A's President Dave Kaval on Thursday "shared his visions for what a new ballpark could bring" to Oakland, according to Kimberly Veklerov of the S.F. CHRONICLE. Kaval said that the team's proposed ballpark near Laney College near downtown Oakland, which will cost upward of $500M in private financing, would "seat fewer people -- 34,000 -- and be more 'porous' in its connections to the surrounding neighborhood and local businesses" than AT&T Park in S.F. He added that the ballpark could have an "urban feel similar" to PNC Park in Pittsburgh and none of the "nosebleed seats" of AT&T Park. Designs for the ballpark "haven’t been done." But Kaval said that "years of work are ahead before any groundbreaking could take place," perhaps in '21. Veklerov notes 65% of fans would "take public transportation to games," compared with just 20% who "rely on public transit for games" currently at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Kaval said the vision could involve creating a “river walk” at a nearby estuary. Meanwhile, Kaval said that the Coliseum is "serving as a prototypical 'canvas' on which to try new attractions and features that could be modeled at the new ballpark down the road" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 10/6).
YOU PAY FOR IT: A K.C. STAR editorial notes that studies on a downtown ballpark for the Royals were conducted in the '90s and early '00s, and all "came to naught." The latest ballpark chatter "should suffer a similar fate." If Royals Owner David Glass "wants to build a new, privately-owned ballpark downtown, we’d be happy to see it." But a downtown ballpark paid for with taxpayer dollars "should be at the bottom of the region’s to-do list" (K.C. STAR, 10/6).
