I’m paraphrasing here, but here’s a common refrain I’ve read lately:

Why can’t we have owners like the Haas family, who respect the tradition of the Oakland A’s and are willing to spend money?

Why not indeed? These damned money grubbing owners, all they want to do is (insert conspiracy theory here – apparently the theorists can’t even come to a consensus this), they don’t care about baseball! We need to exhume Wally Haas, reanimate him, sue MLB and the A’s to invalidate the last two ownership groups, and put the soon-to-be canonized man back where he belongs, as owner of the A’s.

Nostalgia’s great, isn’t it? We can choose to ignore certain facts that we feel are inconvenient. We can bask in the glory of the great triumphs while whistling in the dark about the more unsavory aspects.

When Rickey Henderson came back to the A’s during the ’89 season, it was a signal to fans from Haas and Sandy Alderson that the team was serious, that it was going to make its run. We all know about the great payoff for that season, but what happened the following years? As you can see from the chart below (data from the old Business of Baseball website), it was a tremendous struggle to stay competitive in the wake of baseball’s economic upheaval. Some call it charity on Haas’s part, I see it more as a very shrewd strategy. Haas saw that the Giants were struggling to get a new stadium in San Francisco, and there was a distinct opportunity for the A’s to have the Bay Area all to themselves if the Giants left for Tampa Bay, or most of the Bay Area if they moved to San Jose.

The light blue line is the leading indicator. 1990, the team’s last World Series appearance, was the last profitable season during the Haas era. From then on, the team lost a combined $30 million in 5 seasons. That’s the equivalent of an entire season’s payroll back then. Currently, the average payroll is around $90 million. Can you imagine the A’s losing $90 million during a 5-year span? Fortunately, revenue sharing is around to help the bottom line, though even with the annual revenue sharing receipt, the A’s would still lose money since their receipt would drop proportionally as their revenues rose.

It’s good to remember the on field successes and the work done to get them. Throughout my childhood, I listened to Bill and Lon on my parents’ 70’s-era Sears console stereo in the living room while I did my homework. I still remember KSFO often using Madonna’s “Borderline” as bumper music between innings. As great as these memories are, the successes did not occur in a vacuum. Incredible amounts of money were spent, from the core of the team to the annual rent-a-slugger and solid veteran 4th starter to having both legends King and Simmons in the booth. It’s not only impractical to expect that of Lew Wolff, it’s patently unfair.

Every owner does what he can with the cards he’s dealt. Wolff signed off on a $79 million payroll in 2007, only to have the team beset with injuries. Hope springs eternal this season, but already we’re seeing the injury bug decimate the pitching staff. (Side note: let’s not get too excited about Anderson or Cahill yet. For every Big Three, there’s also a Generation K – knock on wood.) If the team manages to stay competitive during the first half, it’s likely that we’ll see a big arm rental along with Matt Holliday stay through the end of the season. If not, guys will be sold off and we’ll go back solely to grooming young guys who can hopefully stay healthy. We know that Billy’s going to try to get value whenever and wherever he can. The cycle will repeat itself continually until a new stadium is built. It’s sobering, but those are the Wolff/Fisher group’s – and our – cards.

Not to be left behind, the Yorks and Santa Clara are back pumping up the 49ers stadium plan. While the basic structure of the arrangement is the same, the numbers have changed a bit. The vote was to be either binding or advisory based on the availability of a completed EIR. By pushing the referendum back to June 2010, all EIR/CEQA should be completed by then. The projected subsidy, which has been estimated at anywhere from $109 million to $180 million depending on certain options, has now been trimmed to less than $90 million. The total price tag is projected to be $900 million.

Why wouldn’t the 49ers simply foot the bill for the remaining $90 million, since it’s only 10% of the budget? True to form, Jed York says that’s the NFL’s requirement. Ever since the stadium building boom, the NFL has required some level of public investment if the league tapped into its G-3 fund. The league’s rationale is that it’s the way for a municipality to get skin in the game. Even though G-3 is gone, it will be replaced by something else and apparently, similar rules will be applied.

It’s been over 20 years since the last publicly financed, voter approved sports venue in the Bay Area. That venue was San Jose Arena. Since then, all publicly financed stadium initiatives have largely failed. Let’s recap:

• 1989: San Francisco’s Prop P (China Basin GIants ballpark) lost by 2,000 votes
• 1990: Santa Clara County Giants ballpark measure (1% utility tax) failed
• 1992: San Jose Giants ballpark measure (2% utility tax) loses in a landslide
• 1995: Oakland Coliseum renovation to bring back Raiders – done without a vote, notoriously unsuccessful
• 1996: Coliseum Arena renovation for Warriors – probably the most successful to date, high costs to operate venue make it less attractive for non-NBA events compared to HP Pavilion
• 1997: Proposition D passes in SF, providing $100 million towards a new Hunters Point stadium for the 49ers. Development was scaled back, project became stillborn
• 2001: A’s efforts to work out a publicly-financed ballpark deal in Santa Clara die due to mistrust of team among City Council members

It’s hard to fight that kind of track record, isn’t it? Regardless, the Niners will forge ahead anyway. I’d like to think that the A’s have learned from this, but I wouldn’t put it past them to put out a publicly financed ballpark deal in San Jose. If that happens, I’ll be first in line at the ballot box to vote it down. Given the state of the economy, I’d do the same if I were a Santa Clara resident come June 2010.

Note: I omitted Pac Bell Park because the public money involved went towards infrastructure, not the stadium proper.

The gloves are out. The line in the sand has been drawn. Honestly, I’m hoping for a Hamilton-Burr duel. Then again, maybe not. Andrew Baggarly reported today that the San Francisco Giants have just purchased a 25% stake in their high-A little brothers, the San Jose Giants.

The Giants will claim one of four seats on the San Jose club’s board; if they agree to purchase a controlling interest, they would occupy three of five board seats.

Industry sources pegged the value of San Jose’s franchise at $7-10 million, making the Giants’ investment worth an estimated $2-3 million.

San Jose officials are not amused with the Johnny-come-lately appearance of the mothership’s
“investment.”

Reaction from San Jose city leaders was not warm. Mayor Chuck Reed will not participate in Thursday’s event at Municipal Stadium, according to an aide.

Councilman Sam Liccardo, a big-league-ballpark booster who has been meeting with community leaders to draft a pitch for the A’s, was blunt about the Giants’ move, calling the timing “notable.”

“The only time I see pitchers from the Giants in San Jose is when they’re on a rehab assignment,” he said. “And this pitch looks like an attempt to rehabilitate a San Francisco ballclub’s image in San Jose.

“Everyone’s assumption is that this is a plea to the commissioner, and I don’t think it changes anyone’s mind in the end.”

San Jose is a bit upset because the Muni renovations, which the City and the SJ Giants have been arguing about for years, could’ve been made more complete had the mothership lended a hand.

This move is not about reinforcing the Giants’ major league territorial rights. It is about C-A-S-H. It looks like the baseball equivalent of flipping a house. Look at it this way. When a public company, like recent example Genentech, faces a takeover, the interested buyer (Roche) has to pay a premium over the prevailing market share price. In Genentech’s case, the premium was 16%.

I’ve mentioned this in passing, but I’ll say it again: Both the SF and SJ Giants would need to be compensated if the A’s moved to San Jose. Obviously the terms would be different for each team. The parent team’s $2-3 million investment could yield $1 million or more if they played their cards right, not including the costs associated with moving the team to a smaller market – say the North Bay, for instance. Should they raise their stake to the 55% controlling interest, they’d get even more.

Who’d figure out the compensation? I’m guessing the blue ribbon committee that’s sorting out the East Bay situation. Smart move, Neukom. Smart move.

In light of the news emanating from San Jose’s Redevelopment Agency yesterday, I figured it was time to do another mockup. This time, the ballpark has a ENE orientation, almost the same angle as the Coliseum.

The yellowish area to the left is the PG&E substation parcel. Its irregular shape is caused by the easement that extends north to Cahill and W San Fernando Streets. The easement is undeveloped save for a power transmission pole which connects to the rest of downtown. Both this easement and the small Caltrain-owned parking lot to the west are probably going to be acquired by the city as part of an updated Diridon/Arena Area plan. I don’t necessary expect the land to be used for a planned high speed rail terminal. There’s more room north of the existing station for that.

For the 4th and hopefully final post today, we have several opinion pieces. Let’s start off with Monte Poole’s feeling that Oakland fans have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray:

Selig, then, is here to take some of the heat off his buddy. With Uncle Lew playing “bad cop,” Bud sees an opportunity to pose as “good cop.” He is piecing together the shredded letter and handing it back to Wolff for further consideration.

“Selig’s office called us (Monday) to inform us about the committee,” Dellums chief of staff David Chai said Tuesday via e-mail. “In addition, Lew reached out to us and would like to set up a meeting.”

In other words, what three weeks ago was perceived by Wolff as pointless has, just like that, become a priority. Wow. Is anything in sports more impressive than mighty Bud Selig swinging into action?

The problem, of course, is that this sounds better than it really is. We know where Bud stands. In general, he stands wherever he must to avoid the bright light of accountability. In regards to baseball in Oakland, he has made clear he stands against the Coliseum and against the A’s moving to San Jose.

Next, we have something from the Merc’s editorial page:

And while the city has a great site in mind — 14 acres near downtown’s Diridon Station — the details need more work. An environmental study for a 32,000-seat stadium was done several years ago, but it did not get close public scrutiny because there was no immediate prospect of landing a team. Nor did it take into account the new plans for high-speed rail stopping at Diridon, which will add to the complexity of the area — but also to its appeal for baseball.

Finally, Mark Purdy’s a bit tardy in chiming in:

But why would Selig go to all that trouble and ruffle so many feathers if, in the end, no ballpark is built in San Jose? Answer: He wouldn’t.

Of course, the flip side is that the movers and shakers of San Jose and the South Bay — not just the politicos, but also business people and corporate sponsors who will pay for luxury boxes and scoreboard ads — are never going to give maximum effort and dollars toward a ballpark unless they are certain that the territorial-rights issue is moot.

In other words, a classic Catch-22. Wolff always has sought a way to unlock that catch and thread the needle — to create a negotiating window where he could promise San Jose that if voters approve a ballpark proposal, the territorial-rights issue wouldn’t matter.

All this activity almost has me thinking that next week’s media coverage and events will strike an anticlimactic tone in light of what’s happened the last two weeks. Fool me once…

Sleep well, children.