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March 29, 2009
Ratto: Wolff's all talk on San Jose
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ray Ratto has chimed in again about A's Lew Wolff's public spurning of Oakland for San Jose:
This has always been the problem when Wolff chats up folks about a new building. He talks before everyone else can walk, and as such comes across not as a guy with a plan but as a guy who hopes one magically materializes.
His history on this topic is clear, from the Oakland Flea Market plan on out - he speculates out loud, can't get sufficient immediate headway, tries for awhile and then he retreats. He comes off almost as a dilettante who wants to move out of his old neighborhood but wants the new neighborhood to come to him.
Ratto goes on to write that "MLB is already looking at a projected 9 percent revenue drop in 2009, and perhaps more. The Oakland-San Francisco problem means even less now to MLB than it did a year ago, and a year ago MLB didn't give a very discernible damn." If he's correct, then Wolff's strategy is even more puzzling than I thought.
Ratto is an idiot that has little respect in the Bay Area sports community--his primary objective is to get the A's out of the Bay Area so that we are reduced to a one team market---his argument holds no water---including saying SJ officials have done nothing---identifying a site for the ballpark, acquiring the property for a ballpark, completing an EIR, all things that Oakland hasn't been able to do in 15+years---all this without knowing if they would even have a chance at MLB---and Ratto claims they have done nothing---clueless Ray---look forward to when the Chronicle closes and he is finally out of a job
Posted by SanJoseAs on March 29, 2009 10:26 PM
OK, I was a bit less than honest in that last post. It will be nearly impossible for a ballpark to be built in San Jose due to the fact that any plan with any sort of subsidy has to be approved by a vote of the public ... and the public has shown many times that they will just say no to any give-aways to pro sports teams. And the site that SJ has chosen has tons of problems with neighbors, traffic and a PG&A substation that will cost zillions to move. And the biggest problem of them all, is the territorial rights issue ... this would cost sweet-Lew > $20M annually if he ever wanted to "buy-out" this ... good luck.
Posted by SanJoseAs on March 30, 2009 12:17 PM