Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and her staff have got to stop trying to play out their lease issues in what remains of the mainstream media, because they forget that there’s social media around to talk about how they made yet another sports business error. In this case, the Oakland Athletics and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig have reportedly agreed to a new 10-year lease with the Oakland Coliseum JPA, and sent out this Twitter tweet:
Statement from Commissioner Selig on the Oakland @Athletics lease extension: pic.twitter.com/KnmVvZFvYW
— MLB Public Relations (@MLB_PR) June 25, 2014
But then I received this email from Mayor Quan’s Communications Honcho Sean Maher:
OAKLAND – The following is a statement by Oakland Mayor Jean Quan regarding ongoing negotiations with the Oakland A’s:
“The A’s have been an important part of the Oakland community and an inspiring Oakland team for decades. We are all working to make sure the A’s stay here at home in Oakland. The JPA has been negotiating with the team for months. As recently as last night, they received a new counteroffer from the team, which we have not yet had opportunity to review in depth. We are still negotiating, so were surprised by the announcement of an agreement. We plan to meet tomorrow, continue negotiations, and hope there will be an agreement soon.”
In other words, we don’t have a deal.
Damnit, Jean, it’s a 10-year-lease. If the Oakland A’s and the damn MLB Commissioner want to put out word that the deal’s done, but you have some issues, then keep that quiet and work with them.
But don’t make the Oakland As and MLB look bad for putting out good Oakland News.
Let’s see where this goes, but Quan has to learn when to hold em and when to fold them. This is not that time.
Silence here is golden. Or was.
Plus, it looks like Jean doesn’t want Oakland At Large Councilmember and JPA Board Member Rebecca Kaplan to do a victory lap. It looks like petty politics. If Kaplan gets a feather in her cap, let her have it for the good of Oakland.
Stay tuned.
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.
