San Jose expects 1,000 jobs, $130M from A's move
Moving the Oakland As to downtown San Jose could bring about 1,000 jobs and more than $130 million in economic benefits to the South Bay region. The report by consultant firm Conventions Sports & Leisure
International for the city’s Redevelopment Agency said a major league ballpark near Diridon Station neighborhood could have a cumulative economic impact over 30 years of $2.9 billion, with personal wages paid exceeding $1.3 billion. It said the stadium would generate $3 million in annual tax revenue for the city of San Jose and another $2 million a year for Santa Clara County, including its schools and other local agencies. Councilmember Sam Liccardo, who represents the Downtown claimed an even greater impact stating “Independent experts put the total economic imp
act at $130 million a year. But the wait staff and cooks at our local restaurants can tell you about the real impact professional sports have on a large-city economy. When the Sharks play, Downtown is packed with patrons. We expect an even bigger impact with baseball.”
Mayor Chuck Reed welcomed the findings, saying, 'San Jose is ready to play ball.' In a show of unity and a flexing of the region's political and economic might, 75 Silicon Valley CEOs have signed a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig urging the timely approval of moving the Oakland A's to San Jose. It is the latest and perhaps most impressive appeal to Selig from a range of avid supporters including the city of San Jose, a local pro-baseball grass-roots group and ordinary citizens, all pushing Selig to give the nod to San Jose. The letter drives home the point that Silicon Valley can deliver a level of corporate support to baseball that no other city in the Bay Area can match. It notes that the more than 300 member companies in the leadership group employ more than 250,000 local workers and generate more than $2 trillion in global revenue.
Lew Wolff, co-owner and managing partner of the As said while the team cant yet conduct its own stadium economic study, he said what he has seen of the findings from the city-commissioned evaluation is in line with his expectations. In fact the A’s have plenty of reasons to be angry with the Giants. A recent economic impact study demonstrated that having the A’s in San Jose would hardly change the Giants attendance. In addition, the Giants broke Major League baseball rules and swept in and stole the A’s minor league team the Sacramento Rivercats this past season. Still, the A’s main point of contention is that their freedom of movement is being impaired and that a stadium in San Jose would help the city and the Athletics.
Wolffs proposed 32,000-seat Cisco Field project would be built on a 14-acre site bounded by San Fernando Street on the north, Park Avenue on the south, Autumn Street on the east and Caltrain railroad tracks on the west. The site would be approximately 18 minutes from Saratoga High School. At this point, its fate rests with a three-member committee formed by Major League Baseball to look into the issue of the San Francisco Giants territorial claims to Santa Clara County, established in the early 1990s.
Bill Neukom, the Giants managing partner, said recently he will zealously defend those rights in an effort to block an As move to San Jose, saying the team should concentrate instead on building a new stadium somewhere in the East Bay. This is despite the fact that the A’s allowed the Giants several years ago to have a vote in San Jose for a new stadium (before AT&T was built). This vote, which the Giants lost in San Jose is also why the Giants claim they own the South Bay now as their 'territory.'
San Jose became an option for the team after Wolff pulled out of plans last spring to build a new stadium on several different proposed sites in south Fremont. He cited strong opposition to one of the sites for the proposed project by a citizens group in the city’s Mission San Jose district, as well as anchor tenants at the Pacific Commons shopping center to his original proposed location along Interstate 880. Wolff has said he is no longer interested in pursuing stadium sites in either Fremont or Oakland. 'We need to determine whether Major League Baseball will work out a way for our team to move to San Jose, Wolff said, adding he wont speculate on when the long delayed decision on the Giants supposed territorial rights will be reached. 'Yesterday would be fine, but Im just not speculating on the timing,' he said. 'We are doing what we can, and if we get a green light, we would be ready to move.'
'A new ballpark would be a crown jewel for downtown San Jose, providing a much-needed boost to nearby businesses, and with the new high-speed rail and BART stations planned, will have phenomenal access to the whole Bay Area,' Harry Mavrogenes, executive director of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, said in a statement. 'Creation of a ballpark will transform a blighted area and encourage further investment in this critical area of downtown.'
According to the study, the most significant cost resulting from ballpark operations would be day-of-event activities like traffic management and security, facility operations and maintenance. Members of the San Jose City Council have already said both event and operational expenses would have to be fully covered by the team. The study estimated that the city’s share of remaining day-to-day costs for public services during non-event times would be just about $50,000 a year.
Reed contends the study illustrates why the time is right for big-league baseball to come to the nations 10th-largest city, which eclipsed the 1 million population mark several years ago. San Francisco, in comparison, still has only 800,000 residents while Oakland is less than 400,000. 'As the largest city in Northern California and one of the most dynamic markets in the U.S., the time is right for professional baseball to turn its attention to San Jose,' Reed said in a statement.
To back his claim with some bite, The City of San Jose has filed legal actionin federal court to eliminate the
territorial restrictions that Major League Baseball has used to keep the A’s from moving to San Jose. The suit reads “For more than four years, the City of San Jose has made an exhaustive effort to work with Major League Baseball to resolve any concerns about our city’s capacity to host a major league ballclub,” Mayor Chuck Reed said. “During that time, it has become abundantly clear that Major League Baseball prefers to use territorial restrictions as an excuse to restrict commerce and prevent the Athletics from relocating to San Jose. This restriction is costing San Jose residents millions of dollars in new annual tax revenues that could go towards funding morepolice officers, firefighters, libraries, gang prevention efforts, road repairs and other critical city services.” The court case has now reached the supreme court of the United States.
The lawsuit outlines several practices that have resulted in an unreasonable restraint on competition, in violation of federal and California law, and constitute unlawful, unfair, and/or fraudulent business practices under California law, including violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law, Tortious Interference with Contractual Advantage, and Tortious Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage, and for violation of the federal Sherman Act, and violation of California’s Cartwright Act.
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal
*Non-price competition is a marketing strategy "in which one firm tries to distinguish its product or service from competing products on the basis of attributes like design and workmanship"