Post by TheShadow on Sept 8, 2008 3:53:44 GMT -5
www.sfgate.com
By Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross
With three seasons to go on their lease at the Coliseum, the Oakland Raiders are once again putting the team's future in play.
This time around, the team wants locals to turn the area around the Coliseum into a full-fledged retail and entertainment district - complete with a new, football-only stadium.
"We need to find a way to revitalize the area," Raiders chief executive Amy Trask said on the eve of the team's season opener Monday night in Oakland against the Denver Broncos.
"What we have suggested is not just a stadium, but something to bring business enterprise and activity to a part of the community that needs it," Trask said.
The team's call for a new home comes just as the Oakland A's, who share the stadium with the Raiders, are laying tracks for a move to Fremont.
The Raiders want Oakland and Alameda County - which are still on the hook to the tune of $22 million a year for the 1995 rebuild of the stadium and subsequent makeover of the Coliseum arena - to help finance the dream plan.
Whatever plan that might turn out to be.
"It has to be what the NFL describes as a public-private partnership," Trask said.
"Our job is to try to put together a deal so the Raiders will stay," said Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who chairs the city-county Coliseum Authority and was heavily involved in the team's return from Los Angeles 13 years ago. "We are having good discussions, and that's as far as I'm going to go."
Experts say the team has little chance of returning anytime soon to L.A. or finding a new home in oft-mentioned Las Vegas or San Antonio, Texas.
The Raiders have floated the idea of a move through the Caldecott Tunnel to Dublin - or even sharing a new stadium with the 49ers - but with little effect.
Hence, with their lease winding down - and the city and county already agreeing to extend the A's contract at the Coliseum for up to three years, through 2013 - Al Davis & Co. appear determined to play the hand they've been dealt.
Meanwhile: In the South Bay, the future of the 49ers' plans for a stadium next to the Great America amusement park still hangs in the air - with no quick resolution in sight.
Hopes for a November ballot initiative in Santa Clara to help finance an $800 million stadium there faded after the city and 49ers failed to meet a July deadline for putting a deal together.
So far, Cedar Fair, which owns Great America, has resisted offers by the Niners to allow a stadium to be built on the amusement park's parking lot, or even on a neighboring overflow lot.
If a deal can't be reached, the 49ers have said they may be willing to buy Great America from the company, which leases the amusement park site from the city. But the question is, at what cost?
Cedar Fair reportedly has pegged the park's value at upward of $110 million - well above what the Niners say it's worth.
"At this point, the ball is in (the Niners') court," said Cedar Fair spokeswoman Staci Frole.
In the meantime, the folks at Great America say they have something other than football on their minds this fall - they're turning the place into a haunted theme park, complete with monsters in the midway, just in time for Halloween.
Here she comes: With their convention behind them, Republicans already have their new celebrity VP pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, prospecting for California's gold.
She'll be the star of a $1,000- to $40,800-a-head fundraiser luncheon Sept. 25 at the Woodside home of software and technology mogul Tom Siebel and his wife, Stacey. (Yes, he's a cousin of Gavin Newsom's bride, Jennifer Siebel.)
The invite, which is already in the mail, lists the hosts as none other than former U.S. ambassador to France and San Francisco resident Howard Leach and his wife, Gretchen.
Budget update: When it comes to going around in circles, you would be hard-pressed to beat the "budget talks" in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office.
Democrats are adamant that the answer is more taxes and cuts. Republicans are just as adamant that the answer is even more cuts and borrowing.
And Schwarzenegger can't get either side to listen to his combo plan.
"You know, we could be here until October," Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis (Fresno County) reportedly told the governor during one impasse.
"Why, what is going to change by then?" the governor asked.
"That's the point," Villines said. "Nothing is going to change by then."
Mrs. D: It shouldn't come as too much of a shock that Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' wife has become a force in his office.
The fact is, ever since Dellums took over in 2007, wife Cynthia has been playing gatekeeper in both his professional and personal life.
Even old friends have to go through Cynthia Dellums to get to the mayor - and that includes when they are just calling on the phone to say hello.
Which is one of the reasons many have stopped trying.
Bow-wow-wow: The Glen Park growler - the guy we told you about Wednesday who tried to bite a woman on the thigh as she was walking by - has been popped.
Jake Lewis Dues, 21, was picked up in Golden Gate Park the other evening after sneaking up on a 32-year-old Richmond District woman as she was going home from a run, police said.
According to officers, Dues walked up behind the woman and tried to touch her thigh. She screamed. He scampered. The cops were called and he was caught, allegedly confessed to sex crimes Inspector Rod Nakanishi, and now faces attempted sexual battery charges.
EXTRA! Catch our Web page at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.
Play the John McCain and Bristol Palin caption contest. Pick the week's biggest storm. And read the Extra, Extra, Extra musings and insights of friends including Rich "Big Vinny" Lieberman and The Chronicle's Carla Marinucci and Don "Bad Reporter" Asmussen.
By Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross
With three seasons to go on their lease at the Coliseum, the Oakland Raiders are once again putting the team's future in play.
This time around, the team wants locals to turn the area around the Coliseum into a full-fledged retail and entertainment district - complete with a new, football-only stadium.
"We need to find a way to revitalize the area," Raiders chief executive Amy Trask said on the eve of the team's season opener Monday night in Oakland against the Denver Broncos.
"What we have suggested is not just a stadium, but something to bring business enterprise and activity to a part of the community that needs it," Trask said.
The team's call for a new home comes just as the Oakland A's, who share the stadium with the Raiders, are laying tracks for a move to Fremont.
The Raiders want Oakland and Alameda County - which are still on the hook to the tune of $22 million a year for the 1995 rebuild of the stadium and subsequent makeover of the Coliseum arena - to help finance the dream plan.
Whatever plan that might turn out to be.
"It has to be what the NFL describes as a public-private partnership," Trask said.
"Our job is to try to put together a deal so the Raiders will stay," said Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who chairs the city-county Coliseum Authority and was heavily involved in the team's return from Los Angeles 13 years ago. "We are having good discussions, and that's as far as I'm going to go."
Experts say the team has little chance of returning anytime soon to L.A. or finding a new home in oft-mentioned Las Vegas or San Antonio, Texas.
The Raiders have floated the idea of a move through the Caldecott Tunnel to Dublin - or even sharing a new stadium with the 49ers - but with little effect.
Hence, with their lease winding down - and the city and county already agreeing to extend the A's contract at the Coliseum for up to three years, through 2013 - Al Davis & Co. appear determined to play the hand they've been dealt.
Meanwhile: In the South Bay, the future of the 49ers' plans for a stadium next to the Great America amusement park still hangs in the air - with no quick resolution in sight.
Hopes for a November ballot initiative in Santa Clara to help finance an $800 million stadium there faded after the city and 49ers failed to meet a July deadline for putting a deal together.
So far, Cedar Fair, which owns Great America, has resisted offers by the Niners to allow a stadium to be built on the amusement park's parking lot, or even on a neighboring overflow lot.
If a deal can't be reached, the 49ers have said they may be willing to buy Great America from the company, which leases the amusement park site from the city. But the question is, at what cost?
Cedar Fair reportedly has pegged the park's value at upward of $110 million - well above what the Niners say it's worth.
"At this point, the ball is in (the Niners') court," said Cedar Fair spokeswoman Staci Frole.
In the meantime, the folks at Great America say they have something other than football on their minds this fall - they're turning the place into a haunted theme park, complete with monsters in the midway, just in time for Halloween.
Here she comes: With their convention behind them, Republicans already have their new celebrity VP pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, prospecting for California's gold.
She'll be the star of a $1,000- to $40,800-a-head fundraiser luncheon Sept. 25 at the Woodside home of software and technology mogul Tom Siebel and his wife, Stacey. (Yes, he's a cousin of Gavin Newsom's bride, Jennifer Siebel.)
The invite, which is already in the mail, lists the hosts as none other than former U.S. ambassador to France and San Francisco resident Howard Leach and his wife, Gretchen.
Budget update: When it comes to going around in circles, you would be hard-pressed to beat the "budget talks" in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office.
Democrats are adamant that the answer is more taxes and cuts. Republicans are just as adamant that the answer is even more cuts and borrowing.
And Schwarzenegger can't get either side to listen to his combo plan.
"You know, we could be here until October," Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis (Fresno County) reportedly told the governor during one impasse.
"Why, what is going to change by then?" the governor asked.
"That's the point," Villines said. "Nothing is going to change by then."
Mrs. D: It shouldn't come as too much of a shock that Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' wife has become a force in his office.
The fact is, ever since Dellums took over in 2007, wife Cynthia has been playing gatekeeper in both his professional and personal life.
Even old friends have to go through Cynthia Dellums to get to the mayor - and that includes when they are just calling on the phone to say hello.
Which is one of the reasons many have stopped trying.
Bow-wow-wow: The Glen Park growler - the guy we told you about Wednesday who tried to bite a woman on the thigh as she was walking by - has been popped.
Jake Lewis Dues, 21, was picked up in Golden Gate Park the other evening after sneaking up on a 32-year-old Richmond District woman as she was going home from a run, police said.
According to officers, Dues walked up behind the woman and tried to touch her thigh. She screamed. He scampered. The cops were called and he was caught, allegedly confessed to sex crimes Inspector Rod Nakanishi, and now faces attempted sexual battery charges.
EXTRA! Catch our Web page at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.
Play the John McCain and Bristol Palin caption contest. Pick the week's biggest storm. And read the Extra, Extra, Extra musings and insights of friends including Rich "Big Vinny" Lieberman and The Chronicle's Carla Marinucci and Don "Bad Reporter" Asmussen.