Articles from both the Contra Costa Times and the Sacramento Bee attempt to assess at midseason the effects of the third deck closure. In both pieces, A’s President Michael Crowley explains that the decrease in average attendance is what was expected, as long as the customer experience was enhanced – which according to them, it [...]

Update:I’ve had a chance to read the articles (thanks to all who have helped) so I can now give me take on them: The NUMMI article introduces a new factor that I hadn’t been aware of – the building of a hybrid car plant. If Toyota’s smart they’ll move forward with the hybrid plant, despite [...]

I just got a look at HNTB’s concept for the new 49ers stadium: How uninspiring. It doesn’t help that the gold seats appear beige in the picture. Gone are the sweeping lines of the HOK design. So is the Mills mall, and with it, probably the $100 million that was promised for the project by [...]

In case you missed it in the past couple of days (I did while I was flying back to Australia – again), MLB sewed up its national broadcasting rights for the next seven years by inking deals with Fox and TBS. The actual money being doled out to MLB by the networks is actually going [...]

In a move that foretells the A’s acquisition of Earthquakes v. 3.0, the team’s sales and marketing veep, David Alioto, has accepted the newly created position of Executive VP of Earthquakes Soccer, LLC. According to the press release, Alioto “will oversee business operations, sponsorship opportunities, develop sponsorship opportunities and assist in venue development surrounding A’s [...]

I promised this a couple weeks ago, so here it is:According to city records the combined parcels that make up the BART lot make up some 8-9 acres, 10-11 acres including some the extra streets that run through the lot. The neighborhood northeast of the ballpark has no real buffer separating it from the lot [...]

The Merc’s newest edition of their “Bay Area’s Most Powerful Sports Figures” is due, and columnist Mark Purdy has placed Lew Wolff at the very top. That’s not surprising. Wolff currently controls the fates of two sports franchises – the A’s and the future Quakes – and his deals may indirectly affect revenues for all [...]