners brought their business there, and they are pretty much gone now.
The San Jose people are living in the past.
Please stop your carping about San Franciscans being jealous of the south bay. Give me a break! San Jose is a perfectly fine, upwardly mobile, mostly suburban community that is rapidly growing and would probably make a fine home for the Niners and A's, if the money is ever there to build the stadiums. (I don't see it unless it's all private money...and that may or may not happen. Not enough folks will vote on ballot measures to provide public funding in the current economy).
ReplyDeleteBut again...comparing one of the world class cities to a municipality that was no more than an average sized town a generation ago is the epitome of absurdity.
San Francisco still is the center of culture, music, and art, and has a history that stretches back well over 150 years. San Jose has only become a bigger city in the last 30 some odd years. It's like saying Lady GA Ga compares favorably with Ella Fitzgerald. Let's see Lady Ga-ga
continue to perform for another 40-40 years as Ella did, and then we can make a fair comparison!