The Oakland A's want to build a stadium by Laney College

[mikev]

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/amp/A-s-want-to-build-new-ballpark-next-to-Laney-12193239.php


Interesting. My personal thought is that they should have kept the current Coliseum site and built there instead.

 

[Eldritch]

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/amp/A-s-want-to-build-new-ballpark-next-to-Laney-12193239.php


Interesting. My personal thought is that they should have kept the current Coliseum site and built there instead.

Laney College is much less OAKLAND than the Coliseum and ideally, any team wants to be as little OAKLAND as possible.

 

[UDRider]

My personal though they should have told the As to fuck off, leveled a coliseum and turned it in to anything else.

This hole cities subsidizing stadiums bull shit needs to end.
I know this, or maybe another one I read, mentioned private financing but team owners always find a way to get the city to foot the bill for something or other. One of the articles mentioned new off/on ramps that need to be constructed if they build there. What are the chances of city being on a hook for that?

 

[afm199]

It's a fucked up mess either way. Laney is in the middle of some nice wetlands which will be further destroyed by any development, and the move will push out an entire neighborhood of small shops and cheap houses where a large immigrant community lives. (And it's a pretty cool place.)

Fuck the A's with all my heart, and the Raiders with my heart and soul. They have done nothing for Oakland but take.

Libby Schaaf ( a far left liberal in conservative clothing) says it will cost the city nothing and then takes actions that prove otherwise.

 

[Roundboy]

Oakland/Bay Area is LUCKY to have had MLB and NFL and NBA teams. You forget all the good that does come along with it. Puts us on the map and keeps people/Tourists/Media interested in the area.

IMHO some of you need to re-think the benefits.

Think of all the shitty places out there with none of these kinds of sports teams.

PLUS WE HAVE BEAST MODE enjoying Raider Football till Vegas Melts it all.arty

 

[afm199]

Oakland/Bay Area is LUCKY to have had MLB and NFL and NBA teams. You forget all the good that does come along with it. Puts us on the map and keeps people/Tourists/Media interested in the area.

IMHO some of you need to re-think the benefits.

Think of all the shitty places out there with none of these kinds of sports teams.

PLUS WE HAVE BEAST MODE enjoying Raider Football till Vegas Melts it all.arty

:laughing

Take a look at the financials of the Raiders and Oakland. We still pay them $10 million a year (to the Davis family) and will for years. They have bled the city dry. Alameda County likewise.

Oakland has business and new residents coming here, and they don't care at all about major league sports, it's not even a draw. Nobody moves to Oakland for the privilege of going to the Coliseum and getting into a fight or having beer spilled down your back. Tourists? Tourists don't come to SF or Oakland to watch ball games. Sure, some do. But not the hundreds of thousands/millions who come every year. They come to see SF, the downtown, the museums, the GG Bridge, the Wharf, the Presidio, twin peaks, and all the other great spots.

Let's see, shitty place that have no major league..... Albequerque, Big Sur, Monterey Peninsula, Marin County, Humboldt, Palm Springs, and hundreds of others. Major league sports should not be supported financially by any government in any way.

 

[mikev]

That's because city politicians were dumbasses trying to get the Raiders to come back, AND they fucked up the Coliseum in the process.

 

[afm199]

That's because city politicians were dumbasses trying to get the Raiders to come back, AND they fucked up the Coliseum in the process.

Yes, they were, and there's no reason to let them do it again.

 

[Dubbington]

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/amp/A-s-want-to-build-new-ballpark-next-to-Laney-12193239.php


Interesting. My personal thought is that they should have kept the current Coliseum site and built there instead.

Laney College is much less OAKLAND than the Coliseum and ideally, any team wants to be as little OAKLAND as possible.

Current site is a total dump. Night games it's a major risk going from stadium to car or stadium to BART.

Even a rebuild wouldn't fix that because they wouldn't be moving he BART or train tracks.

I'm on board with Laney and will hopefully be able to afford season tickets when it opens. I was hoping Jack London was going to work but likely would have cost far too much in studies. Laney is closer to transportation.

Will be sad to see that giant plot of land where there A's, Warriors and Raiders played for decades become vacant, rot, and then get rebuilt to likely apartments.

 

[byke]

I really like the coliseum and how its looked pretty much the same for however many decades. Super easy to get in/out of too. Just clean it and care for it and run it. Not everything needs modern styling.

 

[Dubbington]

The stadium will be privately financed by the way. Not sure what the city will pay, if any, but the building of the stadium and cost of the land will come with the A's and their investors.

They don't even have the land yet. They've simply said 'We want to build there'. The Peralta Community College District owns that land. A's group will have to lease or buy it from them.

After watching all these deals over the years. I've determined that Al Davis and the Raiders severely hamstrung any stadium progress AND Lew Wolf, an ex A's part owner who was bought out (fired) also hamstrung the development of a new stadium.

Wolf, Fisher (current majority owner) and other investors bought the A's thinking a move to San Jose was a slam dunk. Wolf is a real estate guy and bought the team know little about baseball. When he realized the move to San Jose was not going happen, nor Fremont, he just sat back and collected the $40 million in revenue sharing the more lucrative teams paid the A's and their 'small market' phillosophy.

Last season MLB said revenue sharing is gone. Fisher (Gap heir and a billionaire) bought Wolf out because there was no progress and hired Dave Kaval (the brains behind Avaya stadium in San Jose). Since hiring Kaval, the A's have been making moves and things look promising. The #RootedInOakland and all the other promotions have been Kaval.

 

[Bay Arean]

:laughing

Take a look at the financials of the Raiders and Oakland. We still pay them $10 million a year (to the Davis family) and will for years. They have bled the city dry. Alameda County likewise.

Oakland has business and new residents coming here, and they don't care at all about major league sports, it's not even a draw. Nobody moves to Oakland for the privilege of going to the Coliseum and getting into a fight or having beer spilled down your back. Tourists? Tourists don't come to SF or Oakland to watch ball games. Sure, some do. But not the hundreds of thousands/millions who come every year. They come to see SF, the downtown, the museums, the GG Bridge, the Wharf, the Presidio, twin peaks, and all the other great spots.

Let's see, shitty place that have no major league..... Albequerque, Big Sur, Monterey Peninsula, Marin County, Humboldt, Palm Springs, and hundreds of others. Major league sports should not be supported financially by any government in any way.

I really can't figure this out. There are plenty of people who eschew corporate sports period, like academics and other elites, and find the fans to be a demographic they could live without. I am alienated from them just on this snobbery basis.

We are becoming so gentrified and rarified and wealthy, that I can imagine it. Being a more conservative person, I like that there is an allowance in our social psyches for team sports, hometown loyalties, various sports heritages, etc. But when you look at how loathsome the NFL has become, it's possible to imagine defecting from the whole thing. I have to say that Jed York and Mark Davis have gone a long way to make me hate NFL. I am currently trying to get interested in watching NFL games again, but my eye is on NBA season starting in about five or six weeks.

But, the Dubs announced yesterday that they now will bear a corporate logo on their jerseys, NASCAR style. So that's kinda depressing. I joke that they are my most beloved set of millionaires. Who am I kidding....

It's kinda like kill your teevee meme because a part of you knows that is probably better for you, like eating kale and giving up ice cream. Oakland COULD walk away from stadium sports. I think the Raider fans are going to keep supporting the team when they move to Vegas which further abstracts the need for an actual hometown fanbase and the team somehow reflecting the character of the region....If you completely lose that linkage, then, as Hillary says, what difference does it make?

I am a sentimental type regarding sports. I feel for the local fans of various sports. I consider myself a Giants fan and it goes way back. Even though I am not really an A's fan, I really empathize with the true fans of the team, they are my neighbors. My workwife is a hard-core As and Raiders fan. She and her boyfriend have gone to games for years and years are the classic fans, sometimes keeping scorecards, versed in the lore and history of the ups and downs, legendary players the whole bit. I can look over at her desk right now and see her Howie Long statue and her A's extra pins (she has one of those ballcaps that is covered in pins and such). I find it really hard to just say tough shit to these people, they are just trying to extract some joy out of the increasingly unpleasant challenge of Bay Area life, which sucks unless you are rich. Most of the loyal fans are not rich people who have tons of options for diversions in life.

 

[afm199]

I really like the coliseum and how its looked pretty much the same for however many decades. Super easy to get in/out of too. Just clean it and care for it and run it. Not everything needs modern styling.

The area is simply unsafe at night, and anyone taking BART takes a real risk of getting mugged or robbed.

The idea was to develop the entire area into shops and apartments, but nobody wants to go to East Oakland to shop. Nobody in their right mind.

 

[aminalmutha]

Stick n' ball games. LoLz.

 

[augustiron]

Lol @ Dubs complaining about current site being unsafe and thinking it all goes away with a new stadium. How about taking the hundreds of million$$ a new stadium will cost and working on long term urban planning, security and redevelopment of the existing area to benefit the community and stadium goers instead of just doing a land grab and spreading the toxic waste to another area and leaving the old site even more of a wasteland?

 

[aminalmutha]

The area is simply unsafe at night, and anyone taking BART takes a real risk of getting mugged or robbed.

The idea was to develop the entire area into shops and apartments, but nobody wants to go to East Oakland to shop. Nobody in their right mind.

Went to many, many A's games in the 80's and 90's as a kid and never ever felt unsafe on t3h BART, even at night.

 

[afm199]

I really can't figure this out. There are plenty of people who eschew corporate sports period, like academics and other elites, and find the fans to be a demographic they could live without. I am alienated from them just on this snobbery basis.

We are becoming so gentrified and rarified and wealthy, that I can imagine it. Being a more conservative person, I like that there is an allowance in our social psyches for team sports, hometown loyalties, various sports heritages, etc. But when you look at how loathsome the NFL has become, it's possible to imagine defecting from the whole thing. I have to say that Jed York and Mark Davis have gone a long way to make me hate NFL. I am currently trying to get interested in watching NFL games again, but my eye is on NBA season starting in about five or six weeks.

But, the Dubs announced yesterday that they now will bear a corporate logo on their jerseys, NASCAR style. So that's kinda depressing. I joke that they are my most beloved set of millionaires. Who am I kidding....

It's kinda like kill your teevee meme because a part of you knows that is probably better for you, like eating kale and giving up ice cream. Oakland COULD walk away from stadium sports. I think the Raider fans are going to keep supporting the team when they move to Vegas which further abstracts the need for an actual hometown fanbase and the team somehow reflecting the character of the region....If you completely lose that linkage, then, as Hillary says, what difference does it make?

I am a sentimental type regarding sports. I feel for the local fans of various sports. I consider myself a Giants fan and it goes way back. Even though I am not really an A's fan, I really empathize with the true fans of the team, they are my neighbors. My workwife is a hard-core As and Raiders fan. She and her boyfriend have gone to games for years and years are the classic fans, sometimes keeping scorecards, versed in the lore and history of the ups and downs, legendary players the whole bit. I can look over at her desk right now and see her Howie Long statue and her A's extra pins (she has one of those ballcaps that is covered in pins and such). I find it really hard to just say tough shit to these people, they are just trying to extract some joy out of the increasingly unpleasant challenge of Bay Area life, which sucks unless you are rich. Most of the loyal fans are not rich people who have tons of options for diversions in life.

Fifty years ago ML sports were something the average schmuck could identify with. Today it's a league of wealthy millionaires being paid by wealthy billionaires. I quit going to games long ago.

I'm not saying "tough shit" to anyone. I just don't care. I don't see the average sport fan in the Bay Area doing anything to improve motorcycle racing attendance in the Bay Area. In other words, just don't care. One of my ex GF's mother was the president of the A's fan club for a while, and made all the trips to Arizona, had lots of souvenirs, etc. If that's what makes you happy, cool. But I don't have any desire to subsidize, through local government and taxes, your happiness.

 

[afm199]

Went to many, many A's games in the 80's and 90's as a kid and never ever felt unsafe on t3h BART, even at night.

Yup, and now you're a grownup. Do you still do this? BART in Oakland has had several instances of large gangs of youth invading cars and snatching stuff from people. It's one thing when you're a kid. Kids don't get targeted for crime, affluent people do. In East Oakland, affluent means you have a nice cellphone and some credit cards.

 

[byke]

The area is simply unsafe at night, and anyone taking BART takes a real risk of getting mugged or robbed.

The idea was to develop the entire area into shops and apartments, but nobody wants to go to East Oakland to shop. Nobody in their right mind.

In recent years I've only been for the supercross, but I always liked that even though it was in Oakland, it was just an industrial area right off the freeway. I don't like Oakland, but don't mind going to the colosseum at all. It's so easy. Much better than getting in/out of ATT. Always saw more drunk idiots fighting at ATT than Oakland. I don't do bart, just drive in and out.

 

[aminalmutha]

Yup, and now you're a grownup. Do you still do this? BART in Oakland has had several instances of large gangs of youth invading cars and snatching stuff from people. It's one thing when you're a kid. Kids don't get targeted for crime, affluent people do. In East Oakland, affluent means you have a nice cellphone and some credit cards.

Yes and I was aware I was not in Shangri-La; I didn't live in a great area either, but everyone on t3h BART before and after games were all about the game. May have been one or two crazies on the train, but I never witnessed any shit going down. I was never hassled, nor anyone in my family.

I realize the area has always been ghetto, but my point is that it's gotten worse over the years and that's unfortunate. I don't BART for any reason any more, anywhere, any time.