To the Giants, that's not the point. They financed $180 million to build their ballpark in San Francisco, promising to repay lenders with revenue from ticket sales and corporate sponsorships. The heart of their fan base, the Giants say, is closer to San Jose than to San Francisco.
Yet, when the Silicon Valley Leadership Group polled companies in the San Jose area, 87% of the respondents reported doing no business with the Giants, and two-thirds of those that did said they would support both teams if the A's moved to San Jose.
In March, Selig asked Wolff to step back and appointed a task force to shepherd the A's toward a new ballpark.
Wolff says there is no place to build in Oakland and has provided the task force with years of research showing why. Yet, an Oakland delegation led by planning commissioner Doug Boxer -- son of Sen. Barbara Boxer -- recently met with the task force and proposed several ballpark sites within city limits.
If this all comes down to money, the Giants could be in trouble. The A's received $32 million in revenue sharing from other teams last year, Wolff says, but they wouldn't need any in a San Jose ballpark. That could entice other owners to vote to strip the Giants of their rights to San Jose, no doubt coupled with a requirement that the A's compensate the Giants for any losses.
And that, oddly enough, leads us back to the Coyotes.
In its effort to persuade the bankruptcy court that the Coyotes should not be allowed to sell the franchise without league approval, the NHL enlisted the NFL, NBA and MLB to file a brief on its behalf. A court ruling in favor of the Coyotes, according to the brief, "would adversely affect not only every other member club of the NHL but also the interests of [the other three leagues]."
That wording is curious, as it relates to baseball.
Under its heralded antitrust exemption, baseball has full authority to determine who owns its franchises and where they play. The NHL does not operate under an antitrust exemption, so we called Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, to ask why a ruling in favor of the Coyotes should have any effect on baseball.
He did not call back. We were told he did not wish to address this, at least publicly.
What if a court ruling encourages the Giants to file suit to preserve their territorial rights? The NHL has been embarrassed by revelations from documents filed in the Coyotes case, and baseball would prefer that the public not peek into its business files, even if the Giants were to lose.
