Category Archives: Oakland

07.01.11
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News for 7/1/11

Despite the bittersweet tone of yesterday (thanks for the memories Ellie), there was a little humor to be found before the game (via the Chronicle’s John Shea):

Clubhouse blaze: Before the game, a fire broke out near Brian Fuentes‘ locker, the result of an overcharged battery for the reliever’s remote-control airplane. Several players rushed to put it out, as did Isao Hirooka (Matsui’s PR guy), equipped with a five-gallon container of drinking water.

In a smoky clubhouse, managing general partner Lew Wolff sat at a table, sipped on a root beer float and cracked a couple of jokes about how this could have been his ticket to a new ballpark, playfully chiding his players for extinguishing the flames.

Clubhouse manager Steve Vucinich approached Wolff and whispered, “Nobody saw you set that, did they?”

Briefly: Wolff expects to meet with Oakland mayor Jean Quan, who has thoughts for a new Oakland ballpark, in the next month but said, “Don’t read too much into it.” …

Several hours after the A’s late rally fell short, Oakland passed its budget with Quan as the deciding vote. The budget includes the sale of HJKCC, funds the public library system, and is heavily dependent on approval of concessions by the police union, which are to be voted on next week.

Craig Calcaterra feels our pain.

Bankruptcy hearings for the Dodgers are set to stretch out until next January. Bud Selig will be deposed by Frank McCourt’s lawyers in two weeks. That should be fun.

Do you believe David Stern’s line that 22 teams in the NBA lost money going into the lockout? Think again.

Saturday’s Earthquakes-Red Bulls contest will be played at Stanford Stadium, to be followed by a fireworks show. Coincidentally, the A’s play the Snakes at the Coliseum at the same time, also to be followed by a fireworks show. Even though I already have a ticket for the A’s game, I may ditch it to go to the Quakes match instead solely because I’ve never seen a soccer match at Stanford since it was rebuilt.

China’s 800+ mile (roughly Seattle to San Francisco) high speed rail train between Beijing and Shanghai launched last week. After a decade of planning, the line took three years to construct. A one-way fare from Beijing to Shanghai costs as little as $85 and takes less than five hours to complete the run.

P.S. – I wanted to add a commentary item to chew on as we head into the weekend. Over the past few days there have been renewed calls on the blog for alternative sites, such as 980 Park, Fremont, or Dublin/Pleasanton. Let’s consider the process before putting these out there. Selig’s panel spent an unspecified amount of time looking at sites, not just in Oakland, but throughout and beyond the specified stadium territory for the A’s (Alameda/Contra Costa counties). For whatever reason, in 2009 four Oakland sites, three centered around downtown, were presented. Those were whittled down to the Victory Court site. Now I’ll repeat this again: Out of the entire A’s territory. This may be because of political forces in Oakland pushing it to stay in Oakland and the panel going along with it (some were upset when the 2001 HOK study included Fremont and Pleasanton). Or it could be the panel said they preferred a downtown site and no other site within the territory provided that. Whatever the cause, Victory Court is the choice in the territory. 980 Park is an EIR alternative, but there’s no indicator as to whether or not MLB takes the site seriously. I think it’s safe to say that with the Coliseum being dismissed early on and no implicit desire to seek a suburban locale, for Oakland and the A’s existing territory it’s Victory Court or bust. That may be why the search was formally expanded to include San Jose, since there’s a downtown there too. I don’t know, I’m just trying to make sense of it.

06.29.11
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Quick notes from Wolff-Townsend interview

Update 11:45 PM – Mark Purdy asks questions of both Wolff and Reed.

Wolff’s reactions to Townsend’s questions:

  • Not critical about Selig. Is resigned to the length of the process.
  • T-rights isn’t “us against the Giants.” It’s a baseball matter.
  • Washington-Baltimore is not comparable to Santa Clara County, and has not been discussed as comparable.
  • Acknowledges cities’ financial problems. Emphasizes ballpark will be built with private funds (does not talk about public land or infrastructure).
  • Continues to be in touch with San Jose and Mayor Reed.
  • Considers real estate transactions for Diridon small in cost relative to ballpark investment.
  • Maintains there is no Plan B, Plan A being San Jose.
  • Says that there is no financial plan for building in Oakland. Infrastructure costs in Oakland and Fremont are “not in the cards anymore.”
  • Oakland Mayor Quan and Wolff have been talking, will meet next month.
  • OT – Feels that 49ers and Raiders should share a stadium.
  • San Jose site is the only that appears to be ready (EIR, land acquisition).
  • Considers being an owner a privilege.
  • Says the A’s have a good fanbase, could be bigger.
  • Likes the challenge of figuring the plan out, but he’s getting older.
  • Hints for the first time that if situation drags past the point where he can see it through, his son (Keith) and staff will do it.

Not much from the interview, but the Quan and succession stuff is revealing.

06.29.11
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Onus

Update 4:50 PM – The League of California Cities, a redevelopment and city lobbying group, is going straight to the California Supreme Court for a ruling on the constitutionality of the new laws.

Update 2:40 PM – Governor Brown has signed the twin kill redevelopment bills.

Reminder: Lew Wolff will be on The Chris Townsend Show (95.7 FM) at 5:30 PM today.

At the end of Howard Bryant’s first column on the state of the A’s, it might have been easy to lose track of something Lew Wolff said.

Though the clock is ticking on the A’s, sources also say the committee has not expressed any time pressure to present Selig of its findings.

“That’s very true,” Wolff said. “The pressure isn’t on them. It’s on me.”

Starting today, the pressure will definitely be on Wolff – despite the fact that this pressure will come from circumstances beyond his control. At the Capitol, Republicans briefly delayed the inevitable passage of the budget, which was constructed from a combination of realignment and suspect revenue projections. The final package includes the two redevelopment bills (one to kill, one for ransom/rebirth) that were passed by the legislature two weeks ago. Cities throughout the state are lawyering up, though it’s hard to see what settlement could arise since any compromise on the state’s part would have consequences for the budget.

Legal challenges or not, all cities have to deal with the repercussions of the budget passage. Redevelopment advocates have called the twin bills little more than an extortion scheme to allow them to continue to work, and they’re not wrong. As mentioned last Tuesday, here are the amounts that would have to be paid for cities and counties to keep their RDA’s functional:

  • Alameda County: $7.7 million
  • Fremont: $9 million
  • Oakland: $39.7 million
  • San Diego: $69.8 million
  • San Francisco: $24.6 million
  • San Jose: $47.6 million
  • Santa Clara: $11.4 million

The figures are the extortion amounts. See how the Oakland amount is nearly as high as the San Jose amount even though it has less than half the population? That’s because so much land in Oakland (most of the flats) is in one redevelopment zone or another. Oakland North reports that the ransom payment won’t be factored into whatever budget is passed by the City of Oakland, which is understandable since it’s such a recent happening. As of this writing, Oakland is still choosing one of several budget proposals to approve, with the tough battle to gain union concessions won by Mayor Jean Quan. For Oakland, the issue with redevelopment becomes a matter of what they’ll be allowed to do once October 1 hits. Unlike San Jose, Oakland hasn’t gone to the trouble of winding down ORA’s activities, which makes extracting ORA from City Hall difficult. Currently, 17 police officers have their salaries paid by ORA, as well as half the salaries of the mayor and city council (who serve on the ORA board). As they scramble to figure out how some of those needs will be met, it’s not hard to see how actual projects which haven’t started in earnest could fall by the wayside.

Worse, not operating a RDA doesn’t mean that the state won’t get its pound of flesh. It’ll still entitled to the $40 million, only it gets to decide at a later point how it will extract the money from the city. If a city decides it can “play ball” it can pay the vig this year and a smaller amount for next three years, and whatever’s leftover can be used for RDA uses by a successor agency, or as I called it previously, “Son of RDA”. If a city decides it can’t play ball, a successor agency will be created for them, much the same way a defendant can get a court-appointed public defender. That agency’s sole purpose will be to tally up and distribute tax increment as it comes in, none going to new projects. Most importantly, in the can’t-play-ball scenario cities won’t be able to issue new debt. That’s a killer for Oakland, which was counting on being able to tap into new bonds to pay for some of the Victory Court project (land/infrastructure) cost. It’s even more important now that ORA had to absorb some of the city’s budgetary cost by acquiring HJKCC. Without that ability to issue new debt, Oakland’s liable to say, at “Our hands are tied, sorry we couldn’t do more.” And they’d be perfectly within their rights to do so. Thanks for killing the A’s again, Governor Moonbeam.

Then again, there may be a loophole, one that some of the largest RDA’s have been looking to exploit – and one that may have the biggest legal test. When Oakland initiated $100 million in property transfers from ORA back to the city two weeks ago, my response was, “What took so long?” Los Angeles transferred $1 billion worth of assets in a similar fashion in January. While these transfers may have occurred before the 2011-12 fiscal year begins, language written into ABX 26, the redevelopment killing bill, allows state-appointed auditors to determine if any transactions done January 1, 2011 or later (effectively after Brown took office) to be reviewed. What that means for those assets is anyone’s guess at this point, and probably will be the focus of more legal wrangling should the state start looking to liquidate assets to get its revenue.

There’s also the case of San Jose’s newly and hastily created SJ Diridon Development Authority. All thats missing from the name is “Re”. The whole affair seems like an overreaction to Brown, though there may be some hidden wisdom in there somewhere. Regardless of whether work is done through the skeleton crew at SJRA or SJDDA, at some point San Jose will also have to decide if it wants to pay to play. Recently, Mayor Chuck Reed and Lew Wolff have been adamant that they will find the necessary funds to cover the rest of the ballpark land acquisition and infrastructure change, $27+ million total. However, San Jose will also have to pay its $47 million soon if they want to be clear of the state’s reach. That would preclude merely piecemealing the remaining land sales/buys, as they have suggested. Instead, the onus may be on Wolff to deliver on the $89 million price of the Airport West (Earthquakes Stadium) land renegotiated last December. That money isn’t due until 2015, yet here we are with pushed up deadlines thanks to the death of redevelopment. $89 million would provide enough cash for SJ to complete its work and fund other infrastructure in the area it wants to be known as Silicon Valley’s Times Square (I thought it was Grand Central?).

Soon, a coalition of the ten largest cities in the state (including SF, SJ, and Oakland) will put together a lawsuit to vigorously challenge Brown’s redevelopment pay-to-play-or-die scheme. Their case is supported by the passage of Proposition 22 last November, which prohibits state-based redirects of property taxes. Legal murkiness started during the gubernatorial transition when Governors Schwarzenegger and Brown signed off on declaring a fiscal state of emergency, which set the framework for the redevelopment reform bills. Which has greater precedence, a new law or an even newer declared state of emergency? That’s what the courts will have to decide.

06.28.11
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Can’t give these tickets away

The Merc’s Daniel Brown wrote a bleak article on A’s attendance, grabbing a few choice quotes from Andy Dolich and A’s sales/marketing veep Jim Leahey. Dolich reflected on how the Coliseum used to be packed during the Bash Brothers era, and pointed a finger at how ownership’s constant desire to move out of Oakland has hurt attendance.

“Really, it just made me sad,” he said. “There was a time – and it’s getting harder for people to remember – when the Coliseum was the place to be. It was the Giants who were an afterthought. It was the Giants who were playing in a dump and waiting for high-profile opponents to come into town. It’s completely flipped.”

There are also the numerous things done over the years that have effectively reduced the team’s exposure over time.

  • Closure of A’s Clubhouse stores (ca. 2000)
  • Consistent difficulty in getting a decent radio deal in place (not really ownership’s fault)
  • Elimination of Fanfest
  • Tarping off the third deck
  • No improvements to the Coliseum other than visual changes (vinyl signage)

Of course, there are cases like the Tampa Bay Rays, where $35 million of improvements were made that – even when combined with a winning ballclub – had very little effect on attendance. Sometimes a dump is a dump, and a competitive situation with the Giants only highlights the dumpiness. The A’s are really getting left behind due to their stadium malaise, and nothing’s gonna change as long as the Coliseum is home.

Brown also lists all of the promotions being offered just for the upcoming nine-game homestand.

  • Tuesday vs. Florida: Free Parking Tuesday.
  • Wednesday vs. Florida: $2 Wednesday.
  • Thursday vs. Florida: Root Beer Float Day and Free Hot Dog Thursday.
  • Friday vs. Arizona: Friday Family Pack.
  • Saturday vs. Arizona: Fireworks Night (watch from field).
  • Sunday vs. Arizona: None.
  • July 4 vs. Seattle: Fourth of July Visor giveaway.
  • July 5 vs. Seattle: Free Parking Tuesday.
  • July 6 vs. Seattle: $2 Wednesday.

This actually leads me to wonder if there are too many different types of promotions and discounts. It sure doesn’t look like Free Parking Tuesdays has any great effect on attendance. The novelty for BART Dollar Wednesdays, which was strong a decade ago, has thoroughly worn off. The Yankees, Giants, and to a lesser extent, the Red Sox bring in other teams’ fans. Fireworks nights bring in casual fans and families. Giveaways are great to bump up paid attendance, but take a look at the steady stream of “fans” leaving the Coliseum on the BART ramp before the first pitch is thrown and tell me that it helps in terms of real fan support. Would the A’s be better served by across-the-board ticket price drops? Would it even matter?

06.28.11
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Warriors ownership buys D-League team, may move to Bay Area

First reported by BANG Warriors beat writer Marcus Thompson (via David), the Golden State Warriors are buying the D-League’s Dakota Wizards franchise with an eye on moving it to the Bay Area. Both Thompson and Tim Kawakami think the eventual landing spot will be San Jose, which could create a plant-the-flag situation a la Bill Neukom buying into the San Jose Giants.

The ownership change will make the W’s only the fourth team to have sole control of a D-League team, the others being the Lakers, Spurs, and Thunder. All others have shared development pacts with one other team. That doesn’t mean that it always works. While it allows the parent team to install the exact offensive and defensive systems used by the big boys, it doesn’t always mean that the parent club will take advantage of it. The Lakers actually pulled back and didn’t operate the D-Fenders last season because they hadn’t figured out a way to effectively transition players from the D-Fenders to the Lakers. Operating a club is also expensive. The Lakers struggled figuring out a proper venue for the D-Fenders before settling on having the games be part of an early doubleheader with Lakers game. Given the notoriously late-arriving Lakers crowd at Staples, you can imagine how poor the attendance was. For the upcoming year, home games for the D-Fenders will be at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo. The Spurs and Thunder have traditional out-of-town satellite relationships with their D-League teams (Austin and Tulsa respectively).

If you’re wondering where the Dakota Wizards might play after their last season in Bismarck, don’t think big as in the HP Pavilion. Too costly to do the changeover, and much too big for a D-League franchise, where the average attendance is around 3,000 per game. Instead, look to an ancient one-time barnstorming home of the Warriors, the San Jose Civic Auditorium. The Civic holds 3,000 and generally has a wide-open schedule. That lineage could also a factor. My favorite Rick Barry anecdotes are about playing in old arenas, including one where he chased a loose ball out of bounds along the baseline at the Civic and ended up running through a door and completely out of the arena onto San Carlos Street.

Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center would also be a good candidate, though I understand it would require some unknown amount of improvements before it was ready to host games again. There’s also the possibility of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium being in play.

Update 1:30 PM – SJ Giants CEO Jim Weyermann has been named VP of Franchise Development for the Dakota Wizards. Given Weyermann’s South Bay ties, chances are that the franchise will move to the Bay Area once the sponsorships are lined up.

06.27.11
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News for 6/27/11

You should be following CNBC Sports Business reporter Darren Rovell on Twitter just for the knowledge drops. Today you get the bonus of all bonuses: Rovell ripped his pants going through an airport security checkpoint and is dealing with the embarrassment.

Unlike Rovell, Frank McCourt apparently feels no embarrassment. He had the Dodgers file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware court today, in what could be interpreted as one last-ditch attempt to maintain control over the team. $150 million in additional short-term financing may be coming from a JP Morgan-run hedge fund, with a whopping 10% interest rate (though it’s not a worse deal than what the Mets are getting). An initial bankruptcy hearing will be held tomorrow. Both Jamie McCourt and Bud Selig have expressed disapproval with the bankruptcy filing. For his part, Selig is said to be offering a better interim financing deal than what JP Morgan is giving Frank McCourt. Selig’s strategy has been for some time to do nothing and give McCourt enough rope to hang himself. By allowing McCourt to perform this maneuver, Selig has given his combatant just a little more rope.

Governor Jerry Brown and leading Democrats in the California Legislature gave a brief statement in support of a new budget which, through a series of cuts, cover up to 75% of the remaining deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. The rest is a $5 billion can that Brown is kicking down the road. Brown is now aiming for a November 2012 election date for tax extensions he was gunning for this year. The press conference was incredibly light on details. Naturally, Republicans want nothing to do with the budget plan. Oh, and then there’s this from Sacramento Bee Capitol reporter Kevin Yamamura:

Already-approved redevelopment bills will go to Guv as part of new Dem #cabudget.

The new budget has been designed to pass without GOP votes, just as the previous one did before Brown vetoed it. Redevelopment interests are looking to file lawsuits as early as this week.

Oakland City Council is expected to approve the sale of the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center to the city’s redevelopment agency for $28.3 million, in an effort to bridge the city’s budget gap. Not known is exactly how much of the sale proceeds will be used for the budget, with all three budget proposals using different amounts.

In radio news, Lew Wolff will be on The Chris Townsend Show Wednesday. 95.7 also hired former 49er cornerback Eric Davis to start at the station on August 1, at which point we can only hope that the NFL lockout is over and Davis can talk training camps. I bet they’ll figure out a way to team Davis up with Rick Tittle, who will do the 1-3 slot on Wednesday as part of a cavalcade of hosts, including CSN’s Jim Kozimor and Brodie Brazil today, Dave Benz and Scott Reiss later in the week.

06.23.11
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Brown speaks out about redevelopment

Turns out that Governor Jerry Brown and Lew Wolff may agree on something after all.

Too bad it’s not something that can help the A’s anytime soon.

Speaking at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in SF, Brown addressed the equally touchy subjects of CEQA (EIR process) and redevelopment. About the former:

Brown spoke about his time running Oakland, where he says he received a crash course in local politics.

“Every project was opposed by somebody,” he said. “I never had the experience of so much mindless resistance.”

His principal goal in Oakland was the creation of market-rate housing into the city’s core, which Brown thought would bring more disposable income.

It’s important to note that the opposition hasn’t shown up yet to the Victory Court project because nothing of significant substance has yet been presented. When it does, well, we’ll see how steely the collective resolve is to build a ballpark.

As a developer, Wolff has complained as frequently about CEQA as he has about the Coliseum’s warts. Brown no doubt felt the heat when eminent domain was used under his watch to acquire the Uptown site, not to mention the lawsuits and other challenges the project (built by his friends at Forest City) faced. All of that was done under the CEQA umbrella.

Brown also reaffirmed his position on choosing other budgetary needs over redevelopment. Perhaps some of the reporters in the Capitol were correct in saying that the two “compromise” bills that were passed by he Legislature but not sent to the Governor would be vetoed on the grounds that Brown felt they didn’t go far enough.

And the beat goes on…

06.22.11
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Howard Bryant strikes again

Much thanks to Howard Bryant for continuing to publicize the A’s plight. Now he has included Victory Court and the Rays in the situation, pointing the finger at the commissioner and the owners for their collective indecisiveness and greed, respectively. He sums up the state of affairs between Oakland and Lew Wolff this way:

A’s fans will nod, too. Despite Wolff’s protestations that he is not purposely burying his club, the A’s appear to be following the Montreal narrative. Wolff is correct that Oakland has lacked the political leadership to give him optimism — with the brief exception of city manager Robert Bobb. No mayor, from Elihu Harris to Jerry Brown to Ron Dellums to Jean Quan, has used significant muscle to make the A’s a priority.

Wolff has no reason to trust Oakland politicians, not after the city and Alameda County leadership all but ruined the fan experience at the Oakland Coliseum to accommodate the disastrous return of the Oakland Raiders.

But there is another truth Wolff must face: Oakland doesn’t have much reason to trust him, either. Since Walter Haas sold the team in 1995, A’s owners have done everything in their power to leave Oakland, physically and emotionally.

The commissioner’s office, too, is complicit in the sabotaging of Oakland. Bud Selig rightfully lauds his three-person committee assigned to the daunting and thankless task of assessing the feasibility of baseball in the San Francisco Bay Area. But although he interprets the length of time the committee has taken to reach a finding — two years and counting since March 2009 — as evidence of its diligence, Selig is selling a false timetable, for he has actually had the A’s-San Jose relocation question on his desk for 14 years.

Bryant finishes his column by citing the possibility that Wolff could own the Dodgers and a fresh ownership group could come in to hammer out a deal with Oakland. If that doesn’t work out, the stage is set for the A’s to leave the Bay Area completely. That’s what scares me. Because Oakland doesn’t have a great track record of doing things like this well or properly, or as I’ve noted previously, alone. Unless there’s a Coliseum deal (which MLB has already discounted), Oakland isn’t getting help from the county or state. I want to believe that Oakland can pull it off. But if the scenario Bryant describes happens with the A’s being “Oakland or bust”, people (including the owners) are generally not going to lay money on Oakland. We are talking about $400 million for the team and $450+ million in private financing for a ballpark, plus $100 million directly from the city to get the site and infrastructure ready. If it is Oakland only, I’ll get behind it 100% – as should most readers here and anyone else who is for keeping the A’s in the Bay Area.

From a practical standpoint, A’s fans need to have as many options for the A’s ballpark location as possible, especially with the coming demise of redevelopment (which East Coast-based Bryant hasn’t mentioned in his columns). If we are stuck with only one option, heaven help us.

P.S. – One thing to look for in the upcoming CBA – franchise relocation fees. They aren’t in there right now, and with two teams possibly coming into play, could allow the owners to get their greed on once again.

06.21.11
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News for 6/21/11

The NFL and NBA are going hot and heavy with CBA discussions.

  • Latest proposal from the NFL (which has yet to be voted on by the owners) would guarantee a straight 48% share to the players, and would create a system in which all teams’ payrolls would approach the salary cap amount every year. The straight percentage is different from the previous system, which had the teams take $1 billion off the top for stadium expenses.
  • The NBA is proposing a “flex cap” which has a salary floor, max, and a sort of “supermax.” Previously, that upper limit was the luxury tax threshold, which if breached would require a dollar-for-dollar tax on additional payroll. The players consider the as-yet-not-enumerated upper limit a hard cap, since it provides a payroll ceiling. The two sides are early in their discussions.

Governor Brown is expected to announce an alternative to the budget he vetoed last week. Plans may include a revised (or not) take on redevelopment.

The California Redevelopment Association released a spreadsheet detailing the amounts that would have to be paid by various redevelopment agencies if AB 26 and 27 were signed into law by Brown:

  • Alameda County:  $7.7 million
  • Fremont:  $9 million
  • Oakland:  $39.7 million
  • San Diego:  $69.8 million
  • San Francisco:  $24.6 million
  • San Jose:  $47.6 million
  • Santa Clara:  $11.4 million

Remember that if the cities are not able to make these payments, they would not be able to issue additional bonds or otherwise acquire debt.

As initially reported by Rich Lieberman, KTRB is switching to a Spanish sports radio format, courtesy of ESPN Deportes. Once fresh capital is put into transmitter maintenance and facilities, I’d expect the 50,000-watt station to go after the… Giants. The Giants have Spanish broadcasts split between a 5 kW station in Pittsburg and a 10kW station in SF that drops to 500 W after sunset. Assuming the station got enough care and feeding, it could be a formidable player.

 

06.17.11
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Howard Bryant reviews “high stakes game of chicken”

This one’s a must read, people.

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Howard Bryant may be a Boston guy through and through, but he cut his teeth at the Merc’s sports department for years as the A’s beat writer. He’s also written some excellent books on baseball: Juicing the Game, Shut Out, and his most recent work, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron. Now he’s taken some time to write about the future of the A’s, and it’s fairly comprehensive (though he gets the last lease year wrong – it’s 2013, and he confuses Coliseum North with Uptown).

There’s too much meat in the column to cherry pick any one passage, so I’ll leave it up to you to read the whole thing. Then come back here to comment. As Bill King often said of the occasional high scoring game, “this one has become a donnybrook.”