by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Jack London Square would be the ideal location for a new Oakland A’s Stadium as Major Baseball League Commissioner Rob Manfred said he would like to see the A’s get a new stadium in short order. The Jack London location would be the ideal location but as we know we don’t live in a perfect world. It’s not a surprise their not going to be in San Jose who just recently lost a lawsuit to Major League Baseball to obtain the right to move the A’s to San Jose and now the city is prepared to appeal the case in the U.S. 9th District of Appeals Court.

Oakland’s new mayor Mayor Libby Schaaf says she would entertain the idea of a new stadium for the A’s but also Schaff said that she will not allow one dime of public funds to be spent on the new stadium. To take this issue with San Jose further, San Jose is not even in the picture, so you have the choice of rebuilding the Coliseum which actually is an ideal or Jack London Square.

I was told years ago by the most unlikely source former A’s outfielder Rickey Henderson who came in the pressbox in Oakland and told me after I asked him about the problems in the Oakland Coliseum. Henderson said, “look man all they have to do is rebuild this place and make it look like it was before.” They built that cement monstrosity called Mount Davis in centerfield and that’s due to come down.

Maybe it should be named Rickey Henderson Park because Rickey was the first guy who told me that and that wasn’t a archaic idea but it makes a lot of sense. The A’s won’t be able to move out of Oakland, there’s not going to be any contraction in other words the A’s aren’t going to be dismantled. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred likes the idea of a new stadium in Oakland, the A’s aren’t going to relocate.

So what do you have? You have two locations the one now at the current Coliseum site, or possibly Jack London Square. Schaaf is optimistic I don’t blame her she wants to start off on the right foot and she wants to keep the A’s in Oakland. The City of Oakland is going to lose the Warriors that’s a given in a couple of years or so. The Raiders who knows, so the city of Oakland if it’s the Mayor or a politician are the best threat you have to keep the A’s they can also try and generate more revenue.

The A’s play 81 home games compare to 10 home games for the Raiders and 40 or so in basketball and now A’s owner Lew Wolf said that they would build a new park but they never said they would build it in Oakland. They said they would build it in San Jose or if they can’t they would rebuild the Oakland Coliseum or build at Jack London Square.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice