Desperate times for the city of Oakland and sports

^roflz

mainly cause I hate the raiders for what they did to the coliseum

Where’s my walker and my hearing aid?

I won’t apologize for Lew Wolff on account of one (I don’t know him) and 2 (I haven’t experienced any of the radio station trouble), but my take on the radio station is completely different.

It is a good first step, moving to a station that is building their local programming solely around the A’s. I know, Marty Lurie is gone and last season it was really hard to hear games in a lot of places.

But, I don’t really miss Marty much (I know I am in the minority), I think Chris Townsend has proven an upgrade to Buan, and the station is broadcasting from a new spot this season (at least until sundown). I choose to believe that over the next 3-5 years KTRB is going to pay off big.

A lot of great stuff in there.

but what will count is the economic vitality of the area. Selig cares about corporate seats and that’s about it. Community love? That’s only for the Yanks/Sox/Cubs, everyone else can get in back of the line as the red carpet is rolled out for your boss’ boss.

So much for being the layman’s escape from the drudge of the daily grind.

I’m huge on the A’s staying in Oakland for purely selfish reasons, and I don’t think i’d like having to travel an hour+ in bad traffic to make a game in SJ.

as you learn if you’d have read fivethirtyeight during the election.

http://newballpark.org/
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14788216

Yes: 62%
No: 23.5%
Don’t Know: 13%
No Answer: 1.5%

Still, supporters of a ballpark in the San Jose State poll said they saw the stadium as a generator of jobs and economic benefits. Sixty-eight percent of men and 57 percent of women favored the proposal; 67 percent of voters between the ages of 35 to 54 supported the stadium; 64 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans said yes.

“It would be a national status symbol for San Jose. It would also provide jobs — hundreds of job,” even if they are part-time or seasonal, said Walter Soellner, a retired professor of art at Evergreen Community College and member of the city’s arts commission and a poll respondent. “And I think it would bring a certain sense of pride to San Joseans.”

“They don’t need more housing and they don’t need more office space,” poll respondent Tiffany Gelineau, a 38-year-old registered nurse, said of the city. A stadium, she said, would bring “entertainment and revenue for downtown San Jose. We have the Sharks, but something outdoors would be awesome.”

on the flip side:

“I hate getting caught in the football game traffic up in Candlestick and Oakland as I’m going past to Berkeley,” said Robert Braine, a retired programmer who lives in South San Jose. "I don’t want to see that kind of congestion here.
“I also tend to feel that too many of these situations end up being a taxpayer-financed arrangement,” even though city officials swear that won’t be the case. “I’ve heard that so many times,” Braine said. “If I had trust in the honesty and integrity of the whole thing, I’d certainly be less inclined to oppose it.”

The first poll released by anyone had the public approval in San Jose at 46% to 45% against, it went up after that and the most recent before this one had 53% approval rating. That was a few weeks ago and now it is up by all most 10%. Clearly, San Jose has some momentum.

This poll asked about using public funds to help bring the A’s, and it was 62% for. That’s up several points from the previous poll which didn’t mention using public funding. The trend appears to be SJ wants the A’s, even if they have to contribute some public funding.