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February 11, 2010
Oakland stadium sites filled with cranky landowners
Looks like when the city of Oakland whipped up its new list of potential A's stadium sites, it didn't actually guarantee that they were all available: The East Bay Express reports that some landowners at the Jack London Square North and Victory Court sites aren't sure they'd agree to move to make way for a new ballpark.
This could, of course, just be a negotiating ploy — it's easier to drive a hard bargain on the sale price if you're insisting you don't want to sell. That said, the Victory Court site is home to a coffee roasting plant whose owner claims it would cost $30 million to relocate, so at the very least, we could be looking at high land acquisition costs — which is kind of important, given that all of A's owner Lew Wolff's proposed stadium plans have included getting free land as part of the deal.
The city of Oakland, for its part, tells the Express that it isn't going to start talking to landowners until it gets the go-ahead from MLB's A's relocation commission to consider these sites. "It's purely speculative at this point," city economic development deputy director Eric Angstadt said. "We're waiting for baseball to give us an answer before we can take the next step." According to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, the commission will be issuing its report to Selig next week, though that's what he said last week, too.
It's becoming painfully obvious that Oakland's "plan" was simply to derail the A's moving to neighboring Fremont or San Jose. Not to actually have anything to do with building the A's a stadium in Oakland.
Posted by Dan on February 11, 2010 10:14 AM
Seems neither the A's nor the city of Fremont actually guaranteed that business or residential neighbors would welcome the ballpark village, before they announced the agreement in 2006.
Also, keep in mind that Wolff warned Dellums back in 2006 not to try to counter the Fremont plan "don't break your pick on this one" was the quote. So it's not surprising that Oakland didn't get started on this until the A's gave up on the Fremont ballpark village proposal.
Posted by Oakland Si on February 11, 2010 10:50 AM
Yes it is. Oakland should have been working on this for the last decade, but particularly when Fremont started coming about. San Jose didn't stop working just because Fremont was the stated goal at the time. And now San Jose is the stated desired location for the A's and likely ultimate site MLB will choose as well. Oakland meanwhile did nothing. And if this article is any indication, Oakland still hasn't done anything but trace some lines around a couple of city blocks on a map.
And yes Fremont didn't guarantee the neighbors would cooperate last time but at least they had the land easily available as they and San Jose do this time around. But you bring up a good point. We have no idea how the neighbors in Oakland feel about a ballpark, all we know is that many of the landowners don't want to sell. But it would be an interesting question to ask. Do any of the neighbors in Oakland object to the sites Dellums choose? Particularly I'd like to hear what the Port of Oakland has to say.
Posted by Dan on February 11, 2010 11:13 AM
Dan.....keep in mind that Fremont is proposing a parking lot stadium surrounded by industrial land. Oakland can match that. They already own the land at the coliseum site and it wasn't pursued. What makes Fremont's parking lot stadium any better? There are plenty of hoops to go through to make that work.
Posted by Mike D on February 11, 2010 11:35 AM
Mike,
What makes it better is that it's not just a ballpark. The Fremont plan proposes the Santana Row like development adjacent to the brand new modern stadium. Currently all Oakland has is a dilapidated 60's vintage multipurpose stadium that they themselves used 200 million in public funds, which they've yet to pay off, to turn it from a decent ballpark to a monstrosity at Al Davis' whim.
As for a new stadium, not sure where Oakland would offer a stadium that would equal Fremont's plan. They couldn't fit a similar development at the Coliseum site. And that says nothing of the objections the Raiders and Warriors would raise.
Posted by Dan on February 11, 2010 11:42 AM
what a joke, a bad joke, from a place that IS A JOKE...
i guess that selig is waiting to drop oakland like a hot rock until his statue is unveiled...