The NFL and NBA are going hot and heavy with CBA discussions.
- Latest proposal from the NFL (which has yet to be voted on by the owners) would guarantee a straight 48% share to the players, and would create a system in which all teams’ payrolls would approach the salary cap amount every year. The straight percentage is different from the previous system, which had the teams take $1 billion off the top for stadium expenses.
- The NBA is proposing a “flex cap” which has a salary floor, max, and a sort of “supermax.” Previously, that upper limit was the luxury tax threshold, which if breached would require a dollar-for-dollar tax on additional payroll. The players consider the as-yet-not-enumerated upper limit a hard cap, since it provides a payroll ceiling. The two sides are early in their discussions.
Governor Brown is expected to announce an alternative to the budget he vetoed last week. Plans may include a revised (or not) take on redevelopment.
The California Redevelopment Association released a spreadsheet detailing the amounts that would have to be paid by various redevelopment agencies if AB 26 and 27 were signed into law by Brown:
- Alameda County: $7.7 million
- Fremont: $9 million
- Oakland: $39.7 million
- San Diego: $69.8 million
- San Francisco: $24.6 million
- San Jose: $47.6 million
- Santa Clara: $11.4 million
Remember that if the cities are not able to make these payments, they would not be able to issue additional bonds or otherwise acquire debt.
As initially reported by Rich Lieberman, KTRB is switching to a Spanish sports radio format, courtesy of ESPN Deportes. Once fresh capital is put into transmitter maintenance and facilities, I’d expect the 50,000-watt station to go after the… Giants. The Giants have Spanish broadcasts split between a 5 kW station in Pittsburg and a 10kW station in SF that drops to 500 W after sunset. Assuming the station got enough care and feeding, it could be a formidable player.
newballpark.org 
That last paragraph made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
@LS–your buddy Lewie could of at least kept the A’s Spanish broadcasting going on the Internet for a paltry $70k, but he’d rather tuck that $ under his mattress then trying to reach out to the Spanish Athleticos fans. How you guys always back this ownership is beyond me.
How some of you who CAN’T back an ownership which is trying to get a new venue (along with increased revenue streams for top players and things like Spanish broadcasts) is beyond me!
Wait, I’m new to this site, but, people on here are supportive of our horrendous owners? *head explodes* How can people support the A’s and ignore what this group has done to the fan base?
@eb–the Lew Wolff apolgists on here boggle the mind. He can’t do no wrong in their eyes.They’re all just hoping he pulls a San Jose relocation act, but it’s not looking too good.
@eb “How can people support the A’s and ignore what this group has done to the fan base?”
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Done what exactly to the fan base? Winning and losing is cyclical in MLB, especially if you’re a small market team. Right now the A’s are in a downtown, and their attendance correlates pretty closely to what it’s been in previous downturns. (It’s actually a bit better). The truth of the matter is, if you took a poll of fans at a high-attendance game (Yankees, let’s say), I’ll bet less than 50% of them could even tell you who the owner is.
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Rational people appreciate an owner who is committed to building a privately financed ballpark in the home marke. I can tell you fans of the Seattle Sonics, Minnesota North Stars, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Colts are not impressed by or sympathetic to the Oakland-only’ers self-centered, entitled whining.
“Downtown” should read “downturn,” of course.
Bartleby I was with you until your last sentence. Wow. You speak of rational and yet you defend the A’s current ownership? Now, I love the A’s and will support them wherever they play in the bay area, yet to claim that Wolff and co. have not made almost everything about the team second rate is complete b.s. The list of slights against this once proud franchise is numerous, including, the fan fest debacle, lack of capital spent on free agents, the alienation of East Bay fans, tarps, whining about Oakland, no respect or attention paid to past Oakland A’s legends (unlike the hated Giants), etc. Look, I guarantee, you ask any media member or any average fan about Wolff and co. and you will get a majority of negative feedback. This is not simply an Oakland vs. San Jose thing. Wolf and co. really are bad owners.
I take comfort in knowing that some of these “hater” comments won’t matter when this thing is all settled in done.
A new A’s ballpark in the Bay Area…that’s what its all about (nothing more, nothing less).
And in the classic “Navigator” fashion, can we please cease the “fan base, all A’s fans” crap.
You don’t speak for me!
When I was a kid growing up in NJ, if I wanted to go see the Mets, we had to drive about 75 miles or so through two states, on 3 or 4 highways and cross at least two major toll bridges. For A’s fans from Oakland to get to San Jose, it’s a 30- to 35-mile drive down 880. No bridges, no tolls. But even that is far too much of an imposition for entitled Oakland-only A’s fans.
re: ask any media member… – You mean any major East Bay or Frisco media member. … Of course they don’t like Wolff. They don’t want the team going to San Jose under any circumstances. Perhaps these media outlets should put their $$ where their mouths are and buy the team and build a $500 mill stadium in Oakland?
Wolff has made mistakes for sure, and I don’t think anyone would defend every decision he has made (I certainly can’t). But if he got word that he can go to San Jose today, a shovel is in the ground tomorrow, and A’s fans and players will have what this proud franchise truly deserves – playing in a first rate stadium that didn’t treat them like second class citizens 16-years ago. As an STH for the Earthquakes, Wolff is doing right by me, with a new stadium around the corner, bringing back soccer after the original ‘Quakes left. And please, enough with the tarp stuff. I grew up in 3rd deck, paying $5 to see the great Jackie Moore team of 1986 (Geren 1.0) and years thereafter. He was trying to create a demand, we can argue if it worked or not. I am bummed out enough seeing the empty seats on TV, I really don’t need to see 10,000 more.
Didn’t the pro-Oakland crowd have their undies in a bunch because Wolff didn’t allow that stupid “Lied, never tried” sign in the stadium? Now it’s there permanently in center. Does he get credit for that at least?
So people don’t go to games because of one owner? Why don’t people go to the games to support the 25 PLAYERS and the new manager who has brough a lot of excitement back to the Coliseum?ML, what are the new sports fields they are building off Alum Rock/Santa Clara? Very nice new facility. And do you plan any more walking tours for the proposed A’s site this summer? I’d be interested if you were, maybe in the late afternoon/evening. It seems like the stadium talk has heated up with national media and 95.7 coming on the scene.
FWIW, and strictly unscientific, but a poll back in Nov. on Athletics Nation, the ultimate fan site of the A’s, gave LW a 2/3rds unfavorable rating, and deservedly so.
A recent poll just a few days ago, also on AN, has it almost exactly evenly split on where the A’s should build a new ballpark.
Oakland:33%
San Jose:34%
Anywhere in Northern Cal:32%
Make your own conclusions on this.
Conclusion I draw is more than 65% of the A’s fan base is fine with LW’s preferred option of San Jose
Conclusion I draw is that 65% want them to stay in Oakland, and 66% don’t care for the Wolff.
@jk Since AN skews demographically toward the East Bay, I’d say those figures show a resounding non-mandate for your position. I read them as showing that the majority of A’s fans, even in the East Bay, are realists, and recognize that San Jose is a more realistic and better option for the team they love.
I had no idea the schism was so great between A’s fans here. It makes me sad, actually. Is “entitled” a buzz word? It’s hard to think of any A’s fan in the bay as entitled. Whatever, I just hope the A’s keep winning. Go A’s!
@eb “You speak of rational and yet you defend the A’s current ownership?”
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I do, enthusiastically. The A’s offer some of the best value, not just in professional sports, but in entertainment. And an ownership group committed to building a showplace ballpark in the home market without shaking down local government isn’t just rare, it’s almost unique (the hated G’s being the only other arguable example).
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“The list of slights against this once proud franchise is numerous”
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I will address them one by one.
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“…including, the fan fest debacle, ”
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I liked Fan Fest, but it’s not like they did away with it entirely, they do a fan tailgate instead. I assume the logic of this was: (a) save costs by leveraging the staffing for an existing game, rather than having to staff the Coliseum for an extra day; and (b) bump ticket sales for an existing game. You might have liked Fan Fest better than the tailgate, but this is the kind of compromise you have to make if you’re a low revenue team. It hardly constitutes hostility toward the fans.
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“lack of capital spent on free agents,”
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Also not true. Just a few years ago, the A’s payroll was something like $80 million. They’ve signed a number of big name free agents under Wolff, and have made a run at others. Part of being a low revenue team is, you need to save your bullets. You can’t just go out and spend on free agents every year just for the sake of doing it; you wait until you’re in position to make a run.
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“the alienation of East Bay fans,”
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The alienation of some – not all – East Bay fans is due to the talk of moving the team to San Jose, nothing else. This is unavoidable.
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“tarps”
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This is the silliest one of all. No one whining about the tarps has ever given a coherent explanation why it is an affront to fans not to have to look at 10,000 more empty seats. Also, they consistently ignore that the best seats in the upper deck have been open for several years now, and at $12 for a ticket (including $6 of food), are one of the best values in baseball.
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“whining about Oakland”
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What whining? I rarely read any comment comment whatsover about Oakland from Wolff. Over the years, he has made the observations that Oakland has poorly supported the team over the years, that Oakland has limited corporate base, and that the Coliseum is inadequate. This is not “whining,” these are indisputable facts. And given that the A’s need a new ballpark, pointing these facts out is an unavoidable part of trying to get one.
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“no respect or attention paid to past Oakland A’s legends (unlike the hated Giants)”
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We just had Rickey Henderson day. Look, however much a team does in any one area, they can always do more. But really, this kind of thing matters much more to the hardcore fans than to the casual fans who drive attendance. Most casual fans don’t even know the names of the players on the field in front of them, let alone the names of past players, legend or not. Ricky is a household name, but many of the guys from the A’s past you might consider legends would make today’s casual fan say, “Who’s that guy?”
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“I guarantee, you ask any media member or any average fan about Wolff and co. and you will get a majority of negative feedback.”
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I’m guessing you live in the East Bay, and a lot of your friends are hard core fans. It’s a mistake to over-project just from the people you know. And as I’ve said, the overwhelming factor driving fan’s ratings of Wolff is how they feel about relocating the team. Our discussion was about whether he is a bad owner for other reasons.
@jk- can you cite the data that supports your phrase “65% prefer Oakland”?
@eb – there are a few Oakland-only posters here, the majority just want a new stadium no matter where it is. The second groups seems more pro-SJ simply because that is the plan that seems more likely at this point. What is sad is that the Oakland-only people fail Solomon’s test and would rather see the baby cut in half.
@eb By “entitled” I mean “having an overweening feeling of entitlement.” You know, “ownership owes me a new ballpark in my city of choice whether it can break even or not,” or “ownership owes it to me to staff an empty upper deck because…(um, I’m not even sure what the supposed logic of this one is).”
@Mark N. Nicely put.
@GoA’s– I just combined the Oakland and the anyhwere in Norcal numbers like you did SJ and Norcal numbers. Hello????
..yes, Mark. Great comment.
@eb “I had no idea the schism was so great between A’s fans here. It makes me sad, actually.”
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Some of us here have been having the same debates for four years or more, now. At some point, patience wears thin and civility begins to fray. Speaking for myself, I am sympathetic to the long time fans who really want their team to remain in Oakland, but have little patience for fact-deniers (e.g. the people who argue Oakland and San Jose are economically equivalent sites).
@jk “I just combined the Oakland and the anyhwere in Norcal numbers like you did SJ and Norcal numbers. Hello????”
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Um, no. GoA’s fan said 65% of fans “are fine with” San Jose, a true statement. You used the same data to say 65% “prefer” Oakland, a false statement. You’re trying to take credit for the undecided/neutral folks as adherents of your position, GoA’s is not. Hello??????????
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Anyway, given that AN skews toward the East Bay, there’s a pretty good argument to be made that that unscientific survey suggests the majority of fans in the Bay Area PREFER San Jose.
Bartleby It seems you and I just differ in opinion in terms of Wolff and Fischer.
My family goes back four generations in Oakland, though I don’t live their now, and I understand the anger by East Bay residents in terms of the team moving. Oakland was slighted once by the Raiders, who always sold out, so the scarring of that is still there. I actually think this fear/anger is natural.
That being said, those who would rather have the team leave the Bay Area than go to San Jose are clearly delusional.
I don’t think anyone here has ever mentioned that they prefer them to leave the area, except maybe jk-usa when the other alternative is SJ.
@eb “Bartleby It seems you and I just differ in opinion in terms of Wolff and Fischer.
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Fair enough.
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“My family goes back four generations in Oakland, though I don’t live their now, and I understand the anger by East Bay residents in terms of the team moving. Oakland was slighted once by the Raiders, who always sold out, so the scarring of that is still there. I actually think this fear/anger is natural.”
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I understand and agree with this statement completely. My point is that this emotional factor accounts for 99% of the negative feelings out there for Wolff. People are upset about the possibility of a move for emotional reasons, and just throw these other things out there to support the idea that Wolff is a bad guy. I believe if Wolff WERE working toward a new ballpark in Oakland, the same people who are attacking him would be defending him, and would be pointing to things like the tarps and prudent free agent spending as positives rather than negatives (“See, he’s so committed to Oakland he’s found creative new ways to make the economics work under disadvantageous economic circumstances”).
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“That being said, those who would rather have the team leave the Bay Area than go to San Jose are clearly delusional.”
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Agreed, but these folks are the most vocal of the Oakland-only’ers. Many have them have stated they consider a move to San Jose equivalent to a move to Vegas, and will stop following the team if it happens.
“I don’t think anyone here has ever mentioned that they prefer them to leave the area, except maybe jk-usa when the other alternative is SJ.”
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I haven’t heard that either, and I doubt there are many people who feel that way. But the emotions raised on both sides are understandable, since a huge part of why most people root for sports teams is that the team somehow represents your home town. As the old Seinfeld line put it, sports fans root for laundry.
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An A’s move to San Jose will result in “San Jose” being added to the major league map, and Oakland wiped off, forever. THAT, rather than the distance required to travel to the ballpark, is the main reason why a move will make many East Bay fans bitter, and it’s also why many of the most passionate South Bay supporters are so excited about the possibility.
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If/when the 49ers move to Santa Clara, they will keep the name San Francisco. So, outside of some elected officials in the SC and SF, most fans aren’t too worked up about that one way or another. But with the A’s, the rebranding that will come with a move south really marks a shift away from much of their historic fanbase and a commitment to building a new, somewhat different fanbase.
@simon94022 Your observations are astute and well put, as usual.
“I haven’t heard that either”
You haven’t read the Let’s Go Oakland facebook page then.
re: An A’s move to San Jose will result in “San Jose” being added to the major league map, and Oakland wiped off, forever.
…but Oakland voters elected time and time again public officials not at all concerned with keeping the A’s in Oakland. In fact, these officials made decisions that would indicate they didn’t even want the A”s at all (Mt. Davis, firing the city manager,etc) Let the chips fall where they may. ..Even as recently as this past fall, at least one of the mayoral candidates boasted he would spend “not one dime for the A’s”
Fans comes fanatic. It is all emotion. SJ has corporate power. Yes, everyone knows that. Pandora and Clorox are not Facebook and Yahoo. That doesn’t mean we Oaklander *fans* are not all going to be without emotion, with the re-branding of our hometown team.
… the attempt to re-brand our hometown team.
Well said simon94022. It’s funny, at the game last weekend I was screaming, “Let’s go Oakland!” as was the crowd and I realized how weird it will be if the San Jose move happens and that rally cry dies. I know something knew will come along (Let’s go San Jose?), but it will never be the same.
*new
/yawn…popcorn please…
@Nathan,
No need to read the LGO FB page (or any FB page for that matter). OT: the other day I shared some of the
Cisco Field renders to some of my co-workers and youth that we work with. They had no idea the A’s were planning on moving to SJ.
You could probably multiply this sentiment many times over in the South Bay. When it becomes official, your going to see excitement/support from SJ in the likes only now seen for the Sharks.
Howz this for a future cheer, “let’s go SJ let’s go!”. This post brought to you by a South Bay A’s fan who’s been part of many a “let’s go Oakland” cheer.
@tony d.
I was referring Let’s Go Oakland facebook as a place where there are a bunch of people who would prefer the A’s leave the Bay Area as opposed to moving to San Jose since Simon said he hadn’t heard anybody express that sentiment.
@Nathan,
My bad brah! Misunderstood your previous post.
@Simon teams aren’t tied to cities. It happens, man. Don’t lump the A’s into a city’s insecurities.
For many years there ahve been folks in the “Oakland Only” community that truly want “Oakland Only.” It started back when there was mroe activity on the OAFC website. I don’t understand the sentiment, but it exists.
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As I told David… If there is something built at Victory Court, I will ride a gondola with him across Lake Merritt and walk along the channel strumming our guitars and singing songs of reverie as often as he wants.
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Conversely, if it is at Diridon, I’d meet up with anyone who wanted back behind left field for beers before the game.
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I am just ready for it to be over… Somebody freaking make a damn decision… It ain’t gonna be Mayor Quan. It ain’t gonna be Mayor Reed. It ain’t gonna be Lew Wolff.. Bud? For the love of humanity, please open your mouth and tell us what the hell is going on! Pretty please with caramel and sugar on top.
@Jeffrey – we can play ‘smoke on the water’ for that ride.
Well put Jeffrey…..I think an anti-trust lawsuit from San Jose is the only to force a decision.
San Jose is shovel ready and 3 years away the moment they get the go ahead. Bud needs to be forced to do something as if he is not he will not as evidenced by Vincent Piazza and his successful case years ago.
Frank McCourt is going to file his own anti-trust suit against Selig and MLB. He will win easily as Selig thinks he is a god and can do what he wants…..I am rooting for McCourt to take him the cleaners and rip MLB AE in half….
I am a Giants fan rooting for the Dodgers owner! Is this what we have come to??
acoustic power chord heaven
Howard Bryant has written another great article on the A’s and Rays situation. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=bryant-110622
Sid, I don’t know why you insist on constantly bringing up the Piazza case. As we’ve discussed before, the law has changed and that decision has about as much weight as the Dred Scott decision.
Thanks Tony. More red meat for all.
Wow. Bryant pulls no punches Notes San Jose is locked out of MLB despite being the 10th largest city in the country; talks about whether Oakland just can’t support major league baseball, talks about relocation sites such as San Antonio and Charlotte, and this little number:
“A decade ago, when Schott and Hofmann owned the club, the city commissioned HOK to conduct a confidential study of seven potential ballpark sites in Oakland and elsewhere in Alameda County. They concluded that, of the seven, a site quite near to Victory Court referred to in the study as the “Oak to 9th Plan” was the least feasible, with an estimated cost of $565 million.”