Oakland Pays $17 Million for Raiders as Cops Lose Jobs

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by Carlite

So you're dumping on Oakland and a decision that long gone leadership made because you're worried about the decision they'll make next.

Why wouldn't I?

Oakland makes pitch for new stadium - Raiders - The Sacramento Bee

You act like anything has changed in Oakland since the 90s. There's a $200,000,000 short fall though in Oakland's quest to give the Raiders MORE of the cities money. Let's guess where Oakland is going to get that money from. Maybe Oakland will layoff 200 more Oakland officers, close down every after school problem they have for troubled youth, and a few senior centers. That should do the trick!

Like I said, same skyrocketing violent crime, same idiot pursuit of appeasing sports teams. In Oakland, it's the same old, same old!

[tanglenet]

The actual cost to the city is almost 30 million per year, but that is for all three teams and includes kickbacks (subsidies) to the owners. The 17 million is only the Raiders portion.

[Obamadon1]

Originally Posted by Carlite

I'd pretty much agree with that, though I don't think anyone is talking about putting public funds into keeping the A's. I think then Mayor Jerry Brown made a wise call when he said that Uptown should be about housing and restaurants and entertainment, not a sports stadium. That decision has paid off many times over.
But whatever the Mayor and Council do going forward is not going to undo the Raiders deal.

Uptown could have had a new stadium AND housing/restaurants/entertainment. There is no shortage of empty/underused lots around downtown/uptown for housing. There is a shortage of plausible ballpark sites. Uptown was the best but Brown had a single track mind for housing so we got three apartment buildings and one empty lot. It's easy to imagine a baseball stadium being the centerpiece of an uptown renaissance, but it'll never happen now.

[Natural510]

Brown was friends with Forest City developers who built condos on the potential ballpark site and probably got a nice kickback as a result. There's no reason to believe the anti-Oakland former or current A's owners would've built a park on the site, but you're right it would've been a perfect fit for what's happening in Uptown right now.

[Carlite]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Why wouldn't I?

Oakland makes pitch for new stadium - Raiders - The Sacramento Bee

You act like anything has changed in Oakland since the 90s. There's a $200,000,000 short fall though in Oakland's quest to give the Raiders MORE of the cities money. Let's guess where Oakland is going to get that money from. Maybe Oakland will layoff 200 more Oakland officers, close down every after school problem they have for troubled youth, and a few senior centers. That should do the trick!

Like I said, same skyrocketing violent crime, same idiot pursuit of appeasing sports teams. In Oakland, it's the same old, same old!

I've lived and worked in Oakland since the 90's and before. I know that things have changed a lot.

[Obamadon1]

Originally Posted by Natural510

Brown was friends with Forest City developers who built condos on the potential ballpark site and probably got a nice kickback as a result. There's no reason to believe the anti-Oakland former or current A's owners would've built a park on the site, but you're right it would've been a perfect fit for what's happening in Uptown right now.

Schott and Hoffman did not have their sights set on Fremont or SJ at that point. The ballpark study identified Uptown as the best site for a park. Robert Bobb was leading the charge for the city. There was more public and private money available at that point. It could have happened if Brown wanted it. We got housing (and an empty lot) instead.

[DocGoldstein]

Can anyone explain how the cost of keeping sports teams in Oakland are justified?

Has the presence of the Raiders really "rejuvenated" the city with tourism?

[CityGuy88]

Originally Posted by Obamadon1

Schott and Hoffman did not have their sights set on Fremont or SJ at that point. The ballpark study identified Uptown as the best site for a park. Robert Bobb was leading the charge for the city. There was more public and private money available at that point. It could have happened if Brown wanted it. We got housing (and an empty lot) instead.

Amen to that! That would've been a PERFECT site for a new ballpark, and would have been much more feasible in 2002 than it is now. In my opinion, that was just another example of Oakland getting the short end of the stick. With building those apartments, not only did Oakland lose its best and most feasible ballpark site, but it also settled for a large apartment complex which has no retail. Those "Uptown" apartments should at least have some retail on the first floor, similar to the Americana at Glendale, or at the very least, like Emeryville's Bay Street. Instead, we're stuck with a plethora of apartments where, while nice, aren't exactly as economically effective as they could be.