On the front page of the mercurynews in san jose today was a story about the proposal for a stadium in Santa Clara, about 40 miles south of Oakland and San Francisco.

The kicker is that they are asking for 67 million in public money, and the total for the park is estimated in their documents at 250 million. Needless to say that does not include the cost of the land, which is definitely going to be very very expensive. Essentially this plan is DOA once this info is public.

One city council member has stated that the money would require a vote. For the record, Santa Clara County has twice voted down public money for the Giants and once for the 49ers, who both used the area to extort SF, unsuccessfully as it turned out.

What this means is that the owners will likely try to sell the team to an out-of-town group as soon as the season ends. The A's have a year to year lease after this year, meaning they can move NEXT SEASON.

Oakland has no plans for a park in the immediate future. MLB denied the last Oakland group who wanted to buy the team, on no credible grounds (they had more money than the current owners!). Also, Selig has publicly supported the "Santa Clara Plan" and has been publicly stating support for relocation of underperforming teams.

So, if that mystery owner in Portland steps up, especially considering the news about the funding bill passing (partly), you've got yourselves a World Series team very very soon.

Agreed! The A's seem to be the best option for Portland. There is no way that the Giants will let the A's have the Santa Clara market without the A's paying the Giants a heck of a lot of money. And money is what the A's lack. Oakland will never be able to build a new park, especially after financing the Raider fiasco. The A's year-to-year lease at the Coliseum only goes to 2004; they can move after any season, then after 2004 they are true "free agents." To be "politically correct" with MLB, the A's must publicly exhaust all options in the Bay Area before any move. If Portland can get their new park built by 2004, the A's would be a lock to bring MLB to Oregon!

"If Portland can get their new park built by 2004, the A's would be a lock to bring MLB to Oregon!"

Nope. Portland will not and should not build a park UNTIL we've got a COMMITTMENT (read: unpacked and running drills in PGE Park) from a major league team. In other words, "when the A's are a lock to bring MLB to Oregon, Portland can get their new park built by 2004!" The Peeg will serve nicely in the interim, thank you very much. The state and the public will NOT stand for the construction of a stadium until a team is here.

Herons!

I can't speak for the public, but I have to agree that Portland should not build a stadium until a team is in place.

That's not to say that the team must be unpacked. I think it would be likely that a team would announce a relocation at the end of a season, to have as much time as possible to promote before the next season starts.

The city of Portland and the state of Oregon should allocate the money. An architect should be retained, and preliminary plans should be drawn up. That way, when the team relocates, they can advise and the stadium can go forward as quickly as possible. But nothing further should be done.

If you build a stadium before you have a team, you find yourself in St. Petersburg's shoes. They built a stadium on spec, and by the time they got a franchise the building was terribly outdated. Now the Rays might well move because they'll never get a new park built.

I love the idea of the A's in Portland. Move 'em north, trade burgandy for that green, and bingo. Plus there's the fact that of all the teams that may possibly move, the A's is the only franchise ready to compete....

i think the A's could move to Portland for next season. They would draw as many at PGE park for a year or two than they do in Oakland anyway.

Does anyone know what the A's are pulling right now in attendance. I know I've asked this before, but I never dreamed they be playing such bad ball right now. Plus, Tim Hudson is getting the daylights knocked out of him, which is just too strange after last season. If some one out there knows where these attendance stats are located on the web I'd sure like to see them.

Thanks,
Mr. Maury (A.K.A "Teddy Baseball Rules!")

Oakland has been out on their longest road trip of the season the last 8-10 days. But their last home series was against Texas. Here's the numbers.

4-13 (Fri) 19,255
4-14 (Sat) 26,730
4-15 (Sun) 18,853

That's not great, but not horrible either. The previous series, vs. Seattle, showed poorer numbers averaging about 15,500 for a three game set. The weather was not particularly good in April, and the numbers will improve some. But this early in the season, the attendance isn't looking good despite an intense advertising campaign.

Montreal for comparison of the same days with Florida in town:

4-13 (Fri) 12,554
4-14 (Sat) 9,514
4-15 (Sun) 8,090

Now that's bad.

Thanks Cake (are you refering to the Band out of SacTown?)...

Where are you getting this data from?

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/schedule?team=oak

Speaking of attendance though. Does anyone know how the Portland Beavers have been drawing so far? I haven't been able to find that kind of info anywhere.

they have no figures yet, opening day is the 30th

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/schedule.asp?pageid=175

04/13/2001 Memphis Redbirds Home
04/14/2001 Memphis Redbirds Home
04/15/2001 Memphis Redbirds Home
04/16/2001 Memphis Redbirds Home
04/17/2001 Nashville Sounds Home
04/18/2001 Nashville Sounds Home
04/19/2001 Nashville Sounds Home
04/20/2001 Nashville Sounds Home

This kind of threw me off. What gives? Is PGE not finished? Why are they playing home games in Washington? Since I'm not in Portland, it's kind of hard to know all. How are ticket sales? Is there a buzz around town about the new Beavos?

The Bevos had to play those 8 games in Pasco, WA in "Tri-Cities Stadium."

That was known in advance that Piggy Park wouldn't be ready until late April, so they scheduled those games to be played in the same ballpark that Portland Family Entertainment's (the owners of the Beavers) other team, the Tri-Cities Dust Devils (Northwest League - formerly the Portland Rockies) plays.

Opening Day here in Portland is on MONDAY! April 30th. Should be A LOT of fun and there really seems to be a lot of buzz around town, although there is also a fair amount of lackluster feeling toward PFE because of some past and recent PR problems and the fact that many folks really don't care for PFE's CEO, Marshall Glickman. I know there are a TON of folks who basically refuse to support the Beavs just because of him, PFE and how things have gone with PFE. Too bad, really, 'cause I wish those folks would just go out and enjoy some good ball in a nice, basically-new ballpark, and help the support be "noticeable" to the baseball world so that would help our case in pursuing MLB.

Kind of a bummer, but I think that the attendance figures from Pasco count as home attendance figures for Portland, so their numbers will draw down the average attendance figure I'm sure we would have drawn had the Bevos been able to play those 8 dates in the Metro area. If we're gonna threaten Sacramento's PCL record from last year of 861,000, we're gonna have to draw EXTREMELY well and probably better than we will do at the AAA level - not because we don't support baseball, but because so many of our citizens just don't seem to "want to bother with it unless it's major league" sports.

_______________________
Pokey (aka: Tim Marttala)
Director of Operations
Oregon Baseball Campaign