You can feel the fortitude and resolve pulsing with each mushy keystroke that was pressed to create MLB’s mealy-mouthed, non-committal statement on #SewerGate:
“As we have stated many times, the Oakland A’s need a new ballpark. Sunday’s unfortunate incident is a stark illustration that they need a long-term solution. This industry has a long record of navigating challenging circumstances and finding solutions. The situation in Oakland is particularly complicated, evident through the years of work it has required, yet we remain hopeful that a resolution can be reached so that the A’s can secure the 21st Century venue that the franchise and its fans deserve.”
That, folks, is leadership at its finest. We can look forward to something happening… sometime in the 21st Century.
newballpark.org 
Lame statement. MLB has known about the A’s ballpark issues for probably close to two decades and has chosen to do nothing about them.
Way to kick the turd down the hill, Bud.
Two consecutive ownership groups, facing the lack of public money or a viable site in Oakland, have tried to do the right thing and move the team a whole 30 miles away. But Bud Selig has blocked them at every step of the way. He should personally be required to clean up the sewage, himself.
I spotted a typo…should have said “22nd century venue”, especially at this rate of progress….
blah blah blah
Mark Purdy places blame where it belongs: on Selig
http://www.mercurynews.com/mark-purdy/ci_23480673/purdy-mr-selig-this-oakland-coliseum-situation-reeks
Purdy does, and Rich Lieberman (among other mental midgets) will continue to bash him for being pro-Wolff/pro-SJ.
@pjk
Mayor Quan is rallying the troops. Don knauss mc hammer and other east bay heavyweights rally together to get a new stadiums together….u san jose guys better watch out….
MC Hammer is a heavyweight? Also Don Knauss hasn’t said two words in public in over 6 months. He’s doing a great job of rallying troops.
I warn people about the E Coli. Some years ago, about a year after the Wolff/Fisher investors took control of the franchise, I attended an A’s/RSox Friday night game. (A’s killed them; Frank T hit a monster HR, etc.) The concession stands ran out of napkins in the second inning. No one was prepared for the crowd. Over the ensuing years I’ve made it to a few A’s games every season. The *amenities* continue to vanish. If Wolff/Fisher want the experience to improve, they can make it happen. They don’t.
I know MC Hammer has been putting on a little weight, but I don’t know if I’d call him a heavyweight. That’s just mean.
If the team would move the 30 miles away then they would be called the San Jose A’s? That sounds and looks bad!
@ML- The Billy Beane/Brad Pitt reference with the “50 feet of crap then there’s us” was well done above. I laughed hard for the first time visiting this site in a while.
Having a sewage backup after a game in a MLB stadium is an embarrassment to MLB. I am sure the Seattle Mariners when it comes time to vote for the A’s to move to San Jose, if they were undecided are all in for Cisco Field.
The A’s have their vote 100% and the rest of the AL West teams if they did not already. These teams have to visit the dump more than anyone else in the league and I am sure would like to avoid future sewage issues.
I gotta believe Selig has issued “guidelines” for Wolff to fulfill at this point. Those guidelines must be reasonable or Wolff would have gone public with his disagreement.
I think that is why he is asking for a 5 year extension because he knows it will take exactly that much time to end up in San Jose based on what Selig is asking for. Wolff in his mind has a 2018 opening day in mind for Cisco Field.
Otherwise, how many owners would have lost their minds on this one? Wolff’s patience does not make any sense. Then again most of this whole A’s to San Jose debacle make any at all…
Check that….5 year extension puts the A’s in San Jose in 2019….Wow that is a long way way.
keep dreaming …
…we’ve all been dreaming of a new A”s ballpark, David. How many more decades is Oakland going to need?
@David- Hope is not a solution.
You like every Pro-Oakland supporter should feel lucky Lew Wolff is the owner of the team.
Any other owner would have already supported a City of San Jose Anti-Trust lawsuit years ago and the A’s would be on their way to San Jose.
Wolff in reality is all that is keeping in the A’s in Oakland….Him and Bud Selig should be your heroes!
While MLB cities from Seattle to San Diego to Cleveland, Philadelphia and even Miami have gotten it done with new ballparks, Oaklanf remains about the only holdout, expecting a free stadium that almost no other MLB city has gotten, and blaming the team owners
An interesting tidbit. The CEO of the Seattle Mariners is Howard Lincoln who represents the team at owners meetings because of the absence of majority owner Hirsohi Yamauchi, who oddly has never been to a Mariners game since owning the team since 1992.
Lincoln was born and raised in Oakland and attend UC Berkeley for undergrad and law school.
Wonder what he thinks about all of this……He being a East Bay guy but was 28 when the A’s moved to Oakland and 18 when the Giants moved to SF.
@David–what’s your theory on how this plays out since you are convinced SJ will never happen? In your opinion how does a ballpark ever get built in Oakland?
@Aaron – Is this going to be another “feel good rally” at the City Center? If so, what will that accomplish? I want to see real action taken by East Bay and/or South Bay politicos and get a baseball-only stadium built before 2020. I don’t care if it is in Oakland, San Jose, Alameda, Richmond, Petaluma, Benicia, the S.F. Peninsula, Vallejo, et. al. I don’t care! As long as the stadium is relatively local somewhere in the East Bay or its environs is fine with me. This whole situation is beyond absurd and I, and I’m sure the rest of us, want to see a solution NOW!!!
Okay, maybe not Petaluma. But get my drift!
I do not hold The Giants, Mount Davis, MLB, Selig, the County Commission, or even Quan responsible for this utter disgrace. I hold the A’s. Their problem is they are too damn nice, and they try to negotiate with people who do not care about their plight, and (or) are not going to do something about it. The pipe issue was a perfect opportunity to make the case in the “Court of Public Opinion” and to MLB about how bad conditions are, and they let it go by. Basically they are saying being “Second Class Citizens” to the Giants for at least five more years is acceptable to us. If I had to move my franchise to San Antonio, Vancouver, or wherever necessary, before I can get a Stadium in San Jose, I would do so promptly, and if Selig and the Giants object, take it to Court (at least I am fighting the battle). The bigger question than the A’s, is what will happen with the Raiders? I know the NFL wants to keep LA open as a bargaining chip against other Cities, not upgrading facilities. But does anyone think the image conscious NFL can allow a team to play in such a negative environment (particularly when the other team in the Bay Area is heading to a nice new Stadium complete with Super Bowl?). Beyond that, will this incident change the Davis Family thinking about remaining in Oakland? We know Al moved the team to LA before, why not again (this time to the Rose Bowl until the New Stadium gets built)? I guarantee you, if it was my team, I would be in LA when the lease ends.
Wolff/Fisher bought the team knowing SJ was off the table. They need to build where they are allowed, or get out of the way (sell). Some people believe Wolff when he says he looked all over Oakland and “couldn’t find a doable site”. But anyone with half a brain knows that was a lie. He can’t hide from his 1998 quote that “if I were to build a stadium in the Bay Area it would only be in SJ”. The guy cannot be trusted. I don’t believe him or his “binder” that he references all too often.
@pjk – before you say it for 5 millionth time… put it up for sale and we can so who will put up the money for the team and stadium. No one thought the SAC Kings would sell for so much. Stop the speculation and put it up for sale, then we can see how much interest there is.
Lastly, he’s supposed to be the spokesman for management and he is terrible at that. He just needs to go away and keep quiet like Fisher.
David: Who has come forward willing to spend $1 billion+ to buy the A’s and build Oakland a free stadium? For the billionth time – nobody. Aren’t the Sacto Kings getting public money for an arena, vs. the $0.00 Oakland is offering for an A’s stadium?
Once again, David, MLB’s own blue ribbon committee studying ballpark opportunities in the A’s territory has found nothing to report. Zip. Zero.
I just checked: $250 million in public money for a Kings arena. The A’s aren’t getting 250 cents from Oakland.
David, you conveniently forget that the Giants bought their team knowing their T-Rights to SJ were NOT set in stone. Wolff & Co bought the team knowing that it would take a 3/4 vote of MLB owners to overturn the rights.
@Matt – What’s wrong with Petaluma? I have a perfectly good field across from my house. It would be great for a stadium. What, you mean you can’t just point to a field and have it be a good location!?!?!?
@David Brown: I don’t think they need to make a big stink about the pipes. If the rumors are true, they will be granted SJ if they just check off boxes on a list.
Glenn Dickey has a column on all this today where he is – gasp! – more critical of Jerry Brown than Lew Wolff. But Dickey still thinks the Giants can sue MLB, which they can’t. http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/sewage-smell-or-not-dont-expect-new-as-stadium-anytime-soon/Content?oid=2468719
@David,
Will you stop with that “Wolff knew when he bought the team…” crap! We are way beyond that at this point. Oakland isn’t happening for an A’s ballpark, as even MLB couldn’t find a viable solution in the East Bay (see Wolff recent quotes in sport journal). Your local pols have even reinforced this with their complete lack of leadership. Heck, Oakland might not even happen for our Raiders; what do you think of that? Cisco Field SJ 2018…IT WILL HAPPEN!
@suit,
Of course this is all Wolff’s fault…
@pjk – put the franchise up for sale and buyers will come forward. I can’t buy your house until you offer it for sale. What’s so hard to understand about that? Hostile takeovers don’t work in professional sports. Ellison’s attitude and hostile attitude is partially why he is not the owner of Warriors right now. If Fisher sales, it probably won’t be to someone they don’t like, or aggravates them.
@TonyD – I will express my on-topic opinions, as I see fit. If I check the archives you’ve been calling SJ in: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 …
@David – We don’t need buyers. We need a group to come out and say that they’ll build a stadium in Oakland without the requirement of owning the team. That may not actually be desirable for the A’s or that group, but that’s besides the point. If they could pencil out how it could be paid for without public money at a reasonable price, with reasonable assurances that it would pay for itself, it would prove that Wolff missed something.
So far, no one has done that.
@Tony D
Ouch. David got you there Tony D….
@Matt
Na I don’t expect another rally. I think Quan, Dobbins and others are taking a backseat and just letting things play out. The problem in Oakland is that there always going to be in debt, so why not reconstruct that debt anyway for a new stadium, marry the Raiders and hopefully the A’s can find a temp home after 2014
@lonestranger
You are right. I looked up some of the big businesses we have in the east bay.. Chevron, Safeway etc, and none of those guys have stepped up.
That is why I get a lil offended and sad when I read saveoaklandsports, it has all this pro Oakland propaganda grassroots etc. Yet our “own” don’t support the proper way to get a stadium.
We can’t blame mount davis forever. Al really wanted a new stadium in Oakland back in 94, we should have just told Al, ok here is our 200 mil, you cover the rest….the deal has hurt future east bay sports….
I did have an idea tho…what If a generous Mark Davis were to forgive the remaining debt on MOUNT DAVIS, in exchange for a new tax or some new pyblic funding for a new Raiders stadium. Could that work???
KJ showed how to get it done in Sac. First you find the money man
then get the pols in Sac inline. Unfortunately, the pols in Oakland are so inept and clueless. Unfortunately, the money people recognize that Oakland is NOT a desirable place so they stay away. I am sure the people from Frisco have been trying to help the clueless Quan but she aint finding the money or get people to commit to a failing project.
If KJ can get a software exec to overpay for a pathetic BB team in Sac, it speaks volumes about the situation in Oakland.
When Joe Lacob dished Quan and her non-existent imaginary plans, you know it is over for Oakland.
Until some fans or players get seriously hurt by some falling concrete, LW seems content.
Damn I gotta contact Amy Trask…I do think that idea can work. Since Oakland allready is in bed with the Raiders, those mark Davis payments could go toward a new stadium. I don’t know the offical numbers in what Oakland owes toward my.davis…but if its reasonable , Mark can pay it off however those payments Oakland would owe anyway could go to a stadium. It does take comprimise but at least our tax dollars would go to something new.
@aaron- you missed the news- Amy Trask no longer works for the Raiders and mark Davis has no money- just what his daddy gave him
The Davis family ain’t broke. But their financial problems are noted. And yeah i forgot Amy Trask is gone. Since I’m from the Oakland crowd , I havent heard a word of Mark Davis even willing to sale. I think he is going to let Reggie McKenzie run the team, but I agree he could be unpredictable , so Oakland should be worried.
Bud Selig’s decision to not act on territory rights seems that he is giving Oakland the leverage it needs. The answer to the A’s moving to SJ with a simple yes or no could have happened years ago but Selig’s decision to not give a answer and delay the process works in Oakland’s favor. Everyone is up in arms and have thrown various reasons out there towards Oakland and the Mayor (yes she is not the best at her job but when was the last time Oakland had a mayor that cared about the city and our teams? she has secured investor money for projects such as the Brooklyn Basin investment that can change the city forever, and has tried to actually save the sports teams) Let’s look at the facts. When he purchased the A’s Lew stated San Jose is the only place he will build a ballpark. He “said” that he would work with the city of Oakland to find a ballpark site but through all negotiations he publicly blasted the city and there potential sites basically sabotaging the planned sites. After a halfheartedly attempt to please Baseball he was quoted as ” We believe we have exhausted the venue options suggested in Oakland and several other Oakland options we explored on our own.” The city and Jean Quan openly spoke about this and stated they will not negotiate with Lew wolf and co. due to them not negotiating in good faith with the city, and would speak directly with Bud Selig and the Blue Ribbon Committee about there plans to develop a new stadium. Quan and the city have said to have had sit down meetings to go over plans with the blue ribbon committee and Selig about building a baseball stadium in Oakland. All the gripping of no news on Oakland’s part should be taken as good news. with direct negotiation with MLB and not a owner that has contentiously openly hated the city and has done everything possible from publicly bashing the city and fans of the east bay, to suppressing the team as much as possible to “show” MLB that baseball in Oakland and the East Bay can not work. Recently Quann has stated that due to past failures of previous mayors the city is just about caught up to where they need to be with EIR, etc for stadium negotiations, the delay by Bud Selig and the Blue Ribbon Committee seems to be working in Oakland’s favor. With EIR in progress and potential funding from investors such as China due to Mayor Quan’s Connections, i.e Brooklyn Basin, with 1.5 Billion dollar investment committed so far, Oakland is on the right path to success. As Quan was quoted saying in regards to Oakland investment “Trust me,” she said. “There will be other deals.” In Lew Wolf’s letter regarding the stadium he had specifically 2 goals, “As Managing Partner of the A’s, I simply want to accomplish two equally important organizational goals: To have continuous monetary resources critical to producing a winning team and to create a fulfilling fan and sponsorship experience that equals or exceeds the other Major League Baseball teams.” We will see if he sticks to these goals when EIR’s are done and the city of Oakland proposes there stadium plans to the public and MLB. Everyone else believes and is investing in Oakland why not you Lew? 500 Million is just as good in Oakland, if not better than in San Jose.(No offense S.J) Just remember Oakland fans, No news from MLB is good news for us.
@Karim
Blah blah blah , I’m from Oakland, but I cant make excuses for our city. We had mant chances. The mount Davis debt really sucks but we didn’t have to make the deal.
David: Make me an offer on my house. Everything is always for sale.
re: put the franchise up for sale and buyers will come forward.
…What we’d most likely get is the same thing that happened in Seattle – out-of-town investors buy the team pledging to keep it local, they make a doomed-to-fail attempt to a new Sonics arena and then move the team halfway across the country.