It’s too bad that per the ML Constitution, teams and owners aren’t allowed to sue each other. They’re not even allowed to have open sniping in the local papers or even a Lincoln-Douglas style debate. Instead, we have Bill Neukom sending lawyers down to San Jose to fight for the Giants (big and little). For the A’s, it’s County Assessor Larry Stone penning an op-ed in today’s edition of San Francisco’s paper.
In Stone’s plea to Neukom to call the dogs off, he mentions that the A’s have proposed their own solution for determining compensation for South Bay territorial rights.
As I understand it, the A’s have agreed that following the opening of a San Jose ballpark, the Giants would have the right to ask Major League Baseball to arbitrate any damages to their fan base or revenue that were caused by the new stadium. Neukom has apparently rejected this fair and simple approach, most likely because projections conducted in a fair manner just might show that the San Jose ballpark would have a positive impact on the orange and black.
Obviously, Neukom would reject such a deal as it doesn’t involve a massive upfront payoff, the kind many believe it would take for the move to happen. However, by continuing to take such an intransigent stance, Neukom risks allowing Bud Selig and his committee to dictate compensation terms. Here’s are the four main tenets I expect to be the framework regarding the committee’s report:
- The A’s hurt the Giants when they moved to Oakland in 1968 because it split the market in two.
- The Giants hurt the A’s when they moved to a downtown SF ballpark in 2000 because they suddenly had a new venue that was more accessible to everyone in the Bay Area.
- Trading the higher population of the East Bay and access to the North Bay for the South Bay’s corporate money and lower population is essentially a wash.
- San Jose’s progress in terms of getting pieces of a stadium deal in place put it in advantageous position.
That last part is not to say that Oakland isn’t making its own progress as it formally acquired the OFDT site from CEDA, but as long as there’s no EIR or negotiations with private landowners it’s well behind. That said, what would you consider fair compensation given the four points above? Is it at all clear cut?
newballpark.org 
Just plain awesome Mr. Stone! Could not have said it better myself. In terms of what would be fair compensation for the Giants, well, I have these four points:
1) 75% of Silicon Valley businesses surveyed by the SVLG (200+) don’t even do business with the Giants. South Bay corporate money?
2) See today’s brilliant letter to the editor in the Merc by Grant Michels of SJ. As has been said ad naseum, hard-core Giants fans living in the South Bay aren’t going to switch allegiances just because the A’s are in town. It doesn’t work that way with fans. Heck, I support the Niners being in SC, but I’ll never chear for them and will always be faithful to the Silver and Black.
3) The only reason SCCo. is Giants “territory” is because they were supposed to move here. What part of AT&T Park being 40 miles north/northwest of downtown San Jose doesn’t Neukom get?
4) All other two-team markets are shared territories; the Bay Area is breaking precedent by being split. Bring us in line with the other markets.
Based on the aformentioned, the Giants should get $0! Really though, it should be a set amount for 5 years after the opening of Cisco Field, say $5-10 million annually from the A’s, just because technically SCCo. is Giants territory. Reading between Mr. Stone’s lines, if true it appears the A’s might be trying to get SCCo. for nothing (compensation based on possible revenue shortfalls), which I don’t mind either; we all know that the A’s moving to San Jose won’t hurt the Giants financially. Lastly, anyone read the stupid comments after Stone’s piece? A’s should move to Sac, the Giants should fight the move, bla bla bla…Happy 4th of July!
Almost forgot: key year is just right around the corner. 2017! The year the Giants mortgage debt payments officially sunset. That means starting in 2017 the Giants get an annual “raise” of $20 million! The debt payments for privately financing their yard has been one of their main reasons for defending the T-Rights to SCCo. Supposedly, protecting the Silicon Valley revenue streams from corporations and fans that help pay the mortgage bill…wait a minute! Majority of Silicon Valley businesses don’t deal with the Giants and hard-core fans will remain hard-core…man, is this ridiculous or what!?
Lawsuits by the Giants will not be the only obstacle. San Jose and MLB will have to deal with City of Oakland, Alameda County, and City of San Francisco lawsuits as well.
So, according to you, while the city of San Jose has been lining up a great site and business support, Oakland has been lining up lawyers and friends with lawyers. Great. You must be so proud.
Dude…just speaking the facts.
Lawsuits are basically nuisance, the A’s are on year-to-year contracts in Oakland. The issue is whether they have the votes among the owners to force the Giants to settle on reasonable terms.
Based on what happened with the Sonics in Seattle (a legitimate recent precedent), I wouldn’t hold out hope for litigation as a strategy. Just to compare what happened:
– Sonics had to pay $45 million to break the Key Arena lease. The A’s aren’t breaking a long term lease, and would only owe each option year’s lease amount.
– Team also had to pay $30 million to Seattle if another NBA team did not surface within 5 years, but only if Seattle found funding for a new arena.
Based on those standards, care to guess how much Oakland/Alameda County would be entitled to receive? How about bupkis? And San Francisco? Don’t make me laugh.
ML–agree with all you said….including your rebuttal to Dennis H. threat of a lawsuit by Oakland or SF…no one is losing any sleep over those threats…as I recall SF claimed they were going to sue the city of Santa Clara over the ’49ers proposed stadium….nothing but hot air–
What I disagree with you on is Neukom can keep this charade going for quite awhile since BS isn’t willing to step in and take care of it. As I understand there is a healthy debate at SJ city hall as to whether to put the ballpark on the November ballot for San Jose without MLB resolving the territorial rights issue with the sentiment leaning against it. If this stands than another 7-8 months are lost working towards a potential June 2011 ballot—delay of game tactics, while annoying, can be effective and if BS isn’t willing to step up and fix it like he should have done months ago than its anyones guess as what can happen here.
What’s all this BS you’re talking about? Oh, good old Bud Selig. Can’t wait till he retires, and maybe they can put in a Commish who truly c
(oops, screwed it up..this site needs an edit feature…argh!!!)
…who truly cares about the fans and the integrity of the game, not just the owner’s lackey. He’s been in there way too long (18 years) and change is needed ASAP. You may laugh, but I’d settle for Bob Costas for the job.
Oakland A’s (without) Wolff and Fisher, opening day in JLS 2017!
It will happen.
why?
The Giants and the powerful folks who want the A’s in Oakland have more “juice” than Wolff and Fisher.
Hey SJ, you are gonna get screwed. But, maybe you can get the SAC Kings to move down there!
just sayin’
The Giant’s will only allow the A’s to move to San Jose if:
1. The mortgage to ATT/SBC/Pac Bell Park is retired
2. There’s some assurance that the corporate box owners won’t head south
The Giant’s will claim:
1. the park at China Basin would never have been built if MLB was going to put a team in Santa Clara County
2. The Baby Bullet (high speed Caltrain that begins as the park at China Basin and ends at the new proposed San Jose ballpark site) will put San Francisco closer to San Jose than to Oakland. Think Peninsula fans in San Mateo County and Palo Alto/Santa Clara.
3. Freeway 680 puts the new San Jose ballpark closer to Concord – San Ramon – Livermore A’s fans than the park at China basin (think Caldecot Tunnel, MacArthur Maze, Bay Bridge, and surface streets in downtown San Francisco along with any personal experience one may have trying to drive into SF on a Friday afternoon)
Even with MLB approval a new ballpark in San Jose faces some big hurdles:
1. The economy (few individuals/corporations have spare cash for PSLs or long term lease on corporate boxes)
2. Even Cysco might want to wait a few years before shelling out $$$ for naming rights (the corporation is doing well on an earnings basis for a high tech company, high tech companies need a major uptick in the economy–ok we are need a major uptick in the economy).
3. No mixed used development possibilites to amortize the cost of a new ballpark
4. Santa Clara County is filled with hardcore Giant’s (ballpark at China basin) fans
5. High tech corporate executives who prefer corporate boxes in SF over San Jose. There are way more high tech conventions/new product launches in San Francisco that there are in San Jose. Compare the events listing at the San Jose Convention Center/Santa Clara Convention Center/ and HP Pavillion with the events calendar at Moscone Center.
With the current economy, It might be several years before any new ballpark is built in the Bay Area. Wolfe reminds me of Bob Lurie. I wish he would stop speaking smack about the Coliseum and do everything possible to promote the current location. I’d hate to see tha A’s playing in North Carolina in the coming decade.
http://www.letsgooakland.com/
just click on ‘Who We Are’ and you see Oakland has more than a “few lawyers” involved in keeping the A’s in Oakland.
This site is completely biased and in bed with the SJ folks.
To be fair, the Giants deserve reasonable compensation.
IOW, what they originally paid for T-rights, plus inflation.
Can anyone here calculate that figure?
If they get sued they should just stay in Oakland. I think Wolff truly doesn’t give a shit about Oakland or the team. He left during Braden’s perfect game for gods sake! Have you guys ever seen Major League? Wolff is using the low attendence as an excuse to move the team to a better location with more company money. Oakland offered to review those sites but Wolff said “I’ve used up Oaklands recources” or something along those lines. He wants to move to a place where he can make more money at the expense of the fanbase. It’s true: Wolff did lie, he didn’t try.
Even if the pro-Oaklanders are right about Wolff, it doesn’t solve the problem that the A’s moving to Oakland was a mistake to begin with, as Charlie Finley soon realized, and has only gotten worse. I can remember Lou Boudreau on the Cubs broadcasts in the ’70s saying that the Bay Area wasn’t big enough for two teams. Now it is, but only because the South Bay is a wealthy, 2 million person, somewhat detached market.
Before we get too far down the litigation path, could someone from the Oakland-only commenter group explain what the basis of one or more lawsuits would be?
Wolff has a 227 page book he wrote on why he couldn’t get a ballpark done in Alameda or Contra Costa Counties in the past 5-8 years. He submitted the book the MLB committee when they interviewed him about the ballpark situation.
227 pages?? He obviously tried but Oakland’s City Council and old Mayor’s sold of all the land to buddies of theirs who had them in their back pockets…Jerry Brown being the main problem.
Now Oakland has zero land ready for the A’s and are so far behind San Jose in terms of not only land negotiations with local businesses but also they have no EIR report or anything of substance to show they can get the A’s a new place even 5 years before San Jose can.
San Jose is ready to put this to voters now.
Why would the Giants defend Santa Clara County so hard if they thought Oakland was a better city?
They defend it because they know if the A’s move there they will be on “equal footing” with the Giants money wise as the A’s would have a higher payroll and we all know the A’s consistently dominated the Giants when they were both playing in similar venues. San Jose also has triple the corporations San Francisco has.
San Jose is also larger city than San Francisco by almost 200-300 thousand people and yet the Giants claim a larger city as their own and it’s 40 miles away??? Oakland is 10 miles away…Some logic right there
Personally the Giants don’t deserve compensation because they paid none to get those rights. Bill Neukom stop being an “a-hole” and let the A’s come to San Jose. Be a man and negotiate a fair and equitable settlement for all parties involved.
I have been a Giants fan my whole life pretty much and live in Santa Clara County but ATT Park is too far away for me to get season tickets or even go to more than 2-3 games a year max.
If the A’s come to San Jose I got 3 buddies ready to split season tickets as Downtown San Jose is a milk run people in the South Bay.
This has to happen soon as the Giants need to stop thinking are entitled to Santa Clara County when in fact it was the A’s who generously gave them the territory years ago so the Giants could stay in the Bay Area….Time to return the favor.
Oakland is a lot farther than 10 miles from SJ.
Irwindale gave Al Davis 10 million dollars when they thought they were “closer than anyone else”, to getting the deal done.
@Sid – SF has all the conventions already.
The high-tech money is real, but the old, old, money in Oakland, Piedmont, Orinda, Lafayette, etc.; can, and will compete.
As i see it, the political machinery in the above mentioned cities have more power than San Jose and will keep Bud Selig/Lew Wollf, from moving.
The other owners will not play games with the anti-trust exemption.
David- how does removing antitrust exemption help Oakland? Without it the A’s could already move to San Jose, no?
Uh oh, multiple Navigators…
@David – I’d say Seattle, as the clear capital of its metro, had more power to wield than a loose consortium of cities that you claim is so powerful. Yet in the end, Seattle was virtually powerless. San Jose has one the state’s most influential lobbying groups behind it. Where is such a group representing Oakland? BTW, SF isn’t the only ownership group with a lawyer among its ranks. Guy Saperstein is a feisty guy as well, and he’s more plugged into Oakland than most.
Took the words right out of my mouth Nam…NAV’S BACK!
@Nam Turk/Tony D. – These guys are not Nav. They have every right to debate their side without being put in the tinfoil hat society.
@jk-usa – Anonymous commenters cannot edit their comments. Registered ones can. Follow the login link for more details.
@ David–you gotta wonder what your smoking when you say that “The Giants and the powerful folks who want the A’s in Oakland have more “juice” than Wolff and Fisher.” The gints want one thing—for the gints to be the only MLB team in the bay area–anyone who believes that they are guided by any other motivation needs to be able to explain what business person would want to have their competition 7 miles away v. 45+. They know what W&F know–Oakland can’t get it done—and if they block SJ than the A’s move–and realize that there are lots of wealthy folks out there who don’t care if it makes biz sense or not to move a team—its a community pride thing–just look at the Sonics moving to OKC–
i don’t smoke.
the A’s can’t move to SJ, or anywhere else, without MLB (all the owners) approval.
did you notice we’re in a depression?
the A’s are not going anywhere.
The A’s are sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time.
@David—we were in your so called “depression” when the Sonics moved to OKC—the same so called “depression” has the bidding war for the W’s in the neighborhood of $400M–lots of money out there David…the world is not ending….and your completely naive if you think that the A’s will continue to languish in Oakland or that magically someone is going to step in and buy them and agree to spend $500M of their own money to build a new ballpark across the water from one of the best ballparks going–
ML—i couldn’t find out how to do it. Wouldn’t an edit button right near the post be easier?
And how come we can’t respond to another post instead of just going to the bottom of all of them?
Old, old, old money?? The East Bay has a fraction of the Fortune 1000 companies Silicon Valley has. A lot of people in the Bay Area need to realize that San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area and Santa Clara County is the largest County in the Bay Area for a reason.
San Jose is triple the size of Oakland in population and has a Downtown site ready to go. The land has been purchased and the EIR report is completed. All that needs to be done is a ballot to the citizens of the City to vote to donate the land to the A’s.
There will be zero new taxes and the A’s will build and operate the facility plus naming rights have already been sold to Cisco who is based out of San Jose.
Bud Selig has to be a moron not to let the A’s move to San Jose. The Giants have the best ballpark as noted by Forbes.com in all of MLB. Even at 10 years old it is ranked #1. Who is dead last you ask?? The Oakland Athletics.
This cannot continue and to give the Giants the entire Bay Area to themselves is ridiculous. It is only a matter of time before the A’s come to San Jose just like the 49ers moving nearby to Santa Clara. All the money in the Bay Area is in the South Bay and that is why MLB will let the A’s move ultimately to San Jose.
From a lawsuit perspective here is the situation
-Because of the MLB anti-trust exemption it prohibits the Giants from suing the A’s or MLB in the event their territorial rights are changed.
-The City of SF and the City of Oakland could sue the MLB and the City of San Jose but on what grounds if based on the anti-trust exemption it helps the league overall for the A’s to move from a poor city like Oakland to a rich city like San Jose? The lawsuits would get thrown out because of it.
Pretty much once Selig shows some “balls” and the MLB committee’s findings show San Jose is the best location it will be done.
One thing to remember is that while the Giants have a great ballpark, they don’t have the best weather. San Francisco is still cool for night baseball, though people didn’t notice because the design cut the wind for the better seats and Candlestick was so unbelievably awful. In the outfield AT&T is still cold. Oakland has slightly better weather, still cool for night baseball. San Jose will have better baseball weather than either, which will help make the A’s be competitive with the Giants.
BC,
I think Mr. Stone sums it up best: BOTH the Giants AND A’s can have the two best venues in the bigs, separated by a healthy 40 or so miles. AT&T Park is one of the best yards in the league and will continue to draw regardless if Cisco Field is in downtown San Jose; just ask the hard-core Giants fans of the South Bay! I know Neukom would never talk about it, but if you want to ensure continued succes at the gates you need to continue to put a winning product on the field to go with your yard; the G’s have the arms, all they need now is a few big bats. No winning product on the field? Just look at the gems that are Camden Yarks and Progressive Field (The Jake!)….crowd wise, very, very sad.
True, the South Bay has the corporate base but do they have the baseball fan to fill 81 dates? They have to generate a whole new fan base in the southbay, because most east bay fans won’t make the trek to SJ for a game.
jk-
Making money is less dependent on fans in seats, and more dependent on selling season tickets for those box seats and suites to companies. The companies in the South Bay are going to be more able to afford those boxes. If you can keep those sold, you can better weather the ups and downs of the fan fickleness.
.
I don’t think they’ll have to generate a whole new fan base. There are plenty of people who live in the South Bay who trek up to Oakland. I believe that the people near Oakland will make that trek to the San Jose to support their team. Sure, the Giants will lose some fans to the A’s, but the A’s are going to lose some fans to the Giants as well. I think it’ll be a wash.
Sid:
You understand that someone is going to have to find $500MM to build the stadium right?
Where are Wolff/Fisher going to come up with that? Even if SJ gives even more land to Wolff for nothing as an entitlement play, there is no market for commercial/retail right now. So where is the $$ going to come from. MLB won’t do it; traditional banks won’t do it. The fact is that whether it’s SJ or Oakland, the team is going to have a hard time financing the construction of a $500MM stadium. My guess is even IF Wolff gets the right to go to SJ, he’ll be asking his asking Mayor Reed for a chunk of cash. Good luck, politically, with that one.
SS–go back to the principles of what city of San Jose is willing to do—no dollars for construction of a ballpark—buy the land–offer at a cheap land lease—just like ATT and let W&F figure out how to build the ballpark–naming rights and a new TV deal with Comcast are part of the equation–so will their version of PSL’s—-bottom line—let them figure it out by removing the terrritorial rights—city of SJ can’t contribute public dollars without a vote–so a bait and switch is not in the cards—
Wolff for years was saying he needs his condos (ballpark village) to pay for the park andthat Oakland didn’t have that, so he looks to Fremont, which struck out with two sites. Now SJ is the place he wants to be, but hey, no land for condos on that site. He could of done that in Oakland all along. This whole thing has been fishy from the get go. Wolfie has to go–I wish he’d sell. He’d make millions like the previous owner. Isn’t that all they want anyways, is to make millions off their original investment?
So Wolff sells and somebody else comes in who is eager to build a $500 mill, privately financed ballpark in Oakland, where attendance has almost always been lousy and corporate support minimal? OK. Good luck finding that person…
The Puccinni/Dolich group, who was turned down by MLB, would of been the perfect owners and would of had a new ballpark built in Oakland already. Instead, we get Selig’s carpetbagging buddy Lew.
What you guys do not understand is the A’s are a very “profitable” franchise because of revenue sharing.
Over the years the A’s have made 30-40 million a year in profit because of the free money MLB gives them for playing in Oakland. Therefore they have most of the 400-500 million in the bank and only need a fraction of it to build the stadium. Plus naming rights have been sold to Cisco already.
The A’s unlike most teams have zero debt service and no long term lease to break. This would be a clean move for them to San Jose.
One could argue why don’t they put that money into players? The evidence dictates that even when the A’s were making the playoffs they did not draw well. So why invest with players when it won’t make you any money in return or hence bring more fans?? That is just smart business…don’t invest a dollar unless you get a dollar and 20 cents in return at least.
Also of note Oakland instead of doing dual development with condos and land did condos only because of corrupt Oakland Mayors’ like Jerry Brown who gave away the land to real estate investors who had him in his back pocket. Now that jerk is running for Governor again.
Oakland politics have failed the A’s time and time again and if you had a 227 page book on why Oakland couldn’t get the job done wouldn’t you be frustrated to and not want to re-visit that situation again?
This year:
SJ has cut fireman, police, library services … and i just read yesterday, they are going to sell their water services!?!?
yeah, SJ is drowning in money; pun intended!
@ Sid – in the great city of S.F., the Giants didn’t average over 25,000 fans until the 90’s. The A’s will do just fine in a new Jack London Sq. Stadium.
the 227 page book is a crock!
The Puccinni/Dollich group, as outlined in a previous thread by ML here on this site basically had a smoke and mirrors offer and would not have been able to field a competitive team.
Say what you will about recent past and current ownership, but at least the minor league system is not stripped bare, which would have happened under the Puccini/Dollich group.
ML, perhaps you should revisit this item in order to stop the revisionist history that now seems to be on its way.
@David – police and fire come out of the General Fund, something that will NOT be affected by a move to San Jose by the A’s (making the assumption that police services would be covered by increased sales tax revenues brought in by game day sales.
Water services being sold? Apples and oranges my friend. This is a Redevelopment project, something RDA’s were created for.
@David- plrraz says it the best this is a Redevelopment Funds project and not a General fund where all the city services come from. That is how Santa Clara got it done with the SF 49ers just recently.
-Jack London Square would be a perfect place for a ballpark except for one big problem…There are businesses there that need to be bought out and these people do not want to move
-San Jose has the land purchased and ready to go. It took San Jose 4-5 years just to get the land and it will take Oakland even longer as the businesses they would have to negotiate with are centered around being near the waterfront where it is hard to find land as is.
Oakland has had the team for 40+ years and do not have anything ready of substance for MLB to say this is where you should build. If that was the case then MLB would have announced it’s findings and Oakland would be in play now.
Instead they are mum trying to get the 3/4 votes from the other owners to move the A’s to San Jose.
we are all speculating. Wolff cannot be trusted. He used Fremont, just like he is using Oakland and San Jose. My money says he loses. Time is on Oakland’s side.
i hear your point(s) about RD Funding.
they have a nice ‘new’ stadium in Pittsburgh. What’s their attendance look like?
@ David – Wolff’s evidence is most assuredly not a crock. I’ve seen it. It shows the City of Oakland’s efforts as a litany of disinterest.
BTW, the water sale is for the 20% of the city not already served by San Jose Water Company. At this point it’s a no-brainer cash infusion, much like the sale of the OFDT site.
re: Over the years the A’s have made 30-40 million a year in profit because of the free money MLB gives them for playing in Oakland.
…so you agree that right now the A’s are a big drain on MLB finances. Instead of contributing and earning a profit, they need subsidies from MLB to survive. And you think this is a good business model?
re: He used Fremont, just like he is using Oakland and San Jose. My money says he loses.
…Wolff invested several years and countless millions, and even brought in Selig for a personal appearance, to try to make Fremont. But in your mind, it was all a ruse. OK.
Once again, sounds like some people simply don’t want to believe the politicians they elected dropped the ball – maybe even on purpose. Of course, we can’t claim victimhood if we blame the politicians we elected – only if we blame the greedy capitalist.
It’s almost as if Oakland wears its disdain for the A;s as a badge of honor. Now that the A’s want to leave, it’s poor victim Oakland.
re: What you guys do not understand is the A’s are a very “profitable” franchise because of revenue sharing.
Over the years the A’s have made 30-40 million a year in profit because of the free money MLB gives them for playing in Oakland. Therefore they have most of the 400-500 million in the bank and only need a fraction of it to build the stadium. Plus naming rights have been sold to Cisco already.
The A’s unlike most teams have zero debt service and no long term lease to break. This would be a clean move for them to San Jose.
…Sid, I should have read your whole post. Sorry
David = Navigator
@pjk- All good dude.
Fremont fell through because the businesses at Pacific Commons were way against all the traffic that would drive away possible customers. The second site at Warm Springs was a no go because it was too close to a highly affluent residential area that consists mainly of Asian immigrants who have $$$.
It was so bad at Warm Springs that the whole community rallied against it knowing that area well it was constituted as the most community spirit of all time for the area. Makes sense because everyone was afraid people would park in their neighborhoods causing more crime and a bad element. Plus there was an elementary school nearby as well.
@Marine Layer- Where can I find the 227 pages Lew Wolff wrote about Oakland? I am dying to read it. Thanks
@Sid – I am certain that the Wolff packet will never be publicly released unless it is part of some trial evidence.
I thought it was a few big-box retailers who were so concerned about their precious parking that it never occurred to them that A’s fans might actually stop and shop at their stores? Not to mention the new residents of the ballpark village.
re: the 227 pages
I’ll bet only a few privileged folks like Bud Selig, Marine Layer and that guy who hung the ant-Lew Wolff banner get to read that document. Who really needs to read it, though? Oakland’s disdain for the A’s has been out there for all to see.
* City manager proposes downtown ballpark. is then fired by Jerry Brown (We need a genius like Brown as governor, no?)
* City does zip on the north of the Coliseum project.
* A’s ask for baseball-only improvements to the Coliseum and get Mount Davis instead.
I am disappointed in Brown not pushing a stadium like Robert Bobb wanted, but he didn’t want to get burned like the Raider deal. I’ll still take him over Queen Meg any day. Both her and Carly would be horrible ans Gov. and Senator. Where does the republican party find these women, along with Palin, Angle, and Bachmann. Scary.
I am not “navigator” i am me.
… sounds like this navigator guy has some ideas though ;-0
everyone is accountable to someone (including Alan Selig).
Let’s see: California is bankrupt, jobs are leaving and it’s getting worse. Jerry Brown will bring more of the same. He’ll probably get elected, like the way Oaklanders voted him in twice and he flat out showed contempt for having sports in the city. Barbara “You call me senator!!” Boxer is not scary? OK….
Remember when Brown said something to the effect that Fremont has the land for a baseball stadium and Oakland didn’t? Completely,totally, unfathomably clueless about the civic treasure of a major league baseball team…
Woah, let’s stop right there with red/blue talk. It’s fine to talk politics in the context of sports, but beyond that we’re on a slippery slope.
Has everyone forgotten that it was the collapse in the real estate market that really killed Fremont? Sure, there was opposition from the big box retailers, but if I recall the real NIMBYs came out when Wolff considered building by Warm Springs BART. If Wolff could still sell his condos to finance Pacific Commons, I’m sure he’d find some way to placate Best Buy and all the others.
Okay, no more red/blue talk from me on here.I can sense this site has a bunch of right-wingers anyways.
Back to Huffington Post for me.
@jk-usa – I’m a registered Green and voted for Obama, you judgmental prick.
Doesn’t sound like MLB is too high on Oakland lately.
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=5364288
Hey ML, what’s with the name-calling?
Calling me a prick. Jeez,That’s not too cool. For someone who puts a lot of time and effort in this site, you just blew it right there. Not sure I want to return if you treat people like that.
i think jk was referring to the commenters…not you…chillax dude.
@jk-usa – It’s simple. You could’ve stopped and resisted the last swipe. But you didn’t, so you get a slap on the wrist. I could just ban you, but that’s not very democratic. So it’s your choice.
@pjk – Not covering the “riot threat” unless Oakland/OPD releases something about it.
@ML, that slap on the wrist and name calling hurt.
I’m out of here for good. One less Oakland booster you have to deal with.
For the record-
Party Affiliation: None
Last Election: Obama
And… Lew Wolff supported Chris Dodd (a democrat, right? right?)
Thank goodness there is no game scheduled for tonight
How many people show up at the Coliseum tonight? No way the protests get that far south, but the perception is bad…
ESPN’s Ultimate Team Rankings are out. A’s finished 79th out of 122. The team ranked very high in terms of affordability, but the stadium ranked as the second worst in all of sports. Also, the ownership ranked in the bottom 10 along with the Raiders and Warriors.
How about publishing Andy Dolich’s Op-ed in the Sunday July 12, 2010 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle?
In the interest of fairness and balance (you mentioned Larry Stone’s Op-ed).
68A’sfan