When renting movies at the local video store, which in our electronic based society is surprisingly not yet torn down, the clerk Erik and I engaged in a brief exchange about the owners of the Oakland Athletics having expressed an interest in having an MLS team. This was covered on the AP sports ticker in a brief blurb. During the holidays likely it was read by about seventeen people nationwide. The interest level is probably on par with who won a ping pong match at the local Senior Center.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Perhaps I am a little more keen on the ramifications of this interest by Wolff, Crowley and Beane to purchase a team for a city that could not even support a recent champion fresh off leading the MLS in points. In case you are wondering, Wolff does in fact have a second "f", Crowley is probably not named after an Ozzy Osbourne song and Billy Beane is the only person of the three anyone outside the Bay Area has even heard of. That being said, I will get to my point before I lose anyone gracious enough to be reading this.
The move of the Oakland Athletics has long been rumored. At one time D.C. was a possibility until a certain team from Canada filled that spot. During modifications to the stadium currently referred to as the McAfee Coliseum (I still hear the media call it Network Associates) there were thoughts of taking their act to Las Vegas where I am certain the mascot would have been an Elvis impersonator. That would have been a big stretch at the time although now that the NBA is flirting with the possibility perhaps it is not so far fetched. All signs point to moving because in spite of their talented, winning teams the stadium simply does not draw fans. How does this relate to the ownership group wanting an MLS team?
DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SAN JOSE?
Quite simply, the biggest push has been for San Jose. The stumbling block is the rights of the San Francisco Giants not to have another professional baseball team in their area. With the mayor of San Jose being censured and MLS team (Quakes) flying off to Houston things are not going very smoothly there. It would seem to be a good time for a group of savvy businessmen to make a seemingly philanthropic maneuver to bring another professional franchise into San Jose, but with a big string attached.
That string is that after perhaps starting a fresh MLS franchise, running it well and doing a lot of nice things for the community they will have built up some trust. At that time, when the idea of moving the A's to San Jose is brought up there will be considerably more momentum on their side. I do not think I need to draw a picture to those who know a good long term business move when they see one.
RAIDER NATION
It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out and if the city does in fact lose the Athletics could the Raiders be far behind? Well, they might be leading the way out of town if you buy into the rumors This is the final season of the dreaded Personal Seat License (PSL) which has been a sore subject of hard working fans since it was implemented upon the team's return from Los Angeles 11 seasons ago.
The good news for fans is that the Oakland Football Marketing Association (OFMA) has been abolished. They were rude to fans, disorganized and generally disliked. Making matters worse, the villain that is Al Davis bore the blame for many things that OFMA was actually responsible for. If a new long term ticket solution is reached in the very near future the Raiders might have a long future in Oakland. Should things go sour, the Los Angeles area itch might form again on the back of Al Davis.
EMPTY COLISEUM?
In the event that we have the San Jose Athletics and Los Angeles Raiders where does that leave the city of Oakland? At least the Golden State Warriors are playing better of late, but such defections would cast serious doubt on the ability of Oakland to support professional teams. The East Bay may never regain a foothold and fade into oblivion. Heck, the Warriors might even return to San Francisco.
I suppose one potential solution to saving Oakland's franchises would have to be building a new baseball only facility to draw fans for the winning Athletics, but I sincerely doubt a fancy stadium is the answer. The Coliseum is not a complete dump and we are not talking about a small deficit of fans or a terrible product on the field. This team regularly draws low numbers even in the midst of playoff runs.
Where the Raiders are concerned, sell-outs are few and far between. The recent contest against the Cleveland Browns was posted at over 40,000 in paid attendance but those who did attend found about half of that actually showing up.
CHIME IN ANY TIME
Your solution is as good as mine. As a resident of the East Bay I would hate to see either the Raiders or Athletics leave.
Oakland has needed new stadiums for a while. The current stadiums simply can't keep up with the other modern stadiums around the league with many more revenue sources such as increased luxury seating.
What I have found interesting when stadium issues have been discussed for the Vikings is that, in order to gain the necessary funds, the state would have to increase sales tax by a fraction of a percent...hardly noticeable to any one person. I suspect that would be the case in Oakland.
Obviously the entire state of California won't be able to get a tax increase approved for just Oakland alone, considering how large California is and most people in it aren't Raiders fans, but Oakland itself and surrounding areas have more people in them than the whole state of Minnesota, so the tax increases could be confined to just the surrounding areas and fund the stadiums.
The Doc... Thank you for supporting my blog and adding your thoughts. In this case, increasing the sales tax is probably out of the question. In Alameda County (home of Oakland and a certain Norcalfella) the tax is already 8.75% because of a BART (our public transportation) extension through Castro Valley and Dublin. Without looking this up, I do believe it is already the highest in the entire state.
I am hoping others like yourself post comments and/or suggestions because it is very sad having grown up here to watch stadiums sit half full with the fear of losing one of my beloved franchises.
Norcal: The A's in San Jose? Couldn't we move them out of the AL West altogether? (Sorry, you know I didn't mean it, (NOT)). Probably not, because we would get something worse (can you say Oakland Yankees?) in return. We've done pretty well with our two publically funded stadia (though don't say anything about Key Arena right now), and they both might even be paid off early what with the good attendance that they have boasted since they opened and the Kingdome went bye-bye. What the area really needs to do (and, no, unfortunately, I don't actually have a clue how to go about it) is to shake local fandom out of their apathy and get them coming to games. If this takes cracking down on the ill mannered battery throwing and/or potty mouthed ones so that others will feel more comfortable, then so be it. And I seriously don't think that you need to worry about the Raiders going back to LA--they don't want them back. Cheers
Many have the perception that LA does not want the Raiders back, feeling like this really matters to the people actually making the decision. Look, Al Davis, the NFL and let us just throw the TV networks in there as those responsible for the decision to move a team. They are not going to poll the LA area asking them if they want the Raiders to return. I know this because no one asked the Oakland area back in 1994 when seemingly overnight they had returned.
These are my teams, for better or worse. I was born here and as long as they remain in Oakland I will back them up.
However, I agree with your sentiment and many others who have expressed similar thoughts about shaking up the fans. I supported the Raiders with 11 years worth of season tickets. I have not done as much with the Athletics although I did almost take a job with them many years ago. One of the guys interviewing me bragged about how they saved money getting rid of a very popular player (Berroa) and I knew then that it was all about the dollars & sense.
Norcal--Of course, the almighty dollar is at the bottom of most of these decisions, to be sure. My sister still lives in SoCal and is a corporate attorney with quite a few contacts in some of the proposed ownership groups that had been trying to lure an NFL team to LA. They have pretty much given up because of all of the problems they were having with trying to put together a stadium deal. This is not to say that they won't try again at some point, particularly if the League decides that they want to move the Saints there after all. Denizens of LA have gotten to be pretty used to not having a team since the Rams and the Raiders went away. As for shaking up the fans and increasing attendance, there has to be a way, it's just a matter of what it might be. Happy Tuesday.
sleepless... Again, how right you are. In fact you will often hear Jim Rome talk about how little the LA area wants another pro football team. Heck, they already have USC.
It feels like Tags is carrying the anti-Al baggage from the Rozelle days. This to me seems like the biggest reason LA has sat vacant for 11 years. For anyone who does not know the history it was Al Davis who paved the way for every other team in the NFL to be able to move their team (business) to another city. Happy Tuesday to you as well.
Very well informed post. That would be a very interesting idea to have a draft style lottery, but then we wouldn't have those gem games like the Niners -vs- the Texans to look forward to. Thats the game I'm watching this weekend, please let them show the respective owners boxes so I can see the owners squirming every time their team scores a touchdown.
Chris79 - Thank you for stopping by, and I might be spending some time at your blog even though the hours are starting to close in on me.
This is in response to my other piece, but I'll take any comment I can get. Houston vs. San Francisco and Buffalo vs. New York (Jets) will both be interesting to watch this week in a perverted sort of way.
I think it is inaccurate to say that we disagree a lot. I posted one opinion on your blog regarding the finish of the Alamo Bowl. It snowballed a bit and I regret having said anything about it in the first place. It was not important enough to argue about.
Hey Norcal. Thanks for checking out some of my older stuff, and for the idea. I was checking out your "Classic Fella" earlier to see how it worked.
I've been away for awhile, and have to catch up on some blog reading too.
I couldn't get the bio link to work, not sure what I did wrong. I basically just used HTML code for a hyperlink, which works everywhere else. Would you be so kind as to offer a little help?
Feel free to email me if you want: shooterb.realm@yahoo.com
As a Next Great Sportswriter Finalist I learned quite a bit about blogging. I intend to continue my pursuits here and elsewhere. Thanks again to everyone who supported me in the contest and to those who continue to frequent my page. Occasionally I am going to bust out a post, but I am certainly not going to break any blogging records.
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