Clock ticks ever faster on A’s park

A Bay Area swim coach used to explain to her swimmers the most important principle of their sport by using this timely reminder:

“Tickytocky goes the clocky.”

That should be the A’s mantra for their efforts to build a new ballpark.

Last week the A’s appeared to clear a big hurdle in their quest to build a future home at Howard Terminal. A judge dismissed a lawsuit that would have bogged down their stadium timeline.

Hurdle skimmed? Sort of. Except that the group of entities filing the suit, which includes Schnitzer Steel, immediately appealed the ruling. Even if the A’s eventually prevail, the appeal could be another setback to their construction schedule.

Schnitzer is the massive and messy steelgrinding/ recycling plant next door to the A’s proposed ballpark. Schnitzer and the A’s are the Hatfields and McCoys of West Oakland. Maybe the two families will make peace and become good neighbors. That will leave only about 50

major hurdles left for the A’s to skim.

I am on record as opposing the A’s plans to build at Howard Terminal. I have given my reasons, mainly how long the project would take. But for the moment, let’s just say I have been dead wrong.

Let’s say Howard Terminal is a dandy idea, that a waterfront ballpark would be way cooler than a new ballpark at the Coliseum site.

Let’s say all the hurdles I have outlined in the past are gardenvariety bumps in the road for any construction project.

Let’s say that the A’s are innocent victims of COVID19, that their plan of opening a ballpark at Howard Terminal for the 2023 season was derailed only because of the pandemic.

Conceding all that, the fact is that the 2023 target opening, highly optimistic before the pandemic, is blown, pushed back probably at least a couple of years. A ballpark at the Coliseum could be built much sooner.

The delay means it’s probably too late for the A’s to hang on to their current young stars, like Matt Chapman and Matt Olson. So A’s fans will endure yet another cycle of lost heroes.

Be patient? The years of A’s ballpark planning, fumbling and failing add up and take their toll. Fans drift away. With every delay, the possibility of Oakland losing the A’s comes closer to reality.

Tickytocky goes the clocky.