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On February 17th, Fremont residents came out against the planned construction of a new stadium for the Oakland A's at this City Council meeting captured by YouTuber fcnwebtv. As I predicted almost two years ago, called a pipe-dream , and told Don Fisher who's an owner of the organization at a Project Red Party, the economics of their proposal would not work. Now, the declining economy, the need for public money, and the distaste of Fremont residents have combined to produce an all but impossible task for the baseball team.

More at Inside Bay Area : “FREMONT — While the Oakland A's have put their move to Fremont on hold, stadium opponents say they still will show up by the hundreds at next week's City Council meeting. "It's not over. This is just another one of (A's co-owner) Lew Wolff's games," said Kathy McDonald, a founder of Fremont Citizens Network. Facing opposition to both of his proposed stadium sites, Wolff notified city officials Monday that he was taking a week to reconsider his options and canceling a scheduled appearance next week at the City Council meeting. As a result, the city has stopped work on an environmental impact report for the ballpark project. However, it is going ahead with a 30-day period for the public to submit comments, all of which must be addressed in the environmental report.”

More at Inside Bay Area : “FREMONT — The Oakland A's suddenly are reconsidering a move to Fremont in the face of vociferous opposition from residents who live near the newly proposed site in the city's Warm Springs district. The ballclub postponed indefinitely its planned presentations to the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and City Council scheduled for next Tuesday. The discussions were to have included comments from Bob DuPuy, president and CEO of Major League Baseball. "We didn't want to run into a lot of people screaming and yelling at the president of Major League Baseball," A's co-owner Lew Wolff said. Wolff said Tuesday that the team will review its Fremont stadium options with baseball officials during the next week, then determine how to proceed. "It's my decision what we do next," Wolff said. "I really want to have a little more time to think about our situation and discuss it with more people."” -- Look, the Trib headline was ...

A blooger who calls himself "Marine Layer" -- not his name -- says that Oaklanders don't go to Oakland A's games, but there's a reason for that. Marine Layer writes : Pro-Oakland types often say that ownership has in effect spit on them and driven them away. Some non-Oaklanders have concluded that the fandom really hasn't been there in the first place. Honestly, I think it has more to do with numbers: Oakland's population is only 1/6th of the East Bay, even less of the Bay Area's 7 million. One thing I've pondered is how many former Oakland residents attend ballgames. As the Oakland Hills has taken in transplants from San Francisco and the rest of the country, certainly many longtime Oakland residents were displaced. Some have left the flats for opportunities elsewhere, especially with the erosion of the manufacturing sector. It's likely a combination of the above factors, which is rather inconvenient for partisans looking for an easy scapegoa...

This article below is from KNTV San Francisco -- somehow the Oakland Tribune missed this. But at any rate, I wonder if the residents would feel that way if they had to pay for it? I think the survey may have been rigged to get a positive outcome. 64% Back A's Fremont Ballpark Proposal Researchers: Fremont 'Strongly Supports' A's Ballpark Village POSTED: 2:12 pm PST November 14, 2007 UPDATED: 3:53 pm PST November 14, 2007 FREMONT, Calif. -- Residents of Fremont strongly back a proposal for a new Oakland A's "ballpark village" project, according to results released by a research firm hired by the team. A's organization officials said they hired EMC Research to determine the public's reaction to the plan, released the results Wednesday. According to the telephone survey of Fremont residents, a strong majority supports a new ballbark village complex in the city. Sixty-two percent said they supported the project. Thirty-two percent said they were opp...

It doesn’t matter if it’s a retail business or the Oakland A’s, all good economic development efforts start with one thing: action. Well, two things – action and aggression. Over the past six years, the City of Oakland – and I mean everyone, not just the government, has shown little of either. By contrast, Fremont, led by Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, and Fremont’s Mayor Bob Wasserman have been both active and aggressive in attempting to yank the A’s from Oakland. What can Oakland do? Simple. Fight. Take action and aggressively work to retain the A’s. Oakland should use Jacksonville, Florida as an example. Jacksonville had no business thinking it could host a Super Bowl game, but their shortcomings didn’t stop them from trying. They were rejected by the NFL, but kept coming back until finally in 2000, they landed the right to host the 2005 Super Bowl – the one the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission and I worked to bring to Oakland. We had a better plan, and...

I attended the annual Fox Sports Network Baseball Luncheon -- held the first Thursday after the Super Bowl -- last week. In attendance were Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and sitting at the same table with Oakland A's Owners Lew Wolff and Jon Fisher, as well as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Giants heads Peter McGowan and Larry Baer, and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. After the event -- videos from it will be on various blogs in the SBS network including this one -- I asked Wolff how the Fremont efforrt was going. He gave me a sincerely tense look and said "We've got a long way to go." And he emphasized "long." I think Lew's going to discover that the wheels of goverment in the Bay Area turn slowly. This fact and Lew's frustration with Fremont could work in Oakland's favor -- if Oakland does something.

Ben and Nate, obviously not happy that the Oakland A's are attempting to move to Fremont, have produced this video. In it they declare that Oakland is home to important social movements, like The Black Panthers and the word "Hella". Then to complete their protest, they ghost ride their Volvo. Here's the video...