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More meetings with A's slated after new year
by Ian Bauer
Article Launched: 12/21/2006 03:13:45 PM PST


Talks between Fremont officials and Oakland Athletics' owner Lew Wolff continued last week. The subject of the Dec. 14 discussions included the team's potential move to Fremont and building the proposed $500-million baseball field as well as co-existing retail and residential development.

This week, Councilwoman Anu Natarajan said talks included the timeline and process for the team to possibly come to Fremont.

However, Natarajan stressed that the Major League Baseball team's speculated move to the city is still in the discussion stage, and is definitely not a done deal.

"Their application isn't even in with the city yet," she said.

Natarajan, who has not been part of formal meetings with the A's, added that a whole host of things needed to happen after an application is submitted, including environmental impact reports as well as community input over the team's planned relocation to the south county site.

"I think that there will be many opportunities for the residents to give input during the process," Natarajan said.

On Nov. 14, the A's announced that they had reached an agreement with Cisco Systems Inc. to purchase a 143-acre parcel of land in Fremont near Fremont's Pacific Commons shopping center, located next to Interstate 880 and Auto Mall Parkway.

Part of a 30-year naming rights agreement valued at $4 million annually, the grass-field open-air ballpark will likely be named Cisco Field, a sports facility set to seat nearly 35,000 fans.

As planned, Cisco technology would be used to enhance the stadium in areas of ticketing, concessions and management of game day operations, Oakland A's reports state.

Among some of Cisco's high-tech gadgetry, laptop screens would be installed at each seat so fans can watch instant replays, along with personal digital scorecards for stat-keepers.

Cisco Field is scheduled to open in 2011. However, the ballpark's groundbreaking can only begin when the A's finally receive necessary approvals from City of Fremont, Alameda County as well as other government agencies.

Funding for Fremont's planned ballpark will likely be comprised of private monies as City of Fremont has stated that it is struggling hard with its own economy.

"We've made it clear that the city has no money," Natarajan said. "The ballpark has to be built with no public funding."

A's owner Wolff hopes the new stadium will be surrounded by a "ballpark village," which would include mixed-use housing and commercial development.

Proposed amenities in the village may include restaurants, stores, housing and a hotel adjacent to the ballpark.

Owner Wolff hopes the village will defray some of the stadium's $500-million price tag.

And though the planned stadium's name may be set, the official name of a new A's team is not yet known. Other environmental impact and revenue issues are also not yet known.

Natarajan said among those is traffic and transportation.

"That's a big-time issue. Traffic is going to be the biggest issue of how you get people in and out of there," she said.

She added that public safety, noise and infrastructure will also be chief concerns to the city. Revenues gained by the city from having the A's based here will also have to be estimated, according to Natarajan.

She suggested that the process to figure in all of those factors would be painstaking.

"There's just a lot of issues that need to be grappled with," Natarajan said.

In coming months, more meetings are scheduled between city officials and A's representatives.

Natarajan said the next meeting will likely be held during the second week of January.

She said city staff involved in the meetings includes Fremont City Manager Fred Diaz, City Attorney Harvey Levine, Community Development Director Jill Keimach and Economic Development Director Daren Fields.

The Oakland A's did not return phone calls to the Bulletin by press time.