The Big Problem with the Fremont Site.... Transportation

Wolff wants a site for his Disney ballpark, with its perfect ballpark village, shopping mall, and a grand Wolff Hotel (around the space of 100 acres). Wolff made a feable attempt at finding a site in Oakland and chose one that had over 100 businesses in location, and the Oakland City Council was unwilling to remove these businesses with a "divine right" power.

Fremont has told Wolff, he can have his dream park in their city, on Cisco owned land, known as Pacific Commons. The site, as said by Daniel Vanderpriem (CEDA/Redevelopment head working with the A's on possible sites), would be "purchased at industrian prices" (meaning cheaper) and sold to businesses and developers at "residential prices"(more exspensive). Fremont has that land for Wolff to so he can pay for his Disney ballpark. Looking at this from a shrewd business perspective, I Wolff's plans are justified. He wants to spend as little money to pay for the construction of a new ballpark. But when one wants to be cheap, problems arise.

In addition to a number of other issues, the main problem with the Fremont/Pacific Commons suggested ballpark site is TRANSPORTATION. Currently, Pacific Commons lies a block away from I880 and is less than 1.5 miles away from the Fremont Amtrak station. In addition to I880 and the AMTRAK station, BART is planning to add 5.4-miles of tracks from the existing Fremont Station to the proposed new station, Warm Springs (I'm sorry, but Warm Springs would be tough to get over). The Warm Springs station is scheduled for completion around 2010, if the adequate funding is provided, which it looks like will pass. Just in time, because the new Coliseum lease with the A's is scheduled to end in 2011 (Doesn't that just work out perfectly).

So, if one read this far, that person would be thinking, "Wait there's no problem with transportation at the Pacific Commons site. I880 is right there, Warm Springs BART station will be built, and you have an AMTRAK station right there. Drummer510, is there really transportation problem or are you just trying to stir s**t up and make A's fans outraged and dismayed by the Fremont plan?"


Yes, to both questions. There is a huge TRANSPORTATION problem with the Fremont site. Here's the list:
1. Interstate 880 is the second most congested highway in the Bay Area (101 is worse only because Giant fans are bad drivers). In 2000, the number of daily delays on I880 was 25,190 vehicle-hours. In two years that number rose to 27,440 vehicle-hours. Check out the Highway Congestion Monitoring Data. The section of I880 going Southbound that Pacific Commons is next to, was ranked second as one of the worst congested highway location in the Bay Area in 2002. The number of daily delays from Thorton Ave. to Dixon Landing was 8,880 vehicle hours in 2002.
2. AMTRAK is not a realistic nor economical way of transportation for an everyday East Bay A's fan. Round trip tickets from the Jack London station to the Fremont station are about $15 and schedule times seem unresonable for a night game. Check out AMTRACK's sweet site.
3. The planned Warm Springs BART station is 2.25 miles driving distance away from Pacific Commons, as described on Marine Layers's Blog. 2.25 miles is not an ideal walking distance. Transportation from the station to Pacific Commons is an issue that will cost Alameda county even more money.

Although a BART station at Warm Springs will help traffic flow on I880, the current plan for the station will be in a poor location for the ballpark. Consider that BART carries 15-20% of A's fans on any given game date(ML). Unless a bus line or tram is added from Warm Springs to Pacific Commons, the use of BART as transportation to an A's game will become ineffective.

As mentioned before, trasnportation is one of many other issues with the Fremont Ballpark proposal.

San Diego Ballpark rebuilds neighborhood, Ballpark in Oakland could do the same...

A New York Times article describing the growth that occured around Petco Park after the stadium was built. Here's the link:
The Neighborhood That the Ballpark Built

Neighborhood before the ballpark was finished


After Ball Park finished, right near the beautiful gaslight district of Downtown San Diego.



Once again, all I am trying to prove is that a downtown ballpark creates all this development and growth. A ballpark in the middle of no-where is not going to make anything special happen. Wolff's ballpark village in Fremont will be like Disneyland, a fake/static environment that will feel forced. Oakland Downtown is the place to put a park; it has the transportation, nightlife, restuarants, is close to San Francisco, and will improve Oakland's image. Wolff, if you build a ballpark in Downtown Oakland, people will come and business will come. Don't be cheap and cut corners to build a ballpark in Fremont. In the end you make more money in Oakland and will be a hero to the city.

"Relocation? Your Team's Not Going Anywhere"; article from the Hardball Times, featured in the Business of Baseball Website

Heres the link:
Relocation? Your Team's Not Going Anywhere

Maury Brown basically says that relocation of a team to Portland or Las Vegas would not be favorable at this point in time, because of the population of those cities/areas and their Designed Market Areas (ie the number of tv households) are less than their current locations. After reading the article, I think we have a good arguement against the suggestion of the A's moving from the Bay Area and that from a financial stand point wouldn't make sense. Brown does not address the pros and cons of the A's moving to the South Bay.

Although many of us still do not trust Wolff, hopefully with this article we can start to quell many of our conspiracy theories that after Wolff gives up on a plan in Fremont, he will move the team to Portland or Vegas.

Any opinions?

Added Contact from Marine Layer

Daniel Vanderpriem
dvanderpriem@oaklandnet.com
510-238-7322

Daniel Vanderpriem is the CEDA/Redevelopment head who's supposed to be working with the A's on sites.

Article from Inside Bay Area

I was informed by the writer of Seventh Inning Stretch that I should link the articles I post, to avoid copyright issues. So heres the link to the article "Fremont better than Las Vegas for A's fans" by Henry Reichman.

Heres the link:
Fremont Better than Las Vegas for A's fans

The article has some interesting points especially about the lack of transportation at the Fremont site and what moving the team South will do to fans in the North Bay and in Contra Costa. As I've said before, there is no proof that there are large numbers of A's fans reside in the South Bay. Yes there are tons of large corporations in the South Bay, but Wolff's vision of a ballpark village needs the fans thrive.

Flyer Ideas; Print, Cut, and Hand Out

-Save this picture to your computer and print them out. W
-hen you print it out cut into equal four pieces.
-Hand out a couple at every A's game, at work, at school, at church, etc. Let me know if this design works or doesn't.
-Create your own it's easy!

10 Reasons Not to Move to Fremont

Remember these when somebody tells you that Oakland isn't a good place for the A's.

1. The Fremont A's don't make sense because Fremont is a suburban bedroom community and cannot support a major sports team like the A's.

2. The transportation around the suggested Fremont building site cannot support the volume of traffic and people that will come with a ball game.

3. Oakland is not "filled up" and has numerous sites that have the space for a ballpark with nearby transportation facilities.

4. Oakland A's is a much better name than the Fremont A's of Oakland, or the Fremont A's of San Jose, or The Golden State A's.

5. Unlike Fremont, Oakland has a downtown, which has turned itself around in the last ten years and a ballpark could be a catalyst to continue that growth.

6. Oakland has accommodated A's owners with numerous deals and compromises to keep both sides happy, yet recent owners have shown no respect to the rich legacy with Oakland and the organization.

7. A's fans have continued to draw good crowds, even with talks of the teams relocation. The A's have broken 2 million fans a year for the last 5 years. Fremont shows no signs of having a legitimate fanbase.

8. Until the Giants got their new ballpark, the A's outdrew them in attendance in 10 out of 17 years.

9. The "No political will in Oakland" idea is false. Oakland spent money on a HOK ball park study, which A's owners (Schott) did not attend. When wolf bought the team, City leaders and corporate leaders came forward to help, wolf declined.

10. How do you turn your back on a community that has help win 4 world series and has had one of the most competitive teams in baseball history.

Important Persons Contact Information

A big part of this movement will be to contact local Oakland officials, politicos, and members of the Bay Area media. Here is a list of some of these important Oaklanders who need to hear our opinion about the A's current situation.

Send them letters or call them up; emails will be more ineffective because anybody can just delete an email without reading it. In your letters try to be understanding of the stituation, and don't criticize but try and find common ground. This needs to be a joint effort from all sides of this debate.


Council Members:
The Honorable Ignacio De La Fuente
One City Hall Plaza, 2nd Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
(idelafuente@oaklandnet.com 510-238-7005)

The Honorable Larry Reid
One City Hall Plaza, 2nd Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
(lreid@oaklandnet.com 510-238-7007)

The Honorable Jane Brunner
One City Hall Plaza, 2nd Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
(jbrunner@oaklandnet.com 510-238-7001)

Member of Joint Athority which operates coliseum:
Gail Steele
1221 Oak St., #536
Oakland, CA 94612

A's Executive Offices
Mailing Address:
7000 Coliseum Way
Oakland, CA 94621
Phone: (510) 638-4900

Oakland Tribune Contact Information:
Letters To The Editor of the Oakland Tribune
triblet@angnewspapers.com

Steve Herendeen - Oakland Tribune Sports
(510) 208-6462
sherendeen@angnewspapers.com

Jon Becker - ANG Tribune Sports Editor
(925) 416-4803
jbecker@angnewspapers.com

Dave Newhouse- Trib Sports
(510) 208-6466
dnewhouse@angnewspapers.com

Monte Poole- Trib Sports
(510) 208-6461
mpoole@angnewspapers.com

Art Spander -Trib Sports
(510) 531-8068
typoes@aol.com

Trib NEWS ROOM
Phone: (510) 208-6450
Fax: (510) 208-6477

Mario Dianda - News Room Editor
(510) 208-6432
mdianda@angnewspapers.com

Heather MacDonald - City Hall Reporter
(510) 208-6430
hmacdonald@angnewspapers.com

Ray Orrock - Columnist
(510)353-7028
rorrock@angnewspapers.com

Brenda Payton - Columnist
(510) 208-6406
bpayton@angnewspapers.com

Kathy Pfrommer - Letters To The Editor
(510) 208-6409
kpfrommer@angnewspapers.com

SF Chronicle Contact Information:

Letters to Editor
Please limit your letters to 200 or fewer words ... shorter letters have a better chance of being selected for publication.

-The editor prefers e-mail. The address is letters@sfchronicle.com
(Please paste the text into the e-mail; do not send attachments. Our virus-detecting software will delete e-mail with attachments.)

-Or Fax: (415) 543-7708.

-Postal-mail is OK, too:

Letters to the Editor
901 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

Letters to Sports Editor
letterstogreen@sfchronicle.com

On all submissions, please include your:
Name
Mailing address
E-mail address
Telephone number (home and office)
Fax number


I will be adding more contact information as I collect more. Feel free to add more in the comments section of this post and include tips and writing styles for writing to officials.