The idea of bringing the A’s to San Jose is quickly moving from thinking out loud to formal campaign: The campaign to bring the Oakland Athletics to San Jose will be launched at the April 7 City Council meeting, city officials decided Wednesday. Speaking before a crowd of 40 plus representatives from TV and radio […]

Citigroup and any other business that buys naming rights obviously wants more than their name on the building. They want the name to be used constantly as people refer to the place in conversations, on broadcasts, in directions, in news stories, and everywhere else for that matter. “I’ll meet you at Citi Field.” “We’re located […]

The Padres have been spoiled, er, I mean lucky enough to have the the city of San Diego footing the bill for much of the cost of Petco Park. Now San Diego, like every other city, is strapped for cash, and has had to look for help to make the debt payments on the ballpark […]

The Marlins’ stadium plan depends greatly on certain assumptions regarding hotel tax revenue. Assumptions which may have been far more reasonable before Depression v.2.0: The financing plan for the proposed Florida Marlins stadium took a potentially severe hit in January, with a 22 percent plunge in the hotel taxes counted on to cover most of […]

Jorge Costales and I may disagree about the Marlins Stadium deal, but unlike me, he doesn’t just sit back and lazily rely on his philosophical disposition to make his case. He actually, you know, knows what the hell he’s talking about. Great evidence of that can be found in this post from Friday, when he […]

As I said in a comment the other day, I’ve been fighting the last war with respect to public funding for ballparks for quite a while now. Really, the time to rally against this sort of thing was a good 15-20 years ago, as the majority of teams have already gotten their taxpayer handouts. But […]

A descriptive tour of New Shea (I, like you, partially own Citi, so if I want to abrogate their naming rights, I should feel free to do so): For those fans who hated Shea Stadium, fear not: Citi Field is nothing like its predecessor, the last bits of which lie in ruins a few hundreds […]

You’re not going to believe this, but: A vote on a new ballpark for the Florida Marlins is being delayed again. City of Miami spokeswoman Kelly Penton on Wednesday said commissioners are not expected to vote on a proposal to bring a 37,000-seat stadium to the city’s Little Havana neighborhood until March 19. The commissioners […]

The Padres are responding to the bad economy: The Padres’ much-maligned $9 beer vanished with an ear-ringing bang yesterday as the team cut, slashed and exploded prices on tickets, food and drink. “There will be no price increase on any concession item in 2009,” proclaimed Mark Grant, one of the team’s broadcasters. “And beer prices […]

Scott Herhold of the Merc lives near one of the possible landing pads for the A’s in San Jose, and while he’s a fan of the prospect, his neighbors aren’t: You see, I live in the Hanchett Park neighborhood of San Jose, about a mile as a City Hall falcon flies, from the potential site […]