Hey, Bud Selig! Let The Athletics Go To San Jose!

The Giants never got a handout, not from MLB, not from the A’s and not from the taxpayers. They kept their team strong as they worked towards privately financing a stadium in San Francisco on their own.
Lew Wolff takes handouts from revenue sharing (which the Giants pay into), he wants a handout in the form of territorial rights from MLB and the Giants, he will undoubtedly demand handouts from a cash strapped San Jose which can;t keep libraries open and is laying off hundreds of police and firemen. Why won’t Wolff do something for himself? Wolff is a terrible owner and should be removed from the ranks of MLB owners like Frank McCourt is being removed.
Lew says he won’t continue on much longer? To quote a former A’s GM, that sounds like a threat to ignored or an offer to be accepted. Pound sand Lew.

It doesn’t make sense to hurt the Giants to help the A’s and it doesn;t make sense for San Jose to subsidize terrible owner and billionaire Lew Wolff.

there’s a couple of things – first, the A’s did not “give up” their rights to Santa Clara County, they merely agreed not to contest that they had them. There’s a difference there.

I agree that the Mausoleum is an awful place to see a game. But, I think the point is whether or not a park in San Jose would create more fans. Outside of circa 1989 (briefly), the Bay Area has never shown by attendance that it can support two teams. And cumulative TV revenue presumably would not change wherever the teams are. MLB has to look at that, and I absolutely agree that a scenario where you have two semi-unsuccessful teams, or always one poor sister, is not a solution.

I’d guess that Selig’s delay (outside of him being a horse’s ass) is that he wants to announce a done deal, and what the Giants want is way way higher than what the A’s are willing to spend (or can afford reasonably). Of course the A’s are screwed in not getting an answer, but perhaps the answer is that it simply can’t work and result in two healthy franchises. That’s a PR nightmare to announce – for MLB and for both teams.

Wendy’s linked article is very pointed with the “we don’t know”s, and she’s right, but this is my suspicion of what’s really going on. If we did know, the answer may be that there is no good answer except for A’s to move to a different metropolitan area.

I am a lifelong Giants fan from San Jose and let me tell you every argument the Giants have is flawed.

NY, LA and CHI are all shared 100%. Why? So that there is market equality amongst its teams and one team cannot corner the other in a bad situation…..Sound familiar?

Ex1: If the Angels want to move to Downtown LA the Dodgers cannot stop them. This may not be practical but keeps options open for both teams in their shared markets.

Ex2: If the Yankees owned Manhattan and did not share it with the Mets the Mets value would go down or Vice Versa. Right now the Giants own 75% of the Bay Area while the A’s own 25%….How is this fair or make sense?

What the Giants have done to the A’s is wrong and Bud Selig has let it happen.

San Jose is 50 miles away from ATT Park in San Francisco. They have a rumored 7,000 season ticket holders in the San Jose region out of 34,000. Those 7,000 people are hardcore fans are not going to change with an A’s move to San Jose.

Only 25% of Silicon Valley corporations do business with the Giants…Why? It is too far away to invest in tickets.

The A’s reside 12 miles way in Oakland right now. They want to move 50 miles away to San Jose. How does this make sense that the Giants are complaining?

The reason why is two-fold:

1. The Giants know as long as the A’s stay in the dump they play in now they will never be able to supersede them again in the market….It happened once and it could again if they were able to get on proper footing. This coupled with the fact a new Oakland ballpark is impossible plays into the Giants position of keeping San Jose off limits.

2. The Giants are terrified of people like me who are Giants fans but will not make the trip to SF consistently to buy season tickets……But who have the $$ easily and would gladly buy 30 games in the club section for a San Jose A’s team near his hometown.

This all tells you one thing…….Bud Selig is a coward to do the right thing and what is best for baseball.

The Giants overstate their claim to San Jose big time and the A’s just want what every team wants….a new stadium in a big city downtown site that is lacking in Oakland.

In fact a new Oakland ballpark on the waterfront would hurt the Giants more and in that case they would negotiate San Jose away as a new ballpark 12 miles away obviously will do more damage to them.

If there was another city offering a free ballpark Selig would force the A’s to move because of his cowardice. He states this situation is complex but he is making far more complex that it is.

The Giants may be hurt by an A’s move to San Jose but that is business and life. They will have to evolve as a franchise and the A’s will be on equal footing in what is a 2-team market.

If you came from outer space today and had to built two ballparks in the Bay Area where would they be? San Jose and San Francisco not Oakland.

The A’s are coming to San Jose, it is only a matter of time. Selig has no choice now as all options have been exhausted.

Lew Wolff should take a second look at Fremont location. This location centrally located (only 15-30 minutes) to San Jose and Silicon Valley. Rather than build a village there, build baseball stadium only. A’s will average 30,000 per game in Fremont. There will be no territorial issues or any payment to the Giants for the rights.

In 2009, Oakland A’s asked the city of Fremont to halt the planning process required to build a stadium. Fremont Vice Mayor was very disappointed that A’s didn’t let the process unfold. At the time Nummi auto plant officials who said the village would disrupt their business operations, but with Tesla with small operations should have no objections. Sure you nee studies on the adjacent wetlands and ballpark will create a traffic nightmare. Many merchants, residents and public officials embraced the plan, hoping it would raise the city’s profile and boost the economy. Mayor was devastated that the plan had fallen through.A’s didn’t giveg specific reasons for the team’s withdrawal, but the real reason was that Wolff wanted to purse San Jose location.