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Mayor Johnson drops the 'A's' word -- as in Sacramento A's
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By Ryan Lillis
rlillis@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 - 4:34 pm
Last Modified: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 - 4:58 pm
It may not have been former Mayor Joe Serna Jr. donning a green and yellow cap and boasting he would bring Major League Baseball to Sacramento, but the timing of Mayor Kevin Johnson's invitation today to the Oakland A's has people wondering.
It was the A's, after all, who declared just Tuesday that they were ditching their plans to build a stadium in Fremont. And it was A's owner Lew Wolff who said in a statement that it was his goal to keep the team "in Northern California."
Johnson said he hasn't spoken with the A's this week, and a team spokesman said Wednesday that management was "regrouping" in the wake of the Fremont plan's demise. Still, Johnson - in his first State of the City speech - said that if the Kings leave, Sacramento could look down the road for a new major league franchise.
"If they leave for some strange reason, then we need to get somebody else in Sacramento," he said. "I don't care if it's the Oakland A's, I don't care if it's the Golden State Warriors. We have to have a franchise, a top-notch, world-class franchise in our city because it helps elevate the profile of our city."
After his speech, the mayor said he has "not personally had any conversations" with the A's about moving 80 miles up the freeway.
"What I was trying to say is we're not going to sit on our hands, we're going to explore every opportunity," he said. "I don't want to be a city where after something happens we say 'Oh, we should have reacted.' We're going to anticipate, we're going to call, we're going to do everything everybody else is.
"Not that we can deliver on everything, but we're going to put ourselves into a position and let people know we're interested."
Johnson said his focus is on the Kings and a proposal to build a new arena at Cal Expo. That plan will be unveiled on Friday.
"Let's do everything that we can do to get an arena built somewhere," he said. "And if that arena can be built at Cal Expo, great."
Building a baseball stadium was the shocking moment of Serna's State of the City speech in 1996. He announced plans to start a regional stadium authority and declared, "It is time to play ball."
More than a decade later, Sacramento could now be on the short list of cities with a realistic shot of landing the A's, said Roger Noll, a Stanford sports economist.
"It seems to me that Sacramento probably is in the hunt," Noll said. "It doesn't mean they're going to win, but if the A's decide to leave the Bay Area, Sacramento could be an option."
Sacramento has one thing going for it that other cities believed to be in the hunt - cities like San Jose, Portland, San Antonio and Las Vegas - do not, Noll said: It has a baseball stadium that could be expanded to suit a major league team.
West Sacramento officials have said that the possibility - however remote - of Raley Field expanding was something that was built into stadium plans and surrounding street designs.
"The political battle of getting a stadium built has already happened and that gives you a huge leg up," Noll said.
The Sacramento region is also on par with the small market major league baseball cities in terms of its population, Noll said.
Of course, Noll also said Sacramento lacks a vital segment that attracts major league baseball: large corporations that eat up luxury boxes.
Noll doesn't expect the A's to make a decision about the organization's future until at least next year. But he likes Sacramento's chances.
"If Sacramento actually wanted the team and went after it, it would have a shot," he said.
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/story/1653977.html
I don't have a link, I just copied and pasted from another forum. It's legit though.
NOTE: I added the link because we do NOT allow articles to be posted without them. - VF21
ShareThis
By Ryan Lillis
rlillis@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 - 4:34 pm
Last Modified: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 - 4:58 pm
It may not have been former Mayor Joe Serna Jr. donning a green and yellow cap and boasting he would bring Major League Baseball to Sacramento, but the timing of Mayor Kevin Johnson's invitation today to the Oakland A's has people wondering.
It was the A's, after all, who declared just Tuesday that they were ditching their plans to build a stadium in Fremont. And it was A's owner Lew Wolff who said in a statement that it was his goal to keep the team "in Northern California."
Johnson said he hasn't spoken with the A's this week, and a team spokesman said Wednesday that management was "regrouping" in the wake of the Fremont plan's demise. Still, Johnson - in his first State of the City speech - said that if the Kings leave, Sacramento could look down the road for a new major league franchise.
"If they leave for some strange reason, then we need to get somebody else in Sacramento," he said. "I don't care if it's the Oakland A's, I don't care if it's the Golden State Warriors. We have to have a franchise, a top-notch, world-class franchise in our city because it helps elevate the profile of our city."
After his speech, the mayor said he has "not personally had any conversations" with the A's about moving 80 miles up the freeway.
"What I was trying to say is we're not going to sit on our hands, we're going to explore every opportunity," he said. "I don't want to be a city where after something happens we say 'Oh, we should have reacted.' We're going to anticipate, we're going to call, we're going to do everything everybody else is.
"Not that we can deliver on everything, but we're going to put ourselves into a position and let people know we're interested."
Johnson said his focus is on the Kings and a proposal to build a new arena at Cal Expo. That plan will be unveiled on Friday.
"Let's do everything that we can do to get an arena built somewhere," he said. "And if that arena can be built at Cal Expo, great."
Building a baseball stadium was the shocking moment of Serna's State of the City speech in 1996. He announced plans to start a regional stadium authority and declared, "It is time to play ball."
More than a decade later, Sacramento could now be on the short list of cities with a realistic shot of landing the A's, said Roger Noll, a Stanford sports economist.
"It seems to me that Sacramento probably is in the hunt," Noll said. "It doesn't mean they're going to win, but if the A's decide to leave the Bay Area, Sacramento could be an option."
Sacramento has one thing going for it that other cities believed to be in the hunt - cities like San Jose, Portland, San Antonio and Las Vegas - do not, Noll said: It has a baseball stadium that could be expanded to suit a major league team.
West Sacramento officials have said that the possibility - however remote - of Raley Field expanding was something that was built into stadium plans and surrounding street designs.
"The political battle of getting a stadium built has already happened and that gives you a huge leg up," Noll said.
The Sacramento region is also on par with the small market major league baseball cities in terms of its population, Noll said.
Of course, Noll also said Sacramento lacks a vital segment that attracts major league baseball: large corporations that eat up luxury boxes.
Noll doesn't expect the A's to make a decision about the organization's future until at least next year. But he likes Sacramento's chances.
"If Sacramento actually wanted the team and went after it, it would have a shot," he said.
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/story/1653977.html
I don't have a link, I just copied and pasted from another forum. It's legit though.
NOTE: I added the link because we do NOT allow articles to be posted without them. - VF21
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