A site run by three San Luis Obispo residents aims to determine which potential A’s ballpark site(s) fans like the most. Named Ballpark Vote, the site was launched three weeks ago. Listed are five sites or ballpark concepts:
- Howard Terminal (Oakland)
- Coliseum City (Oakland)
- Estuary Waterfront Project (Oakland)
- Raley Field (Sacramento)
- Cisco Field (San Jose)
Fans are allowed to vote for more than one choice. Even though the site was up since at least May 7, I only found out about it early this morning. Between then and the time of this writing, voting has jumped up considerably. Obviously the results aren’t scientific, and are prone to change due to the nature and dynamics of social media. Voting appears to be limited to one set of votes per browser session, though people could use multiple browsers to game the system.
What fascinates me about this is that when I first checked the site at nearly 2 AM, Howard Terminal had over 500 votes, double that of the next two selections, Cisco Field and Coliseum City. Since then Cisco Field has spiked well past Howard Terminal. Some in the stAy crowd have called out the site for being a tool of ownership or some sort of fraud, without any proof of course. When I tweeted about the site I received a handful of replies and only two favs, so it’s not as if there was some massive viral effect at work. The site is new enough that it hasn’t established a monthly trend, a common metric used to measure traffic. Hopefully the site runners will reveal some of the statistical data behind the survey.
newballpark.org 
It’s both sad and funny when certain people can be counted on to always cry conspiracy of some kind when they see something they don’t like.
For what it’s worth, I voted after seeing it in ML’s tweet. While I whole-hearted support San Jose’s effort, I didn’t vote for San Jose. As far as I’m concerned, the vote is simply what people ideally want, not necessarily what they think is the best option on the table.
I’ve never heard of or seen that estuary waterfront proposal.
They have changed the language since I first voted (weeks ago). Originally, you had to vote for your choice without taking into account anything like feasibility, potential to generate revenue, etc.
For that reason, I voted for HT at the time, despite preferring SJ in real life.
I’m surprised they put the last one in this. It’s clearly just to show what could be on that spot, because as it was noted here, it’s as unrealistic as they get.
AH, no, I take it back, that language was from the reddit thread about it, not the voting site itself. Still, I voted for an option that wasn’t what I would actually want in real life, because I was asked to vote “idealistically, not pragmatically”.
Well considering 2 of the sites aren’t even possible (Estuary and Raley Field) nevermind financial issues, this is a pretty stupid poll.
You’re right Dan. But if it gets more people thinking about the issue, I’d say it’s doing some good.
Funny how only 1 site is feasible in this vote and that is Cisco Field.
Went to the A’s game last night, sat 4 rows back on the 1st base line behind the field box for 46 dollars total….wow.
Best game I have seen in years in person, one pitch after a meeting on the mount and Donaldson cracked it…..So much fun.
*mound not mount
@Sid: I got front row mezzanine tickets (right at 3rd base) for when the Yankees come to town for $52 each. It made me realize I need to go to more A’s games.
I voted, not that it means anything. It would be real nice, perhaps one day we could vote on different amenities, heights, designs, etc., to an A’s ballpark, and the A’s actually take are votes in to consideration, man that would be nice, but at the rate we are going the vote would be on a park being built outside the San Francisco Bay Area (Sacramento too).
Howard Terminal has Beer Revolution within walking distance. That alone gets my vote.
@ Briggs
Man as undoable as H.T. may be that one reason was enough to get my vote.
Is the Estuary Waterfront Project and Victory Court the same proposed ballpark site?
@llpec – No, Estuary Waterfront Project is on the other side of the train tracks & Lake Merritt Channel from Victory Court.
BallparkVote.com creator here. As mentioned, a lot of the sites aren’t realistic. But I think it brings attention to the topic in a fun way. I think it has potential to pick up on trends — are the votes trending toward waterfront venues, or Oakland, or San Jose, or retro style rendering, etc… In a dream scenario, the site will pick up a lot of traffic from Bay Area residents and rally support for a new ballpark somewhere.
I’m hoping the site gets enough votes so that social media trends get drowned out over time.
There has been a significant spike in votes today. We’ll take a look at the database and see if something funny is going on from particular IP addresses. We’ll clean up data semi-regularly if certain IPs show a ridiculous amount of voting, probably starting next week.
@Brant – Thanks for doing this. I too am curious to see what trends arise.
@D’Sjon – We’ve over this. Unless you have a plan to properly replace the lost parkland and boating center, you don’t have a plan. And no, opening part of a stadium to the public on off days is not a sufficient act.
@Nathan – In a year the Whole Foods will open on Stockton with its own brewpub, so there’s that too.
my design is realistic, the pole doesn’t touch financing or design intent. but i apprciate ML & ballparkVote.com. The pole is going off my old design that ML posted in early 2013 when I was the only one with a proposal out for the A’s! Now coli city mercilessly figured out how to make a baseball stadium work at coli city, complete with a east oakland man made river for splash hits, open outfield and right field monster just like mine, buildings looking over into the stadium as well!!! i wonder where they figured that out from, hmmmm… look closely Coli City stole my stadium concept from 2012, that is fact! ML did a post on it EVolution of Coli City! Fact: lets be real i have 100% private financing and i have new updated 2014 designs that does take into account Victory COurt. Waiting for ML to do a post on it but he doesn’t believe in it. His blog so he can do what ever he wants… Fact: I have over 14 acres at Estuary Park alone because my developer wants to development a master plan that works for Oakland not just a build a stadium. complete with wharf, shopping, retail, media hub, commercial, cultural, hospitality, residential. Im thinking about the future! Fact: my design works 365 days of the year! despite the bad bio and no updated renders i have done in 2014 in their poll, Im very proud of myself! Fact: this design was done on my own spare time and on weekends all by myself! Fact: i will be the last one standing bc HT cant be build on piers ask the Warjas! Fact: san jose is dead. Fact: coli city stole my design. Fact: Im more realistic then you think.. have a nice day
DD, Fact: That land is already slated for other use and can’t be used for a ballpark.
dmoas Fact: You have no idea what conversations i have with mike ghielmetti.
Ohh who is Mike Ghielmetti? Then dont say what the land is already slated for lol; Hes the guy i have open discussions with that will make OAK TO 9th a ball park village, i send him 2014 renders of how oak to 9th will look with a stadium sitting pretty in its front yard.
im not here to debate, you dont know so you can only speculate but behind the scenes.. Fact: im closer to a stadium being built than anyone else is… and unless you get from ML you will never know. Fact: 100% private financing for EP which HT nor CC has… but the warjas have private financing but im not building in SF, if oakland let me do what SF is letting the warriors do then this discussion of a vote would not exist.
im very educated got to get up pretty early to get one over on me.
@SMG- I would go got more games if I didn’t live in San Jose. Its just too much getting out there in rush hour (even using BART) and then coming back.
Last night the game went super fast and ended in 2hrs and 26min so I got home at a decent hour.
Normally it would take 3hrs plus. This is also the reason why I do not go to Giants game more as well.
San Jose is simply too far from Oakland and SF. When the A’s move down to SJ I am going to 20 games a year for sure.
@Brant – You`re a pro Oakland cheater!
Just because you don`t like the result you are going to change it!
@Briggs
Cisco Field would have ISO Beers, Market Beet Company, and Original Gravity in walking distance. I vote either Howard Terminal or Cisco Field for beer purposes.
@Sid: I feel ya. I’m in the west valley and it’s 25 miles for me just to get to the Fremont BART station. Oakland games just aren’t convenient for me. Giants games I can at least take VTA Light Rail a couple of stops to connect to Caltrain at Diridon.
@DD: Your writing skills are pretty atrocious for someone describing themselves as ‘very educated’. I can’t even properly understand the point you’re trying to make because it’s a jumbled mess of abbreviations, sentence fragments, poor grammar, etc. If you’re proud of your work, good for you. But you have to realize that virtually nobody in the media or public is taking it seriously.
ML – dude your the only one over it, im just beginning… lol
You dont know what i have bc your not trying to find out! hahahaha you want to keep a closed mind about my proposal and stay defensive about my renders being yes they are impressive! thats what im going for! Especially since im in polls with big wig firms who have more man power, I still get scrutinized with the same critical eye as the big wigs. no respect i see… im the future
you want to act like i dont have vision or im not worthy of coming up with a grand design to feed the needs of the public bc you want to act like you already know it all about my new design instead of doing proper investigation to see how realistic my design is? lame dude… im not gonna say your hating though lol
i have strong ideas worth taking into consideration but there site specific designs for a site specific solution. You dont like my design, fine… You dont want to bring attention to estuary park bc YOU think its unrealistic… ok, well keep following the progress of san jose stadium or sacramento lol but you have a fan base that wants to know about what i have. Why deny them, we dont all think the same, people have ideas maybe that i havent thought about to make my design better but you wont give them the chance to express how they feel bc you have something against me, that im designing a stadium?? Whoa!!! I may be the cities and the teams only shot! but if your too proud or over my design like you say then it may come across to your fans as if your not doing your due diligence?? this is a new day, a new design, just like coli city has new designs, i do too but you cant trash my design like you can CC, when talking about my design you have to give up props followed by a round of applause!
for instance, If i were to design for san jose i would have different site analysis to come up with a different design solution. everybody I went to school for this, i investigated all the sites.
ok back to your assumption as i have no plan for relocating the park, sigh, dude i did… grrrr why assume. the short answer bc you give no interviews is I have relocated Estuary Park right next to the stadium and made the park bigger plus i have enhanced wetlands within Victory Court and all around estuary park; we call it BlueGreen architecture;(standard practice) tied it all seamlessly with a media hub and shopping with entertainment district. Whoa!!! sounds cool huh… if you look at any of my NEW RENDERS its in your face, i kinda showed it off too..
Im on Twitter, you dont follow me, im on fb, we not friends, Im on instagram you dont follow bc if you did then you would see all the love i get for my new design! not to mention they are all public profiles! anybody can see for themselves i have alot of sneak previews! i have over 12 renders out! Ht has one, CC has my design… San jose has one angle, im all angles, i leave nothing to the imagination, i design comprehensively
re ballparkvote….
first let me say i was a cheater for sac.
as a cheater i know when others are also cheating.
and oakland tried to out cheat me.
so if you are going to change the results…
first make it so no one can cheat
and
start everyone at zero.
smg – shots fired! lol my writing skills are not not as good as my design skills but i will say this for you in complete slow sentence, see if you can follow!?? after my stadium gets built ill polish up on my writing skills when i write a book about my life; when your comparing my design skills to writing skills nobody writes as talented as i draw, sooo… even your writing skills sucks next to my designs. #haha
I’m sorry you have to deal with this ridiculous bullshit ML.
https://www.google.com/search?q=san+jose+ballpark&safe=off&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=7OCHU66kHMyOqga7lICQCw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw&biw=1440&bih=775#q=a's+stadium+san+jose&safe=off&tbm=isch
Yep, there’s only one angle for the San Jose renderings… said no one ever.
Even better, here’s ESPN with 8 different angles. I guess ESPN doesn’t count for whatever reason though…
http://espn.go.com/mlb/photos/gallery/_/id/6672553/image/6/a-stadium-renderings-conceptual-plans-proposed-ballpark-san-jose
I seem to remember way back in 1995 one Bruton Smith of NASCAR fame was lauded for his idea (and implementation) of high-rise condos overlooking Texas Motor Speedway. Maybe the CC/HT designers copied him?
@all
In a perfect Oakland sports resolution. ..the Raiders update the Coliseum or build a new stadium with development and the A’s get private and public help to make Howard Terminal Field…it would help give Oakland a new attraction and help downtown and business and sports/civic pride
@D’Sjon – Mike Ghielmetti? The guy who supported Victory Court until it became too expensive, and is behind Howard Terminal until it too becomes too expensive? I’m not here to promote your site. I look at every site at least once to give it a proper evaluation. After that it’s all up to the City and ballpark proponents to keep it in play. All I can tell at this point is that you’re the only person pushing your concept. If you want to hide behind, “We got it figured out in private, you’ll see” fine. Just don’t ask me to fall for it.
DD, the problem is your land is spoken for. In CA, especially in the bay area, building on land earmarked as open space is a non-starter. Whether you someone’s ear or not, it ain’t going to happen. And none of that gets into whether the area itself is feasible or not. But you can keep your delusions if that makes you happy.
Brant takes all votes away from San Jose, but none from Oakland.
Still does not fix the problem with closing browser and voting again.
#codingfail
All of this may be a mute point. The MLB owners may be looking into other candidates than Rob Manfred (Selig’s guy) That’s possibly why the owners formed their committee to interview other MLB commissioner candidates. Evidently the owners know that Selig has not been a good commissioner and may be looking to go in a different direction. This may be good news for the A’s to San Jose move. And it’s doubtful Wolff would even considering selling the A’s – with the spiraling values of sports franchises lately – the Clippers – selling for over $2 bil. for example. So a possible Howard Terminal A’s ballpark is very remote at this point.
Hmm, looks like the votes got reshuffled. Estuary Park and San Jose are currently neck to neck. Who cares about polls, right?
Funny to see this. I was riding my bike yesterday around Estuary Park after getting coffee at Cost Plus. They’re like the Oakland A’s of coffee, Cost Plus. If you make a lot of coffee, check them out. My store is right across the street from Howard Terminal Field or whatever they call it.
They always say hi to you – their contract requires it. Kinda freaks me out.
Nice views around Estuary Park. For the moment, I’m enjoying the empty space. The soccer field is ragged, a girls team was practicing on it. The Cash and Carry has been leveled, now a giant concrete plinth surrounded by rubble. A gentleman was casting for mercury fish. My kinda place.
Ballpark or no ballpark, it’s getting developed. If you are into fantasy architecture, you should go down, take a look.
The condos next to it are rubbish, they’ll taste the bulldozer next. They will take the dumb curve out of Embarcadero around the stupid surface lot. If whatever comes demands parking, they’ll go multi-level behind the condos – if they don’t condo it.
If they go big, they’ll put their parking across the tracks with a pedestrian bridge, like over Yoshi’s down the street. A couple of shuttle busses looping to AMTRAK and BART will easily handle residents and cube-pukes.
I think the plan is to sink the tracks at the thing further south (don’t see any action down there yet, dodgy house-boaters still firmly in place) but you can’t sink them here because of the Estuary bridge. The Estuary has been prettified nearly all the way to Lake Merritt but the last 100 yards is a whole can of fish. Can’t wait until the damn 880’s fixed.
Estuary probably a better (i.e. more profitable) site than Howard – which is some nice land itself. I think the biggest hurdle is a minnow, but we’ll have to save that for the next class.
Some prime property down there. It’s all gonna get developed. It looks exactly like the proposed downtown site a dozen odd years ago. Knuckleheads couldn’t get on the same page – guess what happened?
A little concrete, lots of Tyvek and particleboard. Presto! Condos!
I know San Jose is the mythical Plan A, but if Plan B or C falls within current territorial rights, you’d better get cracking. Shit’s blowing up.
Brant, you couldn’t have invalidated that poll any more if you tried. It makes absolutely zero sense at this point.
Oops. Brant, looks like you got the San Jose Only’s pissed off. See you in the South parking lot.
Good experiment. I’d take it down real quick, it will just be another page in someone’s Dear Diary book.
Would be nice to hear some justification of why the votes were so drastically changed overnight. Particularly since the poll founder’s seemingly desired choices are now on top.
DD, quit it with the verbal diarrhea here. The only one who thinks you actually have a realistic (and the best) plan is you.
That means you’re living in a fantasy world.
People can vote for Howard Terminal all they want. But it’s still just a spot on a map that doesn’t work for a ballpark.
I don’t get the purpose of this poll nor will it have any effect on influencing any on-going negotiations between mlb and lw. Its not grounded in any reality as it has various sites that aren’t feasible from an economic and regulatory perspective including HT unless the city of Oakland is willing to drop significant dollars in preparing the site by managing the contamination and installing the appropriate infrastructure. With the exception of Diridon and CC none of these other sites are really feasible; and absent some level of investment of public tax dollars in Oakland or sending the Raiders packing…CC isn’t feasible.
A poll that the city of Oakland should be conducting among its residents would have to ask the tough questions:
Should the city of Oakland invest $500M of public money to prepare the HT site for a baseball stadium and contribute to the development of that stadium?
Should the city of Oakland invest $500M of public money to prepare the Colisieum site for a football stadium and contribute to the development of that stadium.
If the city of Oakland is limited to investing $500M of public money which team would you prefer they invest those dollars to retain- the A’s or the Raiders.
Thanks for the heads up, but is this really going to be looked at used….and Raley Field? Could there be a piggyback, or partnership with the downtown arena project?
DD is just stating his “design is awesome”. Good job buddy designing something that will never be built. Way to spend your time!
Oak to 9th was in the 2001 HOK Study and was deemed no feasible back then. As was Howard Terminal but yet there is somehow hope to build on these sites? SMH….
Summertime is almost here and we should be hearing in the next couple of months if SJ’s appeal is upheld.
Polls are great but until they can get 1B or so, polling will do jack.
good grief, that poll is lame. That said, I just voted for Coliseum City and Cisco Field cause… why not?
Where’s Tony D?
Yeah ware is Tony D? Hay man we did not agree on everything, but we always had a healthy respect for one another, which I think most people on here try to have.
In a previous comment Tony D said he was taking a break. He does that from time to time. I’m sure he’ll be back soon enough.
Psssh… Where is jkusa?
Now Howard Terminal is 1st place,
Coliseum City is 2nd place
Estuary Waterfront Project is 3rd place
Cisco Field (San Jose)is 4th & Raley Field (Sacramento) is last. A hacker got into the website yesterday to sabotage the results.
^ No, I’m pretty sure the guy who runs it just scrubbed the data to his liking. Until it’s IP based, it won’t even be worth paying attention to, even just for fun.
I’m a frequent reader but infrequent commentator.
I’ve lived in Sacramento x 4 years and Fremont x 4 years, and now I live in Menlo Park. I follow East Bay and Sacramento teams. Here’s my two cents.
Just last week, I was in Fremont and visited the construction of the new Warm Springs BART station, adjacent to the TESLA MOTORS (formerly NUMMI) auto plant. There’s still the empty lot where the A’s proposed plan B for Fremont, after the Pacific Commons/Auto Mall Parkway plan fell through. I remember this site faced neighborhood opposition from residents in the Mission San Jose area on the other side of 680, due to concerns about traffic and noise. Right now, this site looks so ideal. Lew Wolff should revisit this site and proposal. It’s going to have the Warm Springs BART station right next to it, making it easy for Oakland and San Jose residents to travel to games. It’s sandwiched between 880 and 680 with just a short drive from the exits. It’s an industrial area and not really directly affecting too many residential neighborhoods. And maybe the A’s can get a naming rights agreement with TESLA instead of Cicso. Lastly, you can get around the Giant’s territorial rights and still attract the Silicon Valley corporate base. The local opposition may have changed by now, with the BART station going up, less fear of traffic and noise. Time to reconsider FREMONT/WARM SPRINGS. This looks like a better plan than any of the options on this ballot.
Yes, the Warm Springs site would be great and also maximize the use of the expensive new BART station. But the NIMBYs on the other side of the highway will have none of it.
SacAs: The NIMBY’s said a ballpark would bring “crime and chaos” to their neighborhood. Utter nonsense, but that’s what the A’s would be dealing with if they look at Warm Springs again.( My office is right down the street from ATT Park; neither crime nor chaos anywhere in sight.)
pjk, they’re not wrong. It’s a quiet upper middle class residential neighborhood, not a great location for a major entertainment venue. The better location in Fremont was always the original location at Pacific Commons. Regretfully Wolff never really fought for that location when the big box stores started making noise.
Dan: There is a major new transit hub there and a big chunk of property. Sounds like a great location for a ballpark. The complaining neighbors would be on the other side of the highway, no?
pjk: It’s near the highway and a future BART, just like the Coliseum site. At least to me, that doesn’t really constitute a ‘transit hub’. The proposed SJ site would sit an the confluence of VTA Light Rail, Caltrain, ACE Train, future BART, and highways (I don’t really count Amtrak). That, again in my opinion, is decidedly a transit hub.
@SMG, we do have IPs, that is why the poll is now cleaned up. One IP address placed 5,200 votes and another IP address placed 700 votes. All of those have been removed.
Since the poll is mostly for fun, it wasn’t really necessary for us to implement a more rigid system (that goes to the guy who said ‘#codingfail’, too), like social-login voting or IP address voting. The session method allows for most participation, and we can still be on top and make sure a few individuals aren’t ruining the results.
And since we are tracking IP addresses, if people wanted to use this data for some analysis, we have full capability to clean up data to one vote/IP address; no issue there.
To those who say the poll is mostly worthless. As far as value to MLB, A’s and Wolff — I agree and don’t deny that: http://www.cebul.la/new-project-ballparkvote-com/ But, again, I think this is a way to get some fan engagement and continue to bring the topic to the public’s attention.
Cheers, Brant
Opportunity lost already? May be now or never for Warm Springs stadium proposal, if Wolff has any interest at all.
Developer Selected for 112-acre Union Pacific Parcel Adjacent to BART in Warm Springs District
http://www.fremont.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2118
FREMONT, Calif. – June 2, 2014 –The City of Fremont today officially announced that Lennar Corporation has been selected as the developer for Union Pacific’s 112-acre parcel of land in its Warm Springs District, the largest development opportunity in Fremont’s Innovation District, anchored by BART and Tesla Motors Inc.
This announcement represents a major milestone for the City in its journey to transition the Warm Springs District from yesterday’s industrial zone to a 21st century, amenity-rich, transit-oriented employment center. The Warm Springs Community Plan calls for the 112-acre development to include a new grand boulevard, Innovation Way, which will connect Fremont Boulevard to the Warm Springs/South Fremont BART station, and significant space for commercial offices, R&D, residential and retail uses. This development activity will contribute to the overall creation of more than 20,000 additional jobs and virtually 4,000 new housing units.
“Because nearly half of the Warm Springs area is vacant or underutilized, we have a game-changing opportunity to turn this area into a next-generation employment hub. The development community believes in the Warm Springs vision and is rethinking what an innovation district means in Silicon Valley,” said Bill Harrison, mayor of Fremont.