Oakland mayor Jean Quan held a press conference Friday afternoon (all info courtesy of @KQEDNewslive) to provide supposed updates on the city of Oakland's attempts to keep the Oakland Athletics from moving to San Jose. Quan stated that the city of Oakland had sent a letter to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to let him know Oakland wants to keep the A's and has two viable sites.
The two sites mentioned are at Victory Court and a possible rebirth of the Coliseum complex. The city is trying to implement revitalization and they believe they can build around a new ballpark. They believe an Oakland stadium would have the necessary transportation and populations hubs to be a success.
Although there has been no environmental impact report for the sites, the city believes they could move fast on EIRs if they get MLBs OK for either of the sites. The Coliseum complex is a relatively new addition as it is unlikely that Victory Court will ever happen. Mayor Quan stated that she believes Oakland is the only city that can get this done in time for Opening Day 2016.
The A's and San Jose believe they could get a stadium done in time for 2015, but Oakland believes the San Francisco Giants will do whatever it can to hold up the deal in courts. The Giants hold the territorial rights to Santa Clara after a simple handshake agreement a little over 20 years ago and have declared they will not give them up. The next few months will be an interesting time for this situation as MLB will hopefully have some kind of comment on the A's stadium situation in the near future.
This all comes a day after news broke that the Golden State Warriors met with San Francisco mayor Ed Lee about potentially building a basketball arena near AT&T Park. Mayor Quan believes a new Coliseum complex could provide an opportunity for a new Warriors arena as well. How anybody plans on paying for this was not addressed. Needless to say, A's fans are skeptical.