Magowan: Don't Blow It

Nice article today by Ann Killion about how Magowan should get money from the A's for the territorial rights to the South Bay. I've been writing about this for nearly two years now. Here's my first post about it, when I had my old site (well, first on my blogs, I might have written it for a site that will not be named anymore :^).

I still think that post holds up pretty well still. The Giants could use more money to spend. The A's could pay them big bucks in order to move to the South Bay plus pay the Giants annual money as well, much like the Orioles will get from the Nationals. Win-win.

The Heat is ON

Now there is great imperative for the Giants to do this now, as Ann noted in her article. The A's are planning on moving south soon anyhow. They will be on the border of Santa Clara County with a proposed site in Fremont, on land that Cisco currently have an option on but appear ready to work with the A's for Cisco Park. There is a rumor that Larry Baer and Magowan was spotted in a car near the proposed site, presumably to get a lay of the land.

As a deep South Bayer, I'm still only a 35-45 minute drive away from that area from home, maybe 10-15 minutes from my work (not that I would ever go to an A's game, but some of my co-workers might). That is much closer than AT&T Mays Field is from the South Bay, by a good half hour or so, and that doesn't include the time dealing with parking there, as there are few parking lots around the site. This site in Fremont is easily reachable from most of the South Bay, though most will have to make it an evening there because traffic starts backing up between 3-4 PM, so you would have to leave work a little early.

So they could end up with nothing instead of raking in benefits that Baltimore got, such as, from my post:

• Guaranteeing that his franchise will be worth $200M more than he paid for it
• Giving him 60% of the revenues of a regional sports network in combo with the Nationals
• Guaranteeing that the Orioles' revenue would never fall below the average of what they earned before the Nationals moved to Washington.

And this was for a team that didn't even have a legit claim, they just want to pay the Orioles to go away. Well, the Giants should have been playing that game as well.

What risk is there, if the other team will guarantee that the value of your team will not fall under a value that the Giants agree to? What risk is there if the other team would guarantee your revenues would never fall below the average of what they had before the move? True, the A's might not agree to the exact same terms, but at least the Giants would have gotten something for their troubles. Now, they get zip, zero, nado, a big donut hole!

Magowan: Please Bust A Move, Before It's Too Late

So now that the local media has finally gotten some coverage on this issue, maybe the Giants will finally listen to reason and get some money now before they lose a significant portion of the south bay to the San Jose A's of Fremont. As I noted in my previous post, they can get money now and money in a recurring stream over the life of, say, the rest of their loan payments to make sure that is covered. And if that is not the issue, then I would like to know what the reason is, and it better be good.

This is found money, ready to be used to buy free agents over the next few years or many years, depending on what they can negotiate out of the A's. Now that they are on the South Bay's doorstep with the proposed move to Fremont, the Giants will get much less from the A's, but at least they will get something. Maybe they will at least get enough money so that Brian Sabean will no longer have to make the decision: draft pick or Michael Tucker? He can just get both instead.