The team has gone fully native in Santa Clara, embracing the region’s technology industry and its monied denizens. Its plans to leave San Francisco behind and build a stadium down there are gaining headway, too. Just this week, the team unveiled a fancy new sales office in the South Bay that uses the latest technology from the Valley to showcase the proposed stadium, which would open in 2015 if the team can get its finances together.

And who can blame them? Great weather. Less urban blight. Richer fan base. Who cares if they leave the city for greener parking lots?

For one, the residents of San Francisco should care. And they should blame the team for turning its back on the city that raised it. Second, the politicians that got us into this mess should care. From my understanding of events, the 49ers were prepared to build here in San Francisco until a rift arose between co-owner John York and then-Mayor Gavin Newsom. A perfectly good plan to build at Hunters Point was scrapped and the team turned to Santa Clara.

And the 49ers are not looking back. At a media briefing to tout the new high-tech sales office, powered by technology from Hewlett-Packard among others, the team’s chief operating officer, Paraag Marathe, put it bluntly: “We are building a manifestation of what the 49ers represent and what Silicon Valley represents.”

He also said the team wants its stadium to be a “landmark of Silicon Valley.”

Not a whole lot of talk about San Francisco there. Or the East Bay. Or Marin. Until we asked.

“We’ve got a lot of respect for the city of San Francisco,” said Marathe, a thoroughly likable and seemingly competent executive. “But our season-ticket holders aren’t limited to the city. We believe we’ll be as close to the season-ticket holders as we’ve ever been.”

That’s probably true. Especially if you open your sales operation in a Silicon Valley office park and build a stadium in Santa Clara. I don’t envision too many people from San Rafael or Martinez driving an hour and a half to see what the view from their seats might look like. And then driving an hour and a half back.

To be fair to the 49ers, one has to admit the new stadium design looks great. The place will seat 65,000. It will have 165 luxury suites housed in a five-story, glass tower. On top of that tower will be a grassy area from which some select fans will be able to view the game. My only quibble would be in the class structure of the design. It’s skewed to the rich. But that’s the name of the game, especially in Silicon Valley.

The 49ers also argue that there are 13 freeway interchanges at the new facility, compared to four near Candlestick. And the team received a huge boost on the parking side of the equation recently when Great America was sold to new owners who have pledged 10,000 spots to the 49ers on game days.

“It’ll probably take less time for a fan in San Francisco to get here and back than it does at Candlestick,” Marathe said.

Not sure if I buy that, but it all seems to be falling into place in Santa Clara, except for the money. The 49ers have now raised nearly $189 million of the $987 million it will take to build the park. That’s a big gap, but Marathe said the team believes the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement will pave the way for financing help from the league.

So, where does that leave San Francisco? Out of the picture.

It will be interesting to see whether the residents of San Francisco – who are losing their NFL franchise, make no mistake – will make this a viable issue in the upcoming mayoral elections.

So far, no one seems to care that the five-time Super Bowl champions are leaving town.

Classy closure: It was all class and good vibes at the Giants‘ last game of the season this past week, despite the team’s disappointing finish.

The stands were packed for the season-ending loss to the Rockies, proving that the Giants’ bandwagoners from last year have become true orange and black. And when and if the 49ers leave town, that loyalty will only grow.

Perhaps the classiest moment of the day came when manager Bruce Bochy pulled left fielder Pat Burrell out of the game in the late innings, allowing the hometown slugger to take the field before getting called back into the dugout, where he was met with a standing ovation from the crowd and a series of hugs from teammates.

Burrell was overcome with emotion and had to walk it off in the clubhouse tunnel.

“I could see him biting his lip,” said Aubrey Huff later that day as he packed up his gear in the clubhouse. “It was an emotional moment.”

Indeed it was. The Giants sold out every home game this year, drawing more than 3.3 million fans to set a club record. The fact that everyone at the last game knew this could be Burrell’s final moments on the field as a major-league ballplayer shows that these aren’t just rich dilettantes, going out to see and be seen.

The Giants have grown a knowledgeable, real community, right here in San Francisco.

The man in the middle: With the announcement of a merger between Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows this past week, the natural question was: How can these adjacent resorts connect their slopes?

The answer lies with a man named Troy Caldwell, a one-time hot doggin’ ski champ who now owns a crucial piece of real estate between the two sites.

Caldwell’s land, known as White Wolf, is actually a private little ski area that connects the back side of Squaw Valley’s KT-22 area with the Alpine Meadows parking lot. A few years back, Caldwell famously put up 17 lift stanchions on his very own run, which he calls KT South, with plans to operate his own ski lift. He even obtained a permit that allows him 25 skiers per day, all friends and family. But he never finished the project and never operated an actual chairlift.

Now, Caldwell finds himself in the middle of a Tahoe megamerger, and he holds the keys to linking the two properties. Last year, after purchasing Squaw Valley, KSL Resorts contacted Caldwell with an eye toward purchasing his land. So far, no deal is in the works.

In order to open White Wolf as a connection between Squaw Valley and Alpine, the resorts would have to put in an additional chairlift to go over the ridge that divides White Wolf from Alpine.

Caldwell and his wife, Sue, live in Alpine Meadows, where they have built homes. He bought the acreage, which includes portions of KT-22 that he leases to Squaw, from Southern Pacific in 1990. Though there have been rumors of him selling White Wolf to KSL, he told my colleague Sam Whiting, “We’ve never had any firm offers. I’m sure they would like to buy it, but I want to be involved all the way through this thing.”

He estimates that a mountain connection between Squaw and Alpine is 10 years away. If they ever do link up, Squaw and Alpine would be the biggest ski and snowboarding resort in the nation, with over 6,000 acres of land. And that could be a real boon to the area’s bid for the 2022 Olympics.

Al Saracevic is The Chronicle’s sports editor. You can e-mail him at asaracevic@sfchronicle.com.

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2011/10/01/does-san-francisco-even-care-if-49ers-leave-town/

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – Oakland Athletics owner Lew Wolff has the spot for a new ballpark all picked out. Funding is in place and the San Jose mayor is on board with Wolff’s plan to relocate his club some 40 miles south.

Wolff has been waiting two years for his old fraternity brother, commissioner Bud Selig, to tell him whether he can go ahead with his proposal to move the A’s from Oakland into Santa Clara County even though the San Francisco Giants hold the territorial rights in technology-rich Silicon Valley.

Selig appointed a committee in March 2009 to evaluate the issue facing the Bay Area teams, yet he has provided no timetable for when he might announce a decision. Thus far it appears Selig doesn’t want to make a decision that would anger the A’s or Giants.

“I think the Giants have a position they believe in and we have a position we think would be great for us,” Wolff said. “Those positions are well known to the commissioner, and he has to decide.”

Understandably, Wolff is getting anxious. He is determined to move the small-market A’s as soon as possible and begin breaking ground on an intimate, privately funded new ballpark, but San Francisco’s ownership has no plans to hand over Santa Clara County – which includes many of the club’s big sponsors. The Giants are coming off the franchise’s first World Series title since moving West in 1958 and first overall since ’54 in New York.

“The South Bay is the single-most compelling part of our fan base,” Giants President Larry Baer said. “It’s densely populated with the strongest representation of our sponsors, the strongest representation of our ticket buyers and the strongest representation of our television viewership and radio listeners.”

Selig – who has repeatedly said the A’s can’t survive financially playing in the run-down Oakland Coliseum they share with the NFL’s Raiders – has indicated in the past he considers territorial rights to be sacred. The A’s and Giants play about 17 miles apart, separated by picturesque San Francisco Bay.

Selig formed the task force to analyze the situation and report back to him, and Wolff believes that process is done.

“The committee is working and I do not know when their work will be complete,” said Pat Courtney, Selig’s spokesman.

In the A’s view, how could the Giants be upset about them moving 40 miles farther away?

The Giants don’t consider it that simple when their South Bay fan base is taken into account. They declined to provide exact numbers of their ticket sales in the South Bay, but acknowledge having contributed financially to the group “Stand for San Jose” – which is supported by San Francisco’s Class-A San Jose club and opposes the A’s moving to town.

“We solidified a fan base and the core is the city of San Francisco and straight directly south those 50 miles,” Baer said. “This is our focus.”

Selig has asked the two clubs not to publicly debate the issue. Many San Jose city officials are on board, with Mayor Chuck Reed a big proponent of professional baseball in the South Bay – and he is on record saying he would welcome the A’s. But if this process takes too long, the A’s risk that he might no longer be in office.

“I’m patiently waiting for the commissioner to rule,” Wolff said. “The committee hopefully has finished its work and Bud is contemplating his decision. That’s all I know. I think it will be sooner rather than later. I don’t think it’s another year off.”

A’s majority owner John Fisher doesn’t speak out about the situation, though Wolff has expressed his frustrations at times.

Wolff, the savvy Los Angeles real estate developer and a fraternity pal with Selig back in their days at Wisconsin, is ready to break ground on a ballpark projected to cost between $400 million and $450 million – if and when he gets the OK to relocate. There are working drawings of the venue and an architect has been chosen. Wolff expects getting building permits to take about nine months, then the actual ballpark would require another two years to complete.

Wolff would like to hear from Selig either way, though the A’s “don’t have a Plan B,” Wolff said.

“I’m in baseball because of Bud, and I believe he’s the best commissioner in baseball by far, even though he’s my friend,” Wolff said. “Baseball wouldn’t be where it is without Bud. I respect his reasoning.”

The city of Oakland in December 2009 unveiled three waterfront sites as potential spots to build a new ballpark for the A’s and ultimately keep the team from leaving town.

Yet Wolff and the ownership group, committed to keeping the team in the Bay Area, feel they have exhausted their options in Oakland after years of effort.

In the past they haven’t been able to find a suitable spot to build and were set to leave blue-collar Oakland and move to nearby Fremont until that plan fell through. Wolff said it cost his group $30 million.

“It takes me an hour and 45 minutes exactly to go through (the paperwork) of what we did in Oakland,” Wolff said of his efforts in the diverse East Bay city.

This isn’t the first time baseball has dealt with territorial rights. The Baltimore Orioles were compensated in a complicated transaction when Major League Baseball bought the Montreal Expos and moved them to Washington, D.C.

Baseball’s other 29 teams purchased the poor-drawing Expos for $120 million in 2002, and the commissioner’s office initially operated the team before it sold. The franchise was moved to Washington for the 2005 season and renamed the Nationals.

In the Bay Area, former A’s owner and well-known businessman Walter Haas – a third-generation San Franciscan who ran the Oakland franchise from 1979-95 – gave the Giants the OK to assume rights to San Jose in a favor of sorts to former San Francisco owner Bob Lurie when his team was considering moving to Florida. The deal basically happened with a handshake and then was approved by baseball’s owners.

Haas’ son, Wally, sold the A’s to the group that preceded Fisher and Wolff: Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann.

The territorial rights have been defined several different times, beginning when former Giants managing partner Peter Magowan bought the team before the 1993 season.

Magowan and his group, which included Baer, quickly made the decision to bring in slugger Barry Bonds – who broke Hank Aaron’s home run record in August 2007 and played a huge role in revitalizing baseball in San Francisco. Bonds’ presence helped the club build a privately funded downtown ballpark.

The Giants are paying for that privately built waterfront ballpark, which opened in 2000 in what has become a bustling area at China Basin. San Francisco drew 3 million fans every year until reaching only 2.8 million in the 2008 and ’09 seasons, then got back to 3 million in its championship 2010 year.

“We felt it (those two years at 2.8 million),” Baer said. “We’ve got to be at 3 million to break even.”

It’s not that the Giants don’t feel for their cross-bay rivals. They had their share of lean years, losing $115 million from 1993-99 at Candlestick Park after Magowan’s group bought the team for $100 million and took over before moving into ATT Park – and drawing Oakland-like crowds of about 9,000 fans a night when things were especially dire.

“We were there before, in this situation,” Baer said. “We know the need to have a modern and fan-friendly ballpark. We were there. It reminds us when we came into the Giants in 1993. The reality is that we have many case studies, including the San Francisco Giants, where a new ballpark was built very close to an old ballpark and became a success story – San Francisco and Seattle to name two in the last decade.”

Now, it’s up to Selig to make his call.

Article source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/baseball/mlb/wires/03/07/2010.ap.bbo.bay.area.territorial.rights.1st.ld.writethru.1667/