Category Archives: Basketball

08.30.12
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News for 8/30/12

Here we go. We’ll start off with some minor league news.

  • The Santa Cruz Warriors continue to work with the City of Santa Cruz to get their tent arena built in time for the 2012-13 D-League season. Final approval hasn’t happened yet, let alone construction, so the D-League put the Surf W’s on a loooo-o-ng road trip before the team’s first home game around Christmas. That gives the two parties 16 weeks to get the arena approved, built, and buttoned up. No pressure. The Surf W’s could play on the road for additional games until the project is completed, or if there are extensive delays or the project isn’t approved, hopefully there’s a backup plan like the San Jose Civic Auditorium. Cost for the downtown arena have already ballooned from $4 million to $5 million because of foundation issues that were identified. Ticket prices have also been released. [Santa Cruz Warriors; Santa Cruz Sentinel/J.M. Brown]
  • Head north on Highway 1 and you’ll eventually get near the Cow Palace, where the San Francisco Bulls are quietly fixing up the old arena. $2 million of updates will be paid for by the team, including a center-hung scoreboard, a first for the Cow Palace. A schedule and ticket prices have also been announced. I may have to ring up the Bulls to see if I can get a sneak peek of the place. [CSN Bay Area; SF Bulls]
  • The first debate for the at-large seat on the Oakland City Council happened last night, and the two main candidates, incumbent Rebecca Kaplan and challenger (and current D5 council member) Ignacio De La Fuente both had something to say about the tenant teams at the Coliseum complex. [East Bay Citizen; Steven Tavares]

On the issue of the city’s professional sports teams, Kaplan and De La Fuente differed, if not, in terms of their priorities for retaining the A’s, Raiders and Warriors in Oakland, with Kaplan being more optimistic. “Let’s face it, the A’s don’t know the way to San Jose,” said Kaplan, and adding the current Coliseum City proposal will bring shop owners, bars and restaurants to the city along with fans and conventioneers to the area, said Kaplan, while also creating jobs.

De La Fuente was less sanguine saying he would only turn his attention to the Coliseum once crime in Oakland is sufficiently quelled. “I learned from my mistakes,” he said, referring to the botched return of the Raiders in 1995. “They are in the business of making money,” De La Fuente said, believing the public sector should no longer have a role in financing stadiums.

  • The Earthquakes announced their general seat pricing and posted a seating chart. The big ticket item is the establishment of a 1,400-person supporters section in the closed end, which will have its own bar and storage area for the flags and banners they use during the game. Interestingly, the language is “1,400-person”, not “1,400-seat”, which leads me to believe that this area will be a standing terrace. That’s fine since fans in the supporters sections are expected to stand anyway. I’m pretty sure it’s the only to fit 1,400 people in what looks like a pretty small space between the elevated seating bowl and the pitch. [SJ Earthquakes]
  • The Quakes also announced today that they are negotiating with three Fortune 100 companies on naming rights for their 18,000-seat stadium. Fortune 100, eh? Club president said that some of these companies are tech or Silicon Valley firms. Recently, new MLS stadia have netted $2-3 million per year in naming rights, which if matched by the Quakes would go a long way towards paying off the stadium. FWIW, I don’t think any local tech company should be ruled out, including Cisco (and no, that doesn’t mean Cisco is dumping the A’s). [SJ Mercury News/Elliott Almond]
  • On Saturday I’ll be in Berkeley for the first Cal football game at the rebuilt Memorial Stadium. I’ll be sure to get there early to take lots of pictures and document the experience. Somehow I was able to buy one of the last available $19.32 tickets for the opening game. I’ll be in the south end zone, a mere 5 rows up. As an aside, I was somewhat surprised at how many tickets remained for the game. I expected a sell out long ago. One thing to consider is that we’re the only market with three FBS (D-I) college football teams. Combine that with small or not-terribly-fervent fanbases and two NFL teams, and it’s easy to see why our general reaction to college ball is a collective “Meh.” [UC Berkeley]
  • On a related note, the Pac-12 Network launched two weeks ago and is still negotiating carriage deals. Comcast is not an issue since the cable provider is a partner. The issue is working out a deal with DirecTV, which is not only the provider with the most regional sports and college networks, but also the provider of choice in most bars throughout the country thanks to NFL Sunday Ticket. DirecTV purportedly rejected a deal of $0.80 per subscriber/month, leaving many fans up and down the left coast without many opening week games. Dish Network, Verizon FiOS, and AT&T U-Verse customers are also affected. [SF Business Times/Eric Young]
  • The State Controller reversed a slew of land transfers between the cities of Milpitas, Morgan Hill, and their respective (and now defunct) redevelopment agencies. That doesn’t bode well for the Diridon ballpark land transfer, though it has to be pointed out that the Controller has already ruled once in San Jose’s favor, saying that Santa Clara County went to far in holding tax increment funds that were due to the City. [Merc /Tracy Seipel]

Finally, I have to thank a reader out there for giving me four prime tickets behind the A’s dugout for Wednesday’s day game against the Angels. I’m only going to use one, so if anyone’s interested in joining me and talking baseball and ballparks or economics, reply with a comment or send me a tweet.

More tomorrow.

08.26.12
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Warriors choose Norwegian firm Snøhetta to design SF arena

This one’s out of left field. The Warriors announced today that the firm they’ll have design their waterfront arena is Snøhetta, a Norwegian firm. Snøhetta’s an interesting choice because according to Joe Lacob, they were chosen for their waterfront expertise. Snøhetta doesn’t have extensive sports venue experience, but they are doing one local project of note – the expansion of SF MOMA.

SF MOMA expansion rendering by Snøhetta

As far as waterfront buildings, the two most cited are the Oslo Opera House and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. Both are notable in how they seemingly “slide” into the sea adjacent to the buildings. Both of these  venues are not arenas, obviously. What they are for Joe Lacob and Peter Guber are shining examples of how to make iconic venues on the water. That’s what they’re going for. Most arenas in the U.S. are utlitarian in nature, little more than concrete, steel, and glass boxes. If Lacob and Guber are trying reaching to attain Sydney Opera House (another Scandinavian-designed venue) status, they are to be applauded.

Oslo Opera House along the Oslofjord

Making an arena truly iconic is no small task. Most arenas have façades consisting of repetitive patterns of cladding over concrete or glass and steel. Recent attempts to break up arenas into multiple spaces using additional exterior elements and different types of materials have had mixed results. From a distance, an arena is squat, not tall, and often slab-sided. No new renderings or sketches came with the press release. Nevertheless, I look forward to what Snøhetta has to offer. In particular, I hope that Snøhetta finds a way to accentuate the Bay and the SF skyline, as I suggested in May. In a town where just about anything can become instantly controversial, the Warriors’ arena concept is destined to provoke lots of discussion. I imagine that Lacob and Guber wouldn’t have it any other way.

Snøhetta won’t be alone in this endeavor. They’re partnering with AECOM, a huge design and management company that acquired sports architecture firm Ellerbe Becket in 2009. Ellerbe Becket worked on 14 NBA and NHL arenas over the last 20 years.

08.21.12
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The Game reshuffles the deck, are W’s next?

95.7 The Game had another of its “blockbuster” announcements today during The Wheelhouse, and for once there was actual news. The lineup is changing from 4 shows spanning 6 AM – 10 PM to 4 shows from 6 AM to 7 PM, starting after Labor Day.

  • The Rise Guys (unchanged): 6 AM – 10 AM
  • Townsend & Steinmetz: 10 AM – 12 PM
  • The Wheelhouse (Lund & Papa, no rotating co-host): 12 PM – 3 PM
  • The Drive (Tierney & TBA co-host): 3 PM – 7 PM

Listeners are asking what happened to The Chris Townsend Show from 7-10. I think the answer is simple. The Warriors have been rumored to be talking to Entercom about switching from KNBR to The Game, so to properly accommodate W’s games and pre/post-game programming they had to move things around. Using the old schedule with Townsend from 6 to 10, he’d be preempted several times a week by the W’s during the fall/winter and then daily with the A’s. The 7 PM slot is plum when it isn’t being preempted, when it is you get Damon Bruce moving to 1050 after years of frustration.

Making Steinmetz a permanent host would seem to be clincher. He’s a good basketball analyst, though unfortunately he’s pretty bad or inattentive to other sports. Having Steinmetz on is good from a “morning after” analysis standpoint, and Townsend can deftly handle the other sports. The curious thing about the change is that the slot is only two hours, which is not unheard of in other markets but in the Bay Area is unusual. Seems like it would make more sense to shorten the morning show to 9 and give Townsend-Steinmetz 9-noon.

The 7 PM slot is a bit of a mystery. I could see rotating shows for the football teams and maybe a college football show, unless the station wanted to go cheap and use Yahoo! Sports programming. It’s also possible that Townsend could do double-duty with the 10-12 slot and night slot since he’s done it in the past. You’d think that if that were the case The Game would’ve announced it. Warriors broadcasts plus postgame will preempt regular programming for at least an hour 50-60 times throughout the season, and if the W’s go to the playoffs that number is sure to grow.

Ratings for the San Francisco market dating back to November 2011

Change is afoot, and Entercom clearly needs to ink deals to lift the station. The Warriors haven’t announced a radio partner yet and we’re only six weeks away from the first preseason game. The next move seems obvious.

06.20.12
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They call that F U money

Good choice, Larry Ellison, good choice.

Word spread earlier tonight that Oracle CEO and twice-spurned NBA franchise-bidder Larry Ellison secured a deal to buy 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai. Initially the reports did not list a price for Lanai. Newer reports had the asking price at $500-600 million.

Ellison greatest love is yachting, so it stands to reason that the billionaire 36 times over would eventually seek out a dominion of his own to practice his sport. Lanai is one of the best yachting venues in the world. It’s secluded and secure enough for Ellison’s BMW Oracle team to develop and sail without much interference, and it’s “halfway” to New Zealand just in case the Kiwis win again.

Lanai has either over 3,000 residents or less than 2,000 depending on who you ask. It has two Four Seasons resorts – the same number as the Bay Area. Security can be remarkably tight since a private company runs the entire island (which is public).

In celebration of Ellison’s crazy-like-a-fox purchase, I’ve put together the following table comparing Ellison’s Lanai purchase to a typical NBA franchise.

Evil mountain/volcano lair potential is real.

I’m sure that Ellison has had this in the works for months, just as he did with the America’s Cup San Francisco development. Since that part had to be curtailed due the cost of developing Piers 30/32, it could be that he was motivated to pull the trigger on Lanai. It probably didn’t help the man’s legendary ego that some mere near-billionaire half Ellison’s age negotiated a deal to buy the Memphis Grizzlies.

On a related note, SF’s Pier 29 suffered significant damage from a four-alarm blaze that destroyed much of the pier’s warehouse structure. The structure was meant to house concessions and sponsor exhibits for the 2013 America’s Cup. Officials from the City and developers said that the fire wouldn’t impact the development.

 

06.18.12
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It takes more than a village to raise a village (update: AEG approved)

Update 8:18 PM – The Coliseum Authority board approved AEG 7-1, the only vote against coming from Ignacio De La Fuente.

Oh to be on the Coliseum Authority board these days. The board has two weeks to decide on a firm to manage the Coliseum complex, and the firm they’re grooming to take over, AEG, is getting a lot of unexpected scrutiny over their ability to take the Raiders away even as they manage the stadium for the next several years. The Trib’s Angela Woodall reports that AEG’s status as a potential “poacher” is hanging up approval of the facilites management contract.

The JPA/Authority has sought assurances that AEG would not try to lure any of the current tenant teams away, which is fine and dandy, except that the JPA’s counsel has said that such a stipulation has little teeth. The only thing the JPA could do is terminate the contract, which would entitle them to keep $4.5 million in money promised by AEG to manage the complex.

$4.5 million is a pittance for AEG, considering their claim that they’ve spent $27 million on studies and preparation for the Farmers Field project. They’ve promised to spend $10 million on badly needed improvements to a Metro Rail station near the LACC/Staples/Live!/Farmers complex. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex may be a nice item to put in their portfolio, but Farmers Field is AEG’s big bet. It’s a beautiful situation for AEG because they can play both cities against each other – they’re practically doing it now! They’ll be in bed with the JPA as Oakland pushes Coliseum City while getting cozy with the Raiders, who are considering LA to some extent, in the process.

The whole scenario puts the Authority in a bind. They need AEG to do consulting on Coliseum City (as farfetched as it is), yet they can’t have AEG poaching the Raiders. There’s no other competitor that has anywhere near the kind of real world experience handling single-site, multiple venue development as AEG. Chris Dobbins of Save Oakland Sports and Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley were both in lockstep about their concerns.

And let’s get real about this, the only team AEG has any interest in is the Raiders. AEG is booked solid at Staples with its three teams and the company hasn’t expressed much interest in baseball. While Oakland has expressed interest in retaining the Warriors and Athletics, they’ve taken the most steps to keep the Raiders. AEG has Oakland by the short hairs, thanks to Mayor Jean Quan putting Oakland’s chips behind Coliseum City. Even when there is a big player involved, the City part of Coliseum City can be extraordinarily difficult to get off the ground, as the St. Louis Cardinals and developer Cordish can attest. Comparisons to Mission Bay/South Beach in SF are meaningless because that area and East Oakland are on different planets economically.

Alternately, the JPA could choose incumbent SMG, with whom they’ve had an up-and-down relationship, or Comcast’s Global Spectrum, which comes closest to AEG in that they operate the Wells Fargo Center and the newly opened Xfinity Live! in Philadelphia. The latter finally came to fruition several years after the two stadia and the WFC had opened, and after the old Spectrum was demolished to make way for Xfinity Live!.

If the Raiders went to LA, that creates a situation in which the Coliseum could be available for a new A’s stadium, which is probably the only solution at the complex that MLB would sign off on (assuming the ancillary development came in). The problem with that solution is that there would still be $100 million in Mt. Davis debt to deal with and either a demolished or decaying facility, and the A’s and MLB would want nothing to do with that. That brings us back to the question, What’s in it for the A’s?

It’s a tough situation to be in. Mayor Quan believes that Coliseum City is the best hope for retaining the teams and revitalizing East Oakland, yet it can be argued that bringing in AEG is akin to letting a fox in a henhouse, which could kill the vision of Coliseum City before it even gets started. I’d like to think that the City will make a prudent decision here, but by paving the way for AEG before the decision is made they’re almost locked into a specific path. It may well be a path to ruin.

06.13.12
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Kaiser Permanente to sponsor Warriors’ Santa Cruz arena

Warriors ownership moves quickly, you have to give them that.

As reported by the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the team now has a naming rights sponsor for its Santa Cruz D-League home, along with a logo for the Santa Cruz Warriors. I figured they’d use a surf theme. Instead they kept it quite close to the corporate identity, right down to the use of the Copperplate font.

Perhaps Brick Tamland should be the Santa Cruz Warriors' mascot

Oops, here’s the proper logo:

Now there's a trident.

The curious thing about Kaiser’s move is that the company has no facilities, no hospitals, no presence in Santa Cruz County. Competitors like Sutter and CHW do, and there’s little stopping Kaiser from expanding surfside – yet they haven’t. If anything, the move allows Kaiser a chance to have its name mentioned frequently without paying the freight for a major venue naming rights deal. I had argued in the past that Kaiser, which has sponsored the Warriors for years as well as the LA Angels, would have a hard time justifying a multimillion, decades-long naming rights deal as a nonprofit. A deal of this scale, which may well be part of Kaiser’s recent presenting sponsorship deal, is a lot easier to swallow.

The Warriors and the City of Santa Cruz have only a few months to get the tent arena built in time for the upcoming NBA/D-League season, which is guaranteed to include an exhibition game played by the big Warriors. When groundbreaking occurs, I’ll be sure to head over there for the ceremony and every so often to check on the arena’s progress.

P.S. – I noticed something interesting in the D-League’s scheduling. To presumably keep travel costs low, a road team will often play a two-game weekend series at an opponent, a scheduling model not practiced by either the NBA or NHL. It’s not particularly consequential for fans, but it makes sense for the league.

05.29.12
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A room with a view

One of the more lamentable facts about modern indoor arenas is that, unlike their outdoor brethren, most arenas do nothing to celebrate the environments and neighborhoods in which they reside. Cold and insular, arenas are all about focusing on the floor or action. Attempts to draw attention to the crowd such as the “Kiss Cam” are token distractions. Get in the crowd, get the show over with, and get everyone out ASAP. There’s no time to linger or savor an event.

It wasn’t always this way. Some of the postwar arenas attempted to bring in the outside. This was best executed at the old Portland Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which still stands next to its much larger successor, the Rose Garden. Memorial Coliseum was a simple, elegant square wrapped on all four sides by glass curtainwall. The round, undulating seating bowl inside the shell provided a clean visual line that gave the building its purpose and indicated where an observer was in relation to the seats.

Views of Portland were available on all four sides of Memorial Coliseum.

The pre-1997 Oakland Coliseum Arena also showed this kind of elegance. A larger arena than the one in Portland, the Coliseum Arena boldly used floor-to-ceiling glass, with a concrete exoskeleton to protect it. Like Portland, the rim of the upper seating bowl was clearly visible, though the Warriors and the arena operator chose to use dark curtains to prevent any clerestory effect. Both arenas were designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, a firm more known for skyscrapers (Sears/Willis Tower, WTC Freedom Tower) than sports properties.

Early cutaway drawing of the old Coliseum Arena

One of the key directives for the Coliseum Arena renovation was that the building needed to be stuffed with as many seats as possible, since the old 15,025 capacity was great for generating sellouts but poor for generating revenue. So they packed the place to the rafters with seats and redesigned the seating bowl to conform more to basketball instead of the neither-fish-nor-fowl multipurpose seating bowl of yesteryear. Over 4,500 seats were added in the process, an impressive feat of packaging and engineering. Lost in the transformation was the grace of the old design. New concrete entry lobbies were added to the exterior. The regular entrance from the plaza became a club entrance. The glass walls had to be retrofitted, cluttering the look.

In the Warriors’ unveiling of the Piers 30-32 site, the renderings ownership showed had an arena pictured, more as a placeholder than anything else. They were very clear to note that there were no detailed renderings or even a specific design at the moment. Considering the site’s pictureque waterfront locale, a great amount of effort may have to be undertaken to design the building so that patrons can appreciate views of downtown, the Bay Bridge, and the East Bay hills. If that doesn’t happen, the arena may be considered nothing more than a big concrete box. Nobody wants that. I don’t think the W’s will go back to the circular seating bowl, but there are still ways to open up the space to the outside. One way is to do what many new arenas have done – remove some cheap upper end seats, even entire sections.

North (left) upper tier removed, which should create an enviable Downtown-Bay Bridge panorama.

In addition, the concourses could be laid out to allow views of the action from concession stands. Mind you, implementing some of these ideas could prove costly because they may translate into greater amounts of costly square-footage being built to satisfy the vision. The W’s should know by now that they have a chance to build a truly iconic building, and to skimp would be wrong and practically indefensible. Arena architecture is not known for looking backward or in a retro manner. In this case there’s truly something to be learned from looking at the past, and it can only result in a better arena, one that celebrates everything happening outside its walls just as much as the events inside those walls.

05.28.12
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Pretty nice view

I went to the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday morning to pay my respects on the bridge’s 75th birthday. On the way back, I drove over to Piers 30-32 to check out the site of Joe Lacob and Peter Guber’s dreams, a rundown waterfront pier currently used as a parking lot. You may know the site currently as the home of Red’s Java House, the little shack that serves up quick, reasonably priced burgers. Fortunately for Red’s and their customers, the Warriors want to keep the venerable restaurant in place even as the new arena is built.

We talk a lot about how great the view is from AT&T Park. Frankly, it doesn’t hold a candle to this view from Pier 30.

Pier 28 in foreground, Bay Bridge in background. View looking north.

That’s just from sea level. Now imagine that you’re on an elevated deck overlooking Pier 28, with an unfettered view of the Bay Bridge. Better yet, imagine that you could see this from inside the arena bowl. How is that possible? I’ll explain later tonight.

05.27.12
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A city’s predicament

I fear for Trib reporter Matt Artz’s email inbox, because it’s about to get pummeled.

In today’s edition, Artz tries to explain why Oakland’s three teams are varying shades of noncommittal with regards to staying at the Coliseum, or even in Oakland in general. For most of us who follow the situation closely, the information is pretty much old hat. Still, it’s good to read someone in the local media deal it as plainly as Artz did, even if the truth is unpleasant.

As Oakland fights to keep its teams, industry leaders say it’s hampered by the fact that its main lure was a site more attractive 40 years ago than it is today.

“I think that’s a real problem,” Smith College economics Professor Andrew Zimbalist said. “The times have passed it by.”

Exactly. No one questions how devoted or hardcore Oakland and East Bay fans are, they are among the best in the nation. Unfortunately, the business of pro sports has become such a high-stakes affair that economically, Oakland is practically a AAA market while San Francisco and San Jose/Silicon Valley are major league markets. Nowadays money trumps hardcore seven days a week.

Yesterday I was looking into how Orlando’s Amway Center was built, hoping to understand how it surpasses Oracle Arena in terms of amenities. Oracle does well in having four premium seating options: courtside seats, suites, and two different club options. Amway Center has an astounding seven options: courtside seats, founders suites, presidents suites, legends (party) suites, MVP tables, 4- and 6-person loges, and club seats. All seven options are priced specifically to target certain well-heeled demographics, whether they are big corporations, prominent small businesses, or rich people who simply want more elbow room. A future post will go into how all of this works. For now let me tell you that there’s no going back. All four North American pro sports leagues are multibillion dollar outfits. So are NASCAR and NCAA football.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan talked Thursday about having a huge Cowboys Stadium-like facility in the Coliseum complex, to be co-anchored by a convention center. One thing she didn’t mention was the price tag for such a complex, or even just the stadium itself. Lest we forget, Santa Clara’s Stadium Authority is on the hook for $700 million of the 49ers stadium costs. Zygi Wilf and the Vikings will be paying 49% of the Metrodome’s $1 billion replacement, leaving the rest to public funding sources. Even if you buy the somewhat dubious argument that the 49ers are paying for the lion’s share of the cost (who runs the Authority, again?), Santa Clara had to put up $144 million in hard dollars initially. What price will Oakland/Alameda County have to pay to stay in the game? $200 million? $500 million? Quan cites the $200 million NFL G-4 fund, but that’s available to every team, every market. Any new stadium will cost at least $1 billion.

Also today, a sobering analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows how cities struggle to make their money back even with glistening new stadia, characterizing these efforts as an “arms race”. Good thing that the leagues appear to be bedrock solid for the foreseeable future, because if they weren’t municipalities would be wading into their own “mutually assured destruction”. So dream big, people, because it’s not your money! Until there’s a price tag. Then it’s definitely your money.

05.25.12
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Mayors go on the offensive, Wolff to meet with Knauss on Friday

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is having caviar dreams on a canned tuna budget.

Quan finally agreed to an interview with The Game’s Chris Townsend, though he had to travel to Oakland City Hall to do it. I listened to the exchange intently, looking for some semblance of consistent messaging throughout. For the most part the message was consistent, but probably not what the teams and fans are looking for.

Quan continued to tout Coliseum City as a massive development stretching over 500 acres that could attract 32,000 jobs, major hotels, corporations, and anywhere from one to four pro sports franchises. That’s right, four. When Townsend pressed her on what she meant by that, she said that the City was looking at teams outside of the current three tenants.

In the wake of the Warriors’ announcement that they intend to build a new arena in San Francisco, East Bay backers are already talking about luring either the Sacramento Kings or San Jose Sharks to Oakland. Oracle Arena is built for basketball, not hockey, so the Sharks are out of the question. The Kings are a more intriguing proposition since Oracle is miles ahead of ARCO/Power Balance in terms of modernity and amenities. However, you can bet that Joe Lacob and Peter Guber would fight tooth and nail to keep a second team out of the Bay Area. Even if the NBA were to allow it, the Lacob/Guber ownership group would get a tidy compensation check from whomever brought a team to Oakland. You can forget about that being the Maloofs since they’re broke. David Stern has also stopped Larry Ellison twice from relocating a team to San Jose, so you can glean from those vetoes that Stern considers the Bay Area a single-team market. Remember that Oakland’s gambit is to replace Oracle Arena with a new one if the Warriors stayed. There is zero chance of anyone building an arena in Oakland if the Warriors are in SF. They’ll just soldier on with the current arena, which again is a perfectly fine venue from a technical standpoint.

As for the A’s, Quan revealed a couple of things that are quite germane to Oakland’s efforts going forward. She seems fully committed to Coliseum City in whatever form it takes. When asked about a site in downtown Oakland, she said that if Clorox CEO Don Knauss wants to move in that direction and can figure out how to pay for the extra cost, it shouldn’t affect Coliseum City adversely. She didn’t exactly dismiss Howard Terminal or Victory Court, but by now she has to be fully aware of the nine-figure costs associated with either of those sites, which makes them quite difficult to develop. For that she deserves a lot of credit – Oakland’s advantages are that it has land and a potentially easier process to develop venues. The flipside to that argument is that Oakland’s not as desirable or coveted as SF or San Jose, so there’s a very good reason why it’s easier or more available.

Beyond that, Quan may be getting a bit too starry-eyed for her own good.

As long as we have one huge sports facility [plus] we will have a much bigger convention center than we currently have in downtown Oakland.

That sounds like a pivot to me. If Quan and the City are pivoting it’s probably no coincidence that AEG is on board to manage the complex and provide consulting for the next phase of the Coliseum, which would be to have something along the lines of what they are planning in LA: retractable roof stadium, arena, and convention center in one location. Maybe AEG will get a team to relocate there, maybe they won’t. What they can do is influence both LA and Oakland by shaping development there. It worked in LA, and it sure looks like it’s moving in that direction at the Coliseum. Two years I wrote about re-using the Coliseum for a convention center after teams vacated. It sounded preposterous back then, but it could make sense with AEG steering things. Though again, it’s important to note that AEG has never shown much interest in baseball. AEG could decide that it would be best to use as much available land as possible for a top-notch convention center. A large convention center can easily take up a greater footprint than two stadia side-by-side.

The “one huge sports facility” term has me intrigued. Now the thought of Cowboys Stadium doesn’t sound quite as far-fetched since it would be part and parcel with the convention center. The key would be the flexibility of the stadium. If you want to go full-bore crazy, Oakland should shoot for what Doha, Qatar is doing with one of its 2022 World Cup venues. Called Doha Sports City Stadium, it’s a retractable domed affair with movable seating decks and facilities built into the roof, not a mere steel or fabric shell.

Inside the 65,000-seat Doha Sports City Stadium, which is planned for a 2017 completion date.

The project picks up where Japan’s Saitama Super Arena left off, doubling SSA in size and scale (UNLV has a similar proposal to SSA). Let’s be clear about what DSCS is: $1.5 billion in state oil profits to be used for a showcase venue that could conceivably be used for a future Olympics gig. And if you think the picture above is nuts, save your jawdrop for the next image.

Exterior view. The stadium is only a part of the extremely large development, with ancillary features all under the "single" roof.

I suppose that the attitude here is that if this is going to cost $2 billion, might as well go all the way. Something like DSCS would certainly give Oakland the “one huge sports facility” that Quan alluded to.

…

Meanwhile in San Jose, the City is quietly building up its case and legal team for a potential attack on baseball’s antitrust exemption. The call for such a lawsuit has only gotten louder in the last several weeks as the team continues to languish with no direction in sight. San Jose is not going to sue as long as Lew Wolff continues to follow MLB’s process. The buzz will only get louder. I’ve even heard that legal proceedings may not cost the City much if anything. We’ll see if that actually happens. I wrote last week that as long as Selig doesn’t make a decision, there’s no trigger for a lawsuit since Bud Selig can say he’s continuing to study the matter. That could be a big reason why Wolff’s position has been “any decision is better than none” since either a yes or no could provide a jumping off point for Wolff.

Wolff supposedly met or is meeting with Don Knauss today, according to the Chronicle’s Susan Slusser. Maybe they’ll share Diamond Level seats for tonight’s Yankees game. Maybe Wolff will host Knauss in the owner’s suite. Knowing what we know about what both sides want, I don’t expect any earthshaking news. If I hear something I’ll be sure to update this post accordingly.

Update 5/26 7:37 AM – BANG’s Joe Stiglich has this regarding the Wolff-Knauss meeting:

A’s co-owner Lew Wolff confirmed that he met Friday with Clorox CEO Don Knauss, who has been outspoken about wanting to keep the A’s in Oakland.

Wolff declined to share what exactly the two discussed, other than to say he enjoyed the chance to talk with Knauss.

“I think we had a nice dialogue,” Wolff said. “We just exchanged some ideas. That’s all I want to say.”

There you have it. 

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BTW, I’ll be tailgating at today’s Yankees game. If you want to drop by and chat, reply here or via Twitter. I’ll provide location info once in the parking lot.