The San Jose City Council yesterday in a “public gesture it hopes will reverberate” with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, agreed to give the A's “exclusive rights to buy almost 5 acres of downtown land for $6.9 million -- but only if the team agrees to build a ballpark on the site,” according to Tracy Seipel of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. The 10 to 1 vote “granted the A's a two-year option for $50,000 that could be extended for a third year for $25,000.” City Council member Sam Liccardo “amended the motion to ensure that if the A's ultimately exercise their option, the sale of the land for a ballpark must go to a public vote.” But the A's are “not expected to buy the land until they receive word from Selig about their request to relocate the team.” Seipel notes, “Not everyone was happy about Tuesday's option deal.” Better Sense San Jose spokesperson Marc Morris, whose group is opposed to the ballpark, said that the option agreement is "'a self-imposed distress sale' that doesn't consider what he believes would be a more fiscally prudent long-term use for the land." An attorney representing Stand For San Jose, a coalition backed by the MiLB San Jose Giants, also “addressed the council with questions about the validity of environmental studies related to the ballpark” (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 11/9). A’s Owner Lew Wolff in an e-mail wrote he is "pleased with the vote" by the City Council. In S.F., Susan Slusser notes there are “no indications from MLB that the A's stadium issue is on the agenda for next week's owners' meetings in Milwaukee; the next owners' meetings after that will be in January” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 11/9).
