The Athletics Deserve Better than O.co

June 19, 2013

by: Ben Embry

Has everyone head the story of the sewage system at O.co Stadium backing up into the Athletics' and visitors' locker rooms over the weekend?  Pretty shocking in today's age of sparking new ballparks in almost every market that we still have a franchise slumming it in a building notorious for shitters backing up to the point that millionaire ballplayers have to evacuate their locker room.  This 47 yr old stadium hasn't aged nearly as gracefully as Dodger Stadium or Wrigley Field and is way out of place in the today's MLB.  But the Athletics are banished there by commissioner Bud Selig in perpetuity, or at least until the old man retires.

There is actually an easy, obvious solution on the table.  The city of San Jose, just 35 miles from the Athletics' current home, has been actively courting professional baseball and the A's are a natural fit.  City planners already have plans for a ballpark.  According to the website Pro Baseball for San Jose, (www.probaseballforsanjose.com), a new baseball team would result in 1,000 new jobs and $130 million annually to the local economy.  But unless a major federal mandate is reversed, San Jose will never experience that economic impact.

San Jose wants the Athletics and the Athletics want (and need, quite frankly) San Jose.  So what's the impediment?  There are two: the San Francisco Giants and Bud Selig.  The Giants own market territory rights of San Jose and are thus given veto rights that prohibit any team from relocating there.  They were given this right in 1990 when they threatened to relocate because, among other things, they were in disadvantageous situation with their antiquated ballpark at the time, Candlestick Park, (sound familiar?)  As compensation for not moving, the Giants received a new ballpark and expansive market rights that included nearby San Jose.

As Major League commissioner, Bud Selig has the ability to arbitrate the situation and allow all parties to come to a satisfying agreement.  What does he do to help the situation?  Appoint a committee to research the situation and report back to him his findings.  That committee was appointed in 2009.  They have made no report, because Selig doesn't want one.  For one thing, the idea that the commissioner had to appoint a group of people to prepare a report addressing the problem is ridiculous.  Any thick headed rube can see the logical thing to do is allow the A's to move to San Jose and compensate the Giants for their loss of market share.  Hell, give them some money and the rights to Oakland since the A's won't need it anymore.  All they want is a ballpark that people will come to without the fear of passing out from breathing noxious sewage gas.

Bud Selig is too much of a limp noodle, do nothing commissioner to take on the task of arbitrating a solution.  He's concerned with pacifying Giants ownership and any owners afraid that such a decision would set a precedence that could harm their territorial rights, (Hal Steinbrenner to name one), more so than doing the right thing.

Further, MLB has a convenient little federal antitrust decision that makes it virtually impervious to legal actions like the one the city of San Jose announced this week that it would seek.  So the A's will continue to languish in O.co in front terrible crowds and the San Jose community will continue to NOT earn $130 million in annual revenues.  Thank you, Bud Selig, for continuing to show me why you are my most despised commissioner of any professional sport of all time.  You are spineless and incapable of making a sound judgement for fear of petty repercussions.  That is your legacy.