San Jose officials are already mapping a game plan to land the Oakland A’s, proposing a poll of city residents and designating lead negotiators for the city.
San Jose officials are already mapping a game plan to land the Oakland A’s, proposing a poll of city residents and designating lead negotiators for the city.
A group of business leaders has already formed, but the early actions by three councilmembers — Nancy Campos, Rose Herrera and Nancy Pyle — will set the tone and establish how much San Jose really wants baseball. Next week the influential Rules and Open Government Committee will take up a memo outlining what San Jose will do to land the team, which includes the aforementioned public poll (the results of which will be made public in 45 days) and the appointment of the city manager and city’s economic development director San Jose’s negotiators with the A’s and MLB.
The city has a 14-acre plot near Didiron Station foreseen by some as a ballpark site. One big issue will be how the city offers the site to the A’s: some want to sell it to the team, but we’re guessing that will be an economic nonstarter for the A’s and MLB.
There will be many hurdles for San Jose to overcome to land the A’s: the current economy make any half-million-dollar development a challenge, and San Francisco Giants officials must be placated for the move of a team to their territory. Still, after Lew Wolff’s efforts to bring the A’s to Fremont collapsed, many in baseball say the time is now for the A’s to make the move to San Jose — and they think Bud Selig concurs.
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