Cisco Field Stadium

Ballpark Plans

As the plans for building a new baseball park for the Oakland A's in Fremont California began to unravel [ See A's to Fremont Saga ], the city of San Jose stepped to the forefront with a renewed effort to lure the ball team to their city.

Over the years, whenever talk of moving the Athletics from Oakland emerged, San Jose had always expressed a strong interest in acquiring the team.
Each time however, they were rebuked with a reminder from the Major League Baseball Commission that the San Francisco Giants lays claim to San Jose, along with the rest of Santa Clara County as part of their "turf" [ Map of Giants/A's Territories ]. In order to override this edict, either the Giants would have to rescind their territorial rights, or 75% of all MLB owners would have to vote in favor of the A's in order to deny San Francisco's proprietary status.

Thus far, the process of resolving the future of the Athletics has been excrutionatingly slow.
In 2009, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig formed a "blue ribbon" committee to study the team's situation. The committee paid visits to Oakland, Fremont, and San Jose. A mountain of data was assembled via submitted proposals, marketing studies, environmental impact concerns, and myriad other issues along the way.
Here we are in the later half of 2011, and the report still sits on Selig's desk awaiting a decision.

In a letter dated May 10, 2011, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed sent an inquiry to Mr. Selig, requesting some sort of a timetable as to when a decision would be made as to whether the A's and their owner Lew Wolff could go forward with their desire to build a new ballpark in the South Bay.
To date, the mayor has received no answer. Chuck Reed has a theory:
“I think they did all their work in six months, and since then, it's been a dodge.”

If work were to begin on Cisco Field Stadium right-now, the very earliest it would be team-ready would be 2015. While maintaining patience, it is clear that Lew Wolff has grown frustrated with the long, drawn out process that has left the team in a state of limbo: “ I'm not getting any younger, and neither are my baseball people. If we're to get this done, now is the time.”

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Video of Proposed High-Speed Rail System in San Jose

( Hello? What's that I see coming into view @1:17? )

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