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23 August 2007

Fremont Chamber to host ballpark forum

After the big city council session last month, I had mentioned in a comment that we were entering a silent period. Now that we're a week away from September, everything's starting to crank up again. The first event of note is a luncheon being held by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce on September 10 at the Fremont Marriott. The luncheon will serve as a public forum for discussion of Cisco Field and related development. According to the event description, the long-awaited development application will have been filed by that date. You can, of course, register online.

Public Policy Forum: Cisco Field
Sponsored by The Fremont Chamber of Commerce
Monday, September 10, 2007 (reg.11:30) noon-2pm

The Fremont Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a public policy forum on Monday, September 10th beginning at Noon at the Fremont Marriott. The guest speakers will be Lew Wolff, co-owner and managing partner of the Oakland Athletics and Keith Wolff, vice president of venue development for the Oakland Athletics. They will be presenting the plans for Cisco Field, talking about the application process/progress (they will have filed an application with the City by this date) and answering questions from the audience.

Tickets:
$30 person for Chamber members
$40 for non members
Lunch is included.
$400 - table sponsorship
$600 - event sponsorship

Registration begins at 11:30 am
Forum begins at noon

This promises to be the first of many public forums and community outreach events throughout the next several months.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marinelayer,
Curious...do you know how far in the process the NE Patriots were with Hartford, Connecticut before they pulled the plug on their stadium dreams? I'm pretty sure there were many a public meeting and outreach in Hartford before ground was finally broken on Gillette Stadium (in Foxboro, Mass.). My point...anythings possible up until the actual construction commences on Cisco Field, Fremont.

Marine Layer said...

The Pats were quite close to committing to Hartford before pulling out.

Hartford was a very different situation from what Fremont represents. Hartford was actively offering financial assistance and a site, some $300 million of help to Bob Kraft. Kraft decided in the end to stay in Foxboro even though he ended up having to foot much of the cost of the stadium because the economic climate in the Boston area was considered better than the one in Hartford.

In Fremont, it's the A's as the developer that are pushing the agenda. The city hasn't even yet promised any infrastructure help let alone money. While you're right that anything can happen until groundbreaking, it's pretty obvious that all of the Wolffs' attention is on Fremont right now. Their only reason for abandoning Fremont would be if Fremont became financially infeasible. I don't see any signs of that on the horizon.

Anonymous said...

I am confused about the notion of a "public" forum - which charges a fee for entrance and which is conducted in the middle of the business day.

Do not these two "restrictions" effectively turn the "public" forum into a meeting of local business interests (for the most part) ????