In the continued quest to find the right home for his baseball team, A’s owner Lew Wolff is being wooed most aggressively by Oakland, his old standby, and San Jose, his new flame.
The first offers the comfort of home, which it’s been for the past 42 years. Anxious over its fading allure, Oakland is racing to revive Major League Baseball’s interest with three downtown waterfront ballpark plans.
Yet it’s San Jose’s downtown proposal that Wolff has dubbed his best option, with the city contributing the land and Wolff building the stadium. After 17 months of study by an MLB committee, Wolff and others wonder if Oakland’s 11th-hour pitch is truly credible.
“Oakland’s effort is entirely smoke and mirrors,” said Michael Mulcahy, co-founder of the grassroots group Baseball San Jose. “There is no political will and no corporate community to mount a serious effort.”
Oakland disagrees, though the city has not yet committed any money to a stadium deal. Still, boosters have recruited 35 companies that have pledged a total of $500,000 in future sponsorships, naming rights and luxury suites.
The opinion that matters most belongs to baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, a fraternity brother of Wolff’s who is awaiting the committee’s final report. That report will help baseball’s 30 team owners decide whether the team can move to the South Bay, which is officially the territory of the San Francisco Giants.
With committee members currently tallying up each city’s pros and cons, here’s our own effort to assess the situation.
A look at the San Jose plan: City leaders push downtown ballpark, but significant hurdles remain.
A look at the Oakland plan: Backers insist plan isn’t too late to keep the team.
