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31 March 2009

Opinions to feed your nightmares

For the 4th and hopefully final post today, we have several opinion pieces. Let's start off with Monte Poole's feeling that Oakland fans have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray:

Selig, then, is here to take some of the heat off his buddy. With Uncle Lew playing "bad cop," Bud sees an opportunity to pose as "good cop." He is piecing together the shredded letter and handing it back to Wolff for further consideration.

"Selig's office called us (Monday) to inform us about the committee," Dellums chief of staff David Chai said Tuesday via e-mail. "In addition, Lew reached out to us and would like to set up a meeting."

In other words, what three weeks ago was perceived by Wolff as pointless has, just like that, become a priority. Wow. Is anything in sports more impressive than mighty Bud Selig swinging into action?

The problem, of course, is that this sounds better than it really is. We know where Bud stands. In general, he stands wherever he must to avoid the bright light of accountability. In regards to baseball in Oakland, he has made clear he stands against the Coliseum and against the A's moving to San Jose.

Next, we have something from the Merc's editorial page:
And while the city has a great site in mind — 14 acres near downtown's Diridon Station — the details need more work. An environmental study for a 32,000-seat stadium was done several years ago, but it did not get close public scrutiny because there was no immediate prospect of landing a team. Nor did it take into account the new plans for high-speed rail stopping at Diridon, which will add to the complexity of the area — but also to its appeal for baseball.
Finally, Mark Purdy's a bit tardy in chiming in:

But why would Selig go to all that trouble and ruffle so many feathers if, in the end, no ballpark is built in San Jose? Answer: He wouldn't.

Of course, the flip side is that the movers and shakers of San Jose and the South Bay — not just the politicos, but also business people and corporate sponsors who will pay for luxury boxes and scoreboard ads — are never going to give maximum effort and dollars toward a ballpark unless they are certain that the territorial-rights issue is moot.

In other words, a classic Catch-22. Wolff always has sought a way to unlock that catch and thread the needle — to create a negotiating window where he could promise San Jose that if voters approve a ballpark proposal, the territorial-rights issue wouldn't matter.

All this activity almost has me thinking that next week's media coverage and events will strike an anticlimactic tone in light of what's happened the last two weeks. Fool me once...

Sleep well, children.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the end of the day this is just one more step along the way--Oakland now has to put up near-term or move out of the way once and for all.

Oaland must identify a quality site, identify how they would buy all the components of that site, purchase all the components of said site without using eminent domain, conduct an EIR that can be shown will be completed in a reasonable amount of time, prove that they have the corporate and business base to support a ballpark, including naming rights as it is unclear if Cisco would go along with the Oakland ride, ensure that dollars are available to support required infrastructure improvements and convince the current A's ownership and MLB that it is a wise business decision to locate in Oakland....and perhaps the biggest challenge---do this within the course of this season as no one has an appetite for stretching this out much longer. Oh and I forgot to mention---Al is watching as he will want something even grander at the end of the day--

In the game of chess this is just one of the required moves--Oakland has it's chance to deliver-once and for all--now is not the time for them to be a victim but to perform as they claim they can---

Jeffrey said...

So I read these opinion articles my genmeral thoughts:

Monte Poole seems to really harp on the "competetiive" team angle way more than is required. The A's have, as it seems in accordance with Bud's prediction, become a non issue in the post season race two years in a row. I read the column as being an argument for why the A's should stay in the Coliseum long term and how bad Bud and Lew are for not wanting too. I couldn't disagree more. As a fan, the A's need new digs and have needed them for a while.

Second... I thought the EIR in Sna Jose was for a 40k seat stadium, not 32k like the San Jose Merc staff says?

Third, Purdy... At least he backs up his arguments in a way Glenn Dickey can't fathom. There is little to quibble with as far as the factors he points out go.

We seemed to have gone from 0 to 300 miles an hour in no time at all here...

Jesse said...

Damn, this sucks. Nobody has any idea whats going to happen. Nobody.

Anonymous said...

Jeffrey- agree with your comments---btw---the EIR is for a 40,000 seat ballpark--the proposed ballpark LW has talked about is 32,000---less impact than the 40,000 seat would have so shouldn't be an issue one way or the other--

Zonis said...

I thought this was supposed to be the slow period?

Dan said...

Just thought I'd link to this...

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12048129

Looks like the Giants are doing what they can to fortify their claims to the south bay. They just bought a 25% share of the Single A San Jose Giants.

Anonymous said...

The Dirdiron site has a PG&E substation next door. There are neighborhoods nearby who are sure to complain. This site is clearly not the perfect site which its made out to be. There are huge issues her even if the territorial rights issue is dropped.

It's a shame that instead of working with Oakland to keep the team in a central place in the region, neighboring communities instead attempt to take the team from Oakland in order to somehow raise their National profile.

If the people in the Bay Area were really interested in keeping the team in the Bay Area, they would dismiss the propaganda waged by Lew Wolff and Bud Selig, and rally around Oakland as it tries to keep the team. Unfortunately, the Bay Area is rarely interested in Oakland, unless of course, Oakland has something that they want for their own city. The perfect example of this dog eat dog mentality, is Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone who has been trying to take the team from Oakland for the past 20 years.

FC said...

Anon 5:19

Enough already! Oakland being central to the Bay Area has not helped the A's in attendance for the past 20 years. This despite being next to 880 and BART. And, no one is stealing the A's from Oakland. The A's are opting to look elsewhere.

Sheesh...

Anonymous said...

No site is perfect. Diridon, however, is pretty damn near perfect.

All sites have NIMBY issues - unless, of course, they sit in industrial zones like the Coliseum. That's just the price of a vibrant downtown ballpark, which the overwhelming majority of fans prefer (even the Oakland-only crowd, when they're being honest).

Demographically and weather-wise, downtown SJ is ideal. And when high speed rail and BART come to town, Diridon will have the best public transit access of any sports facility in the country, bar none.

Anonymous said...

If the people in the Bay Area were really interested in keeping the team in the Bay Area, they would rally around the city capable of supporting it. That's San Jose.