More news on A's move

On the surface, there are few surprises in Lew Wolff's request for the A's to play five more years in Oakland. He's a developer. Developers always have a backup plan, usually two. They fail otherwise.

Even if the A's were given approval today to build in San Jose -- and that won't happen -- it would be at least four years before a ballpark could be open. So one way of looking at the news is that Wolff is buying his team a year of insurance.

But five years is a long time in sports and politics, much less development. And a re-enlistment in Oakland will have consequences -- and reflect a shifting of tectonic plates -- that we don't fully understand now. Here's how:

CHANGING GUARDS -- On Dec. 15, Lew Wolff celebrated his 77th birthday. This does not mean that he is senile. Far from it. It does mean -- inevitably -- that he will be 82 five years from now.

That means that decisions will increasingly pass to his son, Keith, and to the real money in the deal, John Fisher, who has put a $500 million limit on a San Jose stadium. Everyone expects Keith Wolff to honor his father's wishes. But he is his own man.


It's dangerous politically -- I'd say fatal -- to oppose an A's move to San Jose, a huge plus for the city. But how creatively will they push?


I won't bore you with details. The dispute, however, gives the San Francisco Giants one more argument for opposing the A's move to San Jose. They can question the $7 million option that a dying San Jose Redevelopment Agency gave Wolff to buy the land.

"The original deal was pretty simple,'' says Assessor Larry Stone, a longtime baseball advocate. "The redevelopment agency would buy all the land. And the A's would build the stadium. That's all changed. And it's much more complicated.''

DOORS LEFT OPEN -- A new lease in Oakland, even for only five years, allows Oakland boosters one last chance to woo the A's. Don't take this too seriously: In his letter, Lew Wolff made clear that the path to staying in Oakland is still blocked. But you can't say the door is closed permanently.

More important, there is still a door to San Jose. I've been hearing speculation that Major League Baseball looks favorably on San Jose but would prefer the city enlarge the footprint of its planned ballpark site. That could involve taking the fire department's training facility off Montgomery Street. It would inevitably cost more.


But five years gives everyone a chance to figure out what comes next. The Oakland deal is not the end for San Jose. The booster in me likes to describe it with a different metaphor -- the pause before the race to the summit.

Contact Scott Herhold at 408-275-0917 or