Baseball chief: A's stadium obsolete

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, May 7, 2004 | by Robert Gammon, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig acknowledged Thursday new ballparks are not a financial "panacea" for major league teams, but nonetheless said the Oakland A's need a new stadium to be "competitive in the future."

It was not the first time Major League Baseball's commissioner has called for a new A's ballpark, but it was the first time Selig has stepped inside the Coliseum in 15 years.

"They can't stay here," Selig said at a press conference before the A's game against the New York Yankees. "You can't trap a club financially in a facility that can't produce revenues."

Selig was in town at the invitation of A's co-owner Steve Schott, who has made no secret of his desire for a new ballpark, even if it means moving the team to the South Bay.

Selig said he toured the Coliseum "inside and outside" Thursday, but he would not address reporters' questions as to what physical aspects of the

38-year-old Coliseum he found wanting.

Schott and A's officials have long complained about the Coliseum's amenities, from its tiny locker rooms to its cramped walkways. The Coliseum is one of the last multipurpose stadiums in the country.

Selig's visit to Oakland coincided with news a group of business and political leaders have formed a coalition to bring a professional baseball team to San Jose -- preferably the A's.

"What we're trying to do with this group is to show that Major League Baseball should be in the largest city in the Bay Area," said Jim Cuneen, head of the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and former state Assembly member. "San Jose deserves this."

Among the members of Baseball San Jose are beer distributor Mike Fox Jr., San Jose City Council member Dave Cortese and members of the DiNapoli family, who are closely associated with Lew Wolff, the A's new vice president of venue development.

When Schott hired Wolff late last year there was speculation the A's were headed to the South Bay because of Wolff's deep business ties in San Jose.

Wolff, who has expressed interest in buying at least a share of the A's, is part owner of the San Jose Fairmont Hotel, and he built the San Jose Park Center.

But Selig on Thursday put a damper on San Jose's prospects when he reaffirmed the San Francisco Giants' territorial claims on the South Bay, which preclude any other baseball team from moving there.

"We do respect territories ... and territories are well defined ... and everybody knows that when they buy a team," said Selig, intimating that Schott and co-owner Ken Hofmann were aware when they purchased the A's in 1995 that the Giants owned the rights to San Jose. The A's territory includes Alameda and Contra Costa counties, while the Giants have San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

The commissioner also expressed skepticism the A's could strike a financial deal with the Giants that would allow the A's to relocate in the South Bay, saying he had "never seen two teams come to an agreement on that."

Selig and baseball team owners for years have trumpeted the value of new ballparks, arguing ball clubs need the extra revenue to compete financially against high-revenue franchises such as the Yankees.

Without it, teams cannot keep their best players, they say. The A's, for example, lost two top players -- Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada -- in recent years to higher-revenue clubs that paid them more money than the A's said they could afford.

But the sagging fortunes on the field of some teams that have new ballparks and the success of others that play in so-called outdated stadiums has thrown a curve into the new-ballpark argument.

Baseball financial documents show eight teams with new ballparks began the 2004 season with lower payrolls than Oakland, which has been to the playoffs four years in a row.

The team with the lowest player payroll, at $27.5 million, is the Milwaukee Brewers, formerly run by Selig and still operated by his family.

The Brewers, which haven't had a winning season since 1992, moved into a $413 million stadium financed primarily with public funds in 2001. The Brewers promised a new ballpark would result in higher payrolls and better teams. But even though the team's revenue shot up by 70 percent after the new park opened, according to a new audit, the team's payroll declined the past two years.

By contrast, the A's payroll on Opening Day was $59.5 million, according to figures obtained by the Associated Press.

Selig said without a new stadium the Brewers "had no chance to compete, no chance to stay" in Milwaukee.

The A's, he said, have done all they can to increase revenue but can grow no further without a new ballpark and will never be able to compete against teams such as the Yankees, which are spending $182.8 million on players this season.

Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente said he has met with Wolff and the A's three times in recent months to discuss plans for a new ballpark in Oakland, but the A's have yet to indicate how much of their own money they are willing to spend.

De La Fuente suggested Major League Baseball help the A's and the city of Oakland pay for a new ballpark in Oakland. But Selig said the league "is not in a position, because of the economics of the last decade, to do that."