"Whose Oakland?"-Summary of an Execution that took Place Tuesday

Fill in the blank: ____________ Athletics of Fremont

It was the meeting of the minds. The big guns were there, Selig, Wolff, John Chambers Ceo of Cisco, even Beane showed up. They talked and showed us their vision, it did not include Oakland... at all. The A's will be playing in Fremont barring any major disturbance.
Lew Wolff spoke; claimed Scott Haggerty planted the "Fremont seed" three years ago, and that the "Most Valuable Person of the MLB is Bud Selig". Mr. Wolff ya got something brownish on your nose. I wonder if Lew acted this way when he was a frat brother with Buddy. "We believe that Cisco Field will be an economic benefit to the entire area." Of course mentioning Santa Clara County as well.

Depressed looking Selig pontificated, even including that Lew's momma claimed, Wolff would never amount to a "pile of pins." Cute.

Billy spoke, he was bright spot of day. Beane says, "I can't wait to start cashing some of these checks to start signing some of our players." I hope so as well.

Questions were asked.
-Public transportation? Wolff: We're examining the public transportation issue. We're spending our time on the transportation aspect and sharing it with the citizens and elected officials of Alameda County. (Paraphrase: I have know idea, people actually ride bart. Hummers are way sweeter.)
-Name? Selig: The naming rights has to adequately portray the area it represents. Oakand? (Paraphrase: San Jose A's or Silicon Valley A's or Crisco A's or The UnOakland A's)
-Wolff: I felt that Oakland had lots of priorities, but in terms of the discipline in terms of giving a site, I didn't sense it. I need a ballpark for my organization will work for everyone. The only option after Fremont is to move out of the state of California. If someone feels we didn't do enough, there isn't much I can do about it. (Paraphrase: I hate Oakland and all ways will.)
-Selig: "If you want a team to be competitive, right Billy? If you have a stadium that can't produce the revenues you need you are rendering it not competitive. This is a classic situation of a team that needs to take control of its own destiny. And it's done that. This is going to make the Oakland Athletics a better franchise. They had no alternative. This park has the potential to do so many unique things." (Paraphrase: Moneyball is ruining meeeeee! p.s. I also hate Oakland)

The new Cisco Field will be state of the art (lacking a bullpen or batters eye). Here's a better description. It looks pretty sweet, much as most artist renderings are. But really, it will be a cool park; real close to the action, interesting hi-tek thangs, and with a good team this would be a great fan experience.

Except for one thing....
The stadium will be built in Fremont, and in the middle of nowhere. The surrounding village will be a mall, with out a sense of community or respect for Oakland A's history. This will be a great venue for the band-wagon fan, the rich-bitchy-suburban girl, the souless corporate man who goes to games only because he wants to impress his boss and get that raise. The fans who have stuck with this team lose out. There will be no local bars, no history, or unique-quirky things that have defined the A's fan base. No, they get left out.

This is a new chapter in A's fanchise, leaving the Walter Haas legacy far behind. This is a Fremont South Bay team now. Say bye to Oakland, Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, hell even Piedmont, and the Contra Costa towns, all who have help created the Oakland A's image. This is not a stadium, it's a mall. Fremont is fine suburb, but is not meant for a baseball team. This is a cheap and short-term way to build a stadium and make a lot of money. There is no "A" in Fremont.

I wonder how the fan experience at the Coliseum will be these next couple seasons?

These are the best things I have seen all day.
The Fremont Athletics are good?.


"F*&# the Fremont A's, Ghostride the Volvo"

My sentiments exactly.

Great Interview Neil deMause-Field of Schemes

Elephants in Oakland interviewed Field of Schemes co-author/webmaster Niel deMause. Click here for interview.

In the interview, deMause comments on the idea that the Cisco-Fremont-A's stadium plans are more like a real-estate deal:

Right, that's the other conspiracy theory: that Wolff doesn't care about the stadium or the team, and just wants to use the stadium to get leverage to force Fremont to rezone his land so he can build condos. Stranger things have happened, certainly. There's a lot of speculation that something similar may happen in Brooklyn, with the planned Nets arena, where the residential development is the real cash cow for the developer.

DeMause actually feels there's a less than 50% chance that this stadium will be built in Fremont, that "There are a million things that can trip up even the best-laid stadium plans, and this one seems dodgier than most."

I agree that this Fremont stadium is not finalized and still could go horribly wrong, but Wolff has been able to get what he has wanted up to this point, for example tarping the third deck and buying land in Fremont. As for the idea that this is a real estate deal with a ballpark as a front, this is spot on. Wolff is getting a great opportunity to develop 143 acres of land in a middle class city close to San Jose. Real estate developers would kill for that opportunity to build condos right next to I880. Great interview.

In Conclusion

I've been very busy, with school and life, which is why I haven't been able to post in regards to the lastest A's stadium news. Reportedly the A's have reached a deal with Cisco and the city of Fremont. Interestingly, Wolff has been bashful in announcing this new deal and instead spoke to Fremont city council members; "Wolff 'seemed almost apologetic' that word of the Cisco deal was leaked to news reporters earlier in the week." The Fremont city council still must hammer out transportation, financing, and rezoning details, but so far they seem happy with the deal.

As Wolff plans to move the team to Fremont, John York continues to tarnish 49er legacy as he cut off talks with San Francisco and told the media Santa Clara was in the plans of a new stadium on Wednesday. Whether not this is a bluff or an actual legitamite plan, Niner fans should start to organize if they want to try and keep their team in S.F. Remember the 49ers are the only San Francisco professional fanchise to ever win a championship. I will continue to post opinions on the 49er situation, because I find it very similar to the A's stadium issues. It's seems that York wants a Theme Park Stadium, with coasters traveling through the park, much as Wolff wants his Disneyland Dream Park.


So is it over? Apparently not to Robert Limon, head of Chose Or Lose. Here's his statement:

The Fremont community has to approve the development plan, and the infrastructural investment is going to be considerable. This plan may not work for Fremont---and Oakland needs to have options on the table and ready to go.

So I am not advocating negativity. I am advocating RESPONSIBILITY and communication. We need our city's leaders to publicly communicate what they will do NOW. Hopefully we can get them to put aside their personal concerns for the good of the community.

Let's just be open, honest, and realistic. Most importantly, LET'S BE IN ACTION.

There's a possibility we can hold a press conference TUESDAY at 6pm at the UPTOWN nightclub. I think it would be a great counter message to Lew's McDisneyCisco Village announcement. Plus, we could get a press release out and get alot of great press which will amplify our message. Most importantly--- YOU will get an opportunity to get on the Mic and speak your peace and express your message (keep it clean please). We will invite politicos also. It could be alot of fun.

2. We also need to agendize this entire subject to the City Council. Would you be willing to show up to the City Council in the next few weeks?

Feedback welcomed. If we do this Uptown Press Conference---we need to choose today and get it in action.

Who's up to Play? Let me know,

Thank you all,

Robert Limon
chooseorloseoakland@yahoo.com

If the this is the end, I want to say a few things, for I can't be at the Uptown meeting because I'm at school. A number of things have come to light during this process:

1. The A's fanchise has a long history of screwing it's fans and cities, this is just another manifestation of that trend. I don't think that change either. Do you really think the A's will stay in Fremont for more than 40 years. This is a short term/cheap solution to the A's stadium situation, and Wolff will not make as much money as he wants by building suburban ballpark.

2. Seatle will be the only urban ballpark in the AL West. Anaheim and Arlington are both very suburban ballparks. The Fremont park will be another car friendly facility and will continue to make I880 a nightmare.

3. You cannot place the blame on the current Oakland City Council, yes they did abolutely nothing to keep the A's, but even if they tried, Wolff would have not been swayed; he wanted to move the team from the beginning. The blame lands on Jerry Brown and the Schott/Hoffman ownership during the late 90's. They had a golden opportunity to hash out a plan to build a downtown ballpark, but neither side was willing to compromise. The Haas family sold the fanchise to Schott and Hoffman with the understanding they wouldn't move the team.

4. Oakland will, once again, be burned by big business.

5. Cisco Field will be a carbon copy of Artie Moreno's Angel Stadium, cheap and souless.

6. By moving the team to Fremont, you will lose much of the soul and eccentricity that was a big part of the Oakland A's fan experience. Whether is was Crazy George's wave, the Banjo Guy, or the drummers and flag wavers in left field. I think unfortunately you lose those unique qualities of an A's game when the team goes to Fremont.

7. Oakland loses a huge part of it's culture and identity. I guess we'll have to rely on the Hyphy Movement for motivation and excitment.

8. This will be a huge change for most of us A's fans. I will go to games in Fremont, but it will not be the same. The idea of building a mall around the stadium is gross to me. I don't want to be bombarded with annoying teenage girls and the superficiality that comes with large suburban retail centers like the one Wolff plans. The tailgaters will be pushed far from the stadium. Maybe instead they can eat a Chotchkie's closer to the stadium and be amazed by their waiters flair. Sounds like fun Lew. (Im fairly bitter)

9. As for a name change, I really hope they don't change the name. But at this point Wolff has burned Oakland so much that a name change would be the icing on the cake. Wolff might as well continue to humiliate Oakland and alienate A's fans.

If this is the end, I would like to thank all the Oakland supporters and their efforts. At least we didn't roll over. I would also like to thank everybody who came to this blog and stated their opinion, whether it was for or against. This was my first blog, and I hope people came away with a new perspective. Thanks for putting up with my spelling and grammatical errors. Thanks to all the other bloggers who helped me out.

I will continue to post things, but I'm fairly busy these days, and haven't had much time to post. Hopefully the 49ers will stay in S.F. I'm a Raider fan, and I even have sympathy for Niner fans right now. I know what their going through.