Santa Clara site enthuses Schott
By Gregg Bell
BEE STAFF WRITER
(Published April 8, 2001)

OAKLAND -- A's co-owner Steve Schott was walking off the Coliseum field before the recent A's-St. Louis Cardinals exhibition game when a middle-aged woman caught his attention from the box seats.

"I've been an A's fan for 17 years," said the woman, who identified herself as a North Bay native. "I hear you are doing computer surveys saying people will want to go to Santa Clara to see A's games.

"I want you to know that I have a consensus of people in Marin and a lot of people in Sacramento ... who will not go to Santa Clara to see the A's."

Schott politely said he "would take that into consideration" -- and then quickly walked away.

Schott met last month with his hometown Santa Clara City Council about a new A's stadium in the parking lot of that city's Great America Amusement Park.

"The city is reviewing it, and they will have a meeting about it in a couple of weeks," Schott said in the safety of the A's clubhouse tunnel. "Everyone agrees with me that we need a new stadium and new revenues."

On Friday, at what Schott calls "a dinosaur," the 34-year-old Coliseum, a large crowd watched what may be one of the last home openers to be played in Oakland.

Dramatic hyperbole? Maybe.

Awkward, even offensive, for East Bay fans to consider, given their lofty expectations for the A's in this season? Absolutely.

Possible? Definitely.

For the first time in their Oakland history, the A's do not have a multi-year commitment to play in the Coliseum. Beginning this year, the A's have a year-to-year lease with Alameda County through 2004.

At the end of each of the next four seasons, the team will have the ability to move.

Schott has been lobbying Santa Clara for time and approval to research the feasibility of a baseball-only stadium on the Great America site.

Now Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown appears to be doing lobbying of his own, much more subtly than Schott's public courting of Santa Clara.

Brown is generally apathetic toward sports teams, especially since he is at the top of a political system still feeling taken by the Raiders' financially disastrous return to Oakland. Yet there he was in the A's Pacific Bell Park clubhouse last weekend after an A's-Giants exhibition game.

"I'm here to make sure the A's are not moving to Santa Clara," Brown quipped. When asked what progress Oakland has made in building a new baseball stadium to keep the A's, Brown said, "We have two sites being talked about -- one near Laney College and one near the Main Street (downtown transit) terminal.

"The problem," Brown said, "is finding the money."

That's the one essential factor Schott is counting on from Santa Clara.

The real-estate executive said that Major League Baseball last year completed a viability study, yet to be released, that reviewed the potential revenue that cities such as Sacramento, Portland and Santa Clara/San Jose could bring a big-league team.

"From what I've been told, Santa Clara came out number one," Schott said. He also said he has three other sites in mind within Santa Clara County, but that the Great America site -- accessible via three freeways -- is by far his most desired.

Asked if he would consider moving the A's to Sacramento, Schott said quickly, "I doubt it."

The first and biggest stumbling block to an A's move to the South Bay is that Major League Baseball granted the Giants territorial rights to the area in 1993. That was when the Giants were on the verge of moving out of San Francisco.

Schott believes he can persuade two-thirds of the league's owners to waive those rights. Giants owner Peter Magowan, of course, feels differently.

The second hurdle -- approval to move from league owners other than Magowan -- would be a mere formality.

The possible relocation of the A's is not the only big-ticket item currently on Schott's mind.

The man who signs the A's checks also said the team is still "working like heck" to reach an agreement with Jason Giambi on a new six-year, $90 million contract.

Giambi has imposed a moratorium on discussing the issue now that the season has begun. But his agent, Arn Tellem, has said he expects talks with A's general manager Billy Beane to continue.

The deal is stalled over Giambi's insistence of a no-trade clause.

"People forget that this will be the biggest contract in Bay Area history," Schott said. "It's as much as we paid for the entire franchise (a bargain-basement $83 million in 1995)."

Schott held firm to his reason for refusing Giambi's no-trade clause demand.

"If we get into a tough situation (financially), we need the ability to trade him."

Schott said his concern is the impact Giambi's deal would have on the A's payroll in three or four years, when rising stars such as Tim Hudson, Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada and Barry Zito will be due new contracts.

So it's possible that the A's will be out of Oakland and playing without Jason Giambi as soon as a new South Bay stadium can be constructed.

In that case, Schott would be dodging more than fans' pointed comments when he comes to the Coliseum.