photo from newballpark.org: Illustration of the new park of the Oakland A’s from behind home plate at Laney College at Lake Merritt in downtown Oakland

By Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Four in five voters want the Athletics to stay at the Coliseum. That is what a recent poll revealed. This poll was taken by a group that opposes the Laney College preferred location by the A’s. Jessamyn Sabbag, Oakland Rising Executive Director said that the people we spoke with, believe the proposed site at Laney College could push out and destroy historic cultural neighborhoods.This Poll included registered voters, 82% said the A’s should stay at the Coliseum, 5% opposed and 15% had no opinion/undecided.

The greatest player in Oakland A’s history, Hall of Fame Rickey Henderson told me years ago, before all these locations today in play, Laney College, Howard Terminal and yes Jack London Square, Rickey told me that the A’s should build their new park right at the Coliseum. Irony that today the Coliseum field is named Rickey Henderson Field.

David Kaval the Athletics President told me last year prior to season start, that the Oakland Coliseum was one of the locations in play for the A’s to build their new park, although he obviously favors the Laney College location.

As a longtime Alameda County resident and tax payer, I have seen this process before. I remember attending a rally for the A’s to move to the City of Fremont, where I have lived since 1979. It took place at the Saddle Rack (a popular spot for Country music stars to perform) the land was available in Fremont, but there was opposition and…Adios Fremont! For the record, Fremont is today the fourth largest city in the Bay Area, located some 25 miles south of Oakland and 15 miles northeast of San Jose. Fremont with 214,000 residents is #4 in the bay, only: San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland have a larger population. This is not to say that all people that would attend A’s games would be from Fremont, because we know both Major League Baseball clubs in this area draw from all the nine Bay Area counties.

There are a lot of people like me, that favors the A’s build their new ballpark right at the Coliseum. However I (and many) will support any other location here in the East Bay, where the Athletics have been playing since 1968. We can all agree that the Oakland Coliseum offers the best access of any professional venue in the Bay Area; BART to the east and Hwy 880 to the west. The big negative is that there is not much to do around the Coliseum, but that could change, the land is there.

And although I do not oppose any of the available future site for the A’s, something keeps telling me that at the end, the best option would be to stay put and build at the Coliseum.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum in San Francisco and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com