After the Twins agreed to bridge the gap on the land price dispute for their downtown ballpark, they unveiled renderings of the 40,000-seat, open air stadium. The design is very much signature HOK, but unlike some of their more sprawling projects, they and local firm HGA were constrained by an 8-acre site. Somehow they managed to squeeze a million square feet into the plan, which from the planning standpoint is a marvel.

The exterior would look more original if the sketch didn’t strongly evoke PETCO Park. Instead of PETCO’s sandstone, the as yet unnamed/unsponsored Minneapolis ballpark will be clad in limestone.

This cross-section shows a good cantilever in the club level and a decent one in the terrace level. Notice how the loading area (yellow) is underneath the sidewalk adjacent to the ballpark.

This cross-section is of the left field seats. It’s a two-level structure with an upper deck that lines up with the lower deck. There are also a couple of interesting quirks. The area between the “exterior” wall and the light rail station is so narrow that the ballpark’s circulation ramp actually hangs over the sidewalk. They even managed to fit additional back-of-the-house facilities underneath the train station.

Here’s the real kicker. You might not recognize it immediately, but there are three – count ’em – three parking garages on top of a major road. That’s no ordinary street – it’s Interstate 394, a spur that runs from the suburbs to downtown Minneapolis. If they are really planning to do this, they better save their pennies for the parking infrastructure. It will not be cheap.

Correction: The parking garages are already in place thanks to work completed as part of earlier projects. According to this link, Ramp A cost $64 million.

Maury Brown dropped a quick note to tell me that his interview with Lew Wolff was going to be up tonight. It’s now available. Brown covered a lot of ground with the interview. Wolff, for his part, tackled a couple of pressing topics, though he revealed nothing new about the transportation situation.

Regarding Scott Specialty Gases, Wolff said this:

The Scott Gas issue is one of relocation and not of a soil problem.

Where are those misinformed cries about toxic waste again?

Maury also had a really good question about how the ballpark deal was conceived:

BizBall: In your opinion, is the Ballpark Village concept a unique, large market opportunity, or do you think that this represents the future of stadium construction (and how to fund it), regardless of market size? Or, is it specific to a particular market and situation?

Wolff: Well, that’s a very astute question. I have to say that if a ballpark can be accommodated in the core of a community—in the urban area—I think that has lots of pluses. Like San Francisco, San Diego, some of those parks. In our case we had to sort of create an urban center for two reasons: one, to make it esthetically interesting. We don’t want the ballpark surrounded by parking. We want it to be, as we call it, ‘a sculpture within a project.’ And secondly, since we are not getting the traditional public assistance, we need to have ancillary development to help support the cost of the facility.

This goes back to the idea of creating somewhere out of nowhere. John King’s excellent two-part series in the Chronicle covers several urban-type developments in traditionally suburban areas, including some in the Bay Area. (I can already imagine the debate that will ensue.)

Tomorrow, Maury Brown at The Biz of Baseball will post the interview he conducted Monday with Lew Wolff. Over the weekend Maury kindly asked me if I had any questions to contribute, but I didn’t have anything that I didn’t think wouldn’t be covered by the development proposal and follow-up questions.

Chron’s John Shea notes that Ron Dellums sat with Wolff last night as Wolff’s opening night guest. Shea got a quote that could be interpreted as leading or meaningless, depending on your view of the A’s move:

“I like him a lot,” Wolff said of Dellums. “He said, ‘Look, if there’s a way you can stay or we can help you, let me know.’ But we need that space (in Fremont). When the Coliseum opened, it must’ve been fantastic, but it’s aging. It’s 40 years old.”

As for San Jose, Wolff said, “That won’t happen in my reign.”

Fremont wants the ballpark and housing components to be joined at the hip, and I don’t expect them to budge on that stance. Shea continues:

So it’s Fremont or bust — or stick around the Coliseum for another decade or two, receive millions in revenue sharing from MLB, draw a couple of million fans annually even though they’re denied access to the upper deck and always turn a profit.

How bad is that for an alternative?

Not bad if you’ve been a hardcore fan for several decades. Not bad at all if you want to go to many games every season for cheap. Of course, it’s not you that matters that much. It’s a bad alternative for Bud Selig and the Lodge of owners, who really don’t care to see a team continually receiving revenue sharing while consistently outperforming their own teams on the field. I’m certain that Selig’s main motivation for staying on through 2009 and perhaps longer is that he wants to see the last three stadium deals through. It would serve as his crowning achievement.

If we’re going to pick this apart, let’s go back to Dellums and Wolff. Wolff stated that he needed the Fremont land, and I’ve already said that Fremont has no interest in allowing the housing development and rezoning without the ballpark. But what if there were an alternative in Oakland?

Take a look at Chip Johnson’s review of Dellums’ first 100 days:

The veteran politician and longtime congressman is long on social issues, short on day-to-day operations and shows troubling signs of meddling with development.

And in the one development project where he has taken an active role, Dellums effectively killed it. In March, Dellums blocked a proposal to build a 1,575-unit condominium project atop light industry in a desolate section of West Oakland.

The West Oakland project under consideration is developer Peter Sullivan’s mixed-use project at Mandela Parkway and West Grand Ave. The main reason cited for pulling the project was the desired preservation of Oakland’s diminishing industrial areas. City Councilmember Nancy Nadel approved the move:

“I felt the report wasn’t in the best interests of the city,” Nadel said. “It made me feel better that the zoning commissioners restated their intent to implement the zoning called for in the General Plan.”

What if Dellums’ staff are working on a ballpark proposal incorporating that piece of land? The housing component would still be needed, and such a change would effectively be the same kind of rezoning that was pooh-poohed last month, only on a larger scale. Though there’s zero indication that this is actually being discussed, it can’t be ruled out completely if Dellums is interested in rolling up his sleeves. Then again, West Oakland is Nadel’s domain, and judging from the fans’ reaction to her in one of the “Choose or Lose” rallies, they don’t think she’s much of an ally. BTW, the location is 3/4 mile from the West Oakland BART station.

It doesn’t hurt Wolff to play nice with Oakland, even though the situation there looks bleak as it relates to the A’s.

No, this post is not about the sci-fi series on the USA Network which is entering its fourth season.

Details about the SJSU/Quakes project have given hints about how the A’s-Cisco Field deal will be structured. Before I explain further, take a look at the following table:

First off, it’s utterly amazing that the A’s stadium, which will hold only 5,000 or so additional people, will cost over six times as much. The ballpark is considerably more complex thanks to additional amenities and MLB stadium requirements, but I’ll cover the details of that another day because it can be explained.

The real curiosity is the number of housing units being pitched to help finance each project. For the ballpark it’s 2,900. For the stadium it’s 1,500. Cisco Field will have over 100 acres of ancillary development to assist (housing, retail, commercial), while no such development is possible at SJSU’s South Campus. Included in the SJSU stadium deal will be the creation of public soccer fields nearby (albeit off campus and with some city funds).

Why would the stadium project need 1,500 units? And why would the ballpark, which costs over six times as much, need only 2,900? It’s difficult to quantify the impact of the ballpark village portion, but it can’t be that much. The volatility of the housing market could make estimating the entitlements’ impact difficult as well. Somehow each project has to add up, right? So this leaves me with one possibility:

The San Jose housing sales may help fund the ballpark.

I’ve been wrong before, and when the details finally emerge I may well be proven wrong on this hypothesis. Right now, the numbers don’t add up unless both projects are put together – at least when compared side-by-side. It’s likely that Wolff is courting the same investors for both projects, and that moving funds around to get the bills paid may be the only way to get the ballpark (the main project) built. Even if it’s true, it may not be considered a big deal since in the end both deals may be viewed as fair – at least on their own terms. Still, it remains something of an eyebrow-raiser, and makes the stadium effort appear less altruistic than how it’s currently perceived by some.

All the more reason to get the details out in the open, no?

I’ve had a chance to read the 49ers’ 24-page economic impact report, and I’ve come to one conclusion:

• It’s irrelevant when applied to the A’s situation.

Other coverage of the report has brought up how optimistic the direct and indirect impact projections are, thanks to use of the multiplier effect. The plan looks good when framed as beneficial to Santa Clara City and County. Patterns of spending within the City are used as an argument against “displacement,” or the tendency of one particular form of entertainment (football) to divert disposable income away from other forms (movies, music, other sports, etc.).

The County-specific focus makes the study somewhat flawed. While there would be positive impact on Santa Clara City and County, it’s essentially the same base of 49ers fans moving south. The Bay Area as a whole wouldn’t be affected significantly, except that a new stadium would bring in a large number of construction jobs for the construction period. At least the study doesn’t take into account potential windfalls from ancillary development, since that is an unknown at this point.

The study isn’t applicable to the A’s situation because unlike the Niners, the A’s are staying in the same county. Assuming that both the new ballpark and football stadium end up publicly-owned, there would be no new property taxes associated with either facility. Sales taxes on materials used in construction could be beneficial, but that depends on whether Wolff is aiming for a rebate or waiver, which can’t be ruled out.

A place like Blackhawk, where many athletes are known to live, is equidistant from both the Coliseum and the Cisco Field site based on driving distances. So it’s likely that Billy Beane (and, er, Joe Morgan) would stay there. Palo Alto would substitute for the Marina district. Santana Row would as well to a lesser extent. (Perhaps Stanley Burrell‘s old house in the Fremont hills is available.) In other words, not much impact from player and front office relocations – especially if any relocations happen within Alameda County.

Of course, studies of this type generally don’t take a macro view. They’re designed to convince specific elected officials and placate their constituents. Due to the complexity of the ballpark village concept, I expect the Wolff study to have a slightly different tenor, such as highlighting positive indirect impact while accentuating how the project won’t affect the public coffers. The Niners, who are seeking public funding of some kind, stayed far away from any kind of cost-benefit analysis.

The Giants unveiled their new scoreboard/video board just in time for the start of the season, and even on video it looks impressive. The new board is the centerpiece of several tweaks to AT&T Park, including the new ultra-premium Lexus Dugout Club. The new club has 108 padded seats with extra leg room and a dozen 17-inch LCD screens lining the backstop.

At 31′ high x 103′ long, the board is four times the size of one of the current Diamond Vision boards at the Coliseum. Combine the Coliseum’s two video board and monochrome scoreboard sets, and you get about the same amount of display space. Boy has technology changed to make that display space more dramatic!

The lineup and defensive displays are decent, along with the designated video space above the line score. The line score itself looks quite small though I’m sure it’s quite legible. I’ll have to check it out in person to know for sure. The sponsorship nods on the lower corners are well-sized and out of the way. There are parts of the display that look a bit contrasty, so I imagine that colors and fonts will undergo tweaks to find a happy medium. I’d prefer to see a screen or two that looks like the front and back of a baseball card, if only for nostalgia’s sake. There should be a sponsorship available from Upper Deck or Topps if someone works the phones.

Update 12:00 AM: As I expected, there were complaints about the legibility of certain display items, such as statistics in the lineup. The tweaks may come early.

I was going to compare the San Francisco and Santa Clara 49ers stadium concepts in this space, but I’ll refrain because Ann Killion’s column in the Merc captures my thinking almost exactly. For the the Niners it all comes down to one question: How does it get financed? Very little of the information released about the two sites talks about who pays for what. I don’t think this is the 49ers hiding anything, I think they simply don’t know.

Maybe they’re looking for a ginormous loan from the NFL, such as the one approved on Tuesday by the owners for the $1.7 billion Giants/Jets stadium. The previous debt limit imposed on teams that applied for the league’s G-3 stadium loan program was $150 million. How much would the 49ers need above that initial amount? The $200 million being sought from Santa Clara’s utility reserve? More?

The San Francisco plan doesn’t shed anymore light, though to be fair it was conceived by the City and developer Lennar with little input from the team. In the proposal, there’s no mention of financing either, except that the City vows not to tap the General Fund to make the stadium alternative work.

There’s a good deal of optimism coming from 49er headquarters, but there isn’t much substance to back it up. Even though Lew Wolff hasn’t yet published the A’s plans, at least he’s given some indication as to what he plans to do, and has backed it up with land acquisitions and the Cisco partnership. In Santa Clara, the tide is already starting to turn against the stadium proposal with the release of data showing potential rate hikes if the Niners go with the reserve fund. They need to get control of the situation. Stat.

So what we have here is your garden variety shoot first, ask questions later piece from a well-respected, longtime sports columnist. It does little to inform fans about the process, and frankly does a disservice to its readers. But what do I know? I’m a mere blogger.

Dickey takes a little swipe at Fremont for being “not really a city but a collection of small towns,” and attributes that characteristic to the lack of progress in extending BART south. Followers of the WSX and BART-to-SV extensions know that Fremont’s size has little to do with it. Both projects were packaged contingent upon funding happening in Santa Clara County. No one city has sufficient enough clout to extend BART, not San Francisco, Oakland, Antioch, Livermore, Fremont, or San Jose.

Then Dickey starts with the “bait-and-switch” possibility:

A’s managing partner Lew Wolff had made proximity to a BART line a condition for a new site in Oakland. When he announced his preferred Oakland site, across 66th Avenue from the Coliseum, he insisted that a new BART station must be built there.

Now, the official word from the A’s is that a BART station nearby is not a requirement for the new site.

What’s going on here?

It’s simple. The BART station condition was based on the idea that the ballpark would be in Oakland. Last time I checked, Fremont was not within Oakland city limits. As the stadium site moves south, it draws different demographics. Since much of the new demographic is going to be South Bay residents who don’t have the privilege of a having a nearby BART station, BART obviously won’t be a requirement for them. It’s the South Bay contingent that’s expected to make up for much of the lost BART-based fans.

Let’s take a look at Dickey’s primary argument:

Never forget that Wolff has made his money in real estate. His projects have included much of what has been built in downtown San Jose.

The projected baseball park in Fremont would be part of a much larger real estate project, including retail and housing. To build that, Wolff needs to get zoning changes. The lure of a new park will certainly be enough to get those changes.

I believe that, having got the zoning changes and started his real estate project, Wolff will then announce that it really isn’t feasible to build a new park there.

And then, the bidding will begin from cities eager to get the A’s.

I’ll keep bringing this up until I’m blue in the face: Fremont’s control of the zoning is their leverage. Why on earth would they approve the land development deal without the ballpark? They’re not interested in changing the city’s charter and adding residents without new revenue streams to go with it. Fremont’s angle is keeping the entertainment dollar in the city. Accepting separate plans for the housing and ballpark village kills their leverage. The entire project has to be submitted with all parts included, otherwise environmental and economic impact studies can’t be done properly. In the end Fremont has to certify the studies associated with the project to let it proceed. If it doesn’t, Wolff is stuck with a bunch of land in South Fremont that isn’t appreciating much.

If Wolff wanted to play the normal stadium extortion game, he’d have done what the Marlins have foolishly done in Miami, destroying all goodwill with the community even after two World Series titles in a decade. Or easier yet, he’d have simply announced the A’s were going to move to Vegas while mayor Oscar Goodman still was interested and not jaded from being used by other teams’ owners and Bud Selig. Portland had a better chance to be in play when Wolff first took over the team. San Antonio has felt the sting as much as Las Vegas. It’s only getting more expensive to build a ballpark anywhere with each passing year. And Wolff’s not getting any younger.

What about the Cisco angle? Why would Cisco sign its name so early to a plan that could become a PR nightmare if Wolff decides to pull a bait-and-switch job? Cisco could have easily waited until the A’s moved, began construction, and started taking bids for naming rights. That would’ve been pain-free. Instead, Cisco is a partner in this venture, and not just because the ballpark would be a tech showcase. Cisco wants to be cool like Valley cohorts Google and Apple, and it won’t get there backing something that isn’t substantive.

Still not convinced? Wolff submitted the Quakes/SJSU stadium proposal last week, and guess what – it looks similar in some ways to the Cisco Field concept. The financing plan involves rezoning of industrial land and turning profits from home development into funding for the stadium. Now if Wolff had the Giants’ territorial rights over turned it’s likely he’d have used the same rezoning plan as part of a downtown San Jose ballpark project. Since territorial rights aren’t getting changed anytime soon, it makes more sense to use try to pitch it for the Quakes’ stadium effort.

Sadly, there’ll be conspiracy theorists who’ll continue to shake their fists until the first fan walks through a Cisco Field turnstile. I can’t blame Wolff for not worrying about convincing them. There’s little he can do about it other than build the ballpark. Even then, many of them won’t come.

Last November we discussed how the A’s move to Fremont might affect the San Jose Giants. The move would invoke baseball’s Rule 52, which requires consent by or compensation for a team whose territory has been encroached. Now it appears that a decision is about to be made. With no likelihood for the $8 million being sought by the Giants’ owners to renovate San Jose Municipal Stadium, the state of the ballpark forces their hand. Both the SJ and SF Giants have wanted Muni to be upgraded for some time, though neither wants to foot much of the bill for it.

The SJ Giants are approaching their 20th year in existence, the longest continuous tenure of any team in San Jose. Over those two decades they’ve cultivated a small, devoted fanbase while showcasing *ahem* a few future SF Giants. Should the team move there will be a void that a major league team can’t quite fill. Minor league baseball has an intimacy and pace that can’t be captured at a major league park.

Don’t cry too much for the SJ Giants’ owners. Even one of the majority owners, Dick Beahrs, admits that “If the team moved elsewhere, I think you can make an argument that economically it makes sense, but we wouldn’t be getting together on Thursdays in July to watch a game together.” The owners will certainly be well-compensated. There’s still a movement afoot for a team in the North Bay, which certainly sounds like a natural fit once the Bay Area baseball realignment has begun. The fans, however, won’t receive much solace.

As it stands, the A’s are still early in a relationship with new high-A affliate Stockton. The Ports play in a shiny new riverfront ballpark of their own, and it’s difficult to envision that arrangement changing. The A’s did operate two high-A franchises in early Beane era, so who’s to say that can’t happen again? Consider this:

The A’s could bring SJ Muni into the SJSU-Earthquakes project, which makes sense because it’s the same part of town. The A’s, Quakes, and San Jose partner on Muni renovation, which would benefit the A’s and San Jose (good PR), and SJSU (updated facility). While the Giants’ tradition would leave, a new one could start for the A’s. Stockton’s market isn’t threatened by a team in central San Jose. Bay Area fans would have an even greater opportunity to see A’s draftees matriculate through the farm system – which tends to pay more dividends than the Giants’.

If the concept sounds bizarre, keep this in mind: One of the first sports teams Lew Wolff invested in was the late 70’s San Jose Missions. Wolff has experience with the minors. The Mets and Yankees both have short-season teams in the five boroughs (Coney Island and Staten Island, respectively).

Of course, there are business reasons for not having a minor league club in San Jose. San Jose is already full of non-major league sports franchises that compete against each other (Sabercats, Stealth), and having a baseball team would dilute the market. A baseball team would also compete with the parent A’s to an extent, and certainly with the Quakes for the budget sports dollar. Also, how would pro-MLB San Jose partisans feel about such a move? Would they consider it patronizing? I’d like to see the A’s preserve minor league baseball for the multitude of reasons described above, but it requires some scratch and someone else to operate the team, and the economics may not allow such a situation to occur.

Note: I’m picking this up from a previous post’s comments thread.

We can all agree that the KNBR is skewed towards the SF teams and covers the W’s mostly because they’re under contract. The Oakland teams get token coverage, while the Sharks get mentioned because the Razor loves them. You can’t fault KNBR for catering to their vested interests. Sports talk is not exactly high up on the journalistic integrity scale, so to hold them to task for this skew is laughable. To have another sports talk station makes sense for fans of those affected teams.

However, that’s not the issue here.

The real question is: “Is there room in the Bay Area for another sports talk station?” The two KNBR’s constitute 1 1/2 stations due to simulcasts (Razor & Mr. T), sloughing off W’s or 49ers games when they conflict with the Giants or the Razor & Mr. T, Giants midnight baseball replays, and much of the throwaway syndicated programming out there (late night ESPN radio, most FOX Sports radio). Programming a sports talk station is inherently expensive and risky. Before you answer the question above, consider the following:

• How do you balance expensive, locally produced programming against cheaper (and less popular syndicated shows)?
• What marketing strategy do you use? Is the station an anti-KNBR? An East Bay station? A “fair and balanced” station? A more edgy station?
• Do you succumb to “partnering” with ESPN (Eternally Self-Promoting Network)?
• How much specialized programming do you include? Examples: boxing, outdoors/fishing, extreme sports, fantasy sports, auto racing, horse racing
  
• What kinds of partnerships do you strike with local universities to carry their events?
• What kind of sports news operation do you run? Do you cover every local pro sports event or cover events selectively?
• Is it worth it to pay for higher priced, big name radio talent?
• Should the station have sports programming exclusively, or a mix of sports and other news/talk?
  
• How much do you want shows to be content driven (interviews) as opposed to caller driven?
• How much time do you spend on pre- and post-game shows?
• How much do gimmicks factor in? Examples: scantilly-clad women, contests and giveaways
  

Next, let’s consider the market. The last published Arbitron ratings I’ve seen have KNBR at 2.3 for November ’06-January ’07 in the San Francisco market (14th) and 1.8 in the San Jose market (20th). KTCT (a.k.a. KNBR-1050) hit 0.6 (35th) in SF and 0.4 (40th) in SJ, which explains why they don’t spend much on local programming.

Let’s talk a look at the shares for sports talk stations in more sports-crazy markets (Arbitron ratings courtesy of Radio Daily News):

I threw in LA facetiously, of course. Other than LA, a market’s total sports radio share appears to typically hover between 3 and 5 (3-5% of the market). The combined share of the two KNBR’s is nearly 3, and in a place as diverse and segmented as the Bay Area, can you reasonably ask for more? Would the addition of another station take away a 1 share from someone else, whether it was KNBR or other types of programming? While the sports offerings may not be diverse, it could be argued that the market penetration for sportstalk is close to maxed out.

Then again, maybe it isn’t. A look at the dropoff from the SF market to the SJ market indicates that the further outside of SF, the less popular KNBR is in general. The SF market includes Oakland, so the pooling of both east and west sides of the bay presents an inaccurate picture in ratings. The East Bay must be weaker than SF and the Peninsula. Perhaps an opportunity is there for an East Bay/South Bay oriented station, one that caters to non-SF teams. There’s an obvious marketing angle in presenting the station as the opposite of the so-called effete, wine-sipping types to the west.

Wolff and A’s broadcasting veep Ken Pries are paying attention to the market. Pries has indicated that if a station were available locally, the A’s would be interested. There’s an element of timing to such an acquisition, because in the recent past most local radio station sales have been as part of huge corporate portfolios, such as the Susquehanna sale. It’s possible that the rumored sale of various Clear Channel stations may make one or more individual stations available locally, but it could lead to more of the same corporate horse trading.

Thankfully, other teams’ owners have already set the trend by buying their own radio properties. The following are two excellent case studies:

• A year ago, Angels owner Arte Moreno paid $42 million for KMXE, a 50,000-watt AM outfit in LA. Formerly a Spanish-language news/talk/sports outlet, KMXE was transformed into the Angels’ spanish flagship. Over the last year, more English-language programming has been introduced, and Moreno changed the station’s call letters to KLAA. It is thought that once ESPN-710’s deal with the Angels elapses after this coming season, the English broadcast will move to KLAA. But what will happen to the Spanish broadcasts? Moreno has done a skillful job of marketing to that market, and he may be doing the team a disservice by not utilizing the station for Spanish. One way or another, the station promises to significantly boost Angels revenues.
• A few months prior to Moreno’s purchase, a company called Red Zebra Broadcasting bought three low-power stations in the Washington, DC area. Red Zebra is run by Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. The three stations form a virtual “flagship” by simulcasting the same programming (ESPN radio and Redskins games). Depending on where you are in the market, you may be best served by listening to either WWXT 92.7-FM in Prince Frederick, MD, WWXX 94.3-FM in Warrenton, VA, or WXTR 730-AM in Alexandria, Virginia. Plans to buy two additional stations in Maryland were scuttled in January. If this sounds familar, that’s it mimics what the A’s were doing last year with two low-powered stations – though the A’s didn’t own the stations. Should two or more low-power stations owned by the same conglomerate become available, it’s certainly within reason for Wolff to look into purchasing them, price being a major factor. Once purchased, an application can be filed to boost a station’s signal to 20,000 or even 50,000 watts if it’s AM, even more if FM.

Just as with the stadium situation, patience is required when looking at the radio market. The FCC isn’t granting new licenses to anyone, so this radio wait is like looking for a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan. It requires timing, skill, and a bit of luck. The industry may shake out even more over the next two years, so with that aforementioned luck the A’s may get themselves a station yet.