08.27.13
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Safeco Field

Previous Seattle posts:

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Puget Sound, with the Port of Seattle in the foreground, Downtown Seattle to the right

I’ve been going to Utah a few times for business this summer. During one of the trips, I got to hang out with Scott White, a loyal A’s fan from the Beehive State. While we sat in some excellent seats for a River Cats-Bees game at Spring Mobile Ballpark (thanks Scott and Mrs. White!), he asked me for recommendations on a baseball weekend trip. He had been to Oakland, of course, but as a married guy in his early-mid 20’s he hadn’t done a ton of baseball travel yet. The most convenient trip, I argued, was Coors Field in Denver, a short plane trip or an 8-hour drive away. On the other hand, if he wanted to go to a more interesting city that has far and away one of the best ballparks in the world (and SF was already checked off the list), Seattle’s Safeco Field is a better choice.

Then again, I hadn’t been to Safeco for several years. It is a great ballpark, yet I had trouble conjuring memories of the last visit. So I used that as motivation to spend a weekend in Seattle, where I could stretch out and enjoy more than a few hours in SoDo. Boy, did I ever.

I don’t know that there’s a best way to approach Safeco Field. Taking light rail to the Stadium station allows for a meandering stroll to the park, where the roof dominates the landscape. The walk down 1st Avenue South from Pioneer Square and downtown is not terribly long and has little to write home about. VIPs at M’s games have their floors at an adjacent garage so they can avoid the riff-raff. The best thing to do is to walk along the west facade until you’ve reached the home plate gate, where the lovely rotunda is your entrance. An art installation made of white plastic bats called “The Tempest” hangs from the ceiling like a massive chandelier.

The Tempest

The Home Plate Rotunda, where The Tempest is installed

The challenge when conceiving the successor to the ill-fated Kingdome was to allow the Mariners to play games protected from Seattle’s seasonal downpours while making the overall environment feel like an open air ballpark. Of the new parks with retractable roof technology, Safeco Field has done it best. The roof retracts to the east of the stadium outside the seating bowl, so it doesn’t cause shadow issues like those suffered at Miller Park or Rogers Centre. And unlike Minute Maid Park, a similar design that opened a year after Safeco, or Marlins Park, it doesn’t feel like such a sealed off place when the roof is closed. Part of this is due to the more forgiving summer climate in the Pacific Northwest, which allowed the team and architects to forego air conditioning. Regardless, Safeco was put together with the knowledge that summer is actually pretty great in Seattle (outsiders aren’t supposed to know this), but to be safe the other seasons should be accounted for.

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Edgar’s Cantina, a bar that replaced a section of bleacher seats.

If there’s one thing to take away from Safeco, it’s that the place is meant for you to have a beer and enjoy yourself. Beer stands, often with quality craft offerings, litter both concourses. The entire left field bleacher area is devoted to two bars, one that greets fans that enter the center field gate, and Edgar’s Cantina, situated atop the visiting bullpen. Where AT&T Park is known for its kids-oriented facility, Safeco feels at times like one big party deck, or Wrigley Field with better beer.

I took a tour and went to two games, a night game followed by a day game. The night game was special, as it was Ken Griffey Jr. Day. The slugger was being inducted into the M’s Hall of Fame, and it was one of those rare occasions this season where 47,000+ fans showed up. During the induction ceremony, fans listened with rapt attention as their beloved hero was feted. Commemorative Junior bobbleheads were made for the occasion, though only 20,000 fans walked away with the memento. The vast majority of fans stayed through most of the game, even as Hisashi Iwakuma gave it up in the seventh, turning a pitchers’ duel into a Brewers blowout.

The Sunday getaway day game, which attracted 25,390 to the yard, was your classic King Felix start: low-scoring and quick (the game ran only 2:11). A few hundred fans sat in the designated King’s Corner, clad in gold shirts. This was the game that really showcased Safeco as an outdoor stadium, since the roof was open and a bright sun was filling the park. My seat was in the front row of the LF bleachers, which felt great despite it being 30 feet above and recessed from the outfield fence. Speaking of those fences, they’ve been moved in a tad. They’ve already surpassed their home run total from last year, so it seems to have worked, though Raul Ibanez skews things a bit. So far the M’s haven’t done anything with the limited space. There’s enough room for a row of overpriced field level seats if they want to go that route.

A replacement scoreboard was the other major change going into 2013. Larger than a basketball court, the new scoreboard replaces the old combo board flanked by static signage. Unfortunately, most of the time the retro-themed display shows replacement ads where the old static signs used to be. The M’s have ongoing advertisement and sponsorship agreements with various companies, so this couldn’t be avoided. The graphic packages are lovely, with a lot of motion and variety. The Fenway green background used during the game is somewhat gimmicky, but the detail and sharpness are so good that you could be forgiven for thinking the board was itself static – at least from the upper deck where I sat.

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New scoreboard above the CF bleachers measures 57′ x 107.5′, or slightly larger than two single family home lots back-to-back.

As one of the larger parks in MLB these days, Safeco isn’t intimate. The cantilevers aren’t aggressive, and when the smaller Sunday crowd was in there it felt too big at times. Yet somehow it isn’t cavernous, the way Chase Field tends to be when the roof is closed. It has the requisite multiple clubs, a boatload of suites, plus generous concourse space and amenities. Access is excellent and there are many places to hang out during the game, such as the aforementioned LF area or the rotunda roof behind home plate. It feels like an oasis. And when the sun sets over Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula, it’s hard to imagine a better spot in baseball. It’s even harder to imagine leaving.

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Baseball Museum of the Pacific Northwest & Mariners Hall of Fame

The best part of Safeco Field isn’t kissed by the sun or close to the action. It’s the Baseball Museum of the Pacific Northwest, a carved out part of the lower third base concourse behind some concession stands. Practically hidden away, it’s a gem of a spot that frankly is the best reason for coming to a game early, better than batting practice or autographs. The Museum chronicles baseball history in the region, from the turn of the century era to the Seattle Giants to Sicks’ Stadium and the Pilots and finally the Mariners, the Kingdome, and Safeco. Included in the collection is the Mariners Hall of Fame, which has the requisite player monuments you’d expect (Big Unit, Gar, Alvin Davis, Buhner, etc.). Naturally, Junior’s monument is the newest addition. At one end of the museum are displays showcasing the various forgotten teams of the past. At the other end are family stuff, such as exhibits explaining the construction of bats, balls, and gloves, and a replica outfield wall where fans can take pictures of themselves making “leaping” catches. The piece de resistance is a craft beer bar called Power Alley, which has a dozen taps and numerous canned and bottled varieties. Whoever put this together prior to the 2007 season deserves a promotion.

While the SoDo neighborhood isn’t as lively as South Beach near AT&T Park or Blake Street near Coors Field, there are a few bars nearby. Pyramid Alehouse has an outpost across the street, which is convenient. Pioneer Square is a 15-minute walk away. I was so focused on the experience inside Safeco that everything outside it barely registered.

Baseball at the Kingdome was even more drab and gray than the Coliseum is now, thanks to the concrete everywhere you looked. It was dreary, depressing, and hopelessly artificial. The Mariners and NBBJ’s Dan Meis took a major compromise, a retractable roof, and managed to minimize it to as little as possible given its size and heft. Now that light rail runs nearby the park is even better integrated than it was when it opened. Given the circumstances, Seattle has made the biggest upward transition from old stadium to new ballpark. The team’s recent suckage has made the ballpark the biggest draw in recent years. Whatever happens next, many of the financial concerns have subsided thanks to retirement of debt two years ago. Regrets are few. That makes Safeco, in every sense, the exact opposite of the Kingdome. For that, Seattleites can rejoice.

08.25.13
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On Subsidies and Votes

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’re probably already familiar with my stance on public subsidies for sports teams. It has perhaps become more hardline over the years, as civic coffers have dried up and redevelopment died out. The ideas are pretty simple, and I don’t expect everyone to think the same way I do:

  1. Public money for stadia in the form of cash, loans, or bonds – whether or not secured by upfront taxes or fees – should never happen in this day and age.
  2. All new or renovated venues that do not require public money are generally good, as long as they don’t come with significant kickbacks for the team and developers.
  3. Any public assistance that goes beyond processing permits or planning work (providing land, money, or other benefits) should require a public vote over the terms of the deal.

Note that I haven’t specified dollar values for anything. That means that it doesn’t matter if a municipality provides $1 million or $1 billion in assistance – any assistance merits a referendum. There is no gray area at work.

As currently structured right now the Sacramento Kings’ new arena will not go to the ballot box. The City Council and Mayor Kevin Johnson have argued that a referendum isn’t necessary isn’t because no new general taxes are being levied. Councilman Steve Hansen (no relation to Seattle investor Chris Hansen – we’ll get to that in a bit) even argued in a forum earlier this week that because Sacramento’s airport received $1 billion in publicly-funded improvements without a vote, the arena shouldn’t either. That is utterly absurd. First of all, an airport in a major city is a pretty important piece of public infrastructure, incomparable to an arena, which is a luxury. Secondly, it’s foolish to use third grade-level reasoning to justify a political move such as this (“My friend’s parents let him stay out late, why can’t I?”). Not voting on airport improvements was arguably a bad move in the first place. Not voting on an arena would only compound that error.

An anti-arena group, STOP, emerged as the only entity with enough cash to fund a petition drive that would’ve put the arena on a ballot. STOP’s origins were murky, as it was connected to Loeb & Loeb, a Southern California law firm associated with the Maloof family (former Kings owners). Initially that led to accusations that the Maloofs funded STOP. It turns out that the aforementioned Chris Hansen had actually funded STOP to the tune of $100,000. The non-disclosure and solicitation of the contribution(s) were all state campaign-reporting violations. Hansen eventually admitted his part in the subterfuge and apologized, explaining that he wouldn’t fund the campaign further. Arena advocates are rightly incensed and not satisfied with Hansen’s apology, going as far as asking the hedge fund manager to pull back all gathered signatures. In addition, STOP pulled some shady tactics in misrepresenting aspects of the arena plan, which has caused several thousand petition signers to request their names be removed.

Messy, right? This brouhaha didn’t start with Hansen or pro-arena forces. It started with the need for a referendum. Since the City decided the arena didn’t need one, the anti-arena political machine geared up to get enough signatures to force one. That got another group going in defense of the plan, trying to head off the petition drive at the pass. All of it, and I mean all of it, is unsavory. There’s a very simple, easy way to resolve this once and for all: just allow the referendum to take place. Even if the delay counts for several months it shouldn’t materially impact the construction plan, which has numerous pieces to work out including a potential eminent domain land acquisition. If the pro-arena forces are as confident as they say they are about the plan, there’s no reason to skip this crucial civic step. Mayor KJ has called the arena the biggest project in the City’s history. Shouldn’t the biggest project in the City’s history be confirmed by plebiscite? Forget the dirty politics, the real and phony outrage. Let it all air out in a real campaign. Sacramento voters at least deserve that amount of respect.

Plus, let’s not forget that one famous Sacramentan was caught on the other side of this divide. Last year I wrote about Gregg Lukenbill’s plot to kill the original China Basin ballpark in 1989 with mailers targeting San Francisco voters, all part of a plan to coax the team northeast along I-80 to land next to ARCO (Sleep Train) Arena. (An even more revealing account can be found at The California Fix.) Why no outrage? Because that’s part of the game. It’s also part of the past. After all, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan certainly picked up a few votes after the revelation that Lew Wolff donated $25k to presumed frontrunner Dom Perata’s campaign in 2010. How’d that work out in the end for Oakland?

Eventually, San Francisco got new ownership in that were willing to spend their own money on a ballpark, with minimal city assistance (land, infrastructure). Even that plan ended up in a referendum, one that won in a landslide. Santa Clara’s 49ers stadium plans received legitimacy thanks to their victory at the ballot box, as did San Jose’s arena plans. Meanwhile, Oakland pushed Mt. Davis (and arena renovations) through without a city or county vote to disastrous effects, and pols are hinting at even more stadium plans that won’t require referenda. Are these people nuts? Have some respect for your citizens, politicians. Allow for campaigns. Allow the citizens and fans to be fully educated on the issues. You owe them that much. Sure, campaigns are expensive. The billionaires and millionaires who want these projects can afford campaign costs, they’ve seen and done it before. Chances are that they’ll outspend opponents 10:1. They have the resources. That’s fine. That’s the way the process works. The track record, at least in this state, is that allowing proper vetting of stadium projects is good for all concerned. If stadium and arena proponents aren’t willing to accede to a referendum request, it’s worth wondering what they’re hiding.

08.24.13
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Kawakami interviews Mark Davis about Coliseum plans

Say what you will about Tim Kawakami, but he’s the only local columnist talking Raiders’ (and Warriors’) stadium issues. He got a little time in with Raiders owner Mark Davis, who didn’t crack. Davis did, however, reveal some of his motivations for moving the way he has.

Davis continues to not consider Santa Clara as an option after 2013. He said that the team is still only talking to the JPA (Coliseum Authority) about a lease extension, with no actual negotiation yet on a long-term deal – which he prefers. Asked why he prefers a long-term deal, he replied:

(A short-term extension) doesn’t seem to be something that I want to do. I don’t see where that does any good.

If you go back and look at when we did the three-year extension last time, and you look at the quotes from the politicians and the people around, they said, ‘Great, now we’ve got an opportunity to work on a long-term deal with the Raiders.’

If we do it again, then it’s, ‘Great, now we’ve got a long time to work on a long-term deal with the Raiders.’ I think we’ve got to get a little more urgency about it.

Pretty subtle dig at the JPA and Oakland/Alameda County pols there. It’s a good move for Davis strategically, since it will eventually force the JPA to make commitments to a timeline and some minimal level of funding if they really want to keep the Raiders in town. If they’re reticent to make a deal, Davis can turn to Roger Goodell and say, See, I tried. Davis certainly sounds sincere about his stance, though it would be crazy if he didn’t take calls from interested municipalities. He also revealed that he was able to buy out a minority partner, bringing the family’s share of the team to above 50%.

Kawakami brought up Cal’s Memorial Stadium as a temporary venue option. Davis didn’t discount the possibility, but his response showed that he hadn’t considered it much either:

Sure. I mean, if they’d want us. We’ve done it before. There’s some… things about Berkeley that wouldn’t be optimal–the parking and all of that stuff is always tough.

But at the same time, if it’s (there’s a need to play elsewhere for a while) for a new stadium… and we like Berkeley. I think what they’ve done with the new stadium is great.

The issue at Memorial Stadium is a legal one. Neighbors who fought the stadium renovation project hard got a settlement in 2010 that placed a cap on the number of high-capacity events at the stadium and prohibited NFL games as well.

Contrast the Davis’s and Wolff’s positions on lease extensions at the Coliseum. Davis wants a long-term deal that includes a replacement Coliseum with untold amounts of public and private money. Wolff prefers a five-year, short-term extension that allows him to build a privately-funded stadium in San Jose. Neither owner has lashed out at the other or the team, instead calling the shared-stadium situation something their respective teams have to suffer through.

At the moment it doesn’t look like the two teams’ extension will be wrapped up before the end of the baseball season, at the very least. That will only put more pressure on the JPA to make commitments. The timeline will also coincide with a building Oakland mayoral race, which has gone from having few challengers to incumbent Jean Quan to several. It’ll be interesting to see how the sports teams are treated and cited on the campaign trail. Sports may be the one of the highest profile things about the City, but it’s also one of the trickiest to manage.

08.20.13
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A’s recommit to Stockton Ports through 2016

Happy news out of the Delta today, as the Stockton Ports and Oakland Athletics have re-upped their Player Development Contract (PDC) that keeps the Ports as the High-A, California League affiliate of the A’s through 2016. There was no drama associated with the announcement because there were no rumors of affiliation moves recently.

STOCKTON, Calif.-The Oakland Athletics and Stockton Ports have jointly announced the extension of their Player Development Contract (PDC) through the 2016 season. Prior to this new two-year extension, the A’s and Ports had signed a two-year agreement April 15, 2010 for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
“It is great to see so many former Stockton Ports making an impact in Oakland,” said Filippone, the Ports’ president.

“The Athletics are a first-class organization, and we are eager to continue building upon the tradition in Stockton as an A’s affiliate well into the future”.

Media availability has been scheduled for Tuesday August 20th from 6:30-6:55 in the Ports front office with Athletics Assistant General Manager David Forst and Ports President Pat Filippone. A pregame ceremony will immediately take place at 7 p.m. recognizing the extension agreement on the field prior to the Ports/San Jose Giants contest.

The Stockton Ports are one of the A’s five minor league affiliates, joining the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats (Pacific Coast League), Double-A Midland RockHounds (Texas League), Low-A Beloit Snappers (Midwest League), Low-A Vermont Lake Monsters (New-York Penn League)

The California League has proven to be one of the more stable minor leagues in baseball, with the biggest coming in 2005 when the A’s organization dropped Modesto for Stockton and its new ballpark. Bakersfield is getting new digs next year, further contributing to that stability.

08.18.13
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Talking bobbleheads, giveaways, and expectations

The A’s held a 1973 team reunion on April 27. A raft of greats from that repeat championship team were on hand, including Sal Bando, Blue Moon Odom, Bert Campaneris, and Reggie Jackson, who was honored with a commemorative bobblehead.

While the weekend-long reunion went well, the bobblehead giveaway didn’t. Only 10,000 bobbleheads were available for the 31,292 in attendance, which left many who had waited long hours sans souvenir. It’s becoming a common theme: schedule a bobblehead day, line up a bunch of fans, someone inevitably goes home unhappy. Subsequent bobblehead days for Coco Crisp (in June) and Yoenis Cespedes (yesterday) attracted sellout crowds, leaving even more fans without a souvenir. It’s gotten to the point where if a fan is not in line several hours before first pitch, chances are he’ll go home empty handed.

A’s marketing guys Troy Smith and Travis LaDolce invited into the business offices in Oracle Arena before today’s game. I spoke with them for 90 minutes about all manner of giveaways and marketing strategy. Smith admitted that Reggie Jackson day was a debacle and that there was major room for improvement. To that end they bumped up the orders for both the Crisp and Cespedes giveaways from 10,000 to 15,000, a move they had to make months ahead of time in order to ensure prompt delivery. It’s all part of the guessing game the A’s front office constantly has to play regarding demand.

Collectible pins, which get far less attention than bobbleheads

Collectible pins, which get far less attention than bobbleheads

For instance, take yesterday’s game. Now that we’ve come to expect sellouts on bobblehead day, it’s natural to want greater quantities of items. Because of the parking situation associated with the circus next door at the arena, it was decided that the gates should open at 2:30, 90 minutes before the normal time. Throughout the day A’s marketing staff including Smith and LaDolce were monitoring the situation. D Gate, which appeared to be most heavily impacted, ran out of bobbleheads at 3:27 PM. However, by that point lines had fully dissipated so if you had walked up prior to 3:30, chances were good you’d get one. Chances were even better at the season ticket entrance, which usually is stocked well enough to handle giveaways past the point when other gates run out.

What wasn’t known about the game was that the A’s had only sold 25,000 tickets to the game 24 hours prior to first pitch. An incredible 10,000 tickets were sold as either walkups or online during that period. That’s rather typical these days due to the rather predictable number of advance tickets sold. Some additional amount were sold after Cespy won the Home Run Derby. The problem is that the A’s have to plan everything for each game well ahead of time, including staffing and giveaways. Staffing can be handled with some flexibility. Because of the lead times associated with giveaways, bobbleheads have almost no flexibility (well, except for the actual bobblehead itself).

Two other examples of this phenomenon occurred in the last several weeks. The first was on Grant Balfour Gnome Day (June 16), which was a full standing room only sellout. Walkup sales were so high that in the week prior to the game, the front office worried if only 25,000 would show up. On the Fourth of July, less than 27,000 showed up for a picnic blanket giveaway, which left the marketing crew (and me) baffled because the annual fleece blanket giveaway day typically goes gangbusters.

Now think about the leadup to yesterday. All sorts of things could’ve dampened attendance. Cespedes could’ve been eliminated early in the HR Derby. He could’ve been injured early in the season. The team might not have been in postseason contention. All of this comes into play, and if you’re working off a steady base of about 10-15,000 attendees, it can be difficult to justify bumping it up more. The easy thing to say is to order 30-35,000 right off the bat. Because of the team’s limited marketing budget, 35,000 bobbleheads would’ve negatively impacted some other promotional day, potentially getting rid of a promotion altogether. I asked about other teams that sell 40,000 or full capacity quantities such as the Brewers or Dodgers. Those teams can afford to do it because marginal tickets they sell in the leadup to the game are usually very expensive ($100 or more), so they have headroom to make up for it. The A’s have dynamic pricing, but even then prices might go up only 20-30% in the process. Sponsors attached to each giveaway have little say over the quantity since the giveaways have to be planned as early as November prior to the following season, and they generally don’t directly fund giveaway purchases. I pressed on with 35,000 items. Smith countered that the last thing the team wants is to have 5,000 left over. When I said the items could just be sold in the team store, he said (I’m paraphrasing here) that if that’s the case, they’re not a good promotional tool. The whole point is of giveaways is to get people in the park and to give them a special memento. Sell overstock in team store would defeat the purpose (though I suppose it would give the naming rights sponsor an avenue, hint-hint). Judging from the response at the Coliseum, it’s working whether the quantity is 10,000 or 15,000. He admitted that there may be room for more in the future, but it would all be linked to ticket sales since everything flows from there.

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James Venes’ June chart showing different teams’ bobblehead giveaway figures

The chart above, put together by the inimitable James Venes independently from this article two months ago, shows the wide spectrum of bobblehead quantities for the various teams. The Brewers and Phillies give to capacity, the Giants and Dodgers are pretty close. Then again, those four teams surpass 3 million in attendance annually. The A’s are in the middle of the pack as far as the bobblehead-to-capacity ratio goes. Last weekend I attended the Ken Griffey Jr. day at Safeco Field. Despite a sure sellout crowd (47,000), they had only 20,000 bobbleheads. Like it or not, giving items to around 40% of the house is standard practice.

Over the years the A’s have tweaked the types of giveaways they’ve done. Gone are the cheapo caps of yesteryear as few people care about those. Smith showed me a commemorative back-to-back World Series champs pennant from 1974, to which his mother added “1974” in pen. I asked why there aren’t giveaway pennants anymore. Smith replied that people don’t seem to hold them in any value. I imagine the same thing could be said about the old end-of-season baseball card giveaways (remember how those were sponsored by Mother’s Cookies?). LaDolce had a similar pennant commemorating the A’s 1992 division crown, a moment that reflected the true end of the Haas era. Nowadays the stuff people want are collectibles, with bobbleheads at the forefront.

Troy Smith's assembled scorecards from The Streak. Note the attendance figures from each.

Troy Smith’s assembled scorecards from The Streak. Note the attendance figures from each. Game 20 isn’t there because Smith he was working the scoreboard that day.

When I was asked for future giveaway suggestions, I only had one: an A’s fan. Preferably an action figure or figurine with a gold jersey if that can be done. He/she might be donning a green cape or a Reddick luchador mask. I can’t speak to how racially non-specific it should be or to anatomical correctness. I’m sure it can be done. It would be a great acknowledgement of how faithful the hardcore A’s fan is, a kind of olive branch disguised as an in-joke. I’m no marketing genius, but I think it’d be cool. Accessories could be given away at future games. Besides, if the marketing folks have to order these before knowing what will happen with the notoriously volatile A’s roster, a good bet would be one thing Billy Beane can’t trade: a fan.

Yours truly posing with the three straight American League Championship trophies

Yours truly posing with the three straight American League Championship trophies

We talked about a great number of topics including the upper deck tarps, ballpark sites, the Josh Reddick effect, crossing over from being a lifelong fan to working for the team (as both Smith and LaDolce are), what it means to move from an old stadium to a new ballpark, and other matters. They showed me a prototype Green Day trucker hat to be given away at the end of the month, along with a hint about surprise guest they’re hoping to secure in time for the next Star Wars fireworks night. We didn’t talk about costs to produce items, though some of that information can be found elsewhere. I don’t know if our talk or the feedback from this article will effect change. The team has a fan committee that it listens to regularly. Smith and LaDolce were happy to talk to me at length. They read this blog, as do others around the league. Hopefully the kinks can be worked out to a happy medium. Maybe they can institute a ticket system like the kind employed for concert ticket sales or iPhone/iPad launches. There are ways to get these things in the hands of people that really want them. Until then, we’ll keep waiting in line. Thanks to Troy Smith and Travis LaDolce for inviting me into the inner sanctum for a little bit. I’m sure we’ll have more to chat about in due course. Maybe we’ll be talking action figures.

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P.S. – The team and bobblehead manufacturers can take months to work on items and still not get them exactly right. Case in point:

08.17.13
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Selig to the rescue in Tampa

I hope that when Bud Selig makes his expected perfunctory visit to the Tampa Bay area, he wears a cape. Or maybe a mask. Something to signify that he is the man with a plan to fix all that ails the Rays and the market.

Chances are Selig won’t do anything other than make that visit. He’ll decry the attendance woes at Tropicana Field. He’ll continue to say that the team needs a long-term solution. Yet when he attempts to proselytize St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster and other pols, he’ll do so with the knowledge that he has very little leverage in the matter.

Simply put, the Rays are stuck at the Trop through 2027. A plan to vacate the Trop by 2017 was floated a few years ago, with development proceeds used to pay off the remaining debt on the stadium. Obviously that plan went nowhere. Since then we’ve heard officials from neighboring Tampa and Hillsborough County express frustration that they can’t formally talk to Rays ownership without suffering a lawsuit from St. Pete. A developer’s plan to build in St. Pete across the Howard Frankland Bridge from Tampa has come and gone (for the time being, at least).

It’s a situation rich with irony. As MLB’s lawyers puff up to the point of arrogance against San Jose, The Lodge essentially powerless against St. Pete. The clear solution for them would be to cut a check to pay off the remaining ~$60 million in debt. $60 million doesn’t seem like that big a price to escape in the grand scheme of things, does it? Rays owner Stuart Sternberg refuses to name a specific amount he’s willing to pay. It sounds very similar to the impasse between the Giants and the A’s over territorial rights. Both sides have an unstated, unreasonable figure they prefer and have shown little interest in truly negotiating to get to a compromise amount.

Contrast that with our home situation, where the Giants have all the leverage over the A’s internally with MLB and MLB has leverage over San Jose. As we saw with MLB’s response to the antitrust lawsuit, they’re perfectly willing to shove the antitrust exemption in San Jose’s face when they feel they have power. What about in St. Pete, where they have little power? How about using ATE now, Bud?

them-apples

I got an ironclad lease, Bud. How do ya like dem apples?

It used to be that Selig didn’t have to don his cape and fly out from city to city. Instead he used right-hand man Bob DuPuy as his henchman. DuPuy has been out for a few years, so unless Selig is comfortable with Rob Manfred as his toady, poor old Bud’s gonna have to do it himself. But what can he do? Unless he’s promising something to St. Pete to protect the city even more than the existing lease, whatever he sells will probably fall on deaf ears. Before the season started Sternberg offered $1.42 million per year via a lease amendment just to explore sites outside St. Pete. Perhaps Selig will have to sweeten the pot.

The impasse seemed to break last week, when Foster admitted that the team should be able to look outside city/county limits. It was thought that the $1.42 million/year deal could be the key. Foster maintains that the team will have to finish its lease at the Trop, while a framework for the Rays to look elsewhere could be agreed upon. That sounds good except for the whole 2027 part. That’s 14 more years!

Look on the bright side. 14 years is a long time to save money. Bud should suggest a Rays ballpark layaway plan. That’s part of the way we fund infrastructure in California. The BART-to-Silicon Valley extension is being partly funded by accrued sales tax increment. Only when the revenues hit certain targets will the full extension to downtown San Jose take place. Both Tampa and St. Petersburg have indicated they have limited funds to throw at what will surely be a $600-800 million (in today’s dollars) stadium when all is said and done. Even with some sort of out-of-the-box financing plan, there still will be a major public component, which is unsavory to say the least.

Then again, a layaway plan would be a lot more than what Selig has proposed to resolve the A’s-Giants’ T-rights kerfuffle. Don’t expect much substance from Selig. It’s been 53 months since Selig convened a panel to look into the A’s situation, with no resolution in sight. He has 17 months left as commissioner unless he chooses to get himself re-elected again. All of Selig’s recent activity regarding PEDs and replay suggest a man that wants to burnish his legacy before leaving. What about these tough, infighting oriented problems in Oakland and Tampa Bay? They’re probably left for Selig’s hand-picked successor. Hopefully that guy has more spine. And a cape, while he’s at it.

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P.S. – For my Tampa Bay ballpark news counterpart, check out WTSP investigative reporter Noah Pransky’s Shadow of the Stadium blog. Exemplary work by a legit journalist, not some mere blogger (such as myself).

08.17.13
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CenturyLink Field tour

A little over a decade ago, before the great “final” NFL realignment, the Seattle Seahawks were a fierce divisional rival of the Raiders. Who could forget this gem?

The Raiders will wrap up the preseason against the Seahawks at CenturyLink Field (née Qwest Field). If Mark Davis is looking for a good example to emulate in terms of stadium and game experience, he’d be hard pressed to do better than the Seahawks’ distinctive, modern home. Completed at a cost of $360 million in 2001 (plus $70 million for a large indoor exhibition space and garage), CenturyLink Field manages to provide top-tier amenities while creating a very intimidating home field atmosphere, which can’t be said for many new NFL stadia.

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View from upper deck towards downtown Seattle

The key to CenturyLink Field’s success is its arched roof structures, which each cover most of the west and east stands. Even though people were scarce during the tour, our guide had us yell while on the upper concourse to demonstrate the echo effect, and it was impressive. Most outdoor NFL stadia have at best a roof as a trim piece, nothing as big as this. The roof design was meant to evoke Husky Stadium on the University of Washington campus, where the Seahawks played for a year while the new stadium was being built. Husky Stadium and Oregon’s Autzen are the loudest stadia in the Pac-12. The Kingdome was also loud, now this place is loud. Guess they like loud football in the Pacific Northwest.

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As far as pro football stadia go, this is an aggressive cantilever

Architectural firm Ellerbe Becket (now part of AECOM) incorporated another cool feature from Husky Stadium: an overhanging upper deck. From the picture above, the cantilever runs about 13 rows or 40 feet. The cantilever is actually something of a necessity because the stadium site, where the old Kingdome sat, is rather compact. While many league venues are surrounded by a sea of parking, CenturyLink Field is bordered by a street grid and railroad tracks (just like Safeco Field one block south). Without the cantilevers, Ellerbe Becket couldn’t have crammed 67,000 seats into this space unless they built more vertically, which would’ve been far more expensive.

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CenturyLink Field Events Center

Since tailgating wasn’t really possible in SoDo, a large exhibit hall was constructed adjacent to the stadium. Named the Event Center, the 200,000 square feet of flex space serves as a huge pregame staging area, a sort of scaled-down version of the NFL Experience at the Super Bowl. Non-ticketed fans are allowed inside until kickoff. The Event Center is also used as a concert venue (of debatable quality) and as a mini convention center.

Lower concourse is at field level

West side lower concourse is at field level

When fans enter the stadium through one of the gates on Occidental Avenue S, they are greeted by the team store (for both the Seahawks and MLS Sounders) and an enormous lower concourse, which also happens to sit at field level. Using this arrangement conserves space within the limited footprint, though it also also limits the amount of additional structures that can be built on different levels within the stadium. The same concourse on the opposite (east) side is elevated above the field to allow for the construction of locker rooms, the commissary, and other back-of-the-house necessities.

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The simple, uncluttered grandstand is brilliantly efficient

There’s one suite level and suites on the club level beneath it. There aren’t three different club levels, or a stack of four or five seating decks. It’s a classic arrangement that has similarities with with Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field. The 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium has an unorthodox seating arrangement within a compact footprint. We’ll see if it provides the kind of atmosphere the ‘Stick could at times.

The State of Football displays helmets from every high school football program throughout Washington

The State of Football displays helmets from every high school football program throughout Washington

Before ever setting foot in CenturyLink Field, I had pretty good understanding of why it should be a great football venue. It doesn’t bow too much to the greedy, pervasive class system of stadium construction. It makes a nod to another great stadium in the area. It’s not a dome. It’s focused on football (and soccer to a surprisingly successful extent). It looks cool without looking too blingy. Unlike the Kingdome, a neither fish-nor-fowl space that both tenants wanted to abandon shortly after it was built, this stadium is something Seahawks and the public can be proud of (public financing problems notwithstanding). Besides the lack of tailgating lots, it’s just about everything a modern football stadium should be. As such, it’s probably the best among the new era of NFL stadia, and 2nd overall to Lambeau Field.

08.15.13
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Battle: Field

Raiders owner Mark Davis was interviewed during Friday’s home exhibition opener at the Coliseum against the Cowboys. Davis left no doubt about how he felt about sharing the Coli with the A’s, calling the situation a “travesty“.

Just as the A’s and MLB complain about the state of the field when the Raiders invade the Coliseum every August, the Raiders and the NFL complain about the dirt infield dominating the football field. While that has proved to be something of a home field advantage because of Sebastian Janikowski’s well-developed skill in kicking off the brown stuff, the Polish cannon is not going to be around forever. Every other team has either a pristine grass or fake grass field, and frankly the Raiders should have the same conditions in today’s era.

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The baseball configuration 96 hours after the first Raiders game doesn’t look that bad.

Three more conversions to the football setup are planned through the rest of the baseball regular season. Another two or three could occur if the A’s reach the postseason and go deep. There’s an especially tricky period from September 29 to October 6, which will have two Raiders home games sandwiching an indeterminate number of A’s home postseason games. The home dates could be a division tiebreaker, wild card game, part of the best-of-five divisional series.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the other franchise owners are monitoring the Oakland situation continually, with the knowledge that the Raiders’ lease expires at the end of the season. The ratcheted up rhetoric by Davis and the Raiders’ broadcast team is no coincidence. The state of the field is a wedge issue in lease negotiations for both tenants at the Coliseum, with both teams basically saying that they’d rather have the field in their preferred condition. Of course, the only way to truly get that is to get the other tenant to leave. The A’s and Raiders have a friendly and professional relationship so you won’t see them going after each other. Instead they’ll send their gripes the JPA’s way.

At the moment the Raiders have an advantage over the A’s in their respective lease talks due to their ongoing dialogue with the JPA over Coliseum City. However, the A’s need the field ready sooner because their season starts in April. In fact, lease decisions will have to be made in the fall because decisions have to be made about when to start growing grass and rebuilding the infield, a process that usually starts in late January or early February. And you can bet that MLB, which has stayed hands off for the moment, will have no choice but to get involved if there’s a threat of the A’s being “homeless” for 2014.

Davis has said previously that even a temporary lease at the Coliseum is tied to development of a new stadium at the Coliseum complex, which only serves to make negotiations even more complicated. Perhaps the Raiders can commit with only a tentative agreement on how to move forward with Coliseum City. The feasibility study should be complete in a month or so, whereas an EIR is still ongoing.

With all of the lease factors in play, let’s talk about what has to happen next. A Raiders lease extension will need to be finalized well before the end of the season, probably as early as November. The same goes for the A’s because of the earlier start. If the teams are forced to share, there may be a way to minimize the conversion impact. That would probably include the A’s playing late season games at AT&T Park, allowing for the “permanent” football conversion to commence earlier, or the Raiders playing preseason games in Santa Clara (which makes more sense for the A’s). The JPA has to be careful not to appear as if they’re playing favorites, considering that both tenants don’t need much impetus to bolt. Davis may not have formal discussions with anyone in LA, but he’s probably getting a lot of whispers. We know that Lew Wolff only wants to stay long enough to get a San Jose ballpark built.

For now, let’s shelve the possibility that one of the tenants will move. We’ll have the chance to talk about the more drastic scenarios in posts I’ve scheduled for the weekend. Let’s assume that both will stay for now. What do you think the JPA, Oakland, and Alameda County will need to do to keep the teams happy?

08.12.13
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Evolution of the concourse

Since the beginning of the recent stadium boom, no part of any venue has undergone a greater transformation than the seemingly utilitarian concourse. Once considered little more than a long corridor fans used to access concessions and restrooms, the humble concourse has expanded to something much greater. Concourses now house a great variety of ways for fans to spend money. Restaurants and lounges now often take up concourse space. And no discussion can be had without recognition of the concourse as a flowing hangout space, whether via the proliferation of drink rails or the simple widening of concourses to invite people to mill around and circulate. Taking cues from modern airport design, stadium operators recognized some time ago that they had captive audiences due to ticket sales, so might as well milk the faithful for what they could. Judging from how fans have reacted, they love it.

The phenomenon seems to be more uniquely American (or at least North American) than anything else due to marketing and expectations of the ticket-buying public. Nevertheless, concourse expansion has taken hold in several new top tier European soccer stadia. The Olympics and World Cup haven’t been touched as much because of the sheer cost of expanding multiple venues, but single-team or single-sport venues continue to follow prevalent trends.

Let’s start our discussion with the concourse we’re most familiar with as A’s fans: the field level concourse at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

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At times it can be hard to tell how full the Coliseum is because the field level concourse gets jammed quickly.

I’ve written before about how this concourse has three hallmarks of old stadium design: it has is narrow at 30 feet wide, it has no buffer space for the seating sections, stairwells, or concession stands, and there are no attempts to divide traffic to better manage the flow. While the last issue can be addressed by instituting better queues at the concession stands, there’s still no substitute for greater space. Even during the day the concourse is devoid of light and claustrophobic thanks to fairly low ceilings. There are views of the game at many points, but the overhang is low enough to compromise those views.

Wrigley Field lower concourse has no views of game and no natural light, yet is wide enough to be navigable.

Wrigley Field lower concourse has no views of game and no natural light, yet is wide enough to be navigable.

The oldest ballparks still in use, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, have large main concourses underneath the bulk of their main grandstand. It works for providing interior space. It doesn’t work in terms of making fans connected the game. Whether that’s important to you as fan, it’s important to teams and architects. They want the best of both worlds – connectedness AND amenities. There’s no perfect solution and some have succeeded more than others in implementing their solutions.

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Lower concourse at Camden Yards – closed to the stands, open to the outside

Camden Yards’ design was largely influenced by difficulties encountered at cramped Memorial Stadium. Natural light floods the concourse, though there are few views of the game from the main grandstand concourse. Additional rows of seating sit atop the concession stands on the right of the picture above, with the backs open to allow some crowd noise to enter the concourse.

Stacked concourses at Camden Yards

Stacked concourses at Camden Yards

Target Field's lower concourse down the lines has great views of the game due to a lack of overhanging seating.

Target Field’s lower concourse down the lines has great views of the game due to a lack of overhanging seating.

In a similarly reactionary manner, Target Field was designed to accentuate field views. The finished high ceilings make the lower concourse feel like an airport, for good and ill. The upper deck also has an open concourse.

AT&T Park's Promenade Level is open with the exception of the area behind home plate, which contains the writers' press box.

AT&T Park’s Promenade Level is open with the exception of the area behind home plate, which contains the writers’ press box.

Many parks built in the 2000’s have placed a premium on space behind home plate, leading to level after level of suites and clubs. At times a grandstand can look more like a hotel or office building than a grandstand.

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Angel Stadium was built with a closed main concourse and a mini-mezzanine that is open behind the seats. Much of Rangers Ballpark was laid out in similar manner.

Then there are a handful of ballparks that went against the grain. Along with Camden Yards, Angels Stadium, Rangers Ballpark, and Busch Stadium have “closed” concourses – largely to bump up capacity.

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Petco Park tries to have it both ways

Finally, we have the concourses at Petco Park, where the concessions lines are often well-removed from circulation. It creates a sort of mall food court-like feel. There is sunlight and there are views, but is it perhaps too open?

As we’ve moved over the years from utility to feature, we’ve seen in hindsight the number of compromises that have needed to be made to provide openness (to the field) or better circulation and light. Disregarding for the moment any space or footprint constraints at a potential new A’s ballpark, what kinds of concourses would you like to see implemented?

08.11.13
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Safeco shows the safe way over train tracks

I first visited Safeco Field in 2001, during the Mariners’ 116-win season. The place was hopping back then the way it hasn’t since. When I planned this trip to Seattle I didn’t expect much. The M’s had the Brewers in town, so I wasn’t expecting thrilling baseball by playoff contenders. I looked closer at the schedule and found out that I was in for a treat. Saturday was Ken Griffey Jr.’s induction into the Mariners Hall of Fame, and there was to be an extensive pregame ceremony commemorating the event. There was also a Junior bobblehead, which was to be distributed to the first 20,000 fans (very A’s like number there), which forced many fans to line up six hours or more before the scheduled 6:10 game time. Needless to say I wasn’t interested in the collectible, so I took a tour and grabbed lunch instead.

View of Safeco Field near light rail station across 4th Avenue South (Stadium Station)

During that first visit in 2001, I took a cab down 4th Avenue South from a downtown restaurant. The cab dropped me off on the east side of the railroad tracks from Safeco Field. Like many had done, I crossed the tracks at grade, looking both ways for freight or passenger trains. At the time local planners were working on a light rail extension that would finally link downtown and the neighborhoods to the south, including the SeaTac airport. The line finally came to fruition in 2009 and I was eager to try it out.

In conjunction with the light rail launch, additional road infrastructure was built to better support cars and pedestrians traveling to Safeco and CenturyLink Field. 2010 brought the Royal Brougham Way overpass, a simple two-lane structure that feeds pedestrians from light rail and parking facilities to Safeco and cars to a nearby garage. This overpass and another on the south side of the ballpark were part of an $84 million road project. During the intervening years, four pedestrians had been hit by trains on the BNSF tracks adjacent to Safeco, including one fatality. Naturally, ongoing safety concerns prompted the overpass(es) project, to good effect.

Royal Brougham Way overpass runs elevated behind Safeco Field roof support and curls around before rejoining street grid. At grade access was eliminated.

Like Seattle, Oakland’s Howard Terminal has an active, working rail line adjacent to the site. We’ve highlighted the train safety issue before. Seattle has dealt with the problem properly and elegantly, if also rather belatedly in the process. When you exit the light rail station just two blocks to the east, you can easily negotiate the gently curling ramp that leads over the BNSF tracks. There’s even a little plaza at the midpoint that provides a good view into the park. Once you cross, you can take stairs down or take an elevator straight to the center field gate.

West end of sidewalk drops down to grade via stairs or an elevator immediately next to center field gate. Vehicle ramp is visible to the right.

Unlike Seattle, where Safeco is in the middle of the street grid with multiple entry and exit points, Howard Terminal is hemmed in on three sides by the Oakland Estuary to the south, Jack London Square to the east, and Schnitzer Steel to the west. That means it’s extremely important to ensure that there’s safe, reliable way to get thousands of fans from the north side of the Union Pacific tracks along the Embarcadero to the south side, where HT and JLS are. If thousands of parking spaces or a garage are built at Howard Terminal, it’ll be even more important as no one will want to compromise the rail line by having cars create gridlock around HT before or after A’s games. Chances are that a HT ballpark will need one vehicular bridge (probably at Market Street) and another dedicated pedestrian/bicycle bridge near JLS.

As you can see from the video above, the solution is working. It may have taken a decade, but Seattle finally got its rail and pedestrian solution figured out. Oakland can thank Seattle for leading the way. Stadium name sponsor Safeco, a nationwide insurance company based in Seattle, probably abides too. The issues for Oakland – if Howard Terminal moves into a real planning stage – are what kind of solution they can come up with, how much it will cost, and how long it will take. Seattle set the example. Oakland fans deserve the same kind of safety.

If you’re still skeptical, ask yourself this: Can you imagine the Coliseum without the BART bridge?