MLB meets with SJ and Oakland: A's Waterfront stadium in Oakland back in play? (San Jose: condos, buying)

[18Montclair]

Its awesome that Wolff was not present at either meeting. lol

Baseball committee - again - secretly met with both San Jose and Oakland - San Jose Mercury News

[krudmonk]

Six years later and Oakland is still trying to pick a site...

And how is the attendance now that he team is good, despite Giants media reporting that Wolff tried to sabotage the team and lose on purpose? It seems they didn't even crack 30k with the Yankees in town, and yet people ***** about the tarps cutting capacity to 35k.

[Natural510]

Wolff has driven so many people away from the Coliseum it's amazing anyone shows up at all. I like the Howard Terminal site much more than the (never gonna happen in a million years) Coliseum City idea, and it does look quite similar to the China Basin site. It will of course be contingent on funding, and Wolff/Fisher selling the team (which will only add to the price tag for a prospective buyer).

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

Six years later and Oakland is still trying to pick a site...

MLB appears to be in no rush to satisfy Lew Wolff, because they probably realize that his San Jose dream is highly self-indulgent and risks hurting the Giants' bottom line and so the Bay Area will end up with 2 disjointed teams instead of just 1--not really a solution.

Once Fisher/Wolff sell the team to a pro-Oakland group, everything will fall into place at a pretty rapid pace. What the A's lack is an owner that is willing to reach out to the community and local fan base.

That's about it.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

What the A's lack is an owner that is willing to reach out to the community and local fan base.

That's because he wants a different community and a different fan base.

[jrb724]

Wolff doesn't want to stay in Oakland but even if he did all of the Oakland sites have even more issues than the San Jose diridon site. The Howard terminal site has a lot of good aspects to it but is not new and there's several articles online about the challenges with the site. The best sites in Oakland were given up to Jerry Brown's developer friends for overpriced condos when he was mayor.

Regardless of where it will be built, it's years away. By the way, MLB met with Oakland and San Jose. The Giants own the media in the Bay Area and "fan" base.

It's amazing what a new stadium can do for a team. Candlestick park seems like so long ago...

[Natural510]

Originally Posted by jrb724

Wolff doesn't want to stay in Oakland but even if he did all of the Oakland sites have even more issues than the San Jose diridon site. The Howard terminal site has a lot of good aspects to it but is not new and there's several articles online about the challenges with the site. The best sites in Oakland were given up to Jerry Brown's developer friends for overpriced condos when he was mayor.

Regardless of where it will be built, it's years away. By the way, MLB met with Oakland and San Jose. The Giants own the media in the Bay Area and "fan" base.

It's amazing what a new stadium can do for a team. Candlestick park seems like so long ago...

Pretty much true on all accounts....I know they had environmental issues when rebuilding the Cypress loop and likely will at Howard Terminal also. True on Jerry Brown...imagine what an Oakland ballpark plus Fox Theater would make the Uptown area right now if the guv hadn't sold the site to his buddies.
Yes, any ballpark is years away due to obstacles in every direction, which means the current crop of young talent will yet again move elsewhere when they hit free agency I still think MLB favors Oakland because they don't want to take on the legal mess the Giants will make over San Jose, but that will require a new owner who likely won't take much more of an additional expense above the cost of the team (especially with how the Dodgers raised the bar on the value of an MLB organization this year) so it will be mandatory for there to be financial backers who can shoulder a $500m+ expense.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Natural510

Pretty much true on all accounts....I know they had environmental issues when rebuilding the Cypress loop and likely will at Howard Terminal also. True on Jerry Brown...imagine what an Oakland ballpark plus Fox Theater would make the Uptown area right now if the guv hadn't sold the site to his buddies.
Yes, any ballpark is years away due to obstacles in every direction, which means the current crop of young talent will yet again move elsewhere when they hit free agency I still think MLB favors Oakland because they don't want to take on the legal mess the Giants will make over San Jose, but that will require a new owner who likely won't take much more of an additional expense above the cost of the team (especially with how the Dodgers raised the bar on the value of an MLB organization this year) so it will be mandatory for there to be financial backers who can shoulder a $500m+ expense.

Actually we already know of at least 2 potential ownership groups that have come forward recently and expressed interest in not only buying the team but also building a new stadium. The first was a group led by the owner of Savemart(Lucky) and the other more recent and high profile group is led by the CEO of Clorox.

Furthermore, Bud Selig is really the one to blame for this entire mess because back in 2005 an Oakland-based group led by the founder/CEO of the Men's Wearhouse(he lives in Glenview btw) was actually denied the chance to buy the team because Selig favored his college roommate Lew Wolff-in-sheep's-clothing.

People can sit there and decry all they want that this move to San Jose is nothing but a 'smart' business decision, which there's no denying there is a case for that, but everything that Wolff has done leading up to announcing his desire to move to San Jose has been shady, deceptive, two-faced and just downright stinky. It's not really SJs fault either, just Wolff(cant stand him)

In any event it appears that a waterfront site in Oakland is preferred by MLB than anywhere in San Jose-at least that's what the article is implying.

We'll see how this all pans out.

[Bushrod King]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

Six years later and Oakland is still trying to pick a site...

And how is the attendance now that he team is good, despite Giants media reporting that Wolff tried to sabotage the team and lose on purpose? It seems they didn't even crack 30k with the Yankees in town, and yet people ***** about the tarps cutting capacity to 35k.

Sorry to break this to you but the A's aren't going to San Jose.

[dragontales]

Lew is a scumbag owner.