Oakland A's Ownership Rumored To Consider Firing Lew Wolff

The above headline will catch you by surprise, but the wind is blowing in that way.  The point is that several people behind the scenes, in touch with the ownership group, and around the Bay Area are talking about how Oakland Athletics Managing Partner Lew Wolff has, as one person put it "blown $20 million" on the effort to find a new home for the Oakland Athletics. Another contact told me one would be "fired" if they lost even $8 million on such a development project so early into the process. 

But the concensus for now is to let Wolff continue to do his work, but he's on a short leach.  The main problem is Wolff fell in love with the "baseball village" concept, where the ownership has to buy a lot of land not just for a baseball stadium but for residential development in the hope that the improved land sells for more than the group bought it for.  That works in a credit-health, prosperous economy, but in today's recessionary and deflationary world its a terrible strategy.  

And there's where a lot of the money was lost; in land acquisition. As has been reported, Wolff was not-so-quietly buying land in Fremont with the idea of implementing the village strategy.  But now, with the credit crunch that blew up in his face.  I explained to the other member of the A's  ownership team Don Fisher not too long ago (at a party) that such a move was risky because of the economic bet, but hey, no one listens to me except Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley. 

Maybe that will change.  

Perhaps in calling Mayor Dellums for a meeting, Wolff has seen the light of a possible new approach involving redevelopment funds and whatever stimulus money can be gotten from the federal government.  It's a better gambit now than it was even a year ago, when the word "stimulus" wasn't in the American lexicon.

When I use the term "rumor" in this case, it's not to be taken as something I "overheard"; this possible letting go of Wolff was told to me by two different sources, which I will not reveal, but frankly do want the news out there.  So am I saying "the knifes are out"?  Yes.  They are.  And they're sharp ones.

People in the A's organization will wonder who the person's are, but the unfortunate fact is I talk to a lot of people, even folks there.  Zeroing in on who it is?  Impossible.

Wolff's on notice.  Perform and stop losing money.  Or else.  Of course, now that Major League Baseball's committee on the need for a new A's stadium is in place, it could be said that Wolff's college buddy Commissioner Bud Selig saved him from almost certain doom.

Maybe.

Promise Technology Announces New ServicePlus On-Site Parts Replacement Program for US and Canada

First I take a stance on how backing up data is a personal responsibility and how Carbonite - a data protection company -- should take the rap for losing its customer's data, then I get comments on the San Francisco Blog about it, and from some high level folks, and now a press release?  Interesting.  It means our blogs matter in the tech world after all.  Here's the release I got on Promise Technology's news about an onsight parts replacement program:

Promise  Announces New ServicePlus On-Site Parts Replacement Program for US and  Canada

  Industry leading support program expands to include on-site component  swap offering

MILPITAS, Calif., April  1, 2009 – Promise Technology Inc., a leading supplier of  sophisticated RAID storage solutions for enterprise and SMB customers,  today announced general availability of the Promise ServicePlus parts  replacement plan for their VTrak enterprise class RAID storage subsystems.  The ServicePlus program is an available upgrade to Promise’s leading  3-Year limited advanced parts replacement warranty. The ServicePlus  plan offers onsite parts replacement 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for  the existing VTrak warranty period.

The Promise ServicePlus Plan  provides for the rapid response and installation of components that  have been identified as being in a fault state. This program provides  storage administrators with the peace of mind that their storage is  protected 24x7 against component failure. Combined with Promise’s  existing 24x7 technical phone support this program is able to significantly  minimize downtime. Average response time for component replacement can  be as little as four hours in most major metropolitan areas.

“The ServicePlus program  builds upon our already best in class support program”, said Vijay  Char, Vice President of QA and Support, Promise Technology.  “Continuing  to add to our support offering is part of our commitment to providing  our customers with the best available uptime and service.”

The Promise ServicePlus plan  is available for VTrak E-Class RAID, J-Class expansion chassis and M-Class  iSCSI models in the 3U/16-bay form factor. The program is valid for  the entire 3 year VTrak standard warranty period.

Pricing and Availability
The Promise ServicePlus plan is immediately available in the U.S. and  Canada. Please contact the Promise sales department for further information.

About Promise Technology,  Inc.
With a long history of innovation,  Promise Technology develops and manufactures sophisticated RAID solutions  – offering a complete line of RAID controller cards and SAS/SATA RAID  subsystems catering to enterprise, mid-range and entry-level data protection  needs worldwide. Known as the originator of SATA/ATA RAID products,  Promise’s comprehensive product base includes high available (HA)  standalone RAID subsystems with standards-based management interfaces,  SAS host-based (internal) RAID controllers for servers and NAS appliances  for SOHO. Headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., Promise is ISO-9001:2000  and ISO-14001:2004 certified, and has offices and operations throughout  Asia and Europe to support local business partners and customers. For  more information, visit Promise Technology's website at http://www.promise.com/serviceplu

"Save The Parkway Theater" Oakland Meeting Of 3-29-09

On March 22nd, the Parkway Theater in at 1834 Park Blvd in Oakland played its last set of films to a large audience, then stopped after 12 years of operation and a lot of memories. This is the video story I made from that night:



A victim of the economy and a landlord seeking higher rents, Parkway Owners Catherine and Kyle Fisher made a decision to close the legendary business just four days before the last opening night.

But no sooner did that happen than a group of concerned Oaklanders sprang into action. They set up a website called http://iliketheparkway.com and a facebook page called "Save The Parkway Speakeasy Theater", then held now three meetings. This video presents much of the action and talk from the second meet: a large event at Roos Cafe on Park Avenue, just three doors from the Parkway itself. Here's the video from the meeting:




The meeting attendees divided into several sub-groups and determined possible future programming and business models for the theater. Then the group was visited by Oakland Councilmember Pat Kernighan, who explained she just met with the owners of the building the Parkway Theater operated in and who said they wanted a new business in it -- a theater operator -- but one that had experience and not a new-comer. She also said the closing of the theater causes a blight on the neighborhood, but the area was already a Redevelopment Area.  That means property tax revenues are collected for use in such ways as facade improvement and business loans by the Oakland Redevelopment Agency.  That's not to say ORA funds will be used here, but it's a possibility in the future.  As the Councilmember's part of the Redevelopment Agency board, she can start that process. 

What's interesting is the owners charged $10,000 per month for rent according to the Councilmember (Which I personally think is totally high for that area. It may be reasonable from a per-square-foot perspective but really the best rent model was for the owners to charge a percentage of the revenue. $10,000 is highway robbery.)

After the sub-group meetings the group reassembled to compare notes. The overall desire is to see the Parkway Theater and its food-oriented business concept reborn.

The organizers planned future events. For example, on Wednesday night a volunteer meeting was held and there will be future events as well.

Meanwhile the employees who lost their jobs at the Parkway are still out there looking for new work. Their needs are more immediate -- the group has a lot of time.