Category Archives: News

05.31.11
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Winnipeg’s drive to 13,000

Before True North’s press conference devolved into a lengthy sales pitch for season tickets, there was an air of justice and patriotism in the crowd. I really sensed that a wrong was being righted, similar to the way a wrongly convicted man was getting his release. Of course, it’s borderline ludicrous to compare the two, but that’s the passion in Winnipeg right now. They’re getting NHL hockey back in town. Whether it remains there depends on how they sell out. And by selling out, I mean season tickets. 13,000 to be exact in a 15,000-seat arena. If True North can feed on this passion, MTS Centre will be the toughest ticket in Canada for years to come.

Notice how there's no team name? They haven't picked one yet. Um, Jets?

True North kicked off the sales campaign by launching a website, Driveto13.com. It describes the pricing plans, sales dates, and terms. There’s even a toteboard for fans and media to keep track of progress, and True North will be sending out a press release every afternoon with an update.

Winnipeg is a tiny market, with only 700,000 within its metro. It’s actually smaller than San Mateo County. Despite the passion for hockey in Winnipeg and throughout Manitoba, the NHL is most concerned with whether that passion can properly counterbalance that size problem. To assuage Gary Bettman’s concerns, True North is putting a few terms on ticket purchasers which should, if successful, address the franchise’s long-term viability in Winnipeg.

Prices are reasonable, we swear

These prices are consistent with those of other Canadian teams. However there is a catch.

A three-day presale will be afforded to season ticket holders for the Manitoba Moose AHL team, who were brought in when the Jets left for Phoenix. These ticket holders should be prepared for some sticker shock, as the highest priced seat package for the NHL team will be 3.5x the price of the same seats for the Moose. After the presale period ends the general sale begins, and that’s when it’ll get interesting. The NHL Board of Governors has to approve the move. Rest assured that they and Bettman will be looking at the toteboard with a critical eye.

Locking the fans in

To head off concerns about viability, True North is attempting to lock in season ticket buyers for up to 5 years.

An interesting tack being taken by True North is a mandate of multiyear commitments for season tickets. This is where the rubber meets the road, as it will demonstrate how far Winnipeggers’ passion will stretch. A median-priced seat in the lower bowl end or corner will require an outlay of over $14,000 over four years. The best seats will cost twice as much over five years. Only the worst season ticket pricing levels will have the option for half-season plans. To make the price easier to swallow, True North is also advertising monthly payment plans, which for the purposes of comparison amounts to the cost of a car payment (depending on how luxurious the car). Nominal deposts will also be required. One thing not part of the conversation is the dreaded personal seat license, which is a good move given the stigma associated with PSLs.

These are aggressive moves and goals for True North and Winnipeg. We’ll see soon see if the fan response translates into chopping away into the 13,000 goal over the summer. As for the team name, I hope the Jets are available. If not, I have a suggestion.

(BTW, I don’t really care for the name “Polar Bears”. I needed an excuse to insert the clip.)

There are also some potentially good takeaways for the A’s, and especially ballpark supporters in Oakland, a city that has limitations like Winnipeg (though not as severe). If a goal can be set, perhaps 15,000 season tickets, with 3-5 year commitments, that would go a long way towards convincing Bud Selig and the owners that Oakland is viable. The same could also go for San Jose, in that it would prove that the T-rights battle is worth it. In any case, though it’s tough to see hockey leave Atlanta a second (and final) time, it’s nice to see that hockey is back in Winnipeg, where it belongs. Good luck, Manitobans.

05.31.11
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FiveThirtyEight and Yelp’s Stadium Survey: Coliseum ranks 29th

Nate Silver’s plenty busy writing about politics year round, but occasionally he’s able to write about baseball in some capacity. In a blog post at FiveThirtyEight, Silver ranks all 30 MLB ballparks and 4 other previous ballparks via Yelp’s ratings system. The Coliseum ranks next-to-last among active venues with a 3.13 rating. Upon reading several pages of “reviews”, I had to conclude that at least for the Coliseum the rating is flawed. Numerous people based their review on the stadium as a football venue. Others rated based on attending both Raiders and A’s games. More than a few mistakenly rated Oracle Arena next door, instead of the stadium. I’d go through the trouble of parsing the reviews to get a better contextual sample, but not even I’m that patient with Yelp.

That’s not to say that the methodology is flawed for all venues. Most ballparks are getting reviews for being single-purpose baseball facilities, so there’s no contamination with most ratings as there is with the Coliseum. No, this is not a particularly scientific study, but as Silver notes, it’s more comprehensive than a single writer’s opinion as he takes an all-expenses paid trip all over North America to review venues. Silver also lists the standard deviation, which for the Coliseum is among the highest (1.21). All that means in laymen’s terms is that the ratings for the Coli were all over the place, whereas the ratings for PNC Park (st. dev.: 0.49) were uniformly excellent.

05.28.11
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Getting desperate in the big city

Two items left out of yesterday’s news post have to do with the ongoing financial struggles of the Mets and Dodgers, or rather their ownership groups.

  • Hedge fund mover and shaker David Einhorn has dropped $200 million for a 1/3 share of the Mets, which may be enough to rescue Fred Wilpon. Or is it? According to ESPN and the New York Times, Einhorn has an option to acquire up to 60% (and controlling) interest in the team from Wilpon, should the beleaguered owner not be able to pay back the $200 million. If the Madoff trustee case ends with Wilpon having to liquidate much of his real estate holdings or other investments, he may not be able to pay back Einhorn, setting the stage for a takeover. Einhorn is no stranger to playing hardball, having called for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s ouster earlier in the week. Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital owns more than 9 million shares of MSFT. No matter how you slice it, the deal is not the safe one many expected Wilpon to make.
  • Reports came in over the last couple of days showing that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt will in fact make payroll in time for the end of the month. By taking certain future payments up front to cover the May 31 payroll, McCourt has ensured that MLB won’t be able to pull the trigger on a takeover of the team. In doing this McCourt has written off that revenue for later in the season, and he merely pushes the deadline back two weeks. The next payroll deadline is June 15, and it is unknown what tricks McCourt has left up his sleeve to take care of business then. Combine that with flagging attendance, a lawsuit against the team and owner filed by the family of beating victim Bryan Stow, and the fact that another round of divorce settlement talks ended earlier in the week with no movement, and it’s clear that it’s only a matter of time before McCourt loses the team completely. The only thing up for debate is how delusional McCourt is to keep this charade up.

One interesting arena tidbit. Arena operators will be scrambling this summer to fill dates in anticipation of what may be a lengthy NBA lockout. A quote from Orlando executive director of venues:

Johnson said he can book a popular artist to replace a Magic game with a notice of 30 days. He said Taylor Swift’s concert next Saturday sold out in three minutes.

And that’s an arena is more lucrative to run than any outdoor stadium. It also reminds me of George Vukasin Sr.’s anecdote about Bill Graham getting The Grateful Dead to help the Coliseum Commission on occasion by booking a weeklong “residency.” It’s almost inconceivable to think that a local band could quickly and easily sign on for one or several dates just to help out an arena operator or city these days.

05.27.11
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News for 5/27/11

Sacramento has the feasibility study for its new arena at the its website, along with additional renderings. Besides the lack of financing plan that would have to be determined by the end of the “100 Day Plan,” I noticed one other thing. As part of the effort to cut costs, there is no separate club level. Instead, the club seats are largely confined to one side of the arena and courtside sidelines, with the club lounge taking up part of the main concourse.

Angle view of ICON Taylor arena interior. Club seats are colored blue-violet. Arena is designed to host a hockey team as well as the Kings.

While the Maloofs continue to maintain that the Kings are not for sale, as many as three groups have surfaced that could buy the franchise if it were available. Ron Burkle continues to be the popular choice, with the “mystery Nevada businessman” being second. Now a group fronted by former King Chris Webber has surfaced, and its chief moneyman is a Filipino businessman named Manny V. Pangilinan, or as he’s known in Manila, “MVP.” With frequent talk of Chinese interests getting a controlling piece of a NBA franchise, it would be somewhat poetic to have a Filipino be the first Asian to do so. FWIW, there are three national sports in The Philippines: basketball, boxing, and cockfighting. It’s not going to make me anymore a Kings fan than Erik Spoelstra (who is half-Filipino) being the head coach of the Miami Heat makes me a Heat fan, but it’s something to be proud of.

Another week, another arena proposal. This time it’s in Baltimore, a city whose 50-year old arena hasn’t fielded a major franchise in nearly 40 years. 92-year-old construction magnate Willard Hackerman is willing to pay for the arena as part of an elaborate redevelopment plan along the Inner Harbor. Like Sprint Center in Kansas City, the arena would be built on spec, without a major pro tenant. Baltimore has been without an indoor sports franchise for so long that it’s hard to know if one would be successful there. It appears that Hackerman is willing to give it shot. Hackerman’s company, Whiting-Turner, built M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens.

ESPN’s Jim Caple came out with his “official” MLB owner’s rankings. Lew Wolff placed 17th, higher than I would’ve expected. Must be the national media bias.

Here on the blog, 980 Park concept originator Bryan Grunwald received word from the City of Oakland that his concept will in fact be part of the Victory Court EIR, hopefully as a full alternative. Unfortunately, Grunwald also was informed that there is no schedule for the release of the EIR. With MLB moving glacially and putting the A’s on the backburner, I suppose it affords the City time to be thorough. Weren’t they supposed to have the whole thing done (and certified) in around a year?

On the redevelopment tip, there are now three bills working more-or-less in conjunction to provide a less wasteful alternative to the current scheme, which is enshrined in the California Constitution. A fourth bill works against redevelopment, as wished by Governor Jerry Brown. Here’s the list:

  • SB 286 would restrict how projects are funded. Currently redevelopment dollars are a free-for-all as long as they can be applied to a “blighted” area. If this bill passes money for stadiums and arenas would require a public vote in the affected municipalities.
  • SB 450 seeks to rein in waste by capping administrative costs, while pushing the requirement that 20% of funds be spent on affordable housing, to the forefront.
  • SB 214 would allow the creation of new infrastructure districts whose purpose would be to finance infrastructure projects (roads, highways, sewers, etc.).
  • AB 101 is the aforementioned anti-redevelopment bill. Should any municipality’s RDA have any surpluses after obligations are met, those surpluses would vest with the municipality instead of being sandboxed for redevelopment purposes.

The University of Michigan wants to expand The Big House to 120,000 seats. Might want to fix the football program first.

If you wear a “Yankees Suck” T-shirt at the O.co Liseum next week, will you get thrown out as this lawyer did at the Trop last week?

Added 2:15 PM – The Minnesota legislative session ended with no action on stadiums for the Minnesota Vikings and St. Paul Saints. A deal would have to be done in a special session.

05.23.11
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A’s change Twitter name from @OaklandAs to @Athletics

I’m not sure if I ever explained this before, so forgive me if I’m being repetitive. When I set about moving this blog from Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress installation, I looked far and wide for a unique, succinct domain name. The obvious choice, newballpark.com, was already registered to MLB. The reason? It was purchased well over a decade ago by the Red Sox, who at the time were run by John Harrington. Harrington was in the throes of a campaign to replace Fenway Park with a newer, more modern version of the yard next door. After the Montreal Expos were contracted and reborn as the Washington Nationals, Harrington and the Yawkey Trust were out and John Henry, who had until then owned the Florida Marlins, took over the Sox. Henry chose to renovate instead of replace Fenway, and the rest is history. Ironically, the domain newballpark.com remains with the Sox despite the 180-degree turn. I could have chosen newballpark.net (which is available to my knowledge) or newballpark.org. Since I wanted to run the blog as a clearly non-commercial entity, I chose the latter. And here we are. So it’s with some amusement that I found out that the A’s changed their official Twitter feed from @OaklandAs to @Athletics. Immediately there was some worry that this was yet another slight of Oakland, and that the change was an indicator that they were out the door. Athletics After Dark‘s Dale Tafoya got the word from straight from the A’s. twitter-tafoya-rose

It makes sense. The A’s were always going to be in this awkward situation regarding naming, especially on social media. Should they use OaklandAs, OaklandAthletics, Athletics, or OaklandAs? Isn’t “Athletics” synonymous with what Americans call “track and field?” Not having the apostrophe available on Twitter might lead to misinterpretation. In the end, when A’s fans posted on Twitter, they customarily used the hashtag #Athletics, so naturally the team might want to pursue the name. The baseball Giants weren’t first to claim either the domain name or Twitter account named “Giants” with both going to the New York Football Giants instead. The domain name athletics.com belongs to Selliquest, a purveyor of web-based sales and marketing tools for the pharmaceutical industry. The product in question is called Net Athletics, though the second word is emphasized. Selliquest owns both athletics.com and netathletics.com. Would they be willing to part with athletics.com for the right price? If it goes according to form, the company will probably ask too much for the domain if the A’s come calling. One more thing: #FIREGERENNOW

05.20.11
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News for 5/21/11 (Rapture Day)

KNBR update man Dan Dibley announced Friday that he was leaving the station for 95.7 Sports Radio, where it appears he will have similar (perhaps expanded) duties. He’s a quality guy who’s from the Bay Area and knows the local sports scene (including the Quakes), which for KBWF is half the battle.

Speaking of 95.7, does anyone know where Chris Townsend is? His Twitter feed has been silent for 24 hours. Maybe he’s just getting a day or weekend off. He has worked pretty much every day without a break since the station switched formats on Opening Day, so he deserves a rest. I hope everything’s alright otherwise.

Marcos Breton and Ann Killion both have profiles of the A’s as the team labors in in relative anonymity across the Bay from the World Champs. Such is life.

San Jose’s redevelopment king, Harry Mavrogenes, announced that he’s stepping down in a month. SJRA has been cutting staff and running on fumes for a year now, making Mavrogenes’ departure more symbolic than anything. The agency has been dying for a while, and for better or worse, will never be the same. With land acquisition and development powers transferred to the San Jose Diridon Development Authority (of which Mavrogenes was a signatory), his capacity as SJRA head was no longer needed to finish the ballpark work.

Did you know that the headquarters of Family Radio (whose leader Harold Camping is predicting The Rapture on Saturday) is on Hegenberger, just across the Nimitz from the Coliseum? There is a tangential relation to the A’s besides proximity. Family Radio bought KFRC-610 from CBS in 2005, creating a very uncomfortable combination of God talk and A’s talk/games during the 2005 season.

SFGate/Chronicle blogger Peter Hartlaub has a couple of great posts showing what BART could’ve been like if vision didn’t give way to politics and construction photos including the Transbay Tube.

Jamie McCourt wants an immediate sale of the Dodgers so that she can cash out while she can. Which would be awesome for Dodgers fans who want to turn the page, A’s fans who want the team taken off the backburner, and pretty much everyone else except for Angels and Giants fans who are experiencing some deep schadenfreude.

The athletic facilities at Stanford are going to turn into one gigantic WiFi hotspot, thanks to AT&T. You know, it’d be nice if Verizon did the same for the Coliseum, seeing as they’re the telecom sponsor there.

Added 5/21 9:30 AM- John Fisher has to be taking it in the shorts this weekend as the GAP dove 17% in trading yesterday after it reset annual earnings expectations down 22%.

05.18.11
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Wall Street Journal piece explains everything you already know

Tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal more-or-less has an article by the paper’s Silicon Valley reporter, John Letzing, that resets all of the current, relevant information about the San Jose’s ballpark pursuit.

The takeaways are these:

  • Lew Wolff declined to comment, deferring instead to A’s broadcasting veep Ken Pries.
  • Giants spokesperson Staci Slaughter likewise refrained from comment on territorial rights.
  • Oakland’s Dan Lindheim gave his brief statement in support of keeping the A’s, then declined further comment.
  • Pries, for his part, said Wolff may not be willing to fund construction of a ballpark in Oakland.
  • Longtime ballpark opponent Marc Morris thinks there are better uses for ballpark project money.

Then there’s this, which was sourced from San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s letter from Monday:

Last week, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed wrote to Mr. Selig, noting that seven years had passed since the A’s first considered moving to San Jose and added: “Despite your lengthy deliberative process, success is still achievable,” according to a copy of the letter Mr. Reed released.

Remember that Wolff joined the A’s in the venue development capacity in 2003, then exercised an option to buy the team in 2005. Also remember that then-Mayor Ron Gonzales made his ill-fated pitch at spring training in front of Phoenix Muni in March 2005. I even started this blog in March 2005. Obviously, something’s up with that, right?

Well, no.

Wolff’s job from 2003 until 2009 was to search all over the East Bay, including Oakland and Fremont. That he did, though the veracity with which he did his search will always be up for debate. If Gonzales came calling in 2004 or 2005, Wolff could take the call but he couldn’t work out any details, just as Wolff and Reed can’t do now. Back in 2004, Diridon was not the preferred site. In fact, it was considered one of the most difficult sites to make work simply because it had multiple owners, so it required multiple negotiations to acquire the entire site. The possibility or relocating the PG&E substation was also considered problematic. Territorial rights perhaps moreso. If someone’s looking for some great pipedream involving Wolff and Diridon – it wasn’t there.

However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping San Jose a fallback option. Any businessman worth his salt would. As 2005 became 2006 and so on, Wolff focused on Fremont instead of Oakland because of the difficulty doing the land deal at Coliseum North – again, related to potentially complex negotiations with multiple landowners instead of one. When the economic collapse killed the major tenets of the Pacific Commons deal, Wolff went to Warm Springs and met a ton of hostility there. Knowing that he’d have to figure out a more “sure thing” in terms of financing a ballpark, he went to San Jose.

The thing I continually puzzle over is this obsession with Wolff’s intent, whether it was in 2003, 2005, 2009, or now. All I know is that Wolff’s intent is to build a ballpark. He was willing to forego San Jose if he could get cheap land and a financing mechanism in place in Fremont or Oakland. That blew up and he had to adapt. If he’s wrong in his assessment that it can’t be done in Oakland, Selig and his committee should able to prove Oakland’s economic fitness. If not, San Jose should not be dismissed. It’s much, much too late in this saga to worry which city’s first, and whose citizens are being offended. It’s time to lay cards on the table. If Wolff’s bluffing, we’ll know. If either Oakland’s or San Jose’s hand is a loser, we’ll know. Like Wolff, I’d rather get a decision than hang in the ether for years. Because when that decision comes we can focus on whatever gets built, whenever that is. And we can start healing the rift that has created by this whole mess.

Added 8:42 PM – At San Jose Inside, Josh Koehn considers the impact of San Jose putting Mayor Reed’s pension reform measure and a ballpark measure on the same ballot.

Added 5/19 10:30 AM – Dave Newhouse wrote about what happened after Andy Dolich’s email was hacked. (Interestingly, I got one of those emails too but recognized it as a Nigerian prince-type scam immediately so I deleted it.) Dolich maintains that the solution for the A’s (and Raiders/49ers) is at the Coliseum, whereas San Jose would be too costly due to T-rights and Victory Court doesn’t have the funding to get it done.

05.16.11
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News for 5/16/11

The Houston Astros and current owner Drayton McLane have announced that the team is being sold to Houston businessman Jim Crane for $680 million. Approval should take 30-60 days. Among the hangups were discussions over the Astros’ share of a new regional sports network to be shared with the Houston Rockets.

The Maloofs have agreed to share the Sacramento Kings’ financial data with pro-arena interests in the Capitol. This is a departure from other teams in other leagues who are generally reticent to share such data. As part of ongoing CBA discussions, owners have similarly shared data with the players’ union.

George Vukasin, Jr. of Peerless Coffee alerted me to this editorial in the Trib about eminent domain. A bill passed in 2007 tightens controls over how eminent doman can used to the point that “blight” has to be more clearly defined than it has in the past. Both Oakland and San Jose could be affected by these restrictions enough that land acquisitions could be further delayed or even stopped altogether.

Sacramento’s Matthew Mahood was named CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. As for whether this will make a difference for San Jose’s pursuit of the A’s, Mayor Chuck Reed said this:

“The issue of the A’s stadium is way beyond what the chamber president can do,” Mayor Chuck Reed said. “It’s all between Lew (Wolff) and Major League Baseball.”

April’s radio ratings are scheduled for release today. We’ll get to see how the KBWF and KTRB shakeups have affected the Bay Area’s sports radio landscape. Update 2:17 PM – And they’re out.

As long as KBWF’s only permanent host is Chris Townsend, KBWF will struggle to gain listeners. Hopefully they can get that straightened out in short order. It’s a long game, and if the first goal is to supplant 1050, mission accomplished. I know that many have been clamoring for Rick Tittle to take the 10-1 slot. I’d rather him take a night slot with a more established name at midday.

Update 3:30 PM – ESPN is reporting that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the NFL owners a stay in the lockout, meaning the lockout is still on. They have also asked the owners to submit a new proposal to the players. The two sides are in mediation today and it looks like the session will be extended several hours longer to accommodate the new proposal. Retired players rep Carl Eller said on SportsCenter that progress is being made, which could be very promising. Both the NBA and MLB are watching these talks carefully (NBA moreso).

Added 5/17 11:15 AM – From Baseball San Jose (via LoneStranger), San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed sent a letter to Bud Selig asking for a decision.

Governor Jerry Brown sent out his revised budget proposal for May, which continues to include a call to dismantle all redevelopment agencies despite growing revenues statewide.

05.13.11
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SJ Mayor Reed plays hardball with unions

As part of an effort to control upwardly spiraling pensions, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has called for the City to declare a state of fiscal emergency. This comes after months of ongoing negotiations with several public employee unions, which have yielded mixed results. Should this action pass with the City Council, in November voters would be allowed to approve or deny a major overhaul of existing benefits.

San Jose is not alone in facing increasing pension costs, as shown by recent statements by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. Reed is taking what could be regarded as the most radical step by throwing his hands in the air and taking it to the voters. There’s some degree of negotiation tactics in doing this move, whether it yields results is another thing altogether. While it’s clear steps need to be taken, I’m not a fan of this tactic since it follows the pattern of “legislation by vote” that has turned Sacramento into gridlock. Internal struggles should have internal solutions, whether through collective bargaining negotiations or mediation. It’ll be interesting to see if this goes on the ballot, since it will set a precedent many cities may follow in short order.

It’s possible that a ballpark measure could be on the November ballot, though MLB has not given any suggestion that it would allow that to occur. Without polling, it’s hard to tell what impact a pension reform ballot measure would have on a ballpark measure. You’d have fiscal conservatives and union backers coming out in droves and in opposition. If I were in the group backing the ballpark, I’d seriously consider redoing polling during the summer to see how this fiscal issue impacts the ballpark. If a ballpark vote were to be held in the following primary (February or June), then it might be a different story. Then again, fiscal conservatives may be out en masse again because it is the presidential primary. Either way, the pulse taken last summer loses weight with each passing month.

05.06.11
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News for 5/6/11 (updated)

After the rush of last week, this week is fairly light on news.

The Dodgers and Frank McCourt continue to make headlines off the field, managing to overshadow Andre Ethier’s 2930-game hitting streak.

  • It’s been widely reported that the team will not be able to make payroll on May 31, which will force MLB to bail the Dodgers out. Right now all financial decisions are going through MLB appointee Tom Schieffer. McCourt’s argument has been that Bud Selig’s unwillingness to approve a new media deal from Fox is causing this problem. It is likely that MLB will loan the team money to take care of payroll for the rest of the season, but the price paid will be the complete takeover of the team.
  • McCourt’s newly hired Vice Chairman, Steve Sokoroff, is McCourt’s trash-talking heel. Earlier in the week, Sokoroff accused Schieffer of not acting promptly to approve a security increase at Dodger Stadium in the wake of the death of Osama Bin Laden. Schieffer supplied an email to MLB showing that he approved the request in two minutes, which understandably got MLB very upset. McCourt was forced to apologize for Sokoroff, and probably lost whatever allies he had within the league in the process.
  • A rumor gaining traction has the NFL looking at the Dodger Stadium site as a future stadium home, either by replacing or sitting alongside the existing ballpark. AEG would be the party to make it happen. Whether it’s a swap or two stadia, the concept doesn’t make much sense from AEG’s perspective. One of the reasons to have a domed football stadium is that it serves a second, nearly as important purpose: it replaces and extends the convention center. A ballpark or any open-air stadium won’t work for that purpose. What’s more, AEG probably isn’t interested in pushing a bunch of pedestrian and vehicle traffic to Chavez Ravine, they’d like to keep it downtown. If anything, a football stadium at Chavez Ravine next to Dodger Stadium without any links to AEG might make the most sense of any deal. A NFL stadium could follow the same cost-saving construction principles (building into a hill) employed at Dodger Stadium and advertised for the City of Industry stadium, while displacing only 1,200 parking spaces and utilizing other existing infrastructure at the same time.
  • Even the financial investigation is getting bogged down. MLB wants hard or disc copies of financial records. The Dodgers will only allow auditors access to a “virtual data room” from which nothing can be removed. The IAEA had an easier time getting through inspections in Iraq than this.

The planned Las Vegas National Sports Center could move from Downtown to The Strip, right behind Mandalay Bay. Texas developer Chris Milam bought a large, undeveloped lot across the I-15 freeway from Mandalay Bay and has already signed the Las Vegas 51’s AAA franchise to move down there. Updated 9:33 PM – The 51’s have been sold to Milam, making the impetus to build LVNSC greater.

During the last A’s-Angels series in Anaheim, did anyone notice how the batter’s eye was redone? Instead of a tarp and a painted wall, there appears to be some turf up top and trees up front. I wonder if anyone’s done an analysis to see how batter’s eye changes affect team batting pre/post.

OT – Gus Johnson won’t be working CBS’s NCAA hoops tourney coverage anymore. Not cool.

Updated 9:44 PM – Look to next week for things to heat up a little as the next owners meetings are set for Wednesday and Thursday. The Dodgers may be the #1 discussion topic even though they aren’t on the agenda, with the Mets and a potential new minority owner #2. CBA framework will probably be close to finalized, and the A’s/Rays’ situations might make the talks (don’t count on it). From the LA Times’ Bill Shaikin:

The Dodgers’ situation is not on the agenda for next week’s meeting, and no action is expected with regard to the team, according to two people familiar with plans for the meeting but not authorized to discuss them publicly.

However, the Dodgers currently lack the cash to meet the May 31 payroll, a scenario that could trigger an ownership change, a legal confrontation between McCourt and Selig, or both.

If the Dodgers fail to meet the payroll, the commissioner’s office would pay the salaries, with McCourt almost certainly asked to sell the team. If he were to refuse, the league constitution specifically provides for “involuntary termination” of the franchise if the owner fails to repay any debts to the league within 30 days.