San Francisco Chronicle

Bedeviled by the details on A’s coming park news

- Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicl­e.com Twitter: @scottostle­r

A polite request to the Oakland A’s: When you make the announceme­nt on your plans for a new ballpark, an announceme­nt you promised to deliver this year (I’m hearing August), don’t go all chintzy on the info.

Along with the location of your new ballyard, please include two other vital facts: When, and who.

Please tell us when the constructi­on will begin and when the park will open. This info is important because team president Billy Beane recently announced that his rosterstoc­kers have been instructed to stock the roster with young talent, so that these kids will be mature and ready to rip when you open your new park.

If the ballpark’s opening is six or seven years down the road, you have started your roster rebuild way too early, and fans might suspect you of using the newly announced youth movement as a flimsy excuse to keep payroll ridiculous­ly low. You wouldn’t want fans to think that about you.

Also, please tell us who will pay for the new ballpark. Will it be current owner John Fisher, or the Next Owner Up? If it’s Fisher, please give us a for-dummies explanatio­n of the financing, considerin­g that Fisher’s personal wealth seems to be trending downward, due to a dip in Gap stock and the phasing-out of Fisher’s annual windfall from MLB revenue-sharing.

Last thought: We know you A’s folks wouldn’t do anything laughably insulting, like announcing that the team has narrowed its choice of potential sites to two or three locales.

Really looking forward to the announceme­nt, A’s, and we’re still diggin’ the food trucks.

 ?? Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle ?? As the A’s search for a location for a new ballpark in Oakland, fans have to hope that the team’s future digs — unlike the Coliseum — aren’t for the birds late in the game.
Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle As the A’s search for a location for a new ballpark in Oakland, fans have to hope that the team’s future digs — unlike the Coliseum — aren’t for the birds late in the game.

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