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A's Unveil New Baseball-Only Stadium Plan

POSTED: 4:48 pm PDT August 12, 2005
UPDATED: 6:25 pm PDT August 12, 2005

OAKLAND -- Oakland Athletics owner Lew Wolff today proposed building a new stadium for the Major League Baseball team near their current home at the Oakland Coliseum.

Wolff presented his plan to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority, the public agency that manages the Coliseum-Area complex. The plan would include a 35,000-seat stadium in addition to a retail complex and either a hotel or residences with views of the field, similar to the Toronto Skydome.

"It is our hope to create more than just a ballpark, but one of the next major urban centers in the Bay Area that will greatly add to the economic base and the community image of the city we have called home for the last 38 years," Wolff said in a statement.

Wolff did not provide a cost for the project, which media reports have estimated at $300 to $400 million, but did say he would not seek a large public subsidy the way the Oakland Raiders did when they returned from Los Angeles 10 years ago.

"Our ownership group is willing to incur the vast majority of costs associated with the project; however to create the major urban development we envision is virtually impossible without some sort of public and governmental support," Wolff said in his statement.

South Bay officials who hope to lure the A's to San Jose were not surprised by today's proposal.

Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone, a board member of the Baseball San Jose group, said that his group always knew that Wolff had to make a new stadium proposal to Oakland.

"To be fair to the Oakland community and to satisfy Major League Baseball... Lew Wolff had to make a sincere, concerted effort to make a deal to get a ballpark in Oakland," Stone said.

Stone expects Wolff's proposal to fail.

"I don't think it will happen," Stone said.

In San Jose the A's would play in a downtown ballpark not in an industrial area such as the 66th and High streets site that Wolff proposed today.

"The best sites for modern ballparks are downtown. Look at Baltimore, Cleveland, Denver, Seattle," Stone said.

Stone had to be reminded that San Francisco also has a downtown ballpark and chuckled as he agreed that it was successful.

The South Bay also has much greater corporate support than Oakland, which is crucial to modern sports franchises, according to Stone.

"Name me three major corporations in Oakland. I can name two: Kaiser and Clorox. We have Cisco, Intel, HP, the list is endless," Stone said.

The San Jose Redevelopment Agency should have land secured for a possible ballpark on the western edge of Downtown San Jose, near the Diridon train station, within the next 30 to 60 days -- when Wolff's Oakland proposal collapses, San Jose will be waiting, Stone said.

"(Wolff) said he would take up to a year to attempt to make a deal that works in Oakland," Stone said.

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quote:

"Name me three major corporations in Oakland. I can name two: Kaiser and Clorox. We have Cisco, Intel, HP, the list is endless," Stone said.

Mike... this is why the Giants will never relent to a franchise in Santa Clara Co.

You just made a great case for Magowan.