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17 February 2009

A's will not attend 2/24 City Council session

Just received word that the A's, who had planned to make a presentation on the Warm Springs Alternative at the February 24 Fremont City Council session, will not make the preso after all. No word as to why yet. Stay tuned.

Update: Matthew Artz checked in with both Lew Wolff and Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman to get explanations. The reasoning largely centers around MLB COO Bob DuPuy, who was scheduled to make the presentation as well as a morning appearance at the Fremont Marriott. Understand that when it comes to stadium talks, DuPuy is only brought in to either seal the deal or rescue it. With the chaos that has enveloped the A's-to-Fremont effort, DuPuy probably wouldn't be much help.

Questions to ponder in the near term:
  • Is Warm Springs dead?
  • Will the A's go full bore on the now modified Pacific Commons plan?
  • When will the A's next address the council?

31 comments:

Jeffrey said...

I just got an email about this too. Hmmmm... my conspiracy alarm is going off in a big way... Comcast California, Kings, A's Quakes, High Speed Rail in the Stimulus Bill... it all points to the A's moving to Portland... hahahaha

Anonymous said...

Mr. ML,

How do you get this information! Amazing1 So, they are definitely NOT coming?

Anonymous said...

In this economic climate any new ballpark (in any location) and even BART extensions both planned and proposed might have a hard time getting started...

Jeffrey said...

I can't speak for ML, but I got the information from a mailing list I signed up for called "A's to Fremont."

In addition to the City Council meeting, there is also a Chamber of Commerce luncheon that has been canceled. It was to feature Lew Wolff and Bob DuPuy (MLB COO).

None of this bodes well for either Fremont site as far as I can see. That is rather obvious. I am wondering how it bodes for staying in Oakland or moving to San Jose?

kevin said...

C.O.C. Breakfast in S.J. last week, and now a no show in Fremont. I revise my S.J. announcement date from 6 moths to 6weeks.
This is where Wolf/Schott wanted to come FIRST. I gaurentee the alternate plans to go to S.J. existed all along. I'll bet that Lew could not have dreamed up an easier scenario to bail on Fremont. No matter how many houses, malls, or whatever are attached to the park in Fremont, Fremont will never be able to give the A's big market exposure like S.J. would. All Fremont was, was as close as Lew could get to the South Bay without annoying Bud. Hell the lights of the stadium would have been visable to most of the South Bay. Bud's got bigger problems than listening to the SF Gnuggets whine about the A's moving 45 miles further away. Besides the Fremont Satdium would have been awful conveinient for Baseball fans in Palo Alto, M.V., Sunnyvale,S.C. and Milpitas. New 237, Updated 880 Mission exit, and the Dumbaton are much faster than a drive into the city, or even caltrain. This way Lew can rename them them San Jose Athletics, and tell everyone who doesn't like it to shove it. The Giants might even gain fans from the East Bay.
San Jose is pound for pound the BEST city in the USA. Top 15 in pop, best weather, lowest crime, highest real estate values, we have it all. The only place close is San Diego. At least the Half that hasn't burned down in the past 5 years.

Anonymous said...

The Giants aren't going away quietly. You cheerleaders tend to forget that.

Granted, a deal may already have been worked out about territorial rights, but there WILL be a deal, the Giants WILL get compensation, and the money's going to have to come from somewhere...

...in a bad economy, no less. Have fun, San Jose!

daveinsm said...

the suspense is killing me :)

Anonymous said...

anon 3:57, we WILL have fun.....in our brand new state of the art 35,000 seat downtown ballpark....oh we ll have TONS of fun!!!lol

kevin said...

Nothing is going to happen any time soon. Even if they make an announcement soon, as I predict(not really rocket surgery) I doubt they'll play here until 2014. They've had no problem extending their lease at the coli year after year, and unless something happens with reguards to the Raiders rebuilding(complete fantasy). Nobody's going to be looking to kick them out. Who knows where the economy will be then. S.J. will be ready B4 anyone else. It's where Lew want's to be, and I don't think MLB is moving them to Portland over B.S. territorial rights. You people talk about them like the were an amendment to the Constitution.

Anonymous said...

SJ Biz Journal has an article about today's developments and Wolff is quoted as saying "we will have to reassess where we stand on the stadium project in light of the opposition."

In a separate article the date of 2014 was thrown out with Keith Wolff saying who knows when it will be built--

No doubt Fremont is dead---question is---is San Jose ready??

FC said...

If in fact Fremont is now moving out of the picture, it will be interesting to see how SJ plays it. No doubt they will have the A's by the *alls

Anonymous said...

FC--now is not the time for SJ to puff out its chest and act as if they have the A's by the *alls---keep in mind if SJ is in play than the A's are on the hook for some sort of compensation to the Giants---also, there is not 130 or so acres in SJ to sell to Wolff so he can develop housing/retail at some point in time---so it will have to be a different model--no doubt potentially including seat licenses like the Giants have done, tax districts like SJ just did for expanding their convention center etc--bottom line--its gonna be an uphill battle to get this thing done in SJ and thats after the A's have paid off the Giants for territorial rights.

Also keep in mind---PC could return as the site---in fact the stadium was moved to where the big box boys wanted it on the recent NOP---it is quite possible that the negotiations at PC are moving forward again and all of the SJ speculation will be just that...speculation.

Anonymous said...

The A's have a much better shot of being in Oakland in ten years than they do being in San Jose. Why leave the geographic center of the Bay Area to put yourself in an inaccessible corner of the Bay Area? It makes no sense.

San Jose may have a large population, but it suffers in name recognition. When most people hear "San Jose" they think of Costa Rica. Also, Oakland was rated as having the best weather in the Country by Rand Mcnally. Not San Jose.

If you take a look at the Sharks you can see that San Jose doesn't have much of a reach when it comes to the rest of the Bay Area. The Sharks are a local success story but most of the Bay Area could care less. I don't want the "San Jose" A's to be out of sight out of mind to the rest of the Bay Area.

The A's belong in Oakland where their rich history and tradition reside.

Tony D. said...

One thing people tend to forget is why Warm Springs became option 1 in the first place: The passage of Measure B in Santa Clara County. BART to SJ! That's it! The A's could have chose to move the actual ballpark at PC to appease the big box, but they didn't and bailed once Measure B became reality.

My take: PC and the alternate ballpark location are now option 3 behind WS and SJ. As recent articles/comments have suggested, SJ won't be easy and could encounter problems. If all else fails, it's back to Pac Commons. At least the A's won't leave the Bay.

anon 7:44, woww! enough said.

Marine Layer said...

That covers all of the obligatory opinions.

Marine Layer said...

BTW, here's a teaser for later on: Diridon South is not the only option in SJ.

Anonymous said...

ML-if the other option is the fairgrounds or out by spartan stadium than I would prefer Fremont---both would require an EIR--and have plenty of opposition-

At this point one of the hurdles Wolff faces is the ballpark is fast becoming a negative issue rather than exciting---the more he dinks around with changing sites the more challenging this whole thing gets regardless of where it is located

FC said...

Gee ML, there we go muddying the water again:)

Anon 8:31, I totally agree that this whole ballpark issue is starting to take on a very negative feel to it. No one is really excited because no one knows where the darn thing will be built.

Marine Layer said...

I agree to an extent about the ballpark being a negative issue. The A's want to control the message, which is why they backed away from the preso next week. However, the negativity doesn't bleed much outside of Fremont itself. Don't think for a moment that the pro-SJ forces are in any way gunshy because of this.

As for the sites you suggested, no and no. No more guesses.

Anonymous said...

No more guesses?? C'mon--that is half the fun---next to the proposed soccer stadium out by the airport---hummm....guess it would be a PC light--or the crazy suggestion of Don Gage to put it in Hellyer park---hopefully I misunderstood that one---or all of that Cisco property that they bought out in Coyote Valley for their world headquarters that they never built--hopefully not--

Ok--I am out of guesses--

kevin said...

My guess would require a name change, from "Cisco" to "Adobe Field" and might not require a new EIR? How could they possible move it far from Diridon.

Anonymous said...

My quick take. Warm springs is a no win for the A's,City council, or the weasle Mayor Wasserman.

They will be subject to massive expensive and time consuming lawsuits, recall elections, and criminal investigations from the community, as well as local businesses. In the end they will all lose!

Marine Layer said...

For the love of Pete, do not engage in a recall. It's difficult to accomplish, extremely expensive, and you can't be sure of the choices you'd have if you were successful.

I can only wonder how the out-of-state press would cover a Wasserman recall:

Reporter A: Why are citizens trying to recall the mayor?

Reporter B: He favored a ballpark proposal.

A: So what was the problem, was it heavily publicly financed?

B: No, it was all to be privately financed.

A: And it didn't get approved?

B: No, an angry group of NIMBYs surfaced to protest the proposal when site changes were made.

A: Wait a minute, so you're saying that a city was going to get a ballpark without having to pay for it? And it got shot down?

B: That's exactly what I'm saying.

A: And now they want to recall the mayor?

B: Yep, and he was re-elected only 3 months ago.

A: Amazing. Don't mess with the NIMBYs, I guess.

FC said...

Seems to me Diridon South would be a great location for a ballpark. Why even consider looking elsewhere?

Given that there's even talk of another possible site in SJ, can it be assumed that there may be preliminary talks going on between the A's and SJ?

How long before you elaborate?

Marine Layer said...

Woah, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I'm not aware of any active talks between SJ and the A's. If that were happening there'd be a headline.

I'm saying the A's should and will have more than one option. Diridon South sounds great but it's not a slam dunk, at least not yet.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the information. This site is A1.

I Would love to see the A's in the South Bay. I am afraid San Jose will have even more problems than Fremont! San Jose plans so many future cutbacks of service and then even more layoffs.

To bad Lew can't find a site in Santa Clara near the 49ers. Santa Clara is the best run City in South Bay. Santa Clara with its infrastructure, road improvements and Electrical capabilites makes the most sense. Maybe San Jose can partner with Santa Clara since the two Border with each other. What's funny is that the only time San Jose voted by a majority for a ballpark was for a ballpark in Santa Clara Measue G. Lew should Santa Clara and San Jose work together!

Gary

Marine Layer said...

(forgot about Santa Clara guy)

FC said...

Gee, those series of articles by Artz sure make it seem like Fremont and the A's are ready to throw in the towel.

It's interesting that Wolff said "we can't go anywhere" when asked about SJ. I wonder what will come out of his talks with MLB?

Jeffrey said...

Well... I think it is time for a reset of potential sites... don't you ML?

*Diridon
*Great America
*Jack London Square
*Broadway/Auto Row
*Morgan Hill (Yawn)
*Concord Water Front
*Staples Ranch in Pleasanton
*Hacienda Crossing in Dublin

Anonymous said...

With the new Pacific Commons ballpark position listed as the alternate site, the A's would be building on land not controlled by ProLogis. Does that clear some of the hurdles they were facing before with Prologis in the old location?

Also, Keith Wolff sites the endless process as reason for the extension to 2014. Is San Jose's process equally endless or would it be shorter their because of the completed EIR?

FC said...

Caught a quick blurb on KTVU about the A's pulling out of the Fremont council meeting. It also said that an EIR study slated for this summer has been put on hold. I'm guessing that would have been the EIR for Warm Springs. The piece ended with the reporter saying that the A's are stepping back and reviewing their other options, in Fremont.