Just watch Brodie Brazil from NBC Sports California, dissecting the A’s relocation drama point by point, including some historical references. It’s excellent.
I’ll have more to say later today or tomorrow.
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newballpark.org 
I do think the Victory Court could easily be re-examined and might make a better spot than Howard Terminal. It’s closer to BART and Amtrak both. Closer to the freeway (880) too. A handful of businesses would have to relocate. But it wouldn’t have to deal with any large entity like the Peralta College system or the Port of Oakland. It’s already closer to existing housing and development as the south end of JLS seems to be revitalizing more than north end. My two cents.
Victory Court would be worth considering if the requirements shifted to simply a ballpark site and little else. The game has changed.
I thought I had followed this pretty closely, but…what is “the Victory Court”?
Victory Court was a site Downtown Oakland advocates pushed in 2011-12. It’s to the east of Jack London Square on Lake Merritt Channel. https://newballpark.org/2012/01/30/official-victory-court-is-dead/
I thought I had followed this closely, but…what is “the Victory Court”?
https://www.google.com/maps/place/East+Bay+Restaurant+Supply+Inc/@37.7922843,-122.2663749,18z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x808f80cccbfb37e7:0x8f15801a6ae53b01!8m2!3d37.7929747!4d-122.2658357
Basically right there. At the south end of Jack London Square.
Or maybe the A’s should revisit Fremont. They has originally wanted a site adjacent to the new Warm Springs/South Fremont BART station, but they received opposition from the residents in Mission San Jose on the other side (east) of 680. Now that site has a new residential development. Perhaps they can look at the other side (west) of 101 and south of Pacific Commons. There’s still some open land large enough for a ballpark and some ancillary development. This would be similar to the last 2 new MLB ballparks – Braves and Rangers – suburban shopping area accessible only by car on the interstate.
But what does Fremont have over the Coliseum? Neither is near a vibrant major-city downtown. Neither is on the waterfront. It’s not even in the city! There would presumably have to be a *lot* of environmental review and public comment (and we saw how that went last time) that wouldn’t be the case for the Coliseum site.
And “the owners can make a lot more money on unrelated development at the Coliseum site if it isn’t cluttered up by a ballpark” isn’t an acceptable answer.
I agree, the Coliseum site is a far better option than Fremont. I think the reason Fremont was a viable option in 2005 was that the A’s still had to contend with the Raiders and Warriors and would have had to build a 3rd stadium on the site. Now that the A’s are the only tenant, they can demolish the old stadium have a blank slate.
I was thinking this morning (sadly) as to how far we are away from the Haas family ownership. They had made a ton of money elsewhere and viewed owning the team and keeping the team in Oakland as a source of civic pride — kind of their way to give back to the community. And in exchange (and by having one of the highest payrolls in baseball), they had sold out stadiums on all decks.
Since then, it’s been a stream of real estate developers that have owned the team and view it as leverage to make money off of the community. They cut the payroll to one of the lowest and communicate that star players will always only be around for a short time.
And every time they make a big public push to leave Oakland, a few more fans drift away from the team because they don’t want to invest in a team that won’t be sticking around. Talking about Santa Clara, Fremont, San Jose, and now Las Vegas, Portland, etc. has cost them at every turn.
And now it’s pretty clear that the real decision maker, John Fisher, has been viewing the team primarily as real estate development. It was the marching orders he gave to Lew Wolff and is now the same for Dave Kaval. The ballpark isn’t even 10% of their latest proposed project.
@A’s Fan: isn’t that kind of symbolic of the change in wealthy ppl in general over the past 30 years?
Haas family GAVE territorial rights to the Giants and viewed A’s ownership as philanthropy and didn’t worry about operating for profit and wanted to put a good team on the field. Hard to imagine any pro sports team owner – or any billionaire – operating that way in 2021.
To be fair, letting the Giants move to San Jose would’ve given the A’s greater access to downtown SF.