Owner vs. Pwner

The Merc's Tracy Seipel profiled the owners of the Bay Area's two MLB franchises, noting their differing personalities and careers. For the sake of brevity, I'll get down to nitty gritty:

Asked to characterize his negotiating style, he said, "I believe the best outcome is when everybody wins a little bit of something."

But some wonder whether Wolff, at 73, will have the endurance to find yet another location for the team if he can't move to San Jose.

"He's spent a lot of time and money in Fremont and time in Oakland" looking for a stadium site, noted one person who has worked with Wolff. "He's got to be thinking, 'How long do I have to wait for this?'"

Both Wolff and Neukom may know more in a few weeks when they attend an MLB owners' meeting in Chicago. League officials said it's unknown whether the territorial topic will be on the meeting's agenda.

But there is no rule against deal-making during breaks — or afterward. Both men say they're not lobbying their fellow owners.

It's been known for some time that Bill Neukom has made his name as an adversarial figure at times, while people who have met and dealt with Lew Wolff frequently mention how affable he is. Do those contrasting styles mean anything in the long run? Probably not. If there's an overarching principle that guides the owners and Bud Selig, it's "follow the money." Whatever the numbers say will dictate how this whole thing turns out.

Speaking of turning out, I've been told that the A's/Quakes are now members of the powerhouse Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Sure enough, they are. Then again, so are the San Jose Giants.

A new pro-move site has been launched called Pro Baseball for San Jose.

Finally, an update from Thursday's Good Neighbor Meeting. It was a healthy discussion of traffic, mostly pertaining to the ballpark use. Talk of specific numbers was impossible because of the botched traffic projections identified earlier. Many committee members were concerned about the City's arena parking permit program, which could be expanded once a ballpark was built. It isn't so much the on street protection, which was welcomed, it was the cost associated with obtaining a permit. They felt that affected residents shouldn't bear any of the cost to implement or maintain the program, which is fair. If anything, revenue from parking tickets should cover the entire cost. Some residents are able to get free permits at this time. The committee also accepted a "Framework for Implementation," a set of guidelines that govern how the committee arrives at a consensus on individual discussion topics and carries them forward to the City Council.