California Tanker
11-15-2006, 01:05 AM
This one probably hasn't as much as raised a ripple outside of the Bay Area, but there's plenty of finger-pointing going on.
There are three sagas going on at the same time.
The easy one is over in Oakland. The Oakland A's have decided this week that they're moving about 30 miles South, leaving the Oracle Colliseum and building a new Cisco Stadium in the town of Fremont. They cite a lack of suitable land for new stadium construction, and financial issues with Oakland. Nobody knows what they'll be called yet, the "Fremont A's" doesn't sound right, and the "Bay A's" sounds even worse! Cue lots of complaints from Oakland residents to the Oakland city council.
San Francisco, on the other hand, is a political mess. There were two big sporting negotiations going on: There was the bid to host the Olympics in 2016, and there was also the renewal of the San Francisco 49ers.
Well, the 49ers announced this week that they're moving about 30 miles South as well, to build a new stadium in Santa Clara. This wasn't the worst of it, though. It seems that the San Francisco Olympic Bid was relying on the 49ers renewing their contract on Candlestick Park (I refuse to call it Monster Park), and building a new stadium on that site. With this new, high capacity stadium, they would have a suitable location for the ceremonies and track/field. Well, though the SF Olympic Committee kept cautioning San Francisco that the 49ers deal was far from certain and that they needed to come up with a backup plan, it seems they didn't. Suddenly the SF Olympic Bid is collapsing. (And with it, Mayor Gavin Newsom's dreams of legacy, I would wager). Now it's getting dirty. The City is now looking at legal and legislative options to make, as the Mayor said on the radio, "it as difficult as possible for the 49ers to move." They've apparently got Senator Feinstein on board as well, she has said she is going to try to introduce legislation into Congress with the same effect. Apparently one of the primary arguments they are going to make is over the team name. Although the Dodgers can go from New York to L.A. without problem, the 49ers are going to be legislatively mandated to stay in San Francisco, as '49ers' is "identified with San Francisco, as that's how many square miles the city is." They're also going to try playing hardball on the 4-year-gap between the 2008 expiration on the Monster Park lease with the 2012 estimate of the opening of the new stadium.
You'd think our legislative masters would have some more pressing issues to deal with.
Ah, heck. I don't follow sports anyway. Except Formula 1 and the World Cup, I guess.
NTM
There are three sagas going on at the same time.
The easy one is over in Oakland. The Oakland A's have decided this week that they're moving about 30 miles South, leaving the Oracle Colliseum and building a new Cisco Stadium in the town of Fremont. They cite a lack of suitable land for new stadium construction, and financial issues with Oakland. Nobody knows what they'll be called yet, the "Fremont A's" doesn't sound right, and the "Bay A's" sounds even worse! Cue lots of complaints from Oakland residents to the Oakland city council.
San Francisco, on the other hand, is a political mess. There were two big sporting negotiations going on: There was the bid to host the Olympics in 2016, and there was also the renewal of the San Francisco 49ers.
Well, the 49ers announced this week that they're moving about 30 miles South as well, to build a new stadium in Santa Clara. This wasn't the worst of it, though. It seems that the San Francisco Olympic Bid was relying on the 49ers renewing their contract on Candlestick Park (I refuse to call it Monster Park), and building a new stadium on that site. With this new, high capacity stadium, they would have a suitable location for the ceremonies and track/field. Well, though the SF Olympic Committee kept cautioning San Francisco that the 49ers deal was far from certain and that they needed to come up with a backup plan, it seems they didn't. Suddenly the SF Olympic Bid is collapsing. (And with it, Mayor Gavin Newsom's dreams of legacy, I would wager). Now it's getting dirty. The City is now looking at legal and legislative options to make, as the Mayor said on the radio, "it as difficult as possible for the 49ers to move." They've apparently got Senator Feinstein on board as well, she has said she is going to try to introduce legislation into Congress with the same effect. Apparently one of the primary arguments they are going to make is over the team name. Although the Dodgers can go from New York to L.A. without problem, the 49ers are going to be legislatively mandated to stay in San Francisco, as '49ers' is "identified with San Francisco, as that's how many square miles the city is." They're also going to try playing hardball on the 4-year-gap between the 2008 expiration on the Monster Park lease with the 2012 estimate of the opening of the new stadium.
You'd think our legislative masters would have some more pressing issues to deal with.
Ah, heck. I don't follow sports anyway. Except Formula 1 and the World Cup, I guess.
NTM