Mary Ann Azevedo of the SV/SJ Business Journal has the news (print version) that the San Jose Redevelopment Agency is using proceeds from the summer sale of various downtown properties to pay off lingering and pressing debts, instead of using the money to pay for ballpark land. The numbers paint an interesting picture: Sale proceeds are [...]

Time for a recap of the owners meetings. The Astros will be in the American League West starting in 2013. Next up: Figuring out the details of the scheduling format. Despite the grousing from many about the change, a few columnists have written in favor of the move, including ESPN’s Jayson Stark and Danny Knobler of [...]

We’ll be checking the Twitter and the interwebs for any and all news coming out of the owners meetings, which start today. If you see anything new, post it to the comments and we’ll add it to the post in short order. As expected, Jim Crane will be approved as the new owner of the [...]

Nothing new on the A’s front, whether it’s the Merc’s Internal Affairs folks reading something into the oft-linked column by the NY Daily News’ Bill Madden, or a throwaway, unattributable line by Gary Radnich. When IA reached out to Lew Wolff, he told them he has not gotten any approval to move the franchise to [...]

Last week I suggested that the Dodgers’ situation would take the A’s off the agenda for next week’s owners’ meetings. The closer we get to the sessions, the more I suspect that this is correct. The one thing that might have allowed the A’s to be brought up next week would’ve been an early CBA [...]

The following is purely my observations and reporting. By no means am I a legal expert of any kind. Proceedings today were short and sweet, so that and the court’s ban on electronic devices made it impossible for me to liveblog. Not to worry for those interested in the redevelopment saga, as I took fairly [...]

Tomorrow morning I’ll be in SF to check out oral arguments for the State vs. Redevelopment case. If I can liveblog it, I will. The regular media (SFGate, Merc, MLB.com, KGO) covered yesterday’s proceedings fairly well, though I’m surprised there wasn’t a bigger mention of the discussion about the referendum requirement. No matter, the San [...]

Turnout is better than most Council sessions, but that’s not saying much. I expect at least a dozen speakers. The livestream can be found here. 2:00 PM – Mayor Chuck Reed is giving his best sales pitch in his plain-spoken, Midwestern way. Effectively, he’s saying that in exchange for the land, San Jose is getting [...]

Update 10:25 PM – Not surprisingly, the Merc’s editorial board has come out in favor of the land deal. Procedurally, the approval of the land deal to complete the Diridon ballpark site should be a slam dunk, considering the SJDDA (which approved it in the first place) and the City Council are effectively one and the [...]

After another 8-hour marathon negotiating session, the NBA and NBPA again found themselves without any kind of agreement for a new CBA. This time, Commissioner David Stern also threw down the gauntlet, leaving the owners’ newest offer on the table for the players to stew over until the close of business Wednesday. If the players [...]