By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

Jan. 29, 2000

OAKLAND —The Alameda County Board of Supervisors has come back up to the plate in talks to keep the Oakland Athletics in the city through 2004.

In a letter sent Wednesday to A's President Mike Crowley, Supervisor Wilma Chan, the board president, wrote that the board supports keeping the team in Oakland but balked on several points.

"(Our) civic leaders and the A's have a common interest in building corporate and community support for the team," Chan wrote. "However, certain aspects of the present proposal do not seem consistent with the type of partnership that we need to build in this endeavor."

In the proposal crafted by Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente and approved by the council Jan. 18, the team would get $150,000 annually for marketing from both the city and county to remain in Oakland. Those funds, however, are tied to an attendance clause that allows the team to bail out of the agreement by paying back the money if ticket sales goals are not met.

But supervisors want an "absolute commitment" that the team will stay in Oakland until 2004, Chan wrote. If the A's agree to stay, according to the letter, attendance benchmarks should be ditched because factors like weather and the team's performance affect turnout more than marketing.

Supervisors also want to eliminate the "settlement" and "liquidated damages" provisions of the agreement to release the county from any legal liability born from the deal.

Crowley said Thursday he had received the letter and would examine Chan's suggested changes to the agreement and go from there.

While Crowley declined to comment on the likelihood the team would move, he said the attendance requirements were an essential component of the deal.

"If we didn't think they were necessary they wouldn't be in the agreement," Crowley said. "You have to have attendance to be able to support a payroll to provide for a competitive team. Basically, the way I read the supervisor's objections is that they don't feel (the team) can draw (people to games)."

Attendance figures from last year show the team floundered when it came to ticket sales. Despite better-than-expected performance, the team reeled in an average of only 17,500 people per game, or 40 percent of Network Associates Coliseum's 43,600 seats

For the 2000 season, the A's would have to raise ticket sales revenue to $17 million from $14 million to reach the attendance goal called for in the proposed agreement. That figure would increase to $20 million for the 2001 season.

Chan was out of the office for personal reasons, her secretary said Friday, and could not be reached for comment.

Supervisor Gail Steele said the proposed changes are not unreasonable.

"If we're going to compromise a little bit, then those are a couple of things they could throw in the pot that don't cost them anything," Steele said. "Let's stop playing games. You offer to stay and we'll get together and hunker down to make this work."