This video show how the City of Fremont went from being an enthusiastic player in the matter of building the new high-tech stadium for the Oakland's A's to a set of city officials not willing to commit land near a planned Warm Springs BART extention for the stadium.
Fremont has changed in four months from a town that wanted the proposed privately financed stadium to one with a now-powerful citizen's group opposed to it. Why? Because, as I've said before, the A's plan will and now does call for public financing.
Rather than smartly pulling back on the proposal, A's managing owner Lew Wolff is trying to steam forward with this plan. He's also reopened talks with the City of San Jose and Santa Clara County about a stadium there.
What's really not smart about that approach is the Major League Agreement has not been altered to allow the A's to move to San Jose, and there's no guarantee that San Jose would 1) be able to get public approval for a stadium in this political climate, and 2) get MLB owners to approve a change that would certainly harm the fan base of the San Francisco Giants.
Meanwhile, Oakland sits, inactive in doing anything to keep the A's here. Frankly, doing a deal here for some changes in the Coliseum that could be paid for and create jobs and cost far less than in Fremont is the best move for all.
I hope Wolff figures that out.
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