The Houston Astros and current owner Drayton McLane have announced that the team is being sold to Houston businessman Jim Crane for $680 million. Approval should take 30-60 days. Among the hangups were discussions over the Astros’ share of a new regional sports network to be shared with the Houston Rockets.
The Maloofs have agreed to share the Sacramento Kings’ financial data with pro-arena interests in the Capitol. This is a departure from other teams in other leagues who are generally reticent to share such data. As part of ongoing CBA discussions, owners have similarly shared data with the players’ union.
George Vukasin, Jr. of Peerless Coffee alerted me to this editorial in the Trib about eminent domain. A bill passed in 2007 tightens controls over how eminent doman can used to the point that “blight” has to be more clearly defined than it has in the past. Both Oakland and San Jose could be affected by these restrictions enough that land acquisitions could be further delayed or even stopped altogether.
Sacramento’s Matthew Mahood was named CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. As for whether this will make a difference for San Jose’s pursuit of the A’s, Mayor Chuck Reed said this:
“The issue of the A’s stadium is way beyond what the chamber president can do,” Mayor Chuck Reed said. “It’s all between Lew (Wolff) and Major League Baseball.”
April’s radio ratings are scheduled for release today. We’ll get to see how the KBWF and KTRB shakeups have affected the Bay Area’s sports radio landscape. Update 2:17 PM – And they’re out.
As long as KBWF’s only permanent host is Chris Townsend, KBWF will struggle to gain listeners. Hopefully they can get that straightened out in short order. It’s a long game, and if the first goal is to supplant 1050, mission accomplished. I know that many have been clamoring for Rick Tittle to take the 10-1 slot. I’d rather him take a night slot with a more established name at midday.
Update 3:30 PM – ESPN is reporting that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the NFL owners a stay in the lockout, meaning the lockout is still on. They have also asked the owners to submit a new proposal to the players. The two sides are in mediation today and it looks like the session will be extended several hours longer to accommodate the new proposal. Retired players rep Carl Eller said on SportsCenter that progress is being made, which could be very promising. Both the NBA and MLB are watching these talks carefully (NBA moreso).
Added 5/17 11:15 AM – From Baseball San Jose (via LoneStranger), San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed sent a letter to Bud Selig asking for a decision.
Governor Jerry Brown sent out his revised budget proposal for May, which continues to include a call to dismantle all redevelopment agencies despite growing revenues statewide.
newballpark.org 
Wow, 680M for the Astros. Good for Houston! They found a local businessman to take over and expand on their interests in the area.
As for eminent domain- It has to be done in an eloquent way that easily shows that the new business coming in will benefit the City more than the old ones being moved out.
National City was trying to use eminent domain on businesses who are actually using the land productively and they were trying to move them for a condo complex?? Not good.
In San Jose’s case ATT and a welding station is all that stand in their way to finish their land acquistions and San Jose was kind enough to re-zone land in West SJ for ATT to “grease the skids” for the future move of ATT in Downtown.
Oakland on the other hand will have to use eminent domain on 16 businesses that is going to be a huge headache. Peerless is just one of several of those 16 who will fight for their location and rights.
Sacramento has major issues that you all know what I think about. KJ high fiving Joe Maloof is hilarious as seeing 2 politicians essentially play their roles while they each pray for a miracle.
Reed is right about Wolff and MLB….Its down to them making a decision….One of these years.
Eminent domain won’t be used/necessary for the final two plots because they will be purchased at market value
and relocated to new locations in central San Jose. My thinking is that once the sale of downtown SJ parcels close in June,
we’ll finally see movement on the ATT and Aris Gas land acquisitions. RM, is it me, or has the city of SJ been acquiring those last two parcels for years now?
Until I hear that the parcels have been purchased from willing sellers, eminent domain will remain a possibility.
The switch to the all sports station has been a wash thus far with, presumably, more room to grow with the current format. I’d say the only FM sports station in the bay is off to a decent start.
i like tittle at the mid morning slot. also him moving to nights he’d miss a ton of shows due to night games here on the west coast starting at 7. rather have him be on air all the time during the mid morning slots from 9-12 or 10-1.
still would like the station to go get krueger and let him do nights which is the spot he was doing on 680 all those years before he was fired and imo he was the best night time host in that station’s history. if 95.7 gets cal sports, think roxy who does broadcast games for cal would probably get a show too. really imo other than townsend, the whole lineup could be revamped.
I am encouraged by KBWF. Townsend is the best in the Bay. I am completely over the Monty Show, however. Sometimes I feel like I could eventually get it… But really, he is an uniformed blow hard and I get tired of hearing him spout bull crap and act like he is an authority on virtually any subject… This is a typical failing of most sports talk hosts, though.
Mayor Chuck Reed wrote a letter to Bud Selig, asking for some kind of idea when the decision would be made. You can read it on BSJ.
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http://baseballsanjose.blogspot.com/2011/05/mayors-letter-to-commissioner-selig.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BaseballSanJose+%28Baseball+San+Jose%29
they need to hire some locals hosts.
issac/suke show was horrible, they knew nothing about the teams here especially the team in general that their listeners were fans of which would be the a’s. thank goodness they taken off a few weeks back but this jackson guy, again another out of towner. before he arrived, he worked for sporting news radio. again imo he doesn’t know the area especially the a’s. monty/dickenson i don’t know, just would be nice to have an a’s fan to balance it out since neither are a’s fans. monty is a cubs fan and dick is a sf fan. rob and arnie are just horrible. even though the former is a a’s/niners fan which is alright for me, they don’t talk about serious sports discussion, shock jock and suprised they lasted this long and weren’t thrown out with issac/suke a few weeks back.
imo the one guy who stays in townsend, maybe monty/dick stay also just because i don’t think there are a lot of morning guys out there to hire who’d bring anything more to the table in regards to knowledge of the bay area sports landscape than these two.
for all the hate we all have for knbr, at least they’ve hired local talent and those who’ve followed the teams that they broadcast. the same can’t be said about 95.7 so far other than townsend and even then he’s only been truly following the a’s since the start of last season albeit he’s been here doing radio locally for over a decade plus.
tittle, kreuger, roxy, lamb, mcgowen…there is plenty current and former local sports radio talent there to be had to bring into the station.
Thanks LS! Surprised ML didn’t cover that here. I like the irony of Reed telling Selig that even with the glacial speed of government, he was hopeful a decision would be made soon….LOL!
The big ratings in SJ for KNBR don’t surprise me at all. It is after all Giants territory. The small numbers in SJ for 95.7 don’t surprise me either.
@Reed’s letter: the same old sickening SV chest pounding about all the oodles of money they have and the big family income. Didn’t speed up BS the last few times and won’t do it this time. Oakland has shown more class in this waiting game, and their letters to Selig were quite elegant. The eastbay may not match the huge SV dough, but we make up with much heart, soul, community and a great baseball history and tradition, and that should count for something.
4.4 for SF-Oakland….hmmm, so SJ itself is equivalent to both metro areas…interesting. And higher numbers for 95.7 in SF (Oakland) as well…notice the parentheses for Oakland to SF? That is what VC will be like to ATT, just another wannabe SF. Also, isn’t it interesting not a peep out of the Oakland EIR yet? Only the senile and delusional can think that some sort of entitlement will win it in the end….
And the bull shit surfaces yet again. Another thread bites the dust?
@TonyD–no need to cuss.Stay on topic and I’ll do the same,k?
re: Oakland has shown more class in this waiting game.
…Does ruining the stadium count as class? Was it classy to fire Robert Bobb for promoting a downtown ballpark? Unfortunately, Oakland is not showing what is needed if it wants a privately funded ballpark: Bottoms in the seats. The first place A’s drew 12,190 last night for a game against their down-state rivals and have dropped from 25th to 27th in attendance in recent weeks.
last night was AWESOME! I have never been to a game where the rain delayed the start. The place was empty, I was supposed to go to a season ticket holder “watch batting practice from the field” thing and since batting practice was cancelled, it didn’t happen.
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I would have probably stayed home, due to the weather, were it not for the event. That would have been a huge mistake, it was really fun. I encourage everyone to go next time there is two back to back rain delayed games. I sat in just about every part fo the stadium for an inning.
@pjk–that was the past leadership who dropped the ball. That was then, this is now, just like SCC shooting down the Giants a couple of times. Dellums and now Quan are keeping this going. Also, Schottmann showed no interest in Uptown.The weather was very wet the last few nights, so I didn’t expect big crowds anyways, but we’re still up from last year. 20 teams are down. When you’re competing against the World champs who get all the attention, it’s amazing that were drawing what we are. It will pick up when summer comes and we stay in the race. Look at Cleveland’s attendance figs and they’re tearing it up.
ML, sorry for going OT, but your guys are doing it too.
Hold up here…KNBR has been broadcasting for how long??? Too many years to count.
While 95.7 and KTRB just came out of the wood work in the past year. To compare the two and to say KNBR does better in San Jose because it is “Giants territory” is flat out retarded.
If the A’s were in San Jose you would see 95.7 ratings go up big time. Not to mention KNBR has had some mainstays disc jockeys over the years…The Razor and Mr T?? Or JT the Brick??
These guys have been doing their thing for so long they have a cult following. Therefore KNBR is of course going to have better ratings overall.
Rain delayed games stink, its cold, windy, and I would need double the beer to sit through one even at ATT Park…..Not happening.
To all- Stop blaming previous ownerships groups for the A’s failures getting a ballpark. Unless you include the City of Oakland and County of Alameda in the discussion, please refrain.
@jeffro–cool! Glad you had a good time. I was thinking about hopping over when the game finally started. I wish I would of. 14-0! Sweet! I’ve been to one rain delay in the early 80’s. Last one was in 1998 i believe. There’s been like 30 games canceled so far due to rain. A lot of double headers later on in the season. Day and night ones in Beantown, separate admission. Speaking of double-headers, we got one against the Halos on July 16th. I got my tix. Use to go to a lot of those back in the day. The A’s had an opening day double header back in 1971. I saw my first game ever that year in June on my birthday. A Vida Blue shutout. I’ve been hooked ever since.
“To compare the two and to say KNBR does better in San Jose because it is ‘Giants territory’ is flat out retarded. If the A’s were in San Jose you would see 95.7 ratings go up big time.”
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Um, isn’t that basically Neukom’s argument? Wolff certainly doesn’t want to emphasize the idea that moving the A’s south will mean converting Giants fans into A’s fans.
The A’s side of the KTRB debacle on Athletics After Dark (including a question from Jeffrey)
http://athleticsafterdark.com/ken-pries-visits-aad
I should have also said, the AAD podcast gives the lowdown on the happenings at 95.7 as well. Apparently they have hired a new program director and “what you’re hearing now is not exactly what you’ll hear once they are up and running full speed.”
Simon,
Sid is most likely referring to casual baseball fans, and current A’s fans from the South Bay (in conjunction with East Bay fan base)
who will flock with excitement to 95.7 with a spanking new yard in San Jose. He’s not referring to Giants fans in the South Bay somehow converting to San Jose A’s fans.
That’s straw man reasoning at its worst.
Besides, the SF Giants play in SAN FRANCISCO, not 50 miles south in San Jose.
@jk “The big ratings in SJ for KNBR don’t surprise me at all. It is after all Giants territory.”
The big ratings in SF/Oakland for KNBR are even greater than they are in San Jose, leaving open the distinct possibility that the East Bay is equally or more Giants territory than the South Bay.
“The small numbers in SJ for 95.7 don’t surprise me either.”
How about the miserable ratings trend in SF/Oakland? The baseball season starts, and ratings DROP by nearly 20%? San Jose at least held level. If the trend continued another month SJ would be nearly equal, and it doesn’t even host the team.
Again: No indication from these numbers that Oakland is a baseball town in any way, shape or form.
“Um, isn’t that basically Neukom’s argument? Wolff certainly doesn’t want to emphasize the idea that moving the A’s south will mean converting Giants fans into A’s fans.”
Logic fail. If the A’s moved to San Jose no Giants fans would need to be “converted” in order to make 95.7 ratings go up. All that would need to happen is to draw in more casual and non-fans and get existing fans to pay more attention – which is in fact part of the point.
The Bay Area is already, for the most part, a single media market. Are you guys really suggesting that MASSIVE numbers of very casual fans or non-fans in Santa Clara County — people who currently pay little or no attention at all to either the Giants or the A’s — will suddenly become hard core A’s fans because of the move to San Jose?
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Maybe in SJ itself, but I don’t see anything like that happening in Santa Clara County as a whole.
pries interviews with AAD talking about 860 and 95.7.
http://www.athleticsafterdark.com/ken-pries-visits-aad
dibley moves from knbr to 95.7 according to twitter.
An outlier or the first of many defections? *rubs hands together*
whos left to defect? the only other knbr talent that’s been rumored or at least brought up since 95.7 went to a sports format about a month ago is bruce. lieberman mentioned that his deal is almost up and he isn’t entirely happy there for many reasons if you know the history between bruce and the station in recent years.
tittle, krueger, bruce, roxy. still some talent that 95.7 could go after.
wonder where in the day dibley will have his show and whether he’d do it solo or have a cohost.
Both Bruce and Ray Woodson were rumored.
woodson true, he wasn’t all that happy either being passed up for the sportsphone job at night either.
i think bruce would be a real get for 95.7 personally. imo he’s the only one on either knbr station that takes pure sports phone calls for the most part thru out his show, at least until his 3 o’clock hour bit. to take away knbr’s imo only legit caller driven radio host would be huge.
problem with that is if those who listened and more importantly called his show since 06 i think will follow and turn what many east bay fans want which is an all a’s/raiders/sharks/w’s station into a version of knbr with fans from both sf teams calling in. same could be said potentially about dibley and maybe a krueger hire in the future.
but at least unlike the “real” knbr, 95.7 won’t totally ignore the a’s especially with guys like townsend and hopefully tittle in the lineup for 6 or so hours potentially.
“The Bay Area is already, for the most part, a single media market. Are you guys really suggesting that MASSIVE numbers of very casual fans or non-fans in Santa Clara County — people who currently pay little or no attention at all to either the Giants or the A’s — will suddenly become hard core A’s fans because of the move to San Jose?”
I never said “hard core fan.” That’s the thing, it’s not really about hard-core fans. But massive numbers of very casual fans or non-fans will start going to more games if there is suddenly a ballpark in their midst, and that will translate into a bump to TV and radio ratings.