PANIC ATTACK

Lack of talent aside, I never made it in organized sports because I always froze at game time. Oh, I had a ball…literally…when it was just halfcourt up at the Arroyo Viejo courts, or pickup baseball over at Highland. But put in me a uniform and have an umpire calling balls and strikes, or put up a clock and have a referee with a whistle, and I just panicked.

And that’s what I think we’re doing around this A’s stadium thing.

This seems to be a pretty serious civic undertaking, one way or the other. Either we’re talking about a 40 year public commitment that could either benefit…or cost…city taxpayers millions of dollars a year, or we’re talking about the potential loss of one of our franchise sports teams. At least as far as both the public and public officials go, we seem to generally share the same two goals. There are few Oaklanders who want to see the A’s leave. On the other hand, there are probably fewer who want to see us make a public financial mistake similar to the Raiders disaster. The question, of course, is how to steer between.

The rhetoric seems to be getting out of hand, especially after City Council voted to go forward with a study of mixed retail-housing in the uptown area, rather than preserving the area for a possible new stadium site. Council didn’t kill the idea of an uptown area stadium, and they can always revive the idea if a viable plan develops. But you’d never know that from the shouted accusations in the newspapers over the next few days.

The A’s are playing a good hand, at least from their point of view. We screwed them in the Raiders deal, and they’ve been making us pay for several years now, and they were right to do that. But there comes a time when everybody needs to put aside past transgressions, and move on. Right now, however, the A’s are publicly asking for everything. They want Oakland to financially commit to a new stadium, without the A’s even saying a word about how much money they will chip in, or even publicly committing to stay if a stadium is built. Nice work, if you can get it.

The A’s were particularly clever on negotiations for the new lease for their tenure at the Coliseum. They handpicked the negotiator for our side…Oakland/Alameda County Authority chairperson Scott Haggerty…negotiated a deal in secret without ever letting the public know that negotiations were taking place, then released the results of the lease negotiations as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. They’ve counted on Oakland to give in, panicking over the fear that the A’s might leave.

I don’t know the ins and outs of ballpark financing and even if I did, I haven’t seen the details of this proposed deal. I know that folks like City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente have criticized it for not making the A’s pay enough rent, and he wants some further negotiations. That sounds fair enough, because this was not really a deal…it’s really just a proposed first offer by the A’s, disguised as a deal. And I’ve never yet heard of a serious businessman proposing everything in a first offer. So there’s room for negotiations. And De La Fuente deserves a shot at it. Who else would you propose? The Mayor?

There are a couple of public questions to be decided. First, is a downtown stadium is necessary to revive Oakland’s downtown? Who knows? Anyhow, Councilmember Larry Reid thinks that tax dollars are tax dollars no matter where they come from, and feels Oakland could do a better job developing businesses around the Coliseum to attract current fans to stay and eat and shop after the games. It’s a good point.
Another question is, do the A’s really need a new stadium in order to survive? I know they want a new stadium, but that’s a different thing. Maybe their problem is with Major League Baseball itself, which is structured so that small-market teams have little chance to compete over the long haul, new stadiums or not.

In any event, there’s a lot to talk about, and shouting…and panic…gets in the way of talking, every time.