The MLB Giants in the coming months "will be putting forward a revised plan to transform the parking lots adjacent to AT&T Park into a new neighborhood of offices, shops and condos," according to Matier & Ross of the S.F. CHRONICLE. While no date "has been set to break ground, the project eventually would fill in the gap between the South Beach area and Mission Bay." The planned development gives the Giants a chance to "turn the neighborhood into a money-making attraction based on the tens of thousands of fans who visit the ballpark during the year." They would "get to keep all the development profits for themselves." Add in the fact that a number of the team's owners "are themselves in the development business, and the Giants believe they are as capable as anybody of pulling it off." The team has "hired an in-house development team led by Jon Knorpp, the man who helped launch Mission Bay, and Fran Weld, a former Red Sox development honcho." Word is that the Giants "have already scrapped plans for 30-story housing towers and have even consulted with former Mayor Art Agnos ... about what they might be able to build on the current site of AT&T’s parking lots." But team execs are "still trying to figure out how to make the plan pencil out -- particularly because they are under pressure from City Hall to provide a substantial amount of affordable housing." Sources said that the Giants "will probably wait until the 2016 general election to ask for voter approval of whatever they decide to build" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 10/26).
GOOD SERVICE: In Boston, Dan Shaughnessy writes AT&T Park "might be the perfect" ballpark. If fans "have made the trip west to watch the Giants at home you know that what I’m telling you is true: AT&T Park is a better ballpark than Fenway Park." There "are no bad seats" at AT&T Park, which is "one of the advantages of new vs. old." Shaughnessy: "You don’t have poles. You don’t have seats that face the rightfielder. You don’t have obstructed views from the overhangs." Shaughnessy also lists the ballpark's statues, edible garden and arcades as three more endearing qualities. The ballpark "has two slides for kids inside the giant glove beyond the left-field wall," and there also is a "Whiffle ball area" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/27).
