It’s a problem that Oakland A’s Owner Lew Wolff knew about and this blogger (me) has been aware of for years, and going back to our bid to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland, where we lost the right to host the 2005 game to Jacksonville. It was one issue that was on our punchlist to repair if we won.
Anyway, this is the Mayor’s statement:
“Instead of lawsuits, Oakland is focused on building a new stadium for the A’s here in their hometown. We’ve offered two sites: Howard Terminal is a beautiful waterfront location facing the Bay, and Coliseum City is one of the great development projects of our time. Both would make fantastic sites for a new stadium.
“In the meantime, we’re still negotiating a lease extension for the team and I’m confident we can reach a fair deal.
“Of course, Oaklanders are the best, the loudest and the most devoted baseball fans in the nation. The Oakland A’s have the fifth highest increase in per-game attendance over 2012 in Major League Baseball.
“We’re ready to negotiate any time the A’s want to come to the table. Let’s play ball!”
This is a story because the local old media types just found out about it. Again, Lew Wolff knew it and anyone who’s really involved with the Coliseum knew it. It didn’t merit calling for a physical press conference, when a Twitter-sent message, blog post, and YouTube video would have worked.
This is the email I sent to the Mayor’s Office:
Hello All,
The matter of a sewage leak at the Oakland Coliseum Stadium is very old news.
The Mayor’s Office should , please, stop responding to old media requests for statements and holding physical press conferences that aren’t lived streamed and don’t need to be held. The Mayor could have issued a statement via YouTube, Twitter and blog and left it at that.
But, I assert that NOTHING should have been said. It’s a non-issue and a few media types should not be able to have you all crawling out of your butt-holes, to be blunt.
Best,
Zennie in Georgia
And then I sent this follow-up:
The Mayor needs to talk directly to Lew Wolff back-channel – not use the media. That was bad form.
Zennie
It’s nothing personal, but it points to how the Mayor’s Office under Jean Quan does things. When you have a media-generated story between sports organizations and the City of Oakland, the first thing the Mayor should do is called the team owner, not run to the media to send a message to the team owner. That’s a recipe for failure.
Why? Because by placing it into the public media forum, the chatter could go in a direction that works against the Mayor and upsets the team owner. First, it comes off as impersonal, and second it smacks of grandstanding.
Stay tuned.