September 14, 2007
A's keep Fremont talks on simmer
Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff and his son (and co-owner) Keith Wolff gave another presentation on their proposed Fremont stadium this week, in advance of submitting architectural details to the Fremont city council next Tuesday. (Financial details? What are those?) Wolff pere assured questioners from the city council and chamber of commerce that the proposed site's traffic problems are "not quite as serious as everybody says," and that 18% of fans would walk or take public transit to games, just as at the team's current stadium - notwithstanding that the current stadium can be reached by car via more than one already-overcrowded highway.
None of which is really big news, but I just wanted an excuse to link to the scariest photo ever.
No, no, no. That's not the scariest photo ever.
This is the scariest photo ever:
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/09/12/PH2007091202876.jpg
That's a picture of an actual, official MLB game in progress between Florida Marlins vs. Washington Nationals down in Miami.
Posted by Will on September 15, 2007 06:26 PM
Now you're just being silly. There's no way a Marlins-Nationals game can be considered "actual major league baseball."
Well, what do I know? MLB listed a report about this game, even though it couldn't be considered actual MLB by you.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070912&content_id=2203964&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla
Now, I know I don't have sixth sense of perception, but that report states "A crowd of 10,121, the smallest of the season, witnessed Florida take two of three from Washington." I looked at that earlier picture and thought, "Gee, that sure looks like thousands and thousands of ghosts sitting in that, ahem.... crowd". The Marlins owner is sure going to have a strong case to justify need for public funding for his new stadium, what with the strong demand for Marlins baseball down there.
Anyway, sorry didn't want to hijack this from the A's news item. But couldn't resist posting about such a historic day for an MLB game.
Posted by Will on September 15, 2007 07:56 PM
Oh, hijack away. And it's a great photo.
Keep in mind, though, that this was a Wednesday afternoon game in September against the Nats. Even the Yankees have to good sense to let people into the upper deck for $5 for those kinds of games.
Posted by Neil on September 15, 2007 08:05 PM
"18% of fans would walk or take public transit to games, just as at the team's current stadium"
Transit, I'll buy -- an awful lot of people take BART to the Coliseum for A's games. There's about a quarter-mile walkway from the station directly to the east side of the stadium. Incredibly convenient, and no parking or traffic hassles to contend with.
But WALK? I defy them to come up with more than a few thousand people per game who walked to it from home. There is very little housing immediately around the Coliseum -- it's sitting in a lake of medium industrial zoning. Yes, there's housing on the other side of the BART tracks, but that doesn't mean that people are eager to trudge through asphalt supply yards to get to the park -- or more relevantly, to walk HOME through that kind of stuff at 10:30pm.
The A's certainly have a blue-collar fan base compared to the Giants, but I still wonder just how many of the people who live in walking distance from the Coliseum -- in run-down looking neighborhoods next to loud, smelly industries -- can even afford to blow $80 to take the kids to a game more than once a season.
Posted by ctate on September 17, 2007 10:50 AM