From: snichols@adobe.com (Sherri Nichols)
Subject: Re: Frank Jordan strikes again
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 22:51:21 GMT

In article <71641@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
>You know, all this running around and posturing and holding half-assed press
>conferences where nothing useful is said is not only not helping the cause
>for keeping the Giants around, it's actively hurting. 

No doubt.

>The St. Pete Giants would give the NL a stranglehold on the Florida market.
>That's bad, right? Hey, if the Florida market was so lucrative, why did it
>take them this long to put any team in there, much less two?

Well, there are really two separate questions here: why did it take them so
long to expand, and why hasn't any team moved there prior to now?  I think
there are reasons for the lack of movement for so long on both fronts; not
necessarily reasons I agree with, but reasons none the less.  Expansion is
easy; major league baseball is in general loathe to expand.  In exchange
for a one-time windfall, they increase the divisor on the national TV money
forever.  So they only expand when the pressure to do so builds up
substantially.  

As for why hasn't a team moved there before now?  Because basically,  in
every other case of a team threatening to move, the current host city
and/or state has buckled under and given the team everything it asked for.
The Mariners are a slightly different case; as part of the terms under
which Smulyan could break the lease he had in Seattle, he had to offer the
team for sale to local interests before he could move the team.  The threat
of Florida worked quite well to get the White Sox their new stadium,
though, and was unquestionably a factor in the vote in Cleveland.

> As a tradeoff,
>the AL gets a permanent monopoly on the fourth largest media market in the
>country, the S.F. Bay area. As an AL owner, I'd take the Oakland A's having
>the entire market here over getting a share of Florida in a minute.

And most indications are that the AL is willing to take that, though there
are still persistent rumors that a league realignment may eventually happen.

>decided for once and for all, because the primary reasons they're leaving
>are Candlestick (which is a dump) and the feeble fan support. 

This I'll take issue with.  I believe that the Giants have gotten the
support they deserve.  The Giants do a lousy job of marketing the team,
particularly compared to their neighbors across the way.  Yes, attendance
is hurt by Candlestick.  The Giants could still do a lot better.  I prefer
to watch NL ball over AL ball, but I've attended more A's games than
Giants, despite the fact that it takes significantly longer for me to do
so, because the Colisseum is nicer and because the A's treat their fans
better.  

>she's the only person in the whole ordeal (other than Lurie, who I feel has
>been far too patient and nice through the last ten years that the Bay Area
>has been running him through various hoops and wringers. If it were me, they
>would have been gone after the second vote).

Here's the other thing I'll take issue with Chuq on: the idea that the
long-suffering Lurie has been so patient and nice, and we've spit in his
face.  Sorry, but I have a hard time working up sympathy for a millionaire
businessman who's unhappy because we refused to spend tax dollars to
finance a stadium, the primary beneficiary of which will be the millionaire
businessman.  I do feel he's certainly entitled to do what he wishes with
his baseball team, whether move it or sell it to somebody else, but I have
a hard time with this "long-suffering Lurie" stuff.  If a new stadium is so
necessary to his making money with the Giants, why doesn't he build it
himself?  He's in better shape to do so than anybody local who buys the
Giants from him, because anybody who buys the Giants will have made a
hugely larger investment in simply buying the team.

>In other words, as a (virtual) baseball owner, I vote for the move in a
>nanosecond. 

You forgot the other reason that as a virtual baseball owner, you'd vote
for the move: you want to remind the current cities that baseball teams
*can* move.

Sherri Nichols
snichols@adobe.com



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