McCovey
06-07-2009, 08:19 PM
Santa Clara County and the city of San Jose want to the Giants to drop their "territorial rights" perhaps to pave the way for the A's to move.
San Jose wants out from under Giants
By John Woolfolk
MediaNews staff
04/03/2009
San Jose and Santa Clara County are formally calling for Major League Baseball to unleash them from the territorial tether to the San Francisco Giants that is holding back their efforts to lure the Oakland A's.
Draft resolutions that city and county officials expect to approve Tuesday call the Giants' territorial rights to Santa Clara County an infringement on local rights of "self-determination, autonomy and independence."
"Neither Major League Baseball, nor the Giants, should be able to strip cities or counties of their independent right to negotiate contracts, pursue development and form associations to bolster the local economy for its citizens," a draft letter from the county supervisors to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig says.
The Giants say their territorial claim to Santa Clara County, with Silicon Valley's abundance of wealthy companies and fans, was key to their decision in the 1990s to build a $357 million new stadium in San Francisco's China Basin. Now called AT&T Park, it opened in 2000.
But in their draft resolutions, city and county officials say the team's territorial claim to San Jose was intended to clear the way for the Giants to move in 1992 to Santa Clara County, which never happened. The Oakland Athletics cooperated, San Jose and county officials said, because a Giants move south would give them access to San Francisco fans.
With the Giants still in San Francisco, the supervisors draft letter argues,
their situation is no different than it was from the 1960s through the 1980s, when "there was no need" for them to have territorial claims to Santa Clara County. The letter further argues that baseball's territorial rights effectively render Santa Clara County citizens "indentured servants to the Giants organization."
San Jose in 2006 began preparing a site for a baseball stadium in the area of Park Avenue and Autumn/Montgomery streets near the downtown Diridon train station as a possible home for the A's. That effort was suspended in 2007 when A's owner Lew Wolff began looking at a Fremont site outside the Giants' territory instead. But earlier this year he abandoned those plans and has identified San Jose as his top alternative.
The San Jose City Council on Tuesday evening will consider steps needed to complete the stadium plan should baseball officials agree to let the A's move there, including additional environmental study and land acquisition, and winning over neighbors who are dreading the traffic and noise a stadium would bring.
Mayor Chuck Reed said Friday he believes those hurdles are not insurmountable.
"There is a lot of excitement about this possibility," Reed said.
San Jose wants out from under Giants
By John Woolfolk
MediaNews staff
04/03/2009
San Jose and Santa Clara County are formally calling for Major League Baseball to unleash them from the territorial tether to the San Francisco Giants that is holding back their efforts to lure the Oakland A's.
Draft resolutions that city and county officials expect to approve Tuesday call the Giants' territorial rights to Santa Clara County an infringement on local rights of "self-determination, autonomy and independence."
"Neither Major League Baseball, nor the Giants, should be able to strip cities or counties of their independent right to negotiate contracts, pursue development and form associations to bolster the local economy for its citizens," a draft letter from the county supervisors to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig says.
The Giants say their territorial claim to Santa Clara County, with Silicon Valley's abundance of wealthy companies and fans, was key to their decision in the 1990s to build a $357 million new stadium in San Francisco's China Basin. Now called AT&T Park, it opened in 2000.
But in their draft resolutions, city and county officials say the team's territorial claim to San Jose was intended to clear the way for the Giants to move in 1992 to Santa Clara County, which never happened. The Oakland Athletics cooperated, San Jose and county officials said, because a Giants move south would give them access to San Francisco fans.
With the Giants still in San Francisco, the supervisors draft letter argues,
their situation is no different than it was from the 1960s through the 1980s, when "there was no need" for them to have territorial claims to Santa Clara County. The letter further argues that baseball's territorial rights effectively render Santa Clara County citizens "indentured servants to the Giants organization."
San Jose in 2006 began preparing a site for a baseball stadium in the area of Park Avenue and Autumn/Montgomery streets near the downtown Diridon train station as a possible home for the A's. That effort was suspended in 2007 when A's owner Lew Wolff began looking at a Fremont site outside the Giants' territory instead. But earlier this year he abandoned those plans and has identified San Jose as his top alternative.
The San Jose City Council on Tuesday evening will consider steps needed to complete the stadium plan should baseball officials agree to let the A's move there, including additional environmental study and land acquisition, and winning over neighbors who are dreading the traffic and noise a stadium would bring.
Mayor Chuck Reed said Friday he believes those hurdles are not insurmountable.
"There is a lot of excitement about this possibility," Reed said.