Diamonds For Women

[dodgerblue6]

From the L. A. Times:

"MLB to Court: Bud Selig rejected "A"s Proposed Move to San Jose"

By Bill Shaikin

December 7, 2013, 11:22 a.m.

Commissioner Bud Selig told the Oakland Athletics six months ago that they would not be allowed to move to San Jose, attorneys for Major League Baseball said in a court filing Friday.

The formal notification letter was not included in the filing, but MLB attorneys wrote that Selig "was not satisfied with the club's relocation proposal." The rejection of the proposed move was "his final decision," according to the filing.

However, the decision was specific to that proposal and was not a judgment that the "A"s would not be allowed to move at all, according to a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it. It is expected that the league would consider a new proposal once the court case -- filed by the city of San Jose -- is resolved.

"A"s managing partner Lew Wolff declined comment Saturday, as did a league spokesman.

The "A"s recently agreed to a lease at Oakland Coliseum through the 2015 season. That gives the "A"s two years to persuade Selig -- or his successor -- to reconsider the San Jose option, to get a new ballpark in Oakland, or to consider putting the team up for sale. Wolff has previously said he has no interest in moving the team out of the San Francisco Bay Area.

In October, a federal judge upheld MLB's right to determine where its teams play but chastised the league for not rendering a decision on the
"A"s proposal "within a reasonable time." As a result, U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte ruled, the league could be liable for damages to the city of San Jose.

"MLB denied the Athletics' relocation request on June 17, 2013, one day before this lawsuit was filed," league attorneys wrote in the filing.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

First update on this subject since last December:

The "A"s have rejected a 10-year lease offer from the Oakland Coliseum Authority--to nobody's surprise.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Well, and now something that surprised me...the "A"s have actually signed on to a ten-year lease at the Coliseum!


_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

So here's a good one...the Commissioner addressed the Bay Area media and regrets that the "A"s did not get a new ballpark during his reign. His comments are included in this article.

Some excerpts:

[dodgerblue6]

San Jose has voted to appeal its antitrust lawsuit against Major League Baseball to the U.S. Supreme Court.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Well, as another year continues to plod forward, we are hearing a pledge from new Commissioner Rob Manfred that he is committed to moving ahead on a new stadium for the Athletics.

And it continues, at a snail's pace.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

Hopefully it will move off the back burner with the new commissioner.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[dodgerblue6]

Has it really been over a year since this thread was updated?

Well, efforts are back on to resolve this issue.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Now--almost one year after my last post in this thread--they're almost back to square one. The ongoing saga of "A"s baseball continues.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

The subject that just won't die has popped up in discussions again. Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated that he supports a new ballpark for the "A"s in...Oakland.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

The latest development in this never-ending thread--the "A"s have unveiled their latest plans for a new ballpark.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

I like the location - Jack London Square. The design does sure look nice but even if it gets built, it will still be second banana to AT&T Park in the Bay Area. Just like the team is second to the Battery Chuckers.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[dodgerblue6]

The "A"s appear to have found a novel solution to their need for a new ballpark.

From the L.A. Times:

"Oakland’s Athletics Need a Home. They May Get One — and Provide 6,000 More"

By BILL SHAIKIN
MAR 11, 2019 | 6:00 AM

The Oakland Athletics badly need a new home. Their current one, plagued by plumbing problems, is an uncomfortable throwback to the days when baseball and football teams shared generic stadiums lacking in charm and good sight lines.

For two decades, the baseball team has looked for that new ballpark throughout the Bay Area. The Athletics’ latest offer, and possibly their last, is to build 6,001 homes in Oakland — one for themselves along the waterfront, the rest for a city desperately in need of housing.

In times past, taxpayers typically financed the stadiums and arenas, and the teams kept the profits. As California led the way in cutting those subsidies, owners turned to real estate development, making money by surrounding their venues with restaurants, shops and offices.

Now, with soaring rents in Oakland and elsewhere amplifying the housing shortage in California’s coastal cities, they are building homes.

The Athletics, San Francisco Giants and Rams have proposed to build a combined 10,000 housing units over the next 13 years. The balance between homes leased at market rate and those leased at so-called affordable rates — reserved for lower-income residents — could help determine the legacy of those teams beyond wins and losses.

Everyone Home, an organization working to end homelessness in Alameda County, counted 2,761 homeless persons in Oakland in a 2017 study, a number that is expected to rise as the study is repeated this year. Cat Brooks, an Oakland activist and the runner-up in last November’s mayoral election, said the Athletics can be part of the solution.

“When we are in times of crisis, it’s everybody’s job” to help, Brooks said. “If you’re going to make millions and millions of dollars from being here, you have an obligation to give back. And right now, that’s the community need. … This is a way for them to show up in the community that can really make a difference.”

Across the bay, the Giants already enjoy a picturesque waterfront ballpark — formerly AT&T Park, now Oracle Park. They escaped a decrepit stadium uncomfortably shared with a football team, but not easily.

The Giants went to the ballot four times within a decade, asking for taxpayer money to build a new ballpark. They went zero for four.

If owners control surrounding development, they can generate revenue to help pay for new venues, and for star players too, while still turning a profit. AEG, owner of the Kings, did it with Staples Center and L.A. Live. Anaheim has pitched Angels owner Arte Moreno the concept of funding a new or renovated Angel Stadium by letting him put up eateries, hotels and offices in the stadium parking lot.

Traffic congestion and housing shortages in California’s major cities have led commercial developers to add homes to their projects, so that residents can walk to work and play where they live. “That’s where the demand is,” Giants president Larry Baer said during an interview last month.

The Giants paid for their own ballpark. They now are building 1,500 homes within their Mission Rock neighborhood, across McCovey Cove from the ballpark, with shops, offices, and parkland included in the project, targeted for completion in 2025.

Baer said the goodwill the Giants have developed in 60 years in San Francisco can help residents trust the team as a developer.

“We have a lot of skin in the game,” he added.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was born and raised in her city. “In our house, we never had blueberry muffins. We had Vida Blue-berry muffins,” she said, the reference a nod to the Oakland pitcher voted Most Valuable Player in the American League in 1971.

Yet Schaaf did not endorse a 2017 plan for the construction of a downtown ballpark, even though the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and NFL’s Raiders were on their way out — the Warriors to San Francisco, the Raiders to Las Vegas. The Athletics were willing to stay, and were offering to pay for a new stadium rather than demand the City foot the bill. But the mayor worried that the downtown ballpark might disrupt a neighborhood and displace residents.

That plan collapsed when the college district that owned the would-be ballpark land opted not to sell it.

Schaaf supports the Athletics’ latest proposal for a ballpark near Jack London Square, along the estuary that separates Oakland from the island city of Alameda. The site, located next to a company that recycles scrap metal, currently is used for shipping containers and truck parking.

“This really stands to revitalize a part of the city that has been in this kind of vague transition between the old industrial waterfront and the new public amenity waterfront,” Schaaf said.

If the Athletics move, they want to retain control of the Oakland Coliseum site they would be leaving. The Warriors and Raiders would be gone by then. Left behind would be two abandoned sports venues — surrounded by parking lots, bordered by a busy freeway on one side and railroad tracks on the other - in a neglected industrial part of town.

“You have to have something there to build that area,” said Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien, who lives in Oakland and attended high school and college in nearby Berkeley. “There’s not a lot of business around there.
There’s not a lot of desire to go there right now.”

The Athletics want to be the developer. The team worked with community groups to prepare a plan that would include a park, youth sports facilities, an events center, shops, restaurants, offices and a technology campus.

The Athletics propose to build 3,000 residences near the new ballpark and another 3,000 on the Coliseum site. In all, Athletics president Dave Kaval said, the plans could provide housing for 20,000 people.

Delivering the waterfront project would be a particular challenge. In 2013, former Athletics managing partner Lew Wolff told the San Francisco Chronicle that putting a ballpark there would be “as close to impossible as anything.”

The land, long used for industrial purposes, would need to be cleansed of chemicals and pollutants. The ballpark would be cut off from the rest of Oakland on one side by San Francisco Bay, on another side by a freeway and railroad tracks, although Kaval has proposed expanded ferry service on the bay and a gondola over the freeway.

Kaval said the Athletics could build their new ballpark even without securing the rights to redevelop the Coliseum site.

“We felt that, if we didn’t advance a plan for that, we wouldn’t be fulfilling our responsibility to Oakland,” Kaval said. “It’s up to the city fathers and mothers to decide whether they want to accept our offer. Maybe, in the end, they want to do something different.”

Said Schaaf: “The two projects must stand on their own.”

She added that it would be premature to commit to an open bidding process for the Coliseum land, to see whether a development company might offer a higher price than the Athletics, or propose to build more homes. Kaval said the Athletics already are proposing the maximum amount of housing under city rules governing development of the area.

The land is owned jointly by the City and Alameda County. Those entities conducted a confidential appraisal of the Coliseum site in 2016, said Justin Berton, Schaaf’s director of communications. The City has not commissioned an appraisal of the Coliseum site since then, he said.

Kaval said the Athletics have raised their offer for the site from $137 million to $160 million, in line with what the team believes is fair market value. Similar properties along the adjacent freeway have sold for $40 to $50 per square foot, said Sam Swan, an Oakland-based managing director of JLL, a real estate and investment management firm.

At that rate, market value for the 120-acre Coliseum site would be $209 million to $261 million, but Swan cautioned that “the density of the final development plan will be the major determining factor in the ultimate value.”

Said Schaaf: “Typically, I believe in competition. But the "A"s are not a profit-driven real estate development corporation. They are a civic asset. They are a longstanding member of our community that recognizes their value is not only measured in dollars but in civic pride.

“To me, that gives them a presumption of being the type of partner — and they’re looking for a development partnership — that will have the community’s interests at heart.”

If the Athletics don’t get a stadium on the waterfront, Kaval repeatedly declined to say whether team owner John Fisher would build at the Coliseum site or sell the team — perhaps to buyers that would move it out of the Bay Area.

“We’re focused on success at the waterfront,” Kaval said.

Schaaf is focused on affordable housing, and the considerable help the Athletics might be able to lend. The Oakland housing crisis is about a city pricing out teachers, public safety workers and longtime renters, not about an absence of construction.

“We are having the biggest building boom that we believe we’ve had since the 1906 earthquake,” she said. “What I am really going to be focusing on is how much of that housing is affordable.”

An entry level teacher in Oakland would have to pay 72% of their salary toward a one-bedroom apartment in the city, and a minimum-wage worker could not afford a one-bedroom apartment even if every dollar of her salary went to the rent, according to a PolicyLink study in 2016.

In the Giants’ Mission Rock project — negotiated with the city of San Francisco and approved by voters there — 40% of the residences are reserved for affordable housing.

If the Athletics were to match that percentage, they would build 2,400 affordable homes. Schaaf has set a citywide goal of 2,900 affordable homes over the next eight years.

“I think time will tell whether having your sports team as a real estate developer is good or bad,” she said. “What makes me optimistic is that a team is not judged just by its monetary profits. It is judged by its contributions to its community.

“Sports teams, arguably, have been in the community-building business for a long time, as far as civic pride. Let’s give them a shot at building community assets that go beyond the team and the pride that they give their communities.”
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

And the beat goes on.

No matter how long the "A"s are stuck at the Coliseum, they will now be the only tenant of that structure. The NFL Raiders, set to leave Oakland after this season, will no longer necessitate the stadium serving as a multi-purpose venue.

And this is how it will end.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

Has anyone heard about this latest bit about Rob Manfred threatening to move the team? - linked here
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[dodgerblue6]

For the first update in over a a year and half, here we are.

Major League Baseball has informed the Athletics to explore relocation and announced that no further league expansion will take place until issues are resolved with new ballparks needed for the Oakland franchise and the Tampa Bay Rays.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

Maybe that will spur them to do something now. I know the Bay area will not want to lose them.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[sunnyblue]

They play in a dump that is no longer needed even for football, and since they have been in the hunt for the playoffs most years they really should get a better deal. I do know they have a lot of diehard fans though they always get second billing after those Water Hoarders in their sparkling stadium across the bay. Their hardcore fans will always be there but a stadium like the Coliseum doesn't attract folks who are just casual baseball fans which is part of why they have such low attendance. If they don't stay in the Bay Area then I wonder where they would end up.

[dodgerblue6]

The plot thickens!

From the L.A. Times:

"Oakland City Council Approves Terms for Athletics Stadium Deal Against Team’s Wishes"


BY BILL SHAIKIN STAFF WRITER
JULY 20, 2021 2:10 PM PT

The Oakland City Council did what the Athletics asked them not to do Tuesday: vote to approve proposed terms for a deal that would keep the team in Oakland and allow them to build a waterfront ballpark.

The "A"s want the deal, but not on the terms the City proposed. After the 6-1 vote, City officials strongly suggested the "A"s work with the City to finalize the deal.

“Based on our extensive negotiations, shared values and shared vision, we believe the 'A's can and should agree to the terms approved by the City Council today,” said a statement signed by Mayor Libby Schaaf, Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan.

However, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said he was “disappointed” in Tuesday’s vote.

??“For the last four years at my request and urging, the Athletics have invested significant resources and have made a major commitment to their community in the hopes of remaining as Oakland’s only major professional sports franchise,” Manfred said in a statement.

“We are disappointed the City Council chose to vote on a proposal to which the 'A's had not agreed. We will immediately begin conversations with the "A's to chart a path forward for the club.“

On Friday, Athletics president Dave Kaval had said a vote on the City’s termsheet would be “a no on that project.”

On Monday, however, the City amended the term sheet to specify that the 'A's would not be responsible for infrastructure improvements associated with the project and estimated at $352 million. Kaval had said he was concerned that the City had not specified who would pay for those improvements; Kaplan said the City would work with other government agencies on the funding but would not hold the 'A's responsible for any of it.

Said City negotiator Betsy Lake: “We believe the City has solved for the issue the 'A's identified as most critical ... We believe the 'A's can and should agree with these terms.”

Kaval and other "A"s officials are headed for Las Vegas on Tuesday night, in another trip to explore relocation options there. Manfred said last week that he could soon set the "A"s free to explore other possible new homes, and Portland, Ore.; Vancouver, Canada; Nashville; Charlotte, N.C.; and Montreal could be among them.

Schaaf said she would not be deterred by the prospect of the "A"s touring North America in search of a potential new home, confident that a waterfront ballpark on the San Francisco Bay would remain the "A"s' best bet.

“There is no place on Earth that will offer that type of spectacular environment,” she said.

Schaaf said she believed the “primary difference” remaining between the City and the team involved how to fund community benefits. The City has proposed generating an estimated $340 million over 66 years from a “transfer fee” for sales of condominiums within the "A"s' development.

During Tuesday’s Council meeting, Kaval did not rule out additional short-term negotiations with Oakland. He said he had not seen the amended term sheet until it was publicly unveiled during the meeting.

However, he said: “Voting yes on something we don’t agree with ... is not an effective path forward.”

The "A"s are proposing a $12-billion redevelopment project, with a $1-billion ballpark surrounded by homes, shops, offices and a theater. Multiple members of the Council said Tuesday they were willing to continue talks but were dismayed by what they perceived as the team’s “take it or leave it” strategy.

Councilmember Carroll Fife, who abstained, said she was not sure why the Council should be voting on a proposal the "A"s did not endorse, given their threat to end negotiations entirely. She said the City bent over backward to accommodate the "A"s.

“I don’t know where we go from here, after doing somersaults and receiving insults,” she said.

Councilmember Dan Kalb called it “disturbing” that the team would not pay for any infrastructure but hoped additional talks could improve the deal.

“I’m going to hold my nose while I’m voting yes,” he said.

Fife wanted to make one thing perfectly clear: No one is chasing the team out of town.

“Everybody wants the 'A's to be here,” she said.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

I do not see them going any of those cities mentioned.

Somersaults? I had a funny thought, maybe they can make that part of the entertainment.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[sunnyblue]

This is not the Olympics thread, lol!

[dodgerblue6]

Since I haven't updated this one in awhile, perhaps I should mention (and it's gotten plenty of publicity over the last several months) the buzz around the possibility of the "A"s moving to Las Vegas.

This has caused some urgency within Oakland, and the Planning Commission has voted to urge the City Council to certify the EIR for a new ballpark, as detailed here.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

The saga continues with this interesting twist I've been hearing about the last few months. Vegas seems like a more realistic site for them to move to even though it's further than those other Bay Area cities. But in the end, I think they're staying in Oakland.

[dodgerblue6]

Ballpark Digest features a recent article about this topic, noting that while it's looking more likely that the team will stay in Oakland, they are keeping their options open in Vegas.

What a saga! I just realized this thread started over 15 years ago, and 53 posts.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Commissioner Rob Manfred has conceded that the "A"s are not likely to stay in Oakland.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Here we are almost two months after the last post in this thread, and perhaps Las Vegas is becoming more of a reality as a destination.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

I recently ran across this article from a couple of weeks ago - linked here

It sounds like things are more of a mess than they ever have been!
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[dodgerblue6]

Evidently, a potential move to Las Vegas seems more of a reality than it's ever been.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

And it looks like it's decided they will move. I feel badly for the diehard fans of the team in Oakland who, though they are a small fan base compared to the one on the other side of the bridge are really hardcore fans. This is disappointing. I also know fans of the Battery Chuckers who liked having both AL & NL teams in the Bay area. I like having that in Socal too.

[forloveofthegame]

After all this waiting, I find the news which almost everyone expected to hear, very sad.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg