GRID wrote:
I don't think the owners give a shit one way or the other about what happens "outside" the stadiums. That's the biggest reason why we didn't even look at the idea of building a downtown baseball stadium. If the owner isn't interested, may as well go the cheap route and stay at the TSC.
except in the A's new home in Fremont:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 01&sc=1000
At the A's proposed new ballpark in Fremont, home runs wouldn't fly into the bay or the salt flats. But they might land in your plate of spaghetti at some upscale Italian restaurant.
If approved by Fremont's City Council, the $450 million Cisco Field would open in 2011 in a now-vacant lot in the city's Irvington district. It would be surrounded by high-end retail stores, restaurants overlooking the outfield, and housing for at least 3,000 people, A's officials told Fremont on Tuesday night.
"This is the biggest project Fremont will ever see," Mayor Bob Wasserman said. "If it's approved, it will create a pride here. It will make the city a whole place."
Though finances weren't part of the discussion as the A's outlined the latest details of their 200-acre, $1.8 billion development plan to Fremont officials and residents at Fremont City Hall, the team has asserted that a new ballpark would raise millions of dollars a year in public and private revenue.
On Tuesday, the A's said they would comply with city officials' request to move a proposed elementary school closer to the stadium. It had been planned for several blocks away.
Cisco Field - which would be located 25 miles south of the team's current stadium in Oakland- would seat 32,000 and be the smallest ballpark in major-league baseball. Almost the entire outfield would be rimmed with elevated seating. That way, pedestrians, shoppers and diners walking in a mall area below could watch the game for free through windows beneath those elevated seats.
The team, tentatively to be called the Athletics at Fremont - at one time it had been the Silicon Valley Athletics at Fremont - would play in a classic ballpark with plenty of bricks, reminiscent of Boston's Fenway Park or AT&T Park in San Francisco, said Keith Wolff, the A's co-owner.
"On game days, the ballpark will provide energy and excitement," Wolff said. "On nongame days, it will be like a sculpture or a park."
The public would also be able to watch games for free from a public park just beyond center field. That park would even have its own scoreboard.
The development would include 11,000 parking spaces cloaked by four- and five-story residential buildings, with more than 3,000 units in all.
Most of the 60 or so Fremont residents who attended Tuesday's meeting supported the project.
"Fremont, for many years, has needed something to keep people here," said Bill Rinetti, owner of Massimo's restaurant. "People will stay here and spend their money here, and the whole city will prosper."
Not everyone was thrilled with the project. Some complained that the ballpark wouldn't be close enough to BART - it's 5 miles from the nearest station - and that the shopping area would attract too much traffic.
"Everyone here seems to be intoxicated with the idea of bringing a professional ball team to Fremont," said Vinton Bacon of Fremont, who works for the Sierra Club. "This project brings more suburban sprawl and is inherently environmentally unfriendly."
The A's plan to submit a formal development application to Fremont within four weeks, Wolff said. The A's have said they are leaving Oakland because they couldn't secure land for the expanded development the owners envisioned.
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