Category Archives: Politics

06.16.11
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Redevelopment is only mostly dead

Update 6/16 10:50 AM – Governor Brown has vetoed both of the main budget bills, AB 98 and SB 69. The veto came as Brown has been is discussions with Republicans over tax extensions, which were half of his inaugural budget solution. The GOP has given no quarter on these taxes, which apparently has forced Brown’s hand. The trailer bills, such as the twin redevelopment bills, are still on Brown’s desk being held back by the Democrats for the time being. They are important for funding the “cuts” half of Brown’s budget plan, so don’t expect them to go away.

At one point during the current legislative session, there were at least a dozen bills having to do with redevelopment reform. In the end, the bills that prevailed were largely influenced by Governor Jerry Brown. With AB 26 and 27 passing and almost guaranteed approval by the governor, the only thing left that can save redevelopment as we know it is a lawsuit (or 400). A successful legal challenge by cities and RDA’s would completely upend the just completed budget process, since the budget is dependent on $1.7 billion in money flowing from RDA’s to the state.

The way this works is that as of October 1, all redevelopment agencies (city or county) would be dissolved. Any projects under contract before January 1, 2011 would continue to have tax increment (now simply named property taxes) as an ongoing funding source. Anything agreed to after January 1 is subject to review in order to determine whether any bond issues violate the spirit of the law.

In addition, redevelopment agencies could be reconstituted if they can perform their activities while taking care of their ongoing debt and these new payments. If they can’t, a successor agency will be appointed whose mission is to collect the these “excess” property taxes and send it to school districts and the like. Cities can apply to reconstitute or create new RDA’s via the mechanism described in AB 27, but they are bound to the aforementioned property tax revenue distributions.

The Merc’s Tracy Seipel reports that the City of San Jose’s share for the next fiscal year is $62 million, and $15 million per year after that. That’s going to be extremely difficult for San Jose to pull off because tax increment revenues have been so poor for the last several years that there’s been little excess to use for new projects. SJRA’s practice of landbanking has also tied up funds in real estate purchases, which have allowed SJRA to act semi-speculatively when it comes to encouraging new projects. Many cities practice this, few to the extent San Jose does. Now it appears that much of the landbanked property will have to be sold to cover these new payments, not to mention any shortfalls that might occur if the property tax receipts tank.

Remember that in December, Lew Wolff renegotiated the price of the Airport West property down to $89 million, a reflection of the depressed real estate market. Wolff doesn’t have to pay until 2015. I suspect that he may have no choice but to accelerate the purchase, if only to prevent the state from forcing the city to sell another piece of land Wolff covets, such as Diridon. It may be that the creation of SJDDA insulates the city somewhat, but my understanding of the bill language is that efforts to circumvent these new powers and responsibilities could turn into an ugly tug-of-war over dollars and dirt. San Jose’s moves aren’t nearly as egregious as what’s been squirreled away in LA, but if I were Wolff or a board member of SJDDA I wouldn’t rest easy until I knew how legal the new joint powers authority was via a court ruling. There seems to be a simple solution for Wolff if he wants his ballpark in San Jose: PAY UP. (BTW, you know what else probably costs around $89 million? The Fairmont SF.)

Oakland’s situation is different in that it has much more bonding capacity and property tax revenues in several districts are good. However, it will be difficult for ORA or a successor agency to round up the money needed for Victory Court. As I noted yesterday, ORA is buying the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center for $29 million just so that the city can balance its budget. Other properties, including the Fire Training Center, were bought under similar circumstances. Those kinds of quickfixes won’t be available for much longer, especially if the lion’s share of excess property taxes ORA collects will have to go to Peralta CCD and Oakland School District (my guess: $15-25 million for the first year, $5 million annually thereafter).

The last obstacle in Brown’s quest to kill redevelopment is a legal one, which has been been telegraphed by cities and their lobbying groups for months. Their biggest problem is that so far, pro-redevelopment’s solutions have been predicated on RDA’s voluntarily sending money to the state and education as they get it. It’s kinda difficult to base a budget on voluntary payments, don’t you think? And as long as they keep up with the rhetoric about this legislation and Brown’s efforts being “unconstitutional” they’re setting themselves up for a big loss. They may prevail on technical legal terms, but even if they do it doesn’t bode well for the state, cities or counties. The budget was passed strictly on party lines, with very little give on display and numerous battles to come before Brown has to make a decision. We’re getting to the point where it’s time to start thinking about working in a post-redevelopment era. Municipalities that can’t make such a transition are in danger of being left behind.

06.15.11
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Redevelopment: The Reckoning

Today is the deadline for the state to pass its budget. As part of the budget, two new redevelopment bills are being debated.

AB 26x/SB 14x
Redevelopment, Part 1
Eliminates redevelopment agencies and provides for orderly wind-down of RDA activities including payment of existing debt and the continuation of pass-throughs. The related bill (AB 27x/SB 14x) creates an alternative ongoing RDA program.

AB 27x/SB 15x
Redevelopment, Part 2
Creates a voluntary alternative RDA program that allows existing RDAs to continue with reforms. The new program requires community remittances to schools, fire districts, and transit districts, of $1.7 billion in 2011-12 and about $400 million ongoing. Results in $1.7 billion budget “solution.”

The bills have Assembly and Senate designations to help them move through both houses simultaneously. These are compromise bills which lean more towards Governor Brown’s plans instead of AB 1250/SB 286, which would more fully preserve existing redevelopment. Already the new bills have attracted controversy. Redevelopment proponents have called the dual bills “ransom”. And AB 27x has already been scrubbed due to language that seemed to favor Los Angeles’ redevelopment agency over others.

It’s starting to get hot and heavy in the Capitol. More to come.

Update 2:40 PM – Main budget bills have been passed in both houses. Trailer bills are flying through with the exception of redevelopment, for which one bill is stuck two votes short of 2/3rds majority.

Update 3:20 PM – After a recess and some strongarming, both AB 26 and 27 barely pass the Senate. Assembly is next, then the governor.

Update 3:55 PM – Now in Assembly. Republican Asyman compares bills to a Sopranos-style shakedown. Italian-American Democrat is enraged, the two nearly come to blows. Theater. Yowza.

Update 4:07 PM – Assembly passes both bills. Entire package goes to the governor to sign. I’m still trying to grasp the full impact. Old RDA is dead. New RDA is… Enough? Crippled? Analysis later, followed by lawsuits for certain..

06.15.11
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Quan takes it down to the wire

In light of how San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed used hardball tactics to get across-the-board concessions from public employee unions, it’s a good time to check in on how his counterpart in Oakland, Jean Quan, is doing.

In late April Quan presented three different budgets to the City Council, which included different mixes of cuts, union concessions, and new revenues from a parcel tax Quan supports.

The budget deficit is $58 million, or 2 x $29 million. Why am I using that notation? You’ll see shortly.

First the parcel tax. Quan has heavily advocated for a $80 parcel tax which would raise up to $11 million for the upcoming fiscal year. Nevermind that parcel taxes aren’t frequently used to take care of general fund shortfalls, she’s pushing ahead anyway. Fundamentally it’s difficult to base a budget, which has to be approved in June, on a tax whose fate is unknown until a few months down the road via a special election. Council is expected to vote on the tax on the 21st. If approved the special election would follow.

On the cuts side of the budget, Quan is looking for nearly $29 million (ding!) from the unions. Ever the consensus builder, she chose to start talks with labor in May, which put a huge crunch on Mayor and Council to wrap up the budget. There are allegations that the different unions are not being treated as equal partners, and are being given more or less favorable deals based on who they are. The final budget can’t be voted on unless the true amount of concessions from the unions is known. They’re six days away from the deadline.

The last part of the tale is a sad but increasingly common deal. Should the parcel tax not pass, City will need to take care of another $29 million to balance the budget. It turns out Oakland’s had something up its sleeve for while, courtesy of Oakland Redevelopment Agency. Last week ORA offered to buy the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center (SFGate) from City. The price: $29 million (ding!). An appraisal done last year pegged the value of the auditorium and land at – you guessed it – $29 million. Whether a building that hasn’t been used in several years is worth $29 million is up for debate. The fact is that $29 million is being transferred from ORA to the City to address a budget problem. Coincidentally, that money is coming out of the coffers of two ORA districts, Central and Central City East. Both of those districts meet at the Victory Court site, and it is assumed that additional fundraising from those two districts would be required to buy land and improve infrastructure at Victory Court.

That’s not to say that this is currently problematic for Victory Court’s prospects. Since the EIR has only begun and no decision by MLB has been made, neither the City nor ORA were in the position to buy additional Victory Court land. San Jose used a similar “rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul” tactic when it sold its old City Hall to Santa Clara County as part of a settlement. Money’s extremely scarce for all municipalities, so if they have assets they might have to liquidate them.

However, taking money from ORA to pay the bills leaves ORA with an asset that isn’t useful in the near term. It’s too expensive to run and renovate. Peralta Community College District isn’t interested in buying HJKCC. While the setting is absolutely beautiful, it has limited redevelopment prospects. The actual lot has shrunk in recent years thanks to the 12th Street Project. Any new commercial development would require a good deal of new parking, which is lacking in the area.

Yet there are a couple of juicy pieces that come out of all this activity. One, ORA suddenly owns a large piece of land outright, on which a ballpark could be built (HJKCC), right? Well, not quite. The shrinking of the lot makes its size around four acres, much too small for a ballpark. The distance from the sidewalk on 10th Street to the new 12th Street curve is less than 400 feet, making it difficult to plant a regular baseball field, let alone a gigantic grandstand behind the diamond.

Finally, there is a real opportunity cost with this money move. An advisory council for the Central City East district expressed disapproval of the sale via a 13-1 vote against. That doesn’t matter since the ORA board is essentially the City Council in a different guise. A rubber stamp is a mere formality. The sale also gives Oakland a very good excuse for not pursuing Victory Court with more alacrity – the money is sworn to other obligations. That’s a key difference between what Oakland is doing and what San Jose is doing: San Jose is selling redevelopment land to private buyers to help make the ballpark deal complete, whereas Oakland is selling City land to ORA to make the budget.

The upshot for Oakland is that it’s even more important than ever that redevelopment (the institution) survives the state’s budget negotiations. If redevelopment takes a big hit in either legislation or from Governor Brown, Victory Court is basically dead. How can I be sure of this? This is how:

If the State of California eliminates redevelopment as been proposed in the Governor’s Budget, unencumbered bond funds would be used to defease corresponding bond debt, and unencumbered operating funds would be used to pay Agency’s obligations. The net funds available, after expenses related to eligible Agency activities, will go to the taxing entities, including approximately 27% to the City of Oakland. Without Redevelopment funds, the City will have significantly less capital funds for City infrastructure – streetscapes, parks, public facilities, etc. – but will have an increase in property tax revenue. This increased revenue will not offset the current staffing funded through redevelopment, let alone provide additional funds for capital projects.

That came from Interim City Administrator P. Lamont Ewell’s April report supporting a separate $4 million City-to-ORA land sale. It’s possible that the compromise plan being worked out in the Legislature will save Oakland’s bacon in this regard – but there’s no guarantee that will happen.

06.13.11
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Redevelopment bills keep moving after changes

Last week I wrote that redevelopment bill SB 286 (Wright) was stalled, with similar bill AB 1250 working the other house. Turns out that last Friday SB 286 was amended and brought to committee again. This time its language largely matches that of AB 1250, which should make it easier to get a unified plan through the legislature.

SB 286’s changes include the elimination of restrictions against sports facilities, just as AB 1250 didn’t contain such restrictions. Will Governor Brown maintain a hardline stance against redevelopment? Somewhat surprisingly, redevelopment has become something of a plank for Republicans in budget negotiations. Whether that’s simply to have a bargaining chip in place or actual support for the institution is something we’ll find out over the next few weeks. Then there’s the matter of the governor’s veto power, though I suspect that if a budget deal is done under Brown’s watch, he probably won’t be so intransigent as to create a budget crisis by killing one or more budget-compromise bills.

06.13.11
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Time to band together

Athletics Nation’s resident raconteur, emperor nobody, posted a beautiful plea to A’s fans and Bud Selig in the wee hours this morning. A Facebook page was also created named “Hey Bud, PleA’se stop the TeA’se” whose purpose is to spread the message. The message? It’s time for Selig to make a decision and lead. Whether the future is in Oakland or San Jose matters less than the idea that there is a future for the A’s and A’s fans.

In the emperor’s inimitable way, he asks us to be indomitable:

Yes, the Giants are holding it all up, I get that.  Yes, Oakland’s “Victory Court” Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is proceeding at a speed somewhere between that of a glacier and Bengie Molina running out a triple, I get that too.  Yes, in Bud’s mind his hands are tied, so he has gone into a sort of administrative fetal position on this matter, all curled up with his thumb is his mouth — or some other convenient orifice of choice.  Be all that as it may, there’s no cavalry coming to shake him back to sentience and make him bring leadership to a difficult and distasteful set of circumstances.  I hate to say it to you, but the A’s fanbase — the group of people who form the natural constituency of concern here — has been whittled down pretty significantly.  So if you’re looking through your binoculars to see if the cavalry is approaching to save the day — or at least to start some shit so the real players in the drama can feel the heat and act accordingly — I’d suggest you lay the spyglass down and refer to your nearest mirror.  Because that’s where the cavalry is gonna come from, if it’s to make the scene at all in time to keep this franchise from circling the Eternal Drain of Irrelevance and Depredation.

More details about the movement will be unveiled on Chris Townsend’s show at 3 PM. It’s time for real accountability. It’s time for a decision. I’m onboard with this movement and have liked the page. How about you?

06.10.11
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Gammons and Rosenthal weigh in on Beane, Oakland

Peter Gammons held court on KNBR’s morning show (MP3), talking about Billy Beane, the two managers named Bob, and the team’s economic predicament. Gammons has never been one to be particularly critical of Beane, so as expected he blamed Beane’s lack of success over the last five years on the A’s status as a low revenue, have-not franchise. When Brian Murphy challenged this by giving the Giants’ (and anti-Wolff/Fisher) narrative that the ownership should spend more because it is the 4th richest in baseball, Gammons replied:

Because nobody goes to the ballpark, there are no TV and radio rights. They’re not gonna lose their shirts. The Oakland A’s either have to move or be (contracted)… They can’t exist in a dump. There’s no chance of succeeding there. When Peter Magowan built PacBell he changed the market forever. Now, it was always a great baseball market. The Giants were always a really good franchise, but when they had those cold nights at Candlestick it wasn’t always a lot of fun. But they changed everything. I still think the Giants are one of the top five teams in the business.

San Francisco is a huge market. Oakland is not. The ballpark is in shambles and it’s in a bad neighborhood. People aren’t gonna go there. There’s no reason for wealthy people to give enough money so that they finish .500 and still lose money.

On this site we’ve occasionally discussed how AT&T Park has adversely affected the A’s. What surprises me is how Gammons so succinctly nailed that point when much of the local media have generally turned a blind eye to it. It’s not about hardcore fans. It’s casual fans. Regardless of how many seats are tarped over and what discounts are available, casual fans don’t come out to A’s games – at least not en masse. And when the A’s suck, there’s little hope for casual fans to show up. They know there’s a scene at China Basin and a buzz around the Giants.

Ken Rosenthal wrote a different take on Beane, wondering how long Beane will want to put up with his annual Sisyphean task. Unlike Gammons, Rosenthal doesn’t hold Beane above reproach. But he does point out the problem all low revenue teams have that we’ve gone over repeatedly:

All GMs swing and miss; it’s the nature of the beast (and not all of those deals appeared to be misses initially). The problem in Oakland — and Tampa Bay and other low-revenue markets, for that matter — is that big misses are almost catastrophic. Low-revenue clubs, unlike their big-money brethren, can’t spend their way out of mistakes.

It makes me wonder if the best way for the A’s to compete is to tank a few seasons to get high draft picks, as the Rays did unintentionally. Frankly, it’s depressing to think about. Rosenthal doesn’t offer any solutions, doesn’t mention San Jose once. I know this much. If the A’s don’t go on a big run towards the end of the season it’s gonna take the shine off Moneyball the movie. At least for me.

Updated 12:12 PM – Gammons also calls Wrigley Field “a dump” and similarly puts Tom Ricketts in a tough spot since he’ll have to go out of pocket to fund Fenway-style renovations to Wrigley.

06.08.11
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News for 6/8/11

Several weeks ago buzz surrounded SB 286, a redevelopment reform bill working its way through the state legislature. That bill has stalled in committee and has been replaced by AB 1250, written by Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Salinas). AB 1250 is working its way through committee, and the reasons why may be related to what it restricts and supports. Namely, the restrictions on redevelopment of military bases and new stadium projects are not in AB 1250, which leads me to believe that the big developer lobby had a hand in ensuring that those big ticket projects remained untouched. Language for projects involving casinos, golf courses, and race tracks is the same. The bill may face further amendments and is up against the session deadline, with Governor Brown still committed to abolishing redevelopment instead of reforming it.

The cost of the 49ers stadium has risen from $937 million to $987 million, with precious few indicators of how the team would pay for it.

The College World Series will kick off June 18 at its new home, TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. The ballpark has already had numerous dry runs thanks to it being the home of Creighton baseball, though the constant crowds will prove to be a new kind of test. Dismantling of Rosenblatt Stadium has already begun.

Cal has managed to use up two of its nine baseball lives this year, first by raising enough money to keep the program going and then by mounting a furious comeback over Baylor on Monday to win the Houston Regional. Cal’s Evans Diamond is not considered an adequate facility for the NCAA to host a Super Regional, so it was decided on Tueday that the Bears’ series with Dallas Baptist will be played at the newest baseball stadium in the Bay Area, SCU’s Stephen Schott Stadium. (Yes, that Steve Schott.) Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students/seniors. The schedule is as follows:

Date                          Time (PT)     Television
Saturday, June 11   Game 1    5 p.m.        ESPNU
Sunday, June 12     Game 2    7 p.m.        ESPNU
Monday, June 13     Game 3*   1 or 4 p.m.   ESPN2 or ESPNU
*if necessary

The San Jose Earthquakes, who play their home games on campus at Buck Shaw Stadium, are on the road this weekend in The District, so there should be no parking constraints. I think I’ll go to one of the games, not sure which one yet. Not to be forgotten, Stanford is also in the Super Regionals, but they are on the road at North Carolina. The 1,500-seat Stephen Schott Stadium, which opened in 2005, was shoehorned into a small lot across from the university. Apartments sit behind the right field wall, lending an additional air of intimacy. There’s no room for a berm or additional seats down the lines. The Caltrain station is two blocks away, though unfortunately, no Capitol Corridor trains from the East Bay stop at this station.

ESPN Page 2 writer Paul Lukas (Uni Watch) wrote a cool feature on closed captioning at ballparks, which hopefully will become more commonplace at stadiums all over the country over time.

NBC won bidding for the the next four Olympic Games through 2020 at a combined cost of $4.4 billion. NBC’s bid purportedly eclipsed those by rivals ESPN and FOX by at least $1 billion.

Richard Keit will replace Harry Mavrogenes as head of San Jose Redevelopment, whose staff was reduced to seven.

OT: Apple wants to land a spaceship/office building on the former HP Cupertino campus it bought for expansion. Steve Jobs visited Cupertino’s City Council session last night (YouTube) to present his vision.

Jobs may want to get working on the tube technology needed to move employees between the new campus and the old one. Plans are to break ground as soon as next year and move in by 2015. Amazing how businesses without antitrust exemptions tend to get things done faster. There’s an interesting exchange towards the end of his discussion with the City Council about why there’s no Apple Store in the moribund Vallco Mall.

Former Oakland City Manager and Nationals Park dealmaker Robert Bobb stepped down from his post as emergency manager for the Detroit Public Schools. Turns out he wasn’t only fighting corruption and financial mismanagement within the rundown school system. He was also battling cancer for more than a year. For now, Bobb has returned to DC, where he will run his consulting firm and write a book about his experiences at DPS.

06.07.11
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The Cost of Indecision

It’s been a while since I have posted here. Not that ML needs any help, but I felt like it was time I stepped up and earned the fact that my name gets to appear with his on the side bar.

This desire to contribute didn’t come out of the blue. It actually took root in a recent meeting that I arranged, at my workplace and over lunch, with ML and one Doug Boxer. Many of you know that Doug is the driving force behind Let’s Go Oakland, a group of people who are passionate and committed to keeping the A’s in Oaktown.

While we didn’t really talk about anything that anyone that reads this site with regularity doesn’t already know, I was impressed with Boxer and his straight forward style in discussing both the advantages of Oakland as well as the challenges it faces. I wish many of the Pro Oakland folks that I know were equally as honest about the challenges that face the Town in their pursuit of having a stadium built. Challenges, that while real, are not impossible to overcome if accepted and addressed. Especially when you have smart people working on a realistic solution. In short, if there is a solution in Oakland, Boxer will be part of sorting it out… Even if he doesn’t have all the answers about funding the joint right now, something I think he would freely acknowledge.

After having this more than an hour discussion, I can say a few things with absolute certitude. The City of Oakland has had an opportunity to put forward it’s best ideas. The ideas they have chosen as the best have been listened to. The people of Oakland are fortunate to have a guy like Doug Boxer in their corner. If he can’t help find a way to make it work in Oakland, I am confident saying that no one can, or will.

One of the topics of discussion, something I hoped to glean but didn’t, was what the heck this two year delay has been all about. ML, Doug and I all had our own thoughts, though none of us really know for certain. The reality is that it doesn’t matter, Bud Selig’s lack of foresight has already been extremely costly to our favorite franchise and should offend the sensibilities of all of us A’s fans in the Bay Area. After all, we live in a region with a long history of successful companies that grow from flashes of imagination to household names in the time it has taken for Bud’s panel to do absolutely nothing but “study” an already pretty clear situation.

From Pandora to Facebook, companies in the Bay Area prove all the time that chasing a perfect solution to any problem is a waste of time and detrimental to getting something done. So is sitting on one’s own hands and waiting for a solution to appear. It seems that one of these two scenarios is playing out before our very eyes. Either Bud is waiting for Oakland, or San Jose, to give up so he doesn’t have to force the issue, or he is expecting years of research to come up with a magic bullet to slay the Beast of Where an A’s Stadium Should Reside. Both are foolish.

A brief interlude… As you can probably already tell, I am kind of cranky. That isn’t really anything new for us A’s fans. Really, it’s like we are all building blocks in the 9th Wonder of the World: The Frustrated Pyramid of Oakland. Think about it for a minute, we are the bottom few rows of humongous sandy blocks. We make up the first few layers of frustration as we sit helplessly watching the players flail away. Those same players make up the next few rows of the great pyramid. As they struggle to figure out how a promising season devolved in one week’s time. Decimated pitching staff? check! Underperforming veterans? Check! But most importantly, clearly incapable of carrying out the most important parts of his duties manager? Double check!

I’d throw Bob Geren in as the next level of frustration, but I am not sure how long he is going to be around. Color me skeptical, but when was the last time an owner went on record in support of his Manager only to change his mind not so long after? Maybe, if Bob Geren gets crushed between the pressure of Billy Beane’s frustration at not being able to get a premier bat to come to Oakland and all the grumpy players (players who are grumpy because Bob Geren, himself, can’t communicate or manage a bullpen) it will provide some stress relief for all of us?

And on top of Beane’s frustration we have Uncle Lew. Now, some of you who read here regularly are going to have real trouble trying to sympathize with Lew Wolff, but just imagine the conspiracy angle is true. Imagine Bud invited Lew to buy the A’s so that he could move the team out of Oakland. Imagine Lew playing his part perfectly… Nope no land in Oakland. Nope, $30M later, Fremont won’t work. Hey Bud, time to pull the trigger on that San Jose thing you asked me to get done… Oh, wait.

Now pretend the conspiracy isn’t real (or accept that it isn’t, depending on your view)… Imagine spending a few years reaching out to different people in Oakland, as Lew did. Imagine amassing the magic “binder” of letter’s rejecting the use of places like Howard Terminal, researching how a river of crap flowing beneath the old HomeBase site impacts potential development, and so on and so forth. Imagine having a solution and walking into Bud’s office and being told… “Hold on a minute while we redo everything you have done and let the local press savage you for the next 2 years and take no action to help you move forward either way… Oh, and please keep holding the line for now. Afterall, we are ‘working’ on it.”

Man alive that is a whole lot of frustration from top to bottom! But how about our two fair cities of consideration? Where do they fit in this Great Pyramid of Teeth Grindage? Has Bud’s indecision cost them anything?

First, an election will need to happen in San Jose should that locale be chosen. He had voter support to make it happen. Who knows what he has now? This is the cost of indecision.

Second, he had some momentum in Oakland… A grass roots group of supporters that are willing to make the case for a new stadium doesn’t exactly fall out of trees. How long does a Facebook group and clicking a link to send a form letter keep people’s attention? This is the cost of indecision.

These are just two, of many examples, of the cost of indecision. Bud didn’t capitalize on either. Instead he says “this is a complex situation” and insults our intelligence. That isn’t how you build the most successful internet radio platform. This isn’t how you build a social network with hundreds of millions of users. This isn’t how you should run Major League Baseball.

At Facebook, there are signs posted all around the place that say “Done is Better Than Perfect.” I think Bud needs to visit and catch a glimpse of how business is done these days. At Pandora, I am sure that copyright law policy and advertising sales campaigns and boosting subscription service account holders are all issues worked in unison. No, the “Dodgers and Mets have really screwed up… everything else is on hold” sort of dalliances don’t usually hold muster at companies that own the future.

Having a consensus builder at the helm isn’t exactly like having a visionary running the show. Having a man who can’t make a decision without the approval of those he “leads” is cutting into our fan base. And by our, I mean we. Me and you and all of us who should be preparing for a new yard instead of bickering about where that home should be.

Some other things that are currently cutting into the A’s fandom? Monte Poole’s monthly “Lew Wolff and John Fisher are characters from an Austin Powers film” column. By now, Poole should have been able to write off the A’s as the 30 mile moving carpet baggers or embraced Wolff for getting something done in the East Bay. Instead I have to argue with my friends, who support the same team I do, once a month about how Lew Wolff isn’t Emperor Palpatine and that, no, me pointing that out doesn’t make me an apologist. I will be really happy when I don’t have to read those columns anymore.

By now, our focus could be on how we band together to get Bob Geren the heck out of Dodge. Instead we argue, here and other places, about what Oakland could have done 15 years ago. As if that matters.

By now, some of us could have moved on to not being A’s fans if we so chose. Instead we drone on and on about what Lew Wolff’s intentions were when he bought the team. As if that has any bearing on MLB’s committee.

By now, some of us could be driving down to check out progress on the new yard every other week. Instead we fight about funding models for an imaginary stadium.

By now, we could all be looking at 3D illustrations and picking a seat for our season ticket package. Instead we are nitpicking “projections” of how many thousands of people would be sitting in the tarped off section of the O.co Coliseum.

By now, we could all be celebrating the signing of some free agent with a power bat. Instead we take sides in a debate over whether Scott Boras was telling the truth about why Adrian Beltre didn’t sign in Oakland.

By now, we could be talking about things that are relevant to the future of our favorite baseball franchise. Instead we are in a perpetual discussion over things that are irrelevant.

This is the cost of indecision. Something tells me a bad decision couldn’t be any worse.

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.

05.26.11
by

Keeping the Kings commands a princely sum

NBA Confidential and SI.com writer Sam Amick snagged a copy of ICON Venue Group’s presentation to the City of Sacramento detailing the options for a new arena. Sadly, the copy is a scanned version of a black-and-white printout so it doesn’t look pretty, but it does have the numbers and the important details.

The arena, designed by Populous, looks like a scaled down version of Amway Center or Staples Center. Arena capacity is pegged at 18,594 seats, with the cost being $387 million. Here are the vital stats:

The reduction in square footage helps keep costs down, otherwise the price tag would soar to $500 million or more. Other amenities aren’t as plentiful, such as elevators or specialty bars. The ratio of standard suites (12+ attendees) to mini suites (4-6) is also interesting in that it’s an indicator of where the suite-buying market’s interests are. The full mix of premium seating options (in green) shows just how many ways teams and arena operators can squeeze out maximum dollars out of a venue, and how ARCO Arena/Power Balance Pavilion was devoid of those options.

Populous took pains to place the arena at two possible sites. One is the south end of the existing arena’s parking lot. The other is the downtown railyards site. Site prep costs for the two are very similar, separated by only $3+ million. Soft costs are not included. The question, then, becomes a matter of figuring out the financing piece. To that end, the preso outlines a “100 Day Plan” that would allow the City and other parties to figure out the financing model for the publicly owned arena. If that can be identified, the EIR process can start in September and funding sources can be secured by next March’s NBA relocation deadline. If all goes according to plan, construction would start in January 2013 with a May 2015 opening date, after the 2014-15 regular season is over. Accelerating the schedule to finish by the start of the season would incur some unknown additional costs.

Last week the Maloof brothers sent Mayor Kevin Johnson to Secaucus, NJ to be its draft lottery representative, which was a great gesture. Unfortunately for the Kings, they did not win the lottery and were stuck with the #7 pick. If the Maloofs and KJ really want this to happen, they’re going to need a little more luck when it comes time to complete that 100 Day Plan.