Upper deck reopening - but there's a catch

For the glutton in all of you, the A's are reopening three sections of the vaunted View level/third deck. All 81 games will be available for the low, low price of $35! Borrowing a page from the Dodgers, the A's are designating sections 316-318 as All-You-Can-Eat sections. Fans will enter through a special entrance and will be given wristbands indicating their, um, opportunistic status. Each fan can go to one of the open View level concession stands and get two food items and a soda per visit. The stands will be open until the end of the 7th inning.

The concept was a massive hit at Dodger Stadium, so they're trying it here. I suppose if you can't recognize many of the players on the field, at least you can gorge yourself enough that it won't matter. Whether or not it's really a deal depends on what items will be available. Beer's not on the menu. Some of the premium items such as Saag's sausages and Round Table personal pizzas probably aren't either. I hope that at the very least they have big dogs or polish sausages. Hamburgers and nachos would be good too. If you're going to stuff yourself with ballpark food of questionable nutritional value, go all the way!

One thing the Coliseum will have over Dodger Stadium: Dodger Stadium doesn't include ice cream in their deal.

Santa Clara Chamber & Hotels Support 49ers Stadium Tax

Steve Van Dorn, head of Santa Clara's Chamber of Commerce and its Convention-Visitors Bureau, wrote an opinion piece for Monday's Merc in favor of a proposed hotel or transient occupancy tax. The additional 2% levy, which would be tacked onto nightly bills for eight Santa Clara hotels near Great America, is projected to raise $35 million in funds for the stadium.

As noted previously, this isn't the least bit surprising because the supporting hotels all see dips in business during the fall, and one of them would likely become the hotel of choice for visiting teams. Undoubtedly they would also benefit if the Santa Clara stadium were awarded a Super Bowl, or if a bowl game were played in the area.

Still, even with the tax there's a projected $51 million funding gap for the Niners' new digs and some sources that were previously considered are now off limits.