Oakland Mayor Jean Quan had bold, direct words for the Oakland A’s and Major League Baseball.
In this vlogger’s video talk with her at the Oakland Running Festival Press Conference, Quan said “You saw that the (Port of Oakland) Port Commission, now that they have eliminated all the maritime uses from Howard Terminal, has begun to take up the proposal from the Ballpark Waterfront Group, which is made up of some of the top CEOs in the city, and they are asking for a one-year exclusive negotiating agreement, to develop a plan to build a ballpark at Howard Terminal, which, for most fans, is their priority. So that completes my promise to Major League Baseball, when I first became mayor, that we could provide two good sites that have site control, and when they finish negotiating their deal, I think Major League Baseball will have to make a decision.”
It’s clear that Oakland A’s Owner Lew Wolff himself doesn’t like Oakland or the Oakland Coliseum. His most recent blast was that he would seek a temporary site outside Oakland if a two-year lease extension could not be negotiated. And The San Francisco Giants have said they would share their stadium with the Oakland A’s.
Meanwhile, San Jose continues to pursue the Oakland A’s in Captain Ahab-like fashion, pushing an anti-trust battle with Major League Baseball that’s doomed for failure.
Wednesday night, San Jose filed a silly array of court documents that asks the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the city’s arguments against Major League Baseball. San Jose claims MLB’s Anti-Trust Exemption, which blocked it from going after the Oakland A’s because MLB is allowed to designate a region for the location of a team, and in this case that’s Alameda County, is the product of another time.
The trouble for San Jose is the MLB’s Anti-Trust Exemption is still in place, and thus there’s no reason to expect a reversal of the initial decision U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte made when he dismissed the case last year. http://ift.tt/1gj1TlF