Update 10/20 3:00 PM – The A’s front office decided to kick off the hot stove league early by trading IF Cliff Pennington and 3B prospect Yordy Cabrera to Arizona for CF Chris Young (not that Chris Young) and $500,000. This has immediately led to speculation regarding the future of current CF Coco Crisp, who is scheduled to earn $7 million in 2013 and has a $7.5 million club option for 2014 ($1 million buyout). Young is due $8.5 million in 2013 and has a $11 million club option for 2014 ($1.5 million buyout). Cabrera was flipped to Miami for reliever Heath Bell.
Pennington was either going to remain a mediocre shortstop or become an okay second baseman surrounded by many other okay second basemen in Oakland. That makes a trade for Young a steal, even if there’s no obvious place for him at the moment. Young came off a subpar 2012 season, especially compared to his 2010 All-Star campaign. September callup Adam Eaton (not that Adam Eaton) appears to be the CF of the future for the Snakes.
The A’s still have something of a logjam at 2B going forward. Jemile Weeks, Adam Rosales, Scott Sizemore, and Eric Sogard are on the 40-man roster. Grant Green waits in the wings. Expect more trades.
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Much to go over in this edition.
- The NHLPA rejected the NHL’s most recent CBA proposal, which would have had the owners/players revenue split at 50/50. The union responded with three different proposals which would’ve more gradually brought the split down to 50/50. In response, the NHL has cancelled all games through the end of October. At this point it seems highly unlikely that the proposed 82-game compressed schedule could be pulled off. [NHL | Washington Times/Steven Whyno | NJ.com/Charles Curtis]
- The Raiders received a 24-hour extension to the weekly TV blackout deadline imposed by the NFL, and were able to reach the goal of 85% of seats sold for the game Sunday vs. the Jags. Next potential blackout date: the next home game against another Florida team: Tampa Bay. (Also – kind of weird that the Raiders are playing all three Florida teams this season.) [CSN Bay Area/Paul Gutierrez]
- The City of Reno was able to get a ballpark built in the middle of the Great Recession by getting a $55 million short-term loan. That loan will be due before the end of 2014, and the City and Reno Aces are scrambling to refinance the loan. Property taxes used to fund a TIF plan for the ballpark have dropped drastically, forcing the two parties to come up with something else. The Aces, which are owned by Indiana Pacers owner and mall magnate Herb Simon, are willing to pay $1 million in rent per year, with the rest of the $3 million annual obligation split between the City’s general fund, a ticket tax, whatever meager redevelopment money can be scraped up, and other public sources. Simon has threatened to move the team if no deal can be met. The Aces won the 2012 AAA championship and were awarded the AAA All-Star Game for 2013. [Reno Gazette Journal/Brian Duggan]
- Lew Wolff came out against San Jose’s Measure D, which would raise the city’s minimum wage from the state’s $8/hour to $10/hour. Wolff’s argument is that the hike is unfair to hotels and restaurants in San Jose, which could potentially lose business to Santa Clara and other neighboring cities. The hike would also presumably affect seasonal employees at the two stadia Wolff wants to build, the Earthquakes Stadium and Cisco Field. Wolff played down that issue, saying that there’s less direct competition there to affect the Quakes/A’s. The City Council is split on the measure, while Mayor Chuck Reed has come out against it, along with the Chamber and Restaurants Association. My take? I hope it’s passed in San Jose, because like the plastic bag ban that was passed a couple years ago that spurred similar bans throughout the county, it could lead to a minimum wage hike countywide. As I’ve mentioned before, I have relatives who work low-pay, low-skill hotel/restaurant jobs, and they could certainly use the hike – though they don’t work in San Jose proper. [San Jose Mercury News/John Woolfolk]
- Speaking of the Earthquakes, their groundbreaking ceremony is Sunday at 11:30 AM at 1125 Coleman Ave, San Jose. At least 5,500 have RSVP’d for the event, which should break a Guinness record. Walkups are welcome if they bring their own shovels.
- Teams are announcing their ticket prices for the upcoming season. At least in terms of season tickets, the A’s have no change from 2012. The Cubs have announced modest drops in response to a large attendance dropoff, and the crosstown White Sox have announced even bigger cuts. [Chicago Tribune/Paul Sullivan | ChicagoNow, James Fegan]
- The A’s announced their 2013 promotional schedule, and while it doesn’t have everything yet, there are now six fireworks nights instead of the usual five on the slate. There will now be two in August, on the 3rd and 31st.
- The Port of Oakland placed its executive director on paid leave pending an investigation into improper spending and expensing by Port employees. This included a $4,500 tab at a Houston strip club, and numerous other suspect charges in the US and abroad by the Port’s maritime director James Kwon. Abuses could be so widespread as to be institutional. Yesterday, port workers scheduled a protest against fiscal mismanagement. The blowback from this investigation could curtail or place a trained eye on certain Port activities, such as (pre) development at Howard Terminal. Knowing the Port’s history, it’ll probably be more of the same. [SFGate/Matier & Ross | KTVU | SF Business Times/Eric Young]
- Cal may have trouble paying off the $11.6 million annual debt service on Memorial Stadium because of lackluster premium seat sales. This smells a lot like the Mt. Davis deal. [Daily Californian/Justin Abraham]
- The Warriors further explain their SF arena vision, with the help of Snøhetta architect Craig Dykers. The form will be “soft” and “lozenge-shaped”. The Fiscal Feasibility Report unveiled earlier this week can be viewed here. [Golden State Warriors | SocketSite]
More as it comes.
newballpark.org 
I really like the concept for the Warriors arena. Should be interesting from here on out…
11 sellouts in a row for the Raiders, that’s good news. Certainly the Raiders have manipulated the ticket situation to get that result, but I always thought it was incredibly bad marketing to not get your games on tv and sell your product. The 49ers did it for years during their down period, I’m glad the Raiders followed that example.
I admit I could care less about the Warriors, but that arena looks pretty blah. Didn’t they say they wanted a Sydney Opera House type of impact for their venue? They’re coming up short, IMO.
OT: the Reds added to our post-season misery, now it looks like the Cards may do the same…@#$%&!
FOX has already started working on the people’s minds for their rebranding. The SPEED channel now shows a combo logo “FOX Sports SPEED”. In related news, FOX/SPEED has lost out (or just didn’t care) on the bidding for F1, and it is believed that NBC Sports won the bid. MLB, NASCAR and college football could be the pillars of Fox Sports 1 content.
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While checking this out, I saw that there is a SPEED2 Network, obviously not carried nearly as well as SPEED is by cable & satellite providers. I understand why FOX wants to convert SPEED to FS1 (hint, it’s carried pretty well by providers) but I wonder if SPEED2 becomes the new SPEED and carries all the off-beat racing series and whether or not it becomes the fallback (rather than FS2 or FS3) for NASCAR or other racing shows. Something like that could increase demand and maybe get it picked up by more providers,
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Anyway, it looks like sports leagues might be the winners over the next few years as their media deals come up and FOX, NBC, CBS, ESPN, and perhaps even other networks bid higher in hopes of filling their hours with meaningful content. With that many networks there are a lot of hours to fill.
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However, it is still unknown whether or not this helps me live my dream of being able to watch curling year-round.
Eb, I tend to agree on the actual arena. The site plan is awesome, however.
Yeah, it’s a cool concept, but if you are already going way out, might as well make something that is truly amazing. I don’t know, maybe I’m just bitter because the A’s and Raiders will seemingly never have a new, destination point type venue. *kicks a rock*
Speaking of bitter, I swear, I can’t take another Giants WS win. We finally have a great season and it can potentially be overshadowed completely (coming back twice in two series, beating the Tigers). Why do the baseball gods love the Giants all of a sudden?
They might be better served making the arena shaped like a boat with an accessible view deck on top. As it is it looks too much like a boxy version of that art piece in Millennium park.
Keep the faith. It will happen. I am just not sure it will happen for both in Oakland.
I thought they might go like the Nordic Opera house. I forgot which country, but it’s cool
I like the Warriors new building plans, lets see if they can get their act together and put a real team on the floor to match hype for the new stadium.
I cannot believe Cal thought they would get so much money per seat. Unless they come with enormous perks – private club, visits w/ chancellor, etc. the person in charge of the pricing scheme should be fired.
But, thankfully Cal cannot be this stupid; even if this article is a ploy to plead for long-time donors to step up, the new TV contracts will totally pay for the stadium, and the program:
roughly comes to $21 million annually (4x as much as their previous contract) for the ESPN/Fox portion, and you can probably add on the 3rd tier rights to bring in $5 million annually (on the low end) through the Pac-12 regional network.
They’ll have no problem covering.
Yea, UFL is done for the year. Might try again in the spring, but I’m not sure how that fixes anything. They’ve reportedly lost $120M in the past three years.
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http://www.sbnation.com/2012/10/20/3530184/ufl-season-canceled-2012
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There is some BSing going on in the UFLAccess forums that the teams should just bail on the league and join the new USFL, which is launching in 2013 or 14. There is apparently no confidence in the UFL league and the owners, so they might do better to just disband the whole thing. The USFL has a different business model than the UFL (mainly that the teams are considered league owned in the USFL instead of half-owned as in the UFL, and that they will be playing in the Spring/Summer instead of head-to-head with the NFL). There are plenty of failed second-tier football attempts to learn from.
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One of the faults of the UFL was that they tried to launch in traditional football markets, which of course, usually had other teams. The USFL claims they are looking at markets that have no NFL or MLB teams as a way to fill a sports void and hopes to have eight teams in it’s first season. I would guess that California gets at least one team, probably near Los Angeles. There are two MLB teams there, but they can shift the football team closer to the Inland Empire if they are worried about sharing the sportsfan. I think LA is unique in that it has no pro football and they might look past the MLB presence. The NFL’s plans to move a team there might screw up a USFL team. Can a team put there build enough of a following to withstand a potential NFL move?
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If the UFL disbands, then Sacramento maybe gets a team, as they have consistently been the highest attended home games over the last few years.
Lew Wolff doesn’t want to pay his workers a living wage; Charles Johnson doesn’t want to raise taxes to save the California public school (including the universities) system. They’re both cut-throat businessmen, although Wolff’s career is a lot closer to Selig’s used-car salesman background than is Johnson’s high-class theivery (or success, depending on your bent). Funny how those facts fade away while the teams are on the field.
Tone Deaf, hope for your sake you’ve stocked up on antacid. Bitterness can eat you alive.
@xootsuit: LW didn’t say he was opposed to raising the minimum wage.
What he said waas make it a statewide raise so all businesses have to play by the same rules. I would think people who want to see the minimum wage raised who hail his comments as an indirect support of a CA minimum wage that high.
Totally OT but back to baseball. I see the A’s traded Pennington to the D backs for Chris Young? Are we about to see the A’s add payroll to stay contenders next year or another “Billyball” project? Only time will tell.
@swimsuit,
Lol! Good one. (No antacid necessary because, well…its only a game. If the Giants winning it all ever affects my ability to pay bills/feed the family, then I’ll stock up.)
Pay the people.
MrS: It’s true, Wolff is opposing a hike in the SJ minimum wage by pretending that any statewide hike would be fine by him. “‘I’m not against the minimum wage being any number, Wolff said.” If you believe that, then I guess there’s not much more to say on the subject.
I can see the A’s picking up Drew’s contract for one more year. The A’s still has Addison Russell (SS) in the minors who should be ready in 2-3 years. Peter Gammons and MLB.com gave this kid positive reviews during the A’s stretch run last month. Hopefully he gets called up to AAA this year or next. Due to his body size 6’1” 210 lbs he has the potential to play SS, 3rd, 1st, or the outfield once he stops growing.
WTF? Since when is US soccer becoming like Europe? http://www.ktvu.com/news/sports/soccer/rowdy-la-galaxy-soccer-fans-arrested-earthquakes-g/nSjmP/
Good grief people can be stupid… Throwing beer at police and setting off smoke bombs ALWAYS ends up well…
Soon US soccer clubs will start banning fans from other cities.
Doesn’t raising the minimum wage just make things more expensive all around? If you are making minimum wage and it goes up, you can afford more expensive things only until the companies paying for the wage increase raise the cost of their products. They now have to cover their new expenses and will pass the buck to everyone else.
eb, what you’re seeing at that Quakes game is no different than what happens at every single NFL venue every weekend. A couple of women (probably tipsy or worse) were fighting, the police saw fit to eject and arrest them, and in response the LA supporters group decided to leave the game before more of them got in trouble. It would have been a non-story if it were at anything but a soccer game. But the SCPD, SJPD and Sunnyvale PD all overreacted from what I’m hearing leading to a scene like this outside Buck Shaw Stadium.
The fear of “soccer violence” is laughable when there are stabbings and shootings outside the Coliseum or Candlestick every few weeks during football season.
@Dan, stabbings and shootings outside of Candlestick, the Coliseum hasn’t had the pleasure. I see your point, but the “they do it too” argument is a slippery slope. I think we can all agree the NFL experience has reached a new low. But, hey, I have zero interest in soccer, I was just struck by the story as I thought Quake games were very much family orientated events.
fan violence is deplorable. It doesn’t matter where. It’s unfortunate that I have seen this kind of shit happen (not with riot police) at every venue in the Bay Area. Usually it is outside of the stadium, btu I have seen a Giants fan jump an A’s fan from behind in the third deck of AT&T Park… An A’s fun punch a Dodgers fan in Right Field, two A’s fans try to throw each other off the Amtrak stair case… It’s ridiculous and it says more about our society than any of our sports/towns sports happen in.
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Personally, I’ll be happy when idiots who act like that stay home. Because even if they are rooting for the team I am rooting for, they aren’t part of my fanbase.
Here is a blurb that updates the LA football stadium issue – The clowns at the top of the NFL still think that Dodger Stadium is a preferred location.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/jason-la-canfora/20630637/
@jeffery
My experience with fan violence beileve it or not but has always been in SF, in Oakland i went to the Raider game yesterday in our exhausting, yet pleasant win over jacksonville, everybody was in good spirits and there was not even a peep.. OPD had a boring quiet afternoon. just shows that oaklan is not as violent as some think.
Berry, it exists everywhere. Oakland included. This isn’t about one city versus another. Anywhere you get large crowds of drunk people together stupidity can rule.
So, in everyone’s opinion, would a Giants WS win effectively kill off a large portion of the casual fans the A’s might have won with their season? I was at Target and Costco today and pretty much 1 out of 3 people were rocking Giants gear.
@eb,
I’d say yes to your question. Our magical season of walk offs and division championship has just about been rendered moot by the @#$%% Giants and their plastic fanbase. Thanks a lot Cincy and St. Louis…go Detroit!
Yep, you can sure forget any casual fans remembering the A’s season. Hopefully the Tigers didn’t get rusty waiting for National League to finish its business
eb, I’ll echo that sentiment as well. The Giants win the series and no one will remember the A’s season. We’ll be right back to where we started, largely irrelevant to the casual fans.