Oakland Ballers co-founder Paul Freedman introduced at the Ballers first press conference talks about the Ballers first season which will be played at Laney College (Mercury News photo)

On the Oakland A’s Relocation podcast with Jim on Bases :

#1 Jim on Bases, the Pioneer League Oakland Ballers were denied use of the Oakland Coliseum for one game on June 29th. The Ballers co-founder Paul Freedman was rather shocked about not being able to play at the Coliseum. The latest word is from inside sources the A’s are not budging from their decision to deny the Ballers to play at the Coliseum on June 29th.

#2 One of the discussed reasons for the denial by the A’s is they don’t want to have the Ballers come in and draw say 30,000 and making a statement that baseball isn’t dead in Oakland whereas the A’s are expected to draw no more on average 5,000 a game.

#3 The Ballers who are scheduled to play their games at Laney College in Oakland wanted to get their name out there and have a good start. The A’s don’t want to be embarrassed having a Pioneer League team come in and make them look bad in their marketing and attendance.

#4 The idea of the Ballers playing at the Coliseum didn’t come cheap as they would have to pay the Coliseum Authority to cover the grounds crew, security, concessions, engineers, technicians, and employees and also insurance costs and other miscellaneous departments working the Coliseum.

#5 The Ballers were planning to give tickets away to colleges, high schools and elementary schools and wanted to establish a relationship with Bay Area Schools and communities as a good will gesture. With the A’s denying the Ballers access to the Coliseum the Ballers will have to try and do this from Laney College.

Jim on Bases filled in for Daniel Dullum for the Oakland A’s Relocation podcast heard Frdiays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com