With the offseason approaching, baseball executives like A’s GM Billy Beane are probably already laying out their plans for the 2012 season. Beane, however, has a lot on his plate this offseason. Oakland currently plays in one of baseball’s worst stadiums and are currently pushing for a move to San Jose. A lot of what Beane does this offseason depends on whether or not the A’s will be allowed to move to San Jose.

If the small-budget A’s are allowed to move to San Jose, the team is expected to undergo another rebuilding phase. By undergoing another rebuild, the A’s figure they’ll have a contender to show off in their nice, shiny, and state-of-the-art stadium in San Jose.

Getting denied by Selig, however, would likely result in the A’s becoming aggressive spenders as a way to attract future buyers. The team, stuck in a five year postseason drought, would likely spend to stay competitive and appealing to potential owners.

Lew Wolff, who bought the team back in 2005, has tried to move the team out of Oakland, but hasn’t had very much success. Getting denied would likely mean the end of the Wolff era. (more…)

Of course after the A’s swept the Giants, reality set in again and it was back to the quarter or half filled stands as the team went on to play the Marlins, the Diamondbacks and the Mariners. Sound like a broken record?

In fact,  according to A’s marketing executive from 1980-1995, Andy Dolich,  seeing thousands of empty seats at the A’s and Yankees game made him very sad.  Dolich went on to say, “”There was a time — and it’s getting harder for people to remember — when the Coliseum was the place to be. It was the Giants who were an afterthought. It was the Giants who were playing in a dump and waiting for high-profile opponents to come into town. It’s completely flipped.”

It’s evident that the main reason for this problem of low attendance is the stadium issue.  The old cement mausoleum could be dealt with if commissioner Bud Selig would make a decision along with his blue ribbon committee as to when,  where and how a new stadium could be built, preferably if Lew Wolff had it his way, which he obviously does not, would like that place to be in San Jose.  All it takes is for Bud Selig to snap his fingers, like he did earlier today regarding the Los Angeles Dodgers Bankruptcy and things would get done.  I can’t tell you why he has been sitting on this decision.  Perhaps it’s not priority for him.

This mess with the Coliseum can be easily taken care of with this.  Why can’t the A’s stay where they are at, while management comes up with plan to renovate the coliseum.  Stanford did it by placing a new stadium inside the old one.  The CAL Bears are doing it this year, while the team plays at AT&T park for the 2011 football season.

The A’s don’t want to move to San Jose.  Fans in San Jose are Giants fans and I heard that first hand when I went to that very game a couple of Fridays ago.  A Giants fan sitting in back of me was addressing the fact that if the A’s would move to San Jose he would probably go to the games, however, he also stated that he would never be an A’s fan.  My thought was, “why bother if you are not going to be a fan.”

So, we play the waiting game as usual.  I guess there is always Root Beer Float and Fourth of July Fireworks day where the coliseum is expected to bring in twenty to thirty thousand fans.  Better than  nothing I guess.

According to bleacherreport.com, “Selig announced two years ago a new task force, he stated that this would be the way to bring the A’s into the 21st century with a state-of-the-art ballpark to replace the old and depressing Overstock.com Coliseum.”  Well, this still has not come to fruition and to know that this could have been a done deal way before this task force was put together is mind boggling to me, especially because of these reports that are now surfacing about the team being bought almost ten years ago.

Yes!  According to the Bee,  ”Supermarket mogul Bob Piccinini attempted to purchase the A’s in the early 2000′s; however, he argues his attempts were blocked by the San Francisco Giants, who he claims, urged Selig and MLB not to allow his purchase of the club.  Piccinini hinted at collusion between the Giants and MLB to essentially run the A’s out of the Bay Area.”  It is important to note that these claims have no evidence to back them up, so we have to give both MLB and The Giants the benefit of the doubt.

With that, two years is too long and it is not fair to the team or it’s loyal fans.   It’s bad enough that there was a recent shakeup in management and that once again there seems to be an up tick in injuries.  Not to mention the continued downward spiral of games that have been lost within the last couple of weeks.

Perhaps it would have been a good thing if this guy Piccinini could have acquired the team. According to The Bee, “Piccinini is a baseball man. He’s owned minor league franchises in Modesto, Fresno, Stockton and Sacramento. In 1999, he rounded up William Dean Singleton, chairman of Media News Group; George Zimmer, owner of Men’s Wearhouse; Andy Dolich, a former A’s executive; and Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Joe Morgan (who later backed out).   He now says he probably would not buy the team if it were to go up for sale again.  Then again his next statement was, “never say never.”

At this point, they should just stay in Oakland or perhaps somewhere else beyond the greater Bay Area.  I am tired of the alleged cronyism that our great Owner Lew Wolff has with MLB commissioner Selig or that he is in good with the big wigs in San Jose’s Silicon Valley.  Just get on with it!  You know,  I was for sure that they were not going to get rid of manager Bob Geren and had stated in my last posting that they would get rid of a player before they did that.  Boy, was I wrong.  Why can’t we do that with some of  these higher ups?  Let’s start with Mr. Wolff.