[From SBN] Oakland Fans hold a rally at the new location. City-County member says, "I don't think there will be the political will on the part of the people to do this," - TBGR

More on the A's Search for a new Ballpark

A 13-acre parcel near the city's downtown will likely be the proposed site of a new ballpark for the Oakland A's, according to officials who gave a public update Tuesday of their search for stadium sites. That and this report from The Contra Costa Times' Guy Ashley
The Telegraph Avenue parcel near the Greyhound bus station "is clearly the most interesting site to us," said Craig Meyer, a principal architect with HOK Sport of Kansas City, the eminent ballpark design firm that is leading the search. "It's the site that says the most about Oakland, and to us that's what this project is all about."

Meyer said the Telegraph Avenue site offers a proximity to downtown that echoes two HOK-designed gems -- Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore and Jacobs Field in Cleveland.

An intimate new park for the A's is the linchpin of Oakland and Alameda County's strategy for keeping the team, which came close last summer to being sold and relocated to Las Vegas.

HOK representatives were in Oakland to update local officials on the ongoing analysis of four potential sites -- three in Oakland and one in Fremont.

A morning presentation to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors was followed by a rally by fans Tuesday night outside Oakland City Hall, where HOK officials were scheduled to give a second report to the City Council.

While the downtown site emerged as the front-runner late last year, Tuesday's presentation made clear that problems associated with other sites only strengthened the case for the area along Telegraph Avenue between 18th and 20th streets.

Earl Santee of HOK told county supervisors that two waterfront sites near the downtown had made it onto his top-three list, but that both had huge strikes against them in that they aren't close to BART and have limited parking possibilities.

A site near Jack London Square, second on that list, also would carry with it substantial costs to relocate Port of Oakland terminal facilities and likely could not be prepared to meet the 2006 target date for the new stadium's opening, Santee said.

Rosie Rios, Oakland's director of economic development, said the search should be narrowed to "one or two" finalists within the next month, and that a plan on financing for the stadium likely would be unveiled within 90 days.

Board members who heard the presentation balked when told that the ballpark would likely require some form of public financing -- a touchy subject in the wake of the debacle involving the return to Oakland of the Raiders football team in 1995.

Taxpayers have paid more than $80 million to bail out the deal, which was financed by $200 million in publicly backed bonds to renovate the Oakland Coliseum.

Supervisor Gail Steele, a member of the city-county panel that approved the Raiders' deal, expressed her reservations bluntly: "I don't think there will be the political will on the part of the people to do this," she said. That and this report from The Contra Costa Times' Guy Ashley

A man has to have goals- for a day, for a lifetime- that was mine, to have people say, "There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."
- Ted Williams

Many in the East Bay are being critical of the city and county spending money on these fact-finding junkets, so coming up with the money for a ballpark will really be a hard sell. Note the reference to Coors Field. Wonder if Portland could pay off a park 10 years early? From the Alameda Times-Star.

A's the focus in fact-finding stadium tours

Bobb, Spees want complete ballpark plan by year's end

April 19, 2002

By Robert Gammon
STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- Oakland public officials and Bay Area business leaders fanned out Thursday on the first leg of two tours examining the effects of new baseball parks on urban areas.

The tours represent a key step in determining whether building a new stadium in downtown Oakland for the Oakland A's makes economic sense.

The A's and Major League Baseball say the team cannot compete financially at Network Associates Coliseum, one of the last multipurpose stadiums in the country. The A's have indicated strongly they intend to leave Oakland if they do not get a new baseball-only ballpark.

"This is a major effort to retain a business ... a business that gives Oakland a national and worldwide reputation," Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb said of the attempt to devise a stadium plan to keep the team in Oakland.

Bobb spoke during a City Hall press conference just before the beginning of the first tour -- a five-day trip to Seattle, Denver and Cleveland. The second tour, also a five-day excursion, begins Wednesday and will include visits to Baltimore, Denver and Detroit.

Oakland City Councilmember **** Spees (Montclair-Laurel) said both tours include Denver because "we think there's a lot in common between the Denver experience and the Oakland experience."

Denver's Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, is considered a success story. From its opening in the early 1990s, revenue streams at Coors Field have poured in at a higher rate than expected. So much so, the bonds that financed the stadium were paid off 10 years early. The ballpark has been credited with revitalizing the city's lower downtown area.

Different groups of public and private officials will accompany the two tours. Spees is leading the first, while Bobb will lead the second tour. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, who has been quiet on the ballpark idea, is tentatively scheduled to be on the second tour, said Rosie Rios, Oakland's director of economic development and redevelopment.

Brown was vacationing Thursday and unavailable to comment.

Although the trips have sparked considerable excitement in Oakland, several East Bay public officials have turned down tour invitations. Alameda County Board of Supervisors member Gail Steele said her schedule conflicted with the tours, but added she would not have gone anyway because she believes them unnecessary.

The tours will cost about $2,500 per person. The city is slated to foot the bill for 11 city officials traveling on one or both of the tours, bringing the city's price tag to about $27,500. Private tour members will pay their own way.

"All of this information they will be collecting, they could probably get by mail or phone," said Steele, a longtime member of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority that oversees the Coliseum Complex.

Steele, who opposes using public dollars to finance a new ballpark, also questions whether any of the cities on the tours compare with the experiences the East Bay has had with sports teams, especially the ill-fated Oakland Raiders deal.

That deal, which brought the Raiders back from Los Angeles in 1995, was supposed to cost taxpayers nothing. Instead, the deal has contributed heavily to a public subsidy expected to reach $130 million by June 30 and has resulted in a bitter lawsuit between the Raiders and the city and county.

Steele also believes the tours are too Oakland-centered. She pointed out the trips are focusing on the effects of ballparks on downtown areas, which doesn't really apply to the rest of Alameda County.

Along with the tours, Oakland has commissioned three reports by expert consultants. The first will be an analysis of how other communities financed new stadiums. The second will be an examination of the economic impacts new stadiums have on urban areas. The third will be a look at possible financing plans for a new A's ballpark in Oakland.

Bobb and Spees, the two primary backers of a new ballpark, say they hope to have a comprehensive plan for a new A's stadium ready by the end of the year. Step one of the plan -- a ballpark site analysis -- was completed earlier this year.

That site analysis, by HOK Sport, the leading designer of new ballparks nationwide, chose a spot in Oakland's uptown area, a few blocks from City Hall, as the best place in the East Bay for a new ballpark. Bobb and Spees are hoping a new A's stadium would open in time for the beginning of the 2006 season.