Oakland assembles team for last-ditched stadium plan (San Francisco, Fremont: condos, layoffs)

[18Montclair]

We are very lucky that MLB has been extremely careful NOT to even hint at supporting a move to SJ(or keeping the team here for that matter).

Cash-strapped Oakland is on the verge of putting up $3 million for the designers of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis - site of Sunday's Super Bowl - to work their magic and come up with a new stadium and sports complex out at the Coliseum.

After a lengthy competition among six groups, city staffers have selected Indy stadium designer HKS Inc., JRDV Architects of Oakland and mall and condo builders Forest City Enterprises to create a plan for the 750 acres that make up the Coliseum site and the neighboring new-tech development area west of Interstate 880.

The $3 million would come from money that the city's recently disbanded Redevelopment Agency doesn't have to return to the state.

"The strength of the team we are going to bring forward to the (City) Council is an indicator of how real this project is," said Assistant City Administrator


Oakland assembles team for last-ditch stadium plan

I think it will pass the city council because 2 of the most prominent members of this coliseum team are very prominent and influential city council members(Larry Reid and Rebecca Kaplan)

[Natural510]

How ironic they hire the very developers (Forest City) who brokered a backroom deal with Jerry Brown to build unnecessary condos on an Uptown site which would have been the ideal location for an A's ballpark in Oakland.
So, again, the question is once this plan is developed who is going to pay for the stadiums/ballpark at the Coliseum site?

[NewToCA]

Oakland's problem is that the A's rarely draw well unless they have a championship caliber team.

With all of the changes to the structure of baseball the past couple of decades, it is more difficult for the lower revenue teams to remain competitive. Even when they manage to build a decent ball club, often the best players end up leaving as free agents, or being dealt, after spending only a few years with the team.

Tough to build much fan interest when their best guys keep leaving for richer teams.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by NewToCA

Oakland's problem is that the A's rarely draw well unless they have a championship caliber team.

With all of the changes to the structure of baseball the past couple of decades, it is more difficult for the lower revenue teams to remain competitive. Even when they manage to build a decent ball club, often the best players end up leaving as free agents, or being dealt, after spending only a few years with the team.

Tough to build much fan interest when their best guys keep leaving for richer teams.

No, Oakland's problem has been 2 consecutive owners who have done all they can to detach the team from its fan base with the expressed purpose of trying to dry the well in order to make the claim that they now need to move.

The A's attendance numbers now are similar to the Giants right before AT&T park opened.

The Warriors rank 10th in overall NBA attendance, the Raiders still pack the coliseum to 94% capacity.

So what's the A's problem? Its the owners.

If we provide fans with a great ballpark and worthwhile amenities nearby such as what the plan is for the coliseum site, they will come.

[18Montclair]

I would have preferred for the Victory Court site, because it is frankly unbeatable as far as location and proximity to other amenities, but the city already owns the massive coliseum site which means that they dont have to spend a dime to buy land(which in and of itself can cause years of drama) but also the fact that the city already owns the coliseum site means a long drawn out EIR(Environmental Impact Report) is unnecessary. They can move much quicker on the coliseum site which is good because time is NOT on our side.

[18Montclair]

There's a lot of room to work with out there:


Here are conceptual drawings recently released by the city which gives us an idea of their plan:

[jade408]

For a non-baseball fan like myself, stadium experience is critical. If a friend calls me up and says "wanna go to a Giants game?" I am usually game. I'll enjoy the tball with the kids. Get the yummy jerk chicken, take some pics of the view of the Bay. All around good time. I end up at a giants game once a year. I went to Candlestick once. I never wanted to go back, it was freezing, took forwver to get there and had way too much traffic. No thanks.

I have been to about 2 A's games. Meh. Crappy food. Crappy seats. The best thing was that it was sunny. Since I don't really like hot dogs or beer, cheap beer or hot dogs will not draw me to a game. I also don't need to see fireworks. So there is no need for me to go. At all.

I've gone to baseball games in other cities because of the stadium experience. Right now there just isn't an experience to speak of at the A's. Considering the odds of something exciting happening in the baseball game is pretty low, stadium experience is a lot more important than it is for other sports.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by jade408

For a non-baseball fan like myself, stadium experience is critical. If a friend calls me up and says "wanna go to a Giants game?" I am usually game. I'll enjoy the tball with the kids. Get the yummy jerk chicken, take some pics of the view of the Bay. All around good time. I end up at a giants game once a year. I went to Candlestick once. I never wanted to go back, it was freezing, took forwver to get there and had way too much traffic. No thanks.

I have been to about 2 A's games. Meh. Crappy food. Crappy seats. The best thing was that it was sunny. Since I don't really like hot dogs or beer, cheap beer or hot dogs will not draw me to a game. I also don't need to see fireworks. So there is no need for me to go. At all.

I've gone to baseball games in other cities because of the stadium experience. Right now there just isn't an experience to speak of at the A's. Considering the odds of something exciting happening in the baseball game is pretty low, stadium experience is a lot more important than it is for other sports.

Yup, quality amenities apart from what's happening on the field is something that needs to be part of the entire game experience.

The term 'if you build it, they will come' certainly rings true with respect to the A's.

[ZhugeLiang]

**Looks at city streets, looks at OPD layoffs**
Yeah sure, we have money to spend on stadium construction.

Are these people high?

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

No, Oakland's problem has been 2 consecutive owners who have done all they can to detach the team from its fan base with the expressed purpose of trying to dry the well in order to make the claim that they now need to move.

The A's attendance numbers now are similar to the Giants right before AT&T park opened.

The Warriors rank 10th in overall NBA attendance, the Raiders still pack the coliseum to 94% capacity.

So what's the A's problem? Its the owners.

If we provide fans with a great ballpark and worthwhile amenities nearby such as what the plan is for the coliseum site, they will come.

Why do people keep citing the Giants numbers as proof that the A's are fine as is? I don't foresee them building a second waterfront stadium in San Francisco, so please explain where their cure-all solution is. The only Oakland plan now is to build the same thing people complained about in Fremont (stadium+mall+condos+etc), but with the bad reputation the Coliseum area has.

The A's have reached the American League attendance average just 8 times since moving west. Has it always been the owners? They averaged under 4,000 in 1979. In 2006, when the team went to the ALCS and before Wolff even announced plans for Fremont (let alone SJ), the A's averaged just over 24,000. It's pretty clear there's a low ceiling for success.

Also, the Raiders have had poor attendance until this year. It was the first time since returning in '95 that they didn't have a single blackout. As of September 2010, the revived Oakland Raiders had 77 blackouts compared to just 44 games on TV: It’s official: Rams-Raiders blacked out locally - Inside the Oakland Raiders - A look inside the world of the highly classified Oakland Raiders from the writers of Bay Area News Group