Comments on: It’s official — no Oakland A’s of Fremont

By: DaJuan Blair to the Warriors?

DaJuan Blair to the Warriors? — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:01:52 +0000

[...] official…No A’s in Fremont and owner and managing partner Lew Wolff is going to look [...]

By: Brad Jensen

Brad Jensen — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:25:09 +0000

Yeah I forget sometimes they are single A. If the A’s do move their it becomes their territory so I think they would need to move (?). I don’t know of any minor league clubs in other teams territories. It certainly wouldn’t be about filling the stadium. Its pretty tiny.

By: Jeff Fletcher

Jeff Fletcher — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:41:27 +0000

Dave, I do think eventually the A’s will get the rights to San Jose. MLB will make it happen because I think it’s in their best interest for the A’s to stay in the bay area as opposed to moving to Portland or San Antonio or something.

By: daveinsm

daveinsm — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:20:58 +0000

Jeff,

What are your thoughts about the possibility of the A’s moving to San Jose? Having covered bay area baseball (and baseball in general) for awhile, do you foresee another a similar situation like the Baltimore O’s having strong armed by Bud when they moved the Nats into town?

By: Jeff Fletcher

Jeff Fletcher — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:00:45 +0000

Brad, I assume you mean a new Class-A facility, to replace the San Jose Giants? Not Double A. That would be a rough road trip from the Texas League, which is the closest AA league

And I am not so sure that the San Jose Giants would be affected by a major league team in SJ. The SJ Giants only need to draw 2-3K a game, so I think they could still do that. It’s a different crowd.

By: Brad Jensen

Brad Jensen — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:51:53 +0000

Jeremy if the A’s got contracted they would have to realign the divisions again, perhaps even making one of the West teams American League. I don’t see that happening.

Also Wolff and Selig are old frat buddies. He’s not going to take away his buddy’s team.

The fact they are buddies is what is going to turn out to be the reason they find a way to get the A’s control of that territory. I foresee the A’s gaining the rights to SJ / South Bay with the Giants getting upfront compensation for relinquishing their rights, maybe some form of compensation for a period of time from revenues generated by the new stadium, and probably a new Double A facility built somewhere else in the Bay Area at no charge to the team. The A’s might even need to relinquish their revenue sharing earnings for a while, redistributed the the rest of ownership, to get this to happen as well. Giving up rights has historically not been a popular subject among MLB owners.

By: daveinsm

daveinsm — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:46:34 +0000

this article came up in the SJ mercury – http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_11778531

a few days old but it seems like Wolff has already begun talking to Mayor Reed about a ballpark

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:45:39 +0000

San Jose would be great… a helluva lot better than Fremont. If only Bud Selig actually wanted to help the A’s get there instead of trying to get them contracted they may have a shot.

I take the until something happens, nothing is going to happen approach to all the stadium talk. San Jose would be ideal though…

By: Q

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:14:51 +0000

Living in places like San Jose, and previously spending short stints in LA and SD…small to me is anything under half a mil population. But I’m also a bit biased, I guess.

And yes, that means I don’t consider Oakland a large city…but they also can no longer support the A’s, so maybe I’m not too far off base.

By: daveinsm

daveinsm — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:03:53 +0000

Having being raised in the city of Fremont

I must admit I was always biased towards building the ballpark in Fremont, but now after I have collected my thoughts; san jose is probably the most prudent choice for the A’s; financially and to stay competitive in MLB