The San Jose Athletics of Fremont
Commissioner Bud Selig will come to the
Bay Area to make the official announcement.
The Oakland Athletics are moving to the
City of Fremont. Selig will be here November 14.
By Amaury Pi-GonzalezIs on 143 acre land here in Fremont(city where this reporter has lived since 1979)near the former
Baylands racetrack, not far from the Fremont
dump/land fill and off the Automall Parkway Exit coming off Highway 880. That is where the Athletics will have their new stadium.
At this time the infrastructure is not there to support the traffic in that area currently mostly
occupied by automobile dealers, but we are still talking years away until the season opens in
Fremont. Maybe Spring Training could be in
Oakland ! or in Lafayette or Walnut Creek…
Just for the record, this City of Fremont has a
population of 210,000 according to the most
recent US Census in the year 2000 and is the fourth largest in total population in the nine
counties of the Bay Area. Only San Jose,San
Francisco and yes, Oakland have more people.
The A’S will not be in San Jose, but this is as close they can get to the South Bay market, where they want to be.
What will the name be ?
1-The Fremont Athletics ?
2-The Oakland Athletics of Fremont ?
3-The San Jose Athletics of Fremont ?
4-The Dumbarton Bridge Athletics ?
5-The Hi-Tech A’S?
Here is a noble idea, why not
THE ATHLETICS
Who knows ! But iT IS "no mas"for the great
City of Oakland who haS been the A’S
home since they moved from Kansas City in
1968.
The A’S just signed a lease with Oakland for
the Oakland Coliseum until 2010. The new
stadium will take a few years to be built and
then they will have Southern Alameda County
and Santa Clara County to draw from (very close)
plus others "die hard fans"that have followed the
A’S and might travel from Northern Alameda
or Contra Costa County to their new home.
Because is on private own land the voters here
in Fremont will have no say. Between Fremont,
Milpitas and San Jose we have about 1.3 million
residents. Who needs Berkely,Albany or
Vallejo ?
From the location of the new park here in
Fremont to downtown San Jose is aproximately
15 miles. I know because I do the trip frequently and after Milpitas on Hwy 880 traffic is brutal
during rush hours as of today, without a park.
The rest I leave to your imagination. From BART Fremont, the last BART station in the South Bay
to the new park is about 5 to 6 miles. At this point there is no public service transportation to the
new park, but that of course will change.
I like to know your honest or dishonest opinion about what will become fruition in a few years.
0 comments
Sounds like they need to make improvements to the infrastructure for it to happen, but they can do that. It sounds like the East Bay A’s would also have a South Bay following. Probably best for them, but its a shame for the city of Oakland which probably needs the revenue and pride.
Let’s get this straight:
The “of whatever” tagline was done by the Angels so that could abide by their contract with the city of Anaheim that required them to use the city’s name. However, that usage has been widely criticized, made fun of and I doubt the A’s will go down that path.
Even though the A’s can use “San Jose” as a name, I predict that MLB will encourage the A’s not to. After all, the city of San Jose is still part of Giants territory, and Peter Magowan is already pretty PO’d as it is about this, I bet. Plus, naming the team for San Jose will undoubtedly upset many East Bay fans.
“Silicon Valley” is clearly the best choice. First, it will appeal to corporate money, is a well accepted term that has never been used (unlike “Golden State”), and even though it implies the South Bay, will resonate with a good portion of the Bay Area. And if there’s anything the A’s need to do to compete with the Giants, it’s to market themselves to the entire Bay Area. Calling themselves “Oakland” or “San Jose” doesn’t do that.
Lew Wolff needs to be very careful about this. I precict that any name change won’t be announced as long as the team still plays at the Coliseum. Oakland. Instead, we’ll probably see a de-emphasizing of “Oakland” in marketing similar to what we saw with the Raiders when they were moving to LA.
If just the prospect of having the team in the South Bay is enough to attract corporate and new fan support, the A’s could opt to keep the name “Oakland” indenfinitely. More likely is that support for the team is split 50-50 between the East and South Bays and “Silicon Valley” will emerge as the name.
But for those South Bay fans out there saying “Oakland, you’re finished and this is our team now!”, you’re dead wrong. One of the main reasons the A’s had problems in Oakland is that they weren’t seen as a Bay Area team, and they’re had better not make that mistake again.
Rob
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