San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
A’s see future stadium as way to boost attendance
As well as the Oakland A’s are playing, one look at their anemic attendance at the Coliseum will tell you why the team is looking to move to Howard Terminal.
On the field, the team has the fourth best record in all of Major League Baseball, and is on target to make the playoffs. But in the stands, the A’s are 27th out of 30 teams in attendance, averaging just 18,892 fans per game this season, according to the online tracking site Sports Reference.
Only Pittsburgh (18,213), Tampa (14,431) and Miami (9,916) have lower attendance averages for the season.
A’s President Dave Kaval tells us the team is
certain to get a major lift from a new ballpark — not just because it would excite the existing fan base, “but it’s important, too, for new people to engage our product as well.”
The A’s did set a singlegame Coliseum attendance record when more than 56,000 fans showed in late July for a game against the cross-bay rival San Francisco Giants. And they drew a crowd of 46,028 when they offered free tickets in April to celebrate the team’s 50th anniversary at the Coliseum.
Kaval said the many promotions the team has done this season — including opening the Treehouse patio deck and bar in the left field stands — have paid off in building overall support for the team.
But it’s not enough to stay put at the Coliseum. With among the lowest payrolls in baseball, they also need more cash to keep popular players under contract and, in turn, keep fans returning to the ballpark.
“That’s why I think it’s so important to build a new stadium,” Kaval said. “It will unlock a lot of revenue stream that we can pour back into the team budget.”
Kaval said the A’s dramatic 50 percent growth in TV viewership this season (tied for second among MLB teams) is a “leading indicator” that the team can grow its fan base.
The A’s are negotiating with the Port of Oakland for a ballpark plan at Howard Terminal that they hope to announce by year’s end. They are also working on plans for the Coliseum property and have offered the city of Oakland and Alameda County $137 million to buy the 111-acre site.
Sources close to the team, however, say the real plan is to win control of the site for a mixed-use development to help finance the proposed Howard Terminal ballpark.
Still, the A’s march toward a waterfront ballpark — with higher ticket prices — does have risks.
Overall attendance for MLB games is down for the sixth straight year, with a drop of more than 6 percent from last year. If that trend continues, it’s a sign they may wind up with the same attendance problem but with a much bigger debt.
Political cul-de-sac: When it comes to getting homeless RVs off residential streets, San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safaí refuses to take no for an answer.
“The solution that the MTA came up with was to do nothing and that is just not acceptable,” Safai said after San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency directors, in a split vote, declined to ban oversize vehicles from parking overnight on De Wolf Street, a small residential strip where residents have been complaining about the influx of recreational vehicles.
There are already 61 such bans in place in the city, but SFMTA Chairwoman Cheryl Brinkman said it’s time to stop.
“We made it clear that we are not solving the problem of people living in RVs by banning them,” Brinkman said. “There needs to be a citywide solution. It’s an issue of curb equity.”
“It’s an issue of public safety and public health,” countered fellow SFMTA Director Art Torres, who supported the ban on De Wolf Street.
One key issue is that after two years of meetings and task forces, no one has come up with a place for the campers to park.
“It makes no sense,” Torres said. “There are lots on Treasure Island or near the Cow Palace. If East Palo Alto can do it, why can’t we?”
So now Safaí and fellow Supervisor Vallie Brown are teaming up to look into the Board of Supervisors coming up with its own solution of where to let the campers park overnight.
Given City Hall’s history on other projects like homeless Navigation Centers, it could be some time before anything changes.
Although Brinkman said other measures could be taken, like maybe just banning overnight street parking altogether — including for residents. “This is why there is talk about breaking up the SFMTA,” Safaí said. “They answer to no one.”
By the way, Safaí is also gunning for the SFMTA over its handling of new scooter permits — he tells us he plans to call Tuesday for a hearing into the agency’s selection process, which he says was done unfairly and “without any community input.”
Lots of heart: It was quite an emotional scene earlier this month at Oakland’s Paramount Theater, where several hundred immigrants from 80 nations and their families gathered to take their oaths as naturalized American citizens.
“People were ecstatic and cheerful and full of respect,” many proudly waving the small American flags that had been passed out ahead of the ceremony, said Liliana Cardile, a new citizen from Italy.
Then came a videotaped welcoming message from President Trump.
“The moment his big, orange face appeared, people started booing right away,” Cardile said.
When Trump said, “We share one American heart and one American destiny,” a voice in the audience shouted: “But you don’t even have a heart” — prompting the entire room to break out in laughter, cheers and clapping. Welcome to America.