What Wolf does have, however, is a FRAT BROTHER as Commish.

The A’s don’t lose money in Oakland. They can limp along on MLB’s revenue sharing checks for some time. I see Selig stalling for time, hoping an opening for another option opens up, either a stadium in Oakland or a move somewhere else. This is just going to drag on and on.

For what it’s worth, Bud has already delivered the decision you’re asking for. In May he said it was up to Lew Wolff, subject to the normal approval process, for the A’s to move out of Oakland. In other words, the commissioner is not standing in the way. The hold-up, of course, is that Lew Wolff is interested in moving the A’s only to San Jose, which has the major inconvenience of being located within the territory of another major league franchise. He may as well as set his sights on a location further along Yawkey Way, or maybe just up Waveland Avenue.

The A’s had the T-rights for San Jose then.

As I mentioned earlier (but below), this isn’t true. Here’s an informative and well-focused article on the history of the territorial rights in the area from the New York Times, published this April. It makes clear the fact that no territorial rights to San Jose were assigned prior to 1990.

Oakland is about as ghetto as Detroit, Baltimore and New Orleans. The “Occupy” protesters in Oakland are violent and the Mayor of Oakland endorses these criminals.

The Oakland Coliseum is a perfect monument to the Welfare piece of trash city that we call…. Oakland.

Enough is enough Bud Selig! I am a lifelong, Diehard A’s Fan and am sick and tired of your indecision. Selig was the commissioner that once wondered if the baseballs were “juiced” and even toured the facility where the baseballs are made. This whole time, we all knew that it was the massive giant-looking PLAYERS THAT WERE JUICING. It is time for the MLB Owners to call for a vote of no-confidence of Bud Selig and replace him with a REAL MAN THAT WILL GIVE THE A’s A YES OR NO.

This hellhole of Blight and Crime that we call Oakland is getting what it deserves! The Warriors are moving, the Raiders (if they have any sense) will move to either Santa Clara or Los Angeles and the A’s want to move. Nobody even feels safe staying at one of the hotels near the Oakland Airport. When you gas up your car on Hegenberger, you are often met by scary-looking lazy men that refuse to work and would rather beg you for money.

I know that thousands of good, honest, tax-paying citizens of the Bay Area agree with me, MOVE THE A’s OUT OF OAKLAND… NOW!

Plus, given the history of the A’s under Wolff and before, do we have any reason to expect Wolff to significantly increase payroll or marketing efforts? Or will he just take the extra profits and put them directly in his own pocket?

They should be wary of what they wish for: it’s quite possible for a move to San Jose to benefit Wolff, a major real estate developer in the South Bay, without resulting in a revenue stream that allows them to compete any more readily than they have done in the recent past, depending on what it takes for them to settle the matter of territorial rights with the Giants. Joining the NBA effectively cost the Nets Julius Erving — would the A’s be similarly hamstrung in order to pay off the Giants for the valuable South Bay territory? After watching him cry poor in Oakland for years, I wouldn’t take it on faith that Wolff has the A’s fans’ interests in mind.

I guess where we disagree is on what Haas did 25 years ago. What you see as magnanimous I see as shortsighted and stupid. Haas could have (and should have) put all kinds of requirements and restrictions into the deal to cede the territory to the Giants but he didn’t. Tomato tomahto I guess.

What I’m sure we can both agree on is that Lew Wolff knew all of this when he bought the team. He knew the Giants owned the South Bay. He knew the A’s needed a new ballpark. He knew that if he wanted to move this fight was coming, yet he bought the team and cried poor and unfair anyway.

As I said in another comment that’s exactly what the A’s did: gave up the South Bay so that they’d get fans from San Francisco taking BART to Oakland rather than driving down to Santa Clara. The decision by the A’s was a calculated business decision that backfired, not, as many would have you believe, a charitable act that was made purely for “the best interests of the game.” I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone make a compelling argument for why the Giants should be responsible for fixing a mistake the A’s made 25 years ago.

And I think the fact that the Giants invested in and developed a loyal following in the South Bay is very relevant. They put in the time and the money and rely on the fans and money coming up north. What have the A’s done to earn the fans and the support and why should it just be handed to them? Because they decided that Oakland can’t work and it’s not even worth trying? Lew Wolff has done to Oakland almost exactly what Loria did to Montreal and the only reason Lew’s not equally reviled is that he was at least smart enough not to be so openly dickish about it (and his college pal is Bud Selig).

the problem, as was with candlestick, is the casual fan, who don’t show up because the stadium is unappealing.

The more pressing concern for us Santa Clara County residents, though, is that with the 49ers moving to Santa Clara, do we want all these damn sports teams overloading the already terrible public transit system down here? I, as a fan of East Coast teams, do not.

they have made money for their ownership group. Attendance did bottom out, but, as I recall, it was up last year and is up again this year.

Hardly. Doing better than now, yes, but still in the lower tier as far as overall attendance.

They were given to the giants “for Free” in hopes that the giants would mover there, and I suspect in hopes that they A’s could then grab the attention of the newly abandoned Downtown SF $.

I don’t know, maybe someone does, do territorial rights limit the way you can market your team? Can the A’s put up billboards in the giant’s territory without a waiver?

Whatever his assessment of its value, please don’t get me wrong: because Haas had leverage in the situation and could probably have extracted some kind of concession from MLB even if what he was “giving up” was of little direct value to the A’s, I agree that his “mentality” in that transaction was unselfish.

This does not mean that I think the Giants, on the basis of “morality” or any other basis, are bound to cede their rights now in order to effect a similar magnanimity. Because that wouldn’t be magnanimity; that would be stupidity. It would result in two franchises with a weak outlook where there was previously only one. A’s fans hate the Giants ownership now? Just think of how much more they’ll hate them if they’re fighting tooth and nail for the same resources in the same corner of the Bay, while for a significant period owing the Giants a good chunk of their revenue according to whatever settlement MLB imposes. My advice: get your owner to sell, A’s fans, to someone who’s willing to make a go of it where you already are. Nobody opposes that except the A’s current ownership.

There’s no doubt the big loser in this whole mess is the city of San Jose. The problem is there are 3 cities and only 2 teams so someone is going to be left unhappy. If there’s a way to make San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose all happy then I’m all ears.

As I said in my comment, some will find the Giants intransigence acceptable based as it is on the winner-take-all mentality pervasive today in American business.

My point is that Haas didn’t act with that mentality. Far from it.

Yet a team can find itself in an environment where it cannot flourish . . . which is the problem that the A’s have been enduring for the past 30 or so years.

Again, I will say this . . . it’s clear as pie to me that the Giants have no intention of doing anything, unless the A’s somehow gain MLB approval to move to San Jose without their (Giants) consent. The Giants clearly support the status quo and likely hope to force the A’s to move out of the Bay Area altogether – that way it’s ALL theirs.

This is all market strategy now folks, nothing more, nothing less.