Category Archives: Baseball

04.25.12
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A’s not on May owners meeting agenda

Small item in John Shea’s report today:

Managing general partner Lew Wolff, who attended Tuesday’s game, conceded that the A’s stadium issue won’t be on the agenda at the May 16-17 owners’ meetings, and he wouldn’t guess whether it’ll be included at the next owners’ meetings in August.

As long as Bud Selig keeps leaving the A’s and Wolff twisting in the wind like this, he’s the one who’s going to have to fix it. The A’s lease runs out after 2013. Selig should have to be the one who negotiates any short or long-term Coliseum extension, not Wolff. The Coliseum Authority and Wolff aren’t exactly buddies these days. Then again, Wolff and Selig supposedly are. With friends like these…

04.24.12
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AEG looks to add NorCal to its empire

A very clever strategy is emanating from facility operator Anschutz Entertainment Group. It’s a two-pronged affair based in Sacramento and Oakland. The movement draws upon what can be considered serious deficiencies in both markets in their inability to attract certain types of events and visitors. Most importantly, it offers hope to both cities, which are both in danger of losing their respective pro sports franchises.

For San Jose Earthquakes fans, AEG may as well be a four-letter word. The company owned the Quakes franchise as part of its initial MLS holdings. When AEG was unable to forge a new stadium deal in San Jose, the team was abruptly moved to Houston in 2006, making the parent company persona non grata in the South Bay. AEG came back in 2008 with a small move, taking over for Live Nation as the operator of The Warfield in SF.

In Sacramento, AEG is seen as the facilitator for the Railyards Entertainment and Sports Complex. The backing out by the Maloof family has for now killed the plan, though it’s possible that AEG could resurface as a key driver with or without the basketball Kings. Should Sacramento lose the Kings, they’d have the option of building an on-spec arena, similar to former Kings home Kansas City when it built the Sprint Center. That’s a far different scope from Oakland, which is looking to keep three franchises at home via at least two new venues plus a convention center and hotel. Oakland’s model is the AEG-run LA Live complex and LA Convention Center.

AEG is the premier arena operator in the country, with Staples Center as its crown jewel. It has the experience to make cities listen when they come calling, and the weight to make cities cower when threatening to attract a team, as evidenced by AEG’s NFL pursuits. While dangling its own success in front of potential suitors, it forges ahead with its plans to expand its SoCal empire by working on a football stadium-cum-convention hall. While not a short-term likelihood, the threat and possibility remains into the future, and would hugely benefit AEG in two key ways: it would make LACC more competitive with San Diego and Las Vegas for conventions, and it would create the ultimate flexibility for all of its LA venues, which happen to be within blocks of each other.

AEG's Downtown LA operations provide great flexibility and huge traffic

To understand what make LA Live unique, it’s important to look beyond Staples Center. LA Live has two venues of its own: the 7,100-seat Nokia Theatre and 2,500-person Club Nokia, both of which are essentially auditoriums. They slot in below Staples Center for booking concerts, which is necessary because Staples is home to three pro teams and at least 126 home dates per year. In most other cities an arena operator would use a curtain system to reduce capacity at a large arena. AEG doesn’t need to do this sort of “half house” setup with Staples much, instead it can push a show to the Nokia Theatre. Staples famously hosts the Grammys every year, while Nokia hosts the Primtetime Emmys, MTV VMAs, and the finale of American Idol. Club Nokia mostly serves as a venue for up-and-coming and smaller acts. The Convention Center churns plenty of day business and drives demand to local hotels. Both convention and entertainment visitors benefit local restaurants and bars, some of which are in LA Live. It boils down to the equivalent of the population of the Bay Area visiting downtown LA every year, spread out among 2.5 events per day.

Oakland wants this kind of traffic, so they’re looking to drop SMG like a bad habit then partner up with AEG now and into the future. It’s going to be difficult to pull off. A third of AEG’s visitors come from the convention center. To build a competitive center in Oakland, the facility would have to surpass Moscone, San Jose, and Santa Clara in terms of space. It would require at least one, probably two anchor hotels attached to the convention center. A thriving commercial and retail district wouldn’t hurt attracting people and conventions. Oracle Arena is a good, modern arena thanks to the 1996 renovation, and AEG is promising to maximize utilization of the arena to its full potential and provide consulting for the Coliseum City concept.

The inherent risks are timing and cost. AEG built Staples Center prior to the 1999-2000 NBA and NHL seasons. The Nokia Theatre didn’t open until 2007, after Staples as AEG responded to market conditions. Club Nokia opened the following year. For AEG to be that involved and willing to invest in Oakland, it would have to recognize similar market potential and a chance to dominate the market the same way it does in LA. The arena part will be difficult to pull off as Sharks Entertainment will always be competitive with HP Pavilion. The Warriors could build an arena in SF, relegating Oracle Arena in the process. Another Planet Entertainment controls several smaller theaters throughout SF and the East Bay, providing natural competition in the process. There is no proper 7,000-seat auditorium in the Bay Area, pushing shows of that size to the arenas unless AEG sees fit to build one (the Bill Graham Civic, as historic as it is, is really a gym). Plus there is no shortage of 2,500-seat venues in the Bay Area: Fox Oakland, Paramount, Warfield, SF Masonic Auditorium, and the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. AEG isn’t going to bring a fully-formed Coliseum City on Day 1. It would have to be phased in over many years, with no guarantee that much of what’s being promised will be built.

For AEG, the best part is that in making these deals, it’s getting exclusivity for usually a year or more for a very small price while making a little money to boot. AEG has been willing to invest in venues to some degree as it did with Sprint Center. However, Phil Anschutz is not about giving away the farm, as witnessed by his hardball dealings with the NFL and the contribution cap AEG paid for Sprint Center. Maybe something will happen, maybe not. Either way AEG is the first one in and keeps competition out, while getting a better understanding of how to exploit a particular market. As great as LA Live is, it shouldn’t be considered easily repeatable. Sprint Center is a more realistic and perhaps cautionary example. The arena is the second busiest in America according to Pollstar and is highly profitable by AEG’s standards, though it’s a $13 million annual drain on the city’s coffers. Sprint Center is well integrated with KC’s $850 million Power and Light District development. There remains no major pro team. AEG appears to be happy with whatever business model works best for it whether it’s three teams or none, civic pride not being a great priority.

One other curiosity about AEG: as interested it is in the NFL and as extensive as its holdings are in hockey (LA Kings), basketball (Anchutz’s minority share of the Lakers), and soccer (LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo), there’s one glaring omission on its resume: baseball. Does AEG care about baseball at all? It doesn’t operate any ballparks, nor does it own a minor league team. It doesn’t seem to have any relevant experience with baseball. Its new AEG Sports division has no baseball interests at all. Judging from AEG’s track record, I have to think its priority list would look like this:

  • Concerts
  • Soccer
  • Conventions
  • Hockey
  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Baseball?

Judging from that, maybe AEG would be more interested in bringing a MLS team to Oakland than in keeping the A’s there. In regards to the A’s, AEG’s presence is similar to Larry Ellison in that certain factions would love for either of them to be interested in the A’s, but neither has shown any sign of interest to date. A clause in the Coliseum management contract dictates that AEG can’t talk to teams about moving, which I suppose might have teeth if a team were bound to a long-term lease (only the Warriors are). It gives a new twist on the Coliseum City exercise being a feasibility study.

04.21.12
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What the NFL wants, it gets

You have to hand it to Roger Goodell. He has a playbook for getting stadium deals moving, and by God it works. Goodell lets the team owner come up with a proposal, and if it stalls he comes in with Goldman Sachs in tow and/or a threat to move, implied or otherwise. As a result, Santa Clara put up $900 million in public loans and cash for the 49ers stadium project, while the Vikings – after much debate – are getting a deal crafted in the Minnesota legislature that could provide up to $800 million in public assistance for stay home.

In the Vikings’ case, all it required was a little open-ended discussion about Los Angeles and a sighting of owner Zygi Wilf’s private jet in SoCal. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has become the Oscar Goodman of football, an outsider but serious power player whose city’s existential threat to other cities forces them to the table. The Vikings deal is by no means complete, but it’s further along than any talks to date, so that has to be encouraging for both Vikes fans and Wilf.

On Thursday, the 49ers officially broke ground on their new home as of the 2014 season. The stadium will undoubtedly be impressive and significantly better than Candlestick Park in just about every way imaginable, except affordability. (I thought I was going to get some pictures of the event but that fell through, sorry.)  Now we can talk in earnest about the Bay Area hosting a future Super Bowl or World Cup matches. It’s pretty exciting, despite my misgivings about the finances.

And it’s with that news that I can sit back, somewhat detached from the plan and say that I’m jealous of the 49ers right now. I don’t want a major handout for the A’s or Goldman Sachs waiting in the wings. I don’t need a stadium that costs more than a billion dollars. I just want a new place where I can take friends, where it doesn’t feel like pulling teeth to ask them if they want to go. A place that celebrates baseball, not merely hosts it at best adequately. Despite what some readers think, I don’t care where it’s built. If that’s Oakland, great. If it’s San Jose, so be it. Even Sacramento I wouldn’t mind so much at this point. My stance has always remained steady all this time – as long as it’s privately financed and I can get to it locally, I’m all for it. On this blog and elsewhere we have these endless debates about what it will take, territorial rights, what resources specific cities can offer, and there will be plenty of time for that later. For now let’s simply look at the leagues.

Mostly, I’m jealous that the NFL can get its stuff together on stadia so much better than MLB. It doesn’t matter that on the whole NFL stadia cost twice as much. The projects should be far riskier because of the expense and the inherent lack of utilization. In the post-downturn, post-redevelopment California, the toughest market to build anything new, the NFL will have beaten MLB by at least two years, maybe more. In the time that Bud Selig has had his panel discussing what to do about the A’s, we could’ve had a fancy (or not) groundbreaking. We could be talking about the future. Instead, we’re treading water as usual. No one can tread water forever.

04.19.12
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KQED debate + Andy Dolich’s game

KQED’s Nina Thorsen finishes off her three-part series (1, 2) on the A’s future with a San Jose-vs.-Oakland debate. Featured prominently is our own Jeffrey and his dulcit tone.

As much as I would love for this to be wrapped by the end of the owners meetings next month, it doesn’t appear that it will. That leaves us A’s fans twisting in the wind yet again. Thanks ever so much, Bud.

—–

While I was in transit yesterday, the Merc published an op-ed by Andy Dolich. In the piece, Dolich predicts that the A’s will stay in Oakland long-term.

His last gig was as an executive for the 49ers, keeping the seat warm for Jed York. Interestingly, Dolich’s job was to advocate for the ‘Stick while the Yorks pushed hard on the Santa Clara stadium plan, which undoubtedly led to some conflict. After Dolich was dismissed, he continued to advocate for a SF stadium instead of Santa Clara. Ann Killion wrote two years ago that the firing of Dolich by the 49ers would come back to haunt them and hurt the Santa Clara plan. Amazing how a winning season and help from the NFL proves pundits wrong, eh?

Dolich gets a few facts wrong in his impassioned plea. The South Philly sports complex has four teams, not three. Staples Center on its own has three team tenants. That’s not significant. I’m in complete agreement that the Bay Area can support all of the pro teams that currently reside in the Bay Area.

Reading between the lines, it looks like Dolich is appealing to someone in the East Bay to become a frontman for the Coliseum City plan – if not now, when the plan has legs. That would be a great idea assuming that Coliseum City got off the ground. It’s always good to have someone who has credibility in the sports industry, a history of past successes, and local ties. In December 2010, Dolich floated the idea of a new multipurpose stadium in Oakland, one with the technology to be less of a “neither fish nor fowl” problem than the 60’s-era stadia. I deconstructed the concept and explained why it wouldn’t work. Dolich read my post and sent me an email, which led to a very pleasant exchange on stadia and arenas. I think I even promised to meet him for lunch to talk shop, which never happened, unfortunately.

The bottom line is that it’s nice to hear someone advocating for Oakland and the East Bay, even if his office is actually in the South Bay. Those putting together a Coliseum City plan wouldn’t hurt themselves by having Andy Dolich in a prominent position. To be clear, that’s probably at least a year down the road if it happens at all.

04.17.12
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The San Diego (and then some) trip

…a simple prop to occupy my time…

I’m headed down to San Diego on Wednesday. Thanks to the magic of the internet and remote access, I’ll still be working and updating the blog from here just as I would from home. Normally my trips down south haven’t been scheduled to coincide with much baseball action. This time I made sure to get that straightened out. I expect to attend at least seven games at different venues, up to eleven if the logistics work out right. The main purpose of the trip is to attend my brother’s wedding on the 22nd, though I’ve managed to schedule it so that it could include a long Padres homestand and two series in which the A’s visit the Angels.

Games in italics are optional or tentatively scheduled. Games in bold are booked.

While I was planning my post-wedding itinerary, I found out a few nice gems that could be helpful for you if you should decide to make a trip south.

  • The Pads are a cellar-dweller team this season, and their attendance shows it. That makes it easy for me to simply walk up and grab whatever seat I like. However, when I sought out a ticket online from the team website, it gave me a pop-up advertising a “Pick 4 Pack”. If I picked four games at virtually any price level (except the Park pass), I’d also get a ticket for the stadium tour and a cap. Clearly, such a deal is meant for locals, not visitors like me. It just so happens that my schedule fits perfectly with it, so I intend to take up the offer. I’ve taken the Petco tour before, yet I’m a sucker for any stadium tour so if I can get a free one I’m doing it.

Offer good for 4 games. Not good if buying 4 tickets to a single game.

  • I’d just as soon not drive the two hours to Anaheim or LA to catch games there. My initial public transit choice was going to be the Pacific Surfliner, the Amtrak California line that runs from Santa Barbara to San Diego, through LA and OC. The cost of each trip looked a bit steep ($28 each way), so I looked at alternatives. I found that the LA area’s train system, Metrolink, runs a special weekend pass in which you can go everywhere on the system (that runs weekend trains) for only $10 on both Saturday and Sunday. It even includes travel starting on Friday night at 7 PM. The pass allows me to drive from San Diego to Oceanside, then take the train for Sunday afternoon games. I might also be able to pull of a Friday night game, we’ll see.
  • Included in the trip are two games at San Diego State and University of San Diego. USD’s Cunningham Stadium is a special curiosity for me because of its unusual layout. Tucked into a hillside, it has one narrow bank of bleachers and two rows of seats near the dugouts. It also has great hill views.
  • I haven’t been to Dodger Stadium in a decade. I’m fully aware of how restrictive it’s been historically, yet I want to sit in the Top Deck because I’ve never sat there before. Any tips on what I should do there?

If this works out right, the game experiences shouldn’t be significantly more expensive than what I normally get going to A’s games. There will be review of every stadium during the trip. During the “down” time I’ll be hanging out with friends in North Park, sampling lots of tasty beer. And yes, pilgrimages to one or more Pizza Port locations are in the offing.

04.11.12
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Last night’s crowd

When the weather turns bad, it makes hard core night (Mondays) seem like a piece of cake.

From Chris Townsend's (@townsendradio) Twitter feed last night

The announced paid attendance was 10,670. Obviously the number of people that actually showed up was only a small fraction of that. Blame it on a number of things: rain, ownership, team, stadium, whatever. The real implications of something like this happening are that teams lose money and fanbases look bad. 8,000 no-shows equates to $100,000 in lost concessions revenue. The walk-ups that didn’t occur and the parking passes that weren’t sold also add up. And it makes us look like we’re a bunch of fair weather fans, literally. Are we? I’ll be there today.

One other thing – Tuesday’s are pretty much out for me, so yes, I was secretly rooting for a rainout so that I could see a double-dip today.

04.10.12
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News for 4/10/12

Now that the season has started, things are settling down a bit.

Special thanks to reader Stomper00, who rustled up four sweet tickets behind the plate yesterday and invited me to join him. I brought a buddy, we gave the remaining ticket to another fan in the parking lot, and a good time was had by all. This was the view:

Yoenis at the dish

04.08.12
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Ostler talks Cespedes, impact

The Chronicle’s Scott Ostler writes about what success Yoenis Céspedes could have, and projects it beyond the field.

It could be an adventure for team ownership, too. What if Céspedes keeps hitting and stirs up interest, a la Linsanity, drawing big crowds to the Oakland ballpark?

That would throw a monkey wrench into ownership’s aggressive campaign to prove that there is no market for baseball in Oakland.

If that happens, A’s owners Lew Wolff and John Fisher will have their own private Cuban missile crisis, and they won’t be able to solve it by picking up the Hot Line and threatening Nikita Khrushchev. Sorry, honey.

Now that would be something. Fans coming out and supporting the team regardless of what they think of ownership? It’d be as if they came to watch baseball or something. I know this: today I sold a bunch of my Giant fan friends on Céspedes. Sometimes all you need is a draw. It’s been proven repeatedly that quality pitching isn’t a draw. Home runs? You know what they say…

04.07.12
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A’s, O.co have rift over Coliseum name

A year ago, the Coliseum Authority inked a deal with internet retailer Overstock.com for naming rights at the Coliseum. That led to a further renaming from Overstock.com Coliseum to O.co Coliseum, which rolls off the tongue like so many classic stadium names like CMGI Field, PSINet Stadium, or 3Com Park. Apparently the A’s have been rather casual about honoring the change, because the references to O.co either at the stadium or during broadcasts are few and far between. The reason? Money, of course. The Trib’s Angela Woodall reports that the naming rights deal splits the $2 million per year between the JPA and the Raiders, with nothing going to the A’s.

Find O.co in this screenshot

Woodall points out that the A’s have control over the pouring rights and signage, a deal that was hammered out in the post-Mt. Davis settlement. The A’s and O.co are working out their own deal, though I have a sense that both sides are bringing an overinflated sense of worth to the proceedings. For now, the team is only obligated to promote O.co three times per game during radio and TV broadcasts. So it’s not surprising that when fans go to the Coliseum page on the A’s website, they might not realize that O.co is a sponsor due to the lack of mentions.

That’s just as well. Even though the A’s have many more games broadcast than the Raiders, O.co probably values the mentions during Raiders games, which are nationally broadcast, more than the baseball team’s mostly local broadcasts. Last Monday, the SEC closed an investigation into the retailer’s previous financial disclosures. That could halt the company’s six-month stock slide, though you wouldn’t know it from trading this week.

The Coliseum has gone through several name changes in its life, all of them starting with Mt. Davis:

  • Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (original-1998)
  • UMAX Coliseum (1997, aborted)
  • Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004)
  • McAfee Coliseum (2004-08)
  • Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (reprise after McAfee deal expired, 2008-11)
  • Overstock.com Coliseum (2011, briefly)
  • O.co Coliseum (2011-current)

Isn’t it time to leave well enough alone?

04.06.12
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Opening Day or Night?

I put out a couple of questions on Twitter, and I figured I should have the conversation here as well.

and…

The way the schedule is currently formatted, with the season starting on Wed-Fri and ending on Wed, it’s practically impossible to schedule a Sunday opener. This format is fairly new, so if MLB were to go back to starting on Sun-Tue and ending on Sun, there might be an opportunity for a day opener. Cincinnati used to always have the first game of the season, sometimes on a Sunday, almost always a day game before everyone else as a nod to Cincy being the most senior of senior league franchises.

Lone Stranger replied to my second question, saying, “Anything earlier than 6pm or so would need to be near people who can leave work early and still see first pitch. i.e. Downtown.” Other responses to the two questions were mixed, some citing favorable weather for day games, others wanting a night game as a better chance for a sellout.

FWIW, The Giants have done day openers going back to their days at the ‘Stick.