Billy Beane should have never written that land agreement.

Can I just say I love Cisco's new logo? Outstanding.

We must repeat

Building a baseball stadium at this particular location is asinine

Something's Shady going down...

it's Oakland: C'mon, havne't you seen Romeo must Die?

I think this location will work fine. Yes, there is terrible traffic in that area. However, there is terrible traffic all over the Bay Area. If it's a nice place and the A's put a good product on the field, people will come.

What strikes me as a bad idea is to build such a small ballpark -- they are talking about having as few as 30,000 seats (no more than 35,000). I can understand wanting to attract 30,000 people on a regular basis. However, when the Yankees or Red Sox or Giants are playing, the demand will be enough to sell 50-60,000 seats. I think MLB should step in and require a minimum of 40,000 seats, so that some of the excess demand can be satisfied. It's not as if the people who cannot get in when Boston is in town will instead buy tickets to see the Royals.

I realize, of course, that Wolff and his partners disagree with me, here. They must have studied this and decided that the construction and operating costs for another 5-10,000 seats won't pay for themselves over time. It's their money after all. But, without having seen any studies, my instinct is to think that 40,000 is a far more sensible number than 30,000. Why is it, for example, that every other new park built or renovated* or proposed** in the last 10 years has at least 40,000 seats, save Pittsburgh, which is close?

Angel Stadium (1998) 45,050
AT&T* (2004) 41,503
Busch III (2006) 46,861
Comerica* (2005) 40,950
Chase (1998) 48,569
Citizens Bank (2004) 43,000
Miller (2001) 43,000
Minute Maid (2000) 40,950
Petco (2004) 46,000
PNC (2001) 38,365
Safeco (1999) 46,621
Turner (1997) 49,831
US Cellular* (2005) 40,615

Mets** 45,000
Twins** 40,000
Nationals** 41,000
Red Sox** 44,130
Yankees** 51,800

What's amazing is how the owners can pass off artificial "demand" as some kind of nostalgic intimacy.

what gets me about this is that the a's just seem to be giving up on san francisco. not everybody goes to the giants games. when i went to oakland games i took bart from s.f. with a LOT of other a's fans, and there's a stop right at the coliseum. so basically anybody in s.f. who wanted to go to an A's game could drive/walk to a bart stop. bart goes to fremont, but no way you can walk to the new facility from the fremont stop. all this to break into the san jose market? feh.

I've said it before, but I'll repeat it again here: Wolff is betting that he can capitalize on the as-yet-untapped south bay market, thereby offsetting the lost fans from further north, while at the same artificially capping attendance. If the new market is so valuable, then it cuts against his economic argument for limiting stadium capacity, meaning that he's either (1) wrong on the merits, or (2) not being fully forthcoming.

so basically anybody in s.f. who wanted to go to an A's game could drive/walk to a bart stop.

Hello!

They're betting an awful lot on the San Jose market, and I'm not sure it will pay off. Most people in San Jose at this point are third generation Giants fans and if the Giants are reasonably competent most people's loyalties will stay with them. The park is so small they can't even really do the "bring out the family angle" either.

what gets me about this is that the a's just seem to be giving up on san francisco. not everybody goes to the giants games. when i went to oakland games i took bart from s.f. with a LOT of other a's fans, and there's a stop right at the coliseum. so basically anybody in s.f. who wanted to go to an A's game could drive/walk to a bart stop. bart goes to fremont, but no way you can walk to the new facility from the fremont stop. all this to break into the san jose market? feh.

Santa Clara County is nearing 2 million in population, and it's one of the richest counties in the country. It's also full of tech, venture capital, and law firms--and it seems the A's are very much trying to cater to them with their high-tech plans for the park. Add that to southern San Mateo County and Alameda County, and it may be the next best option to San Jose.

This is just a real estate deal for the A's. They're getting commercial property rezoned for residential, they'll build a bunch of condos, and then the A's ownership will sell. They don't give a damn about the longterm health of the team. The stadium is just the toy thrown in with a box of cereal to get people to buy the condos. So the stadium has to be small in order to keep costs down since the stadium isn't where they plan to make a profit. Why would MLB let an owner devalue a franchise like this? Ask Lew Wolff's good pal and college roommate, Bud Selig. I hope it all works out, but honestly, the deal smells rotten to me.

Shooty speaks the truth. It's an utter scam.

This is just a real estate deal for the A's. They're getting commercial property rezoned for residential, they'll build a bunch of condos, and then the A's ownership will sell. They don't give a damn about the longterm health of the team. The stadium is just the toy thrown in with a box of cereal to get people to buy the condos. So the stadium has to be small in order to keep costs down since the stadium isn't where they plan to make a profit. Why would MLB let an owner devalue a franchise like this? Ask Lew Wolff's good pal and college roommate, Bud Selig. I hope it all works out, but honestly, the deal smells rotten to me.

I tend to think this is also the case, but how does it devalue the franchise? I can't imagine the A's can be worth much less than they already are now, and if Wolff has his way, and his whole stadium village/residential area thing goes as planned, even if he sells, the team ought to be in a pretty comfortable position, with a new stadium and an attractive surrounding area. Or am I missing something?

Ask Lew Wolff's good pal and college roommate, Bud Selig.

Small nitpick... Wolff and Selig weren't roommates at Wisconsin - they were in the same frat.

Selig's roomate was Bucks owner and Wisconsin-Senator-for-life Herb Kohl (D), of Kohl's Department Stores and grocery stores...

hey flynn, how's it goin? are you bay area primates doing a get together this year? i don't know if you remember me from our get together last year, but i took the job offer in los angeles, so now i'm a socal guy, but might make it up north later this year.

Selig's roomate was Bucks owner and Wisconsin-Senator-for-life Herb Kohl (D), of Kohl's Department Stores and grocery stores...

AKA "The Dairy Queen" - which, btw, is probably the most awesome nickname for a gay senator from Wisconsin as possible. <3 Herb Kohl.

Kohl's very, very rich.... he's the second wealthiest senator, behind Kerry, IIRC.

What strikes me as a bad idea is to build such a small ballpark -- they are talking about having as few as 30,000 seats (no more than 35,000). I can understand wanting to attract 30,000 people on a regular basis. However, when the Yankees or Red Sox or Giants are playing, the demand will be enough to sell 50-60,000 seats. I think MLB should step in and require a minimum of 40,000 seats, so that some of the excess demand can be satisfied. It's not as if the people who cannot get in when Boston is in town will instead buy tickets to see the Royals.

Baseball has to find a way to change its culture or marketing so that a few teams don't command a disproportionate share of interest; it seems to have become a far worse problem over the past 10 to 15 years. Otherwise, it's going to reach the point where networks won't sign long-term contracts unless there's European soccer-style realignment so they can set up a "super division" comprised exclusively of the high-profile franchises (Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers and a few others) that are guaranteed draws, so that they won't have to bother televising teams they have no interest in.

SF Chronicle: Oakland A's sign Fremont land deal

"We're very excited about it," Wolff said from his office in Los Angeles. "This is one of our good days."

Wolff did not disclose the price for the land in an industrial area off Auto Mall Parkway, all of which is owned by ProLogis, an industrial real estate firm.

About 25 acres of the land are controlled by ProLogis directly. The other 143 acres are controlled by Cisco Systems Inc., which has a long-standing option to buy the land.
...
[Fremont] city officials have had little to study, because the team has not made a formal application. Wolff said he would not make such an application until after he had a deal for the land.

"What that does really is start a process," Wolff said today. "It enables us to move forward."

Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman, who loves the idea of the A's coming to town, welcomed today's news.

"It's a giant step," Wasserman said. "Now the ball is going to be in our court. We will have extensive studies to do. We're going to have decisions to make. I'm hopeful that the economics are there, that everything is there, and we end up with a marvelous project."

This "urban village" thing sure sounds silly.


Where am I?

In the Urban Village.

What do you want?

Sabremetric Information.

Whose side are you on?

That would be Selig. We want On-Base Percentage. Slugging Average. Strikeout-to-walk ratio.

You won't get it.

By Bay Area socialistic practices, we will.

Who are you?

The same old Number Two team in town.

Who is Number One?

You are the Number Six starter.

I am not a Earned Run Average - I am a free agent!

See that large white balloon with the forest green "A's" on it?

Baseball has to find a way to change its culture or marketing so that a few teams don't command a disproportionate share of interest; it seems to have become a far worse problem over the past 10 to 15 years.

I'm not sure that there's anything that baseball can do to address this. It's largely an outgrowth of the fact that the last couple of decades has seen a huge internal population migration from the northeast (Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox fans) to other places in the country, especially California and the Sun Belt. And the trend doesn't seem to be showing any signs of abating in the near future.

I am not a Earned Run Average - I am a free agent!


Very nice!