“If I was going to pursue a ballpark, I would certainly do it in San Jose…It’s the difference between a big-league city and a non-big-league city. I wouldn’t spend five minutes on any other city besides San Jose.”[1]
Lew Wolff, March 19, 1998
Here’s a question. How do you not get a ballpark built in Oakland? You turn the reins over to a guy who doesn’t want to be in Oakland.
Lew Wolff was the hitman Bud Selig brought in to kill Oakland baseball. There was no way Selig was going to let Reggie Jackson own the Oakland A’s. Not in a million years. There was a job to be done, and Wolff was the guy to do it. His resume was impeccable—a San Jose partisan with real-estate-developer credentials and wisdom-colored hair who could flash a soothing smile while stabbing Oakland baseball in the back. And he was Selig’s fraternity brother to boot. If you can’t trust your frat brother to kill the Oakland A’s, who can you trust?
When part owner Wolff rode in on his horse to solve the A’s ballpark problem, he tried his best to put the ballpark in just about any Bay Area city but Oakland. His greatest hope was to move the A’s to San Jose. We know this because he divulged as much in a franker moment seven years earlier—before becoming an owner of the A’s. To his credit, Wolff spent a whole year looking for a ballpark solution in Oakland, far longer than the five minutes he had prescribed.
Let’s take a look at his exhaustive effort to build a ballpark in Oakland. The path of least resistance, naturally, was to build at the existing 110-acre Coliseum site. But Wolff’s plan for the Coliseum site wasn’t at the Coliseum site at all. It was a block north of the Coliseum, on property not owned by the A’s or the City and County.[2] A curious choice. Some cynical sorts have characterized this ballpark effort as a deliberate attempt to fail. Who’s to say? Interestingly enough, Wolff’s next ballpark efforts were in Fremont and San Jose, which, as their names imply, aren’t Oakland.
Wolff was thinking way outside the box when he came up with the ingenious solution of relocating to Fremont—a ballpark site within the A’s territory but closer to San Jose than Oakland. Demographically speaking, it was light years from Oakland. One can only imagine Wolff’s excitement at stumbling on the Fremont solution. No matter that the site was miles from the nearest BART station.[3] The foremost goal wasn’t creating a first-rate fan experience but making money from developing real estate.
Thankfully, Wolff’s attempt to relocate the A’s to San Jose-Lite failed. As did his attempt to relocate to San Jose proper—after the courts finally disposed of the City of San Jose’s antitrust lawsuit against MLB in 2015. Three strikes and you’re out. Time for Wolff to go. Enter Dave Kaval as president of the A’s.
It was apparently around this time that someone pointed out to John Fisher that Oakland real estate prices were pretty damn high. Coincidentally, the A’s came to the realization they were “rooted in Oakland.” More bumbling ensued. In a nod to Wolff, Kaval picked an Oakland ballpark site that wasn’t owned by the A’s or the City of Oakland (Laney College site).[4] When that choice flopped, he, to his credit, kept looking in Oakland. At the end of 2018, the A’s announced their intention to build a ballpark at Howard Terminal—on land that belonged to the Port of Oakland and wasn’t yet zoned for a stadium, housing, and retail. Less than a year-and-a-half later, the pandemic hit—not Oakland’s fault, by the way—which slowed the timeline by a year. By the spring of 2021—presumably fearful about the uncertainty of commercial real estate prices—Fisher had moved on from Oakland (parallel paths with Las Vegas). Alas, it turned out his rootedness was just an interlude before regressing to his comfort zone of prejudice against Oakland.
Anywhere but Oakland. Fremont and San Jose—brave attempts to save the Oakland A’s by moving them out of Oakland. Sound familiar? Nevertheless, Kaval and Manfred portray Fisher’s 20 years of lurching about the Bay Area as the fault of the City of Oakland. “We’ve been working almost 20 years as an organization to find a permanent home for the A’s,” Kaval laments.[5] “A decade worth of inaction,” Manfred cries.[6] Sorry, guys—nice try, but no dice. The common denominator in the 20 years of missteps is the A’s, not Oakland.
If we take Kaval at his word, we should be grateful for the exhaustive effort of the A’s to get a ballpark deal done in the Bay Area. In actuality, the process has been exhausting for Oakland fans, who have demonstrated more patience toward idiot ownerships than any population in modern times. Fisher could teach a master class in stadium bungling—if he weren’t a recluse. Sorry, Dave—that talk of a heroic 20-year effort by the A’s isn’t going to fly. We’re Oaklanders, yes, but we have brains in our heads.
By our math, the A’s made one bona fide effort to put a ballpark in Oakland—starting six years ago—during which time they embarked on parallel paths with Las Vegas. In other words, they gave Oakland only three years of their full attention—one of which was hamstrung by the Covid-19 pandemic. At best, three years of good faith effort to get a ballpark deal done in Oakland. Hardly a long time compared to the franchise’s 57 years in Oakland.
And it hasn’t exactly been a run-of-the-mill 57-year existence in Oakland. The Oakland A’s, in terms of their contributions to the culture of today’s game, may very well be baseball’s most important franchise over that span. Their entrenched status as the renegades of baseball gives Fisher a marketing advantage in the Bay Area. Sadly, he has failed to understand and exploit this advantage. Instead of simply building a new ballpark—a living monument to Oakland’s great brand and history—he tried to build an $11 billion real estate development in Oakland. Having been slain by his delusions of grandeur on the Oakland waterfront, he has pivoted to building a boutique ballpark on nine acres—in Las Vegas. A friend might have intervened earlier and bitch-slapped him with the memo that the Oakland A’s are a baseball franchise, not a real estate empire. Regrettably, he didn’t get that memo until it was too late.
It really is a pity that Fisher left the fate of Oakland’s great baseball heritage in the hands of a couple of fly-by-night warlocks from parts known—thousands of miles from Oakland. Wolff is from St. Louis. Kaval is from Cleveland. But a tip of the cap to Kaval for failing only twice to get a ballpark done compared to Wolff’s three whiffs. Of course, there once was a guy who didn’t fail in the least, who completed an award-winning ballpark in Oakland on the first try—Robert Nahas, the godfather of the Oakland Coliseum.[7]
You’ll never hear Kaval or Fisher mention Robert Nahas. Best not to invite comparison to the man who actually completed a ballpark in Oakland. Also, best not to open a window to Nahas’s soul, as there is no place for his way of thinking today. You see, Nahas said some pretty troubling things when reflecting on the Oakland Coliseum at its 20th anniversary. For starters, he said that “money is the cheapest kind of reward.”[8] He preferred “the satisfaction of doing something that is useful and beautiful and contributes to life around us.”[9] And in a final embarrassment, he showed gratitude for his good fortune in life and his East Bay home. “I’ve been prosperous. My children have gone to school here. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. Why not give something back?”[10] You can bet Fisher, Kaval, and Manfred don’t want you to know about this guy and his incomprehensible, unconditional love for Oakland. Isn’t it telling that the one guy who accomplished a ballpark in Oakland wasn’t after personal riches?
If made aware of Nahas, most MLB owners would dismiss him as a quaint, naive guy from the pages of history. But they better tread carefully when they relegate Nahas to the funny farm. His words are a spot-on echo of the man who said it best, Jackie Robinson. “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Are MLB owners prepared to ridicule Robinson’s creed? Of course not. That would give the lie to their once-a-year celebration of Robinson’s sacrifice for equality and justice. In reality, most MLB owners don’t care about the great contribution of African Americans to baseball any further than they can make money from it. If you don’t believe that, just look at their unanimous vote to move the A’s out of Oakland.
[1] Lew Wolff as quoted in Steve Kettmann, “Developer: San Jose is ‘Big-League’ Option for A’s,” sfgate.com, 20 March 1998, Developer: San Jose Is `Big-League’ Option for A’s (sfgate.com).
[2] Glenn Dickey, “A’s owner unveils stadium plans,” sfgate.com, 12 August 2005, A’s owner unveils stadium plans (sfgate.com).
[3] Patrick Hoge, “A’s announce plan to buy land, move to Fremont,” sfgate.com, 14 November 2006, A’s announce plan to buy land, move to Fremont (sfgate.com).
[4] Joe Stiglich and Robert Handa, “A’s Ballpark Plans Left in Limbo After Peralta Site Falls Through,” nbcbayarea.com, 6 December 2017, A’s Ballpark Plans Left in Limbo After Peralta Site Falls Through – NBC Bay Area.
[5] Dave Kaval, as quoted in NBC Bay Area staff, “Exclusive Local TV Interview: Oakland A’s President Addresses Las Vegas Stadium Land Deal,” nbcbayarea.com, 21 April 2023, Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval on Las Vegas Land Deal – NBC Bay Area.
[6] Rob Manfred, as quoted in Associated Press, “Rob Manfred: A’s protest lags behind ‘decade worth of inaction,’” espn.com, 23 June 2023, Rob Manfred – A’s protest lags behind ‘decade worth of inaction’ – ESPN.
[7] “Engineering Award Made to Coliseum,” Oakland Tribune, 4 May 1967; Rick DelVecchio, “Robert Nahas—He brought Coliseum and A’s to Oakland,” sfgate.com, 26 February 2002, Robert Nahas — He brought Coliseum and A’s to Oakland (sfgate.com).
[8] Robert Nahas, as quoted in Ed Schoenfeld, “Nahas: The man who made Eastbay dream a reality,” Oakland Tribune, 14 September 1986, H-10.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.