In the previous installment, I made an argument for why realignment and expansion should be done by the 2015 season. In the end it all comes down to balance. That means balance for both leagues, for all divisions, and also for scheduling reasons as well. It would stand to reason that having even numbers of [...]

Last November I posted my thoughts on the future and legacy of Bud Selig. Selig’s staying on as commish through 2009. His tenure will have been marked by controversy and polarization. Like him or not, no one will be able to say that nothing happened under Selig. Towards the end of that post I segued [...]

After the big city council session last month, I had mentioned in a comment that we were entering a silent period. Now that we’re a week away from September, everything’s starting to crank up again. The first event of note is a luncheon being held by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce on September 10 at [...]

It’s been six months since the last progress report. This is a snapshot of where four teams are as of today.Nothing’s changed here on the progress bars since February. The development app hasn’t been submitted yet, and recent presentations have been good on the conceptual level but have been short on details. The unique funding [...]

The title of this post comes from a sign in Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center, home of both the 76ers and Flyers. Might as well hang it from every venue in the Bay Area, since it’s just as valid a description here as it is back east.Comcast quietly took majority control of FSN Bay Area at the [...]

East Bay Express writers Robert Gammon and John Birdsall have put together a nice exposé on the not-so-goings-on at Jack London Square. Gammon, as you may recall, co-wrote a well-constructed recent history of the A’s in Oakland and their southerly overtures. Developers Jim Falaschi and Hal Ellis Jr. bought the property for a song in [...]

A Fortune article shows that the $1.2 billion new Yankee Stadium could bring in a whopping $253 million per year in revenue to the pinstripers. Think about that. $253 million. They’re not even selling stadium naming rights or seat licenses. That’s enough to fit the Yankees’ current payroll including Roger Clemens plus the inevitable $25 [...]

Remember this?It’s from the original animation pack the A’s released in November. I guessed (correctly) that the comparison showed Cisco Field (yellow/red) against AT&T Park (gray). To me, this has always been the most impressive part of the presentation. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to visualize the advantage, and for two decades now fans in other [...]

Note: I had planned to post this last weekend in honor of the awakening of Nick Swisher’s then-slumbering bat. While the A’s were in Anaheim last week, Lew Wolff spent an inning in the TV booth with broadcasters Glen Kuiper and Ray Fosse. The exercise was a effectively a shameless, 15-minute plug for Cisco Field, [...]

MLB Advanced Media won’t do everything after all. Or at least it seems that way after MLBAM and ticket reseller StubHub partnered up on a 5-year revenue sharing agreement. StubHub, a subsidiary of eBay, is already the big player in this market with a handful of upstarts and megaseller Ticketmaster nipping at its heels. The [...]