Now that the City of Fremont has struck out, it’s San Jose’s turn at bat to try and lure the Oakland A’s to town. Or is it? Last week, A’s owner Lew Wolff asked San Jose city officials to essentially calm down, and refrain from contacting Major League Baseball about moving the A’s to San Jose. “Such contacts are not recommended,” Wolff wrote in an e-mail to San Jose’s mayor.
As everyone probably knows, the San Francisco Giants’ territorial rights to Santa Clara County stand in the way of an A’s move to San Jose. But…everyone has their price. How much do you suppose it would take for the Giants to relinquish their claim to Santa Clara County?
The Giants draw around three million in attendance every year. Let’s assume that 20 percent of that figure represent ticket-buyers who live in the South Bay. (That’s 600,000 tickets). Let’s then assume an average ticket price of $30. $30 X 600,000=$18 million per year in potential lost revenues for the Giants if an A’s move to San Jose were to result in a 20 percent drop in sales.
If I am a member of the San Francisco Giants’ ownership group, I would require, at minimum, a payment of $180 million to surrender territorial rights to the South Bay. ($18 million per year for ten years).
We should just give the Giants a refund of what they originally paid for the rights. Oh right, they paid nothing.
As I recall, they were granted the rights to the South-Bay fan base at the cost of promising to move them to San Jose if voters approved, and then proceeded to run a lack-luster campaign, losing the San Jose site, but not its rights to call us “their” fan-base.
As a Congressionally-approved monopoly, MLB is ultimately theoretically answerable to we the people, and if a locality makes a big-enough issue out of it, the Giants will have to bend. I suggest a swap of rights with the East Bay, and let MLB offer some token monetary subsidy to the Giants.
Honestly, I question the sanity of any SJ resident with loyalty to a team that holds this city hostage. We should tell MLB to piss off with their bastard cricket game. I’d rather have the NBA: thugs, debts and all. We already have the facility in place, too.
Have Pete do the negotiating!!! If the Giants do not get anything, Petey can give them advice on how to gripe.
Erin Go Braugh!
Nam… dude you’re trippin.
Average ticket price for a MLB game $25.48 Average price for an NBA ticket $49.47.
MLB much more approachable for family entertainment.
MLB 80 home games a year vs. 40 for an NBA team.
Summertime weather in SJ… Best in the Bay Area.
Revitalize the neighborhood. Look around AT&T park these days. Lots of high density housing+restaurants+bars. Packed to the gills on game days.
What is the downside exactly?
And no I’m not an A’s fan, and i actually prefer the NBA to MLB. But, this is a can’t miss opportunity.
Dre, the only reason I would like to see baseball here is the benefit to downtown business and injection of life around that area. I will get no enjoyment from the team and probably very little from the stadium. My spite is for MLB as is, not if they relinquish SJ from their deathgrip.
I prefer NBA because it’s a sport I watch and there’s less to go wrong financially which would raise eyebrows and create controversy. We already have the arena, which require slight modifications to be prime for regular basketball. I do think Wolff/Fisher can come up with a proper manner of paying for their facility, though, as they’re doing with the Earthquakes.
Nam,
I agree about the financial risk involved in the construction of a stadium. But the long term upside of a baseball team is about 4 times greater than that of an NBA team.
NBA GAME 18000 fans x 41 games = 738,000 visits per year
MLB 35000 fans x 81 games a year = 2,835,000 visits per year.
Mix in the weather factor.
If someone is going to a Tuesday night NBA game, in the pouring rain, chances are they’re running directly to their warm car after the final buzzer. If someone is enjoying a 70 degree July Tuesday night, chances are they might be more inclined to stick around after the game.
And baseball fan or not, if the A’s come to San Jose, I’m sure you will attend a few games. If only for the social factor.
MLB will let Wolff get his way. It’s in the best interest of the game.
Might as well bring the A’s to san jose. Most of Oaklands youth come to San Jose on the weekends anyway. Maybe they spend more money than they cost!
Might as well bring the Raiders as well.
Ditto the first post,
The Giants paid nothing for those rights. Why should the A’s pay a kings ransom to get them now?
Second, this is probably your worst post Mr. Campbell. That “20%” of Giants season ticket holders living in the South Bay is a horrible assumption. Could you imagine traveling round-trip 100 miles 81 times per year to see the Giants; or any team for that matter? Bad assumption.
Another bad assumption: that those Giants fans in the South Bay will all automatically become San Jose A’s fans when they move downtown. If you’re a die-hard Giants fan who owns season tickets and lives in San Jose, chances are you’ll remain a die-hard regardless of who’s playing in SJ. There’s enough A’s fans in the East and South Bay to support a SJ team; we don’t need Giants fans.
Lastly Mr. Campbell, you seem to be anti-San Jose and against an A’s move to our downtown; champion of the territorial rights, are you? Shame on you!
Go A’s and Go San Jose!
Number 7 sure uses all the racist code words doesn’t he??
Tony #8
That 20% of Giants fans are from the South Bay is not my assumption, but one that has been made by numerous sports writers over the past few years. (In fact, they say it is much higher).
I hope the A’s come to San Jose, but I think that it is a long shot. The conversation that I tried to get started was to ask, what would it take to get the Giants to give up their territorial rights? One must remember, that the new head owner of the Giants used to be the head lawyer for Microsoft (He’s going to drive a hard bargain).
To suggest that I am “anti-San Jose” just because I raised this question is really a bit childish.
pete campbell
Gee, the San Jose Giants, whom Mr. Campbell loves to slam (only because they got the redevelopment money he wanted for the tennis shop, and there are some Irish Americans involved), just had one of their most successful job fairs in their history. Also, there are far more season ticket holders in the area than Campbell likes to talk about. I do support the A’s coming to the South Bay. Note to file, Santa Clara is on the short list of at least six major sports blogs.
Rowen writes, “Only because they got the redevelopment money he wanted for the tennis shop, and there are some Irish Americans involved.”
From this, San Jose Inside readers might conclude that Campbell asked the city and/or the redevelopment agency for money. That is false.
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Sorry, we all heard about your santana row comments, petey.
Mr. Campbell,
You’re the one suggesting the A’s pay off the Giants $180 million for the rights to move to San Jose. Why should the A’s have to pay sooo much for “rights” that didn’t cost the Giants anything? That’s extortion! That’s why I felt your post was anti-SJ; more like pro-San Francisco now that I think about it.
Even if 8,000+ Giants season ticket holders come from the South Bay (which I still find hard to believe), it’s a bad assumption that they will all overnight become San Jose A’s season ticket holders *. There are more than enough A’s fans in the East Bay and South Bay to fill a San Jose ballpark. And the San Jose-based Giants fans I know are loyal and won’t switch allegiances.
I don’t see any relevance to what Mr. Neukom was in his last life to this debate; whether he was head lawyer for Microsoft or head frier at McDonalds. MLB will do what’s in the best interest of MLB and ALL teams, so they will work out a compromise between the A’s and Giants, no “hard bargaining” allowed.
How would it look:
1) Perhaps one time pay off from A’s: $50 million was once thrown around.
2) Percentage of revenue (TV, revenue sharing check) until 2017; the year AT&T Park is paid off. No more $20 million annual debt payments!
3) Gauranteed franchise value for the Giants (from MLB); similar to Orioles deal to allow Expos (now Nationals) into Washington/Baltimore area.
4) Simply making Santa Clara County a shared territory ala the other two-team markets (LA,Chicago, NY). Let’s not forget Mr. Campbell the A’s and Giants ALREADY EXIST in the same market.
*Because the MLB season consists of 81 home games, most season ticket holders live within 20-30 miles of said team/ballpark.
180 million dollars for rights to San Jose? Isn’t that about what Wolff paid for the A’s?!?! What a joke!
Problem with changing territorial rights to San Jose—-is the San Jose/Silicon Valley business commnity could care less—these guys are the one’s that can make the difference—withholding sponsorhip, advertising, luxury boxes, season tix—-high profile campaign focused on exposing how ridiculous this claim on San Jose is—-
but—unfortunately—our high tech brothern can only muster a collective yawn—-imagine if this was going on in any of the real cities, Chicago, NY, Boston…..things would have already been taken care of—