Article's like today's AP piece are a good way to keep Cisco Field in the public conscience. As of 9 p.m. tonight, it showed up on 69 newspaper websites (according to Google). There's talk of progress, but no indicators. There's nice warm-fuzzy stuff about taking batting practice and shagging fly balls. Readers can sense the passion and commitment by Lew and Keith Wolff. Great. We get it.
Such articles can only go so far and will be quickly forgotten once the public has real details to scrutinize. For a guy who has claimed that he wouldn't negotiate through the media, Lew's done a good job communicating to the public through the media (the Ronn Owens visits, San Jose speeches, etc.). We're getting close to dealmaking time. And frankly, I can only stomach so many of these types of articles.
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I had the same reaction, ML. I saw the headline and thought: "Great, finally some actual news." Nope, just a fluff piece. If they didn't get any actual new information, why bother writing the piece? I guess they have to fill their pages somehow.
I don't recall if there was ever a timeline given for the next sit-down with the City of Fremont. Would you mind reminding me? Thanks.
The purpose of this piece is purely propoganda. Wolff has made zero progress on anything substantial: financing, traffic, who pays for what, who will buy the expensive condos right next to the ballpark in suberbia nowhere, who will pay for the infrastructure, what new taxes will the fremont taxpayers have to bear, etc, etc. This is complete and utter nonsense as is the whole ballpark scheme by wolff in my mind.
Well, as they say, Rome wasnt built in a day...remember, this is a three to five year process before they even break ground...
Don't mistake my criticism of Wolff's media savvy for general impatience. If the ballpark is to be opened by 2011, they'll need to submit the proposal by this summer - if a full, new EIR is required. There's a lot of cushion in the current schedule to prevent things from getting costly, but even that has its limits.
Let's see: no progress made on anything substantial, actual groundbreaking 3-5 years away, "fluff piece" after "fluff piece" regarding Cisco Field/Pacific Commons...AND SAN JOSE CERTIFYING THE DIRIDON BALLPARK EIR ON FEBRUARY 28!! Perhaps progress (albeit back-door) is being made on Cisco Field. If groundbreaking is truly 3-5 years away, I'd expect Mr. Wolff to still have any eye 12 miles south of Pacific Commons (just in case).
I agree 100% ML. That article had "puff piece" written all over it, just like a lot of the garbage that the Las Vegas Sun and San Antonio News-Express put out over the past few years in their efforts to land MLB. Wolff seems too savvy to go down that path, and the Bay Area newspapers seem too cynical to play "lap dog" for any stadium effort, even a creative effort to minimize public outlays of cash like the A's are attempting to pull off.
ML - I'm not sure how to email you so I'll just post it here... you might want to update your business of baseball link. It is now:
http://www.bizofbaseball.com/
The link you have is for SABR's site which is outdated and not being maintained.
communicating through the media is what Wolff does best. Wollf did the same thing with Oakland. Wollf would tell Oakland officials to keep everything secretive while at the same time negotiating in the media. This Fremont plan has so many obstacles including mitigating for traffic congestion, flood protection, and liquefaction concerns. It's an incredibly expensive site to build a ballpark. Wolff would be better off rethinking this Fremont plan and instead refocus on a central Oakland site with the infrastructure and public transportation already in place.
wow, this is exactly like his "stadium plan" for Oakland. Portland A's, here we come!
Er, no. The difference is that Wolff and Co. have bought a ton of land surrounding the development. They officially have skin in the game. That can't be dismissed easily, no matter how much detractors may want to paint the Pacific Commons plan like the Coliseum North plan.
Yes, but that land can always be used for commercial development. It doesn't necessarily have to be a ballpark or housing. Commercial development would allow for less stringent regulations as far as mitigating some of the issues in question. I think there's a good reason why that property is currently zoned for commercial uses.
The land is actually zoned light or heavy industrial. Even if Wolff wanted to build strip malls (which there are plenty of) he wouldn't be able to do it. The R&D/Office market is not begging for speculative building right now unless it's a huge single-tenant campus. The real money is in the ballpark village and housing. Developing the land as it's currently zoned is not a winning proposition.
Actually, the "real money" is in the housing only. Have Fremont rezone Pacific Commons for housing, then Wolff "flips" the property to a housing developer and rakes in tons of cash.
Ofcourse he will rake in a ton of cash, how else is he suppose to pay for the ballpark?
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