Fremont!
So let's take a look at the news in yesterday's M&R that the A's are about to announce a huge plan to build a stadium near Fremont. Basically, they want to build a privately financed, 36,000 seat, baseball stadium near the former Baylands Racetrack on land owned by Cisco. The reasons for Fremont are obvious and well-known but for sh--- and giggles, we'll go over them again.
Basically, the Coliseum doesn't work anymore because it's seen better days-- it, in fact, has that "first apartment you lived in when you moved here and shared a two-bedroom apartment with five people" feel to it. Building a new place in Oakland is difficult for the usual reasons associated with building anything in the area except more so because Oakland officials are afraid of pulling the trigger on another stadium deal in light of Al taking them to the cleaners. San Jose, the ideal place for the A's ain't happening because the Giants "own territorial rights," which means whenever the A's even jot down the words "San Jose" on a cocktail napkin, the Giants threaten to sue. Of course, MLB does what MLB does and could tell the Giants to put a sock in it, just like they did to Peter Angelos and his "territorial rights" issue with D.C., but so far A's owner Lew Wolff's frat buddy doesn't sound eager to do it.
So, the choice then is to keep on playing and hope somebody in Oakland steps up to build something or move. Thus Fremont. Which is certainly better than what it was rumored to be before-- Vegas.
Good parts of the plan? The A's finally have a new stadium to call their very own and could start affording all those players who go away looking for not greener and non-yellow trimmed pastures. Fremont is also accessible by BART and the A's fans do tend to be found in the East Bay.
Bad parts of the plan? Where do we begin? First of all, no offense to people in Fremont, but Fremont? Second of all, while Fremont is accessible, it's not as accessible as the Coliseum. A's fans are already saying they're not up for traveling to Fremont (says A's correspondant Kevin: "My lifelong allegiance to the A's ends the moment they start building a new crib. I'm a fierce Oakland loyalist.") In fact, the big trend in ballparks has been to go city, partly because it's easy for everyone to go to. The suburban stadium plan was a 70's confection and like all things 70's, completely disavowed by everyone involved. Which is the other problem with it-- everyone is going one way for a reason and the A's are going the opposite way. We wonder if it's a Moneyball thing.
But rest assured, the biggest issue in this is not whether the stadium gets built or when, but what the hell will they call the team. The Bay Area A's? The Fremont A's? the Fremont A's of Oakland? The Amonts? The Frethletics?
Ugh.