Talk Of The Town: A's Wolff Defends Decision To Build In Fremont

Wolff Discusses Reasons For Selecting Ballpark Site In Fremont

In a Q&A with the WALL STREET JOURNAL's Bobby White, A's Owner Lew Wolff said the team is planning to build a new Cisco Field in Fremont because "there isn't much space in Oakland." Wolff: "Everyone would love to have a ballpark on the water. It sounds nice, but half your trade area is on the water. The ideal location would be to rebuild a new stadium right on the McAfee Coliseum site, but even that had its issues. You have two other teams using that facility, and even if we were constructing there, it would put the others out of business." Wolff said of the new ballpark plans, "In terms of money from the city and the county, it drives me crazy that people don't quickly see this, we are not asking for any bond issues or general fund requirements. We are not asking for any money from the city. We will help that tax base for a decade without them having to write a check to get us and hopefully that's important to some of the people there." Wolff on running the franchise, said, "It should be run as a business, in the sense you want to avoid significant losses. I'm not looking at this as pure ultimate return on equity. It will not have the same return as building an office building or something." Wolff added: "I don't think most people are in it to get in for five years or 10 years and want to sell it -- at least, none that I've come across. I think the more logical owners will be happy to break even annually as long as they build the value of their team" (WSJ.com, 4/30).