Cisco Field will be on Irvington district and More update

A's complete field renovations at school
Fields at Washington High School in Fremont are redone

The A's and their partners, the Good Tidings Foundation, cut the ribbon on their latest field renovation on Tuesday, celebrating the completion of work on the baseball and softball fields at Washington High School in Fremont.A's owner Lew Wolff and club president Mike Crowley joined pitcher Huston Street and catcher Kurt Suzuki to lead the A's contingent attending the event. Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman, Fremont Unified School District Superintendent Doug Gephart and Washington High School student body president Tenaya Davis also participated in the ceremony.

The A's began the renovation process of both fields at the end of June. It included the replacement of the entire irrigation system, fresh sod and infield dirt. The renovations also included new concrete under the bleachers for both fields, a new wood backstop with fresh paint and fencing around the bullpen for the baseball field, and fresh paint on the backstop and fencing to enclose fan and bleacher areas behind the backstop for the softball field.

Last year, WHS renamed the baseball field in honor of alumnus Dennis Eckersley, the former A's right-hander who went on to reach the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Last season, the A's and Good Tidings Foundation renovated and renamed Rickey Henderson Baseball Field located at the Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center in East Oakland and renovated Bambino Field at the Greenman Field Baseball Complex in Oakland in 2005.

The Good Tidings Foundation is a 501-(c)-3 children's charity that looks to equally support education, athletics and the arts for youth from communities of need in the greater Bay Area. The Good Tidings Foundation received assistance from general contractor Robert A. Bothman, Inc., Calco Fence, Hunter Industries, Kelly-Moore Paints and West Coast Turf in the renovation of the Washington High School baseball and softball fields.

Concern

The new A's Stadium maybe will fall through. For Example: If Lew Wolff wants to build a overpass freeway. But Lew Wolff wants the City of Fremont to pay for the overpass freeway. The City of Fremont can't afford too build a overpass freeway. "Then the new A's Stadium deal is off."

September 18 City Council Work Session

The City Council held an additional work session on September 18 to hear an updated presentation from the Oakland A's on their proposed Ballpark Village land use plans. Keith Wolff, co-owner of the A's, and Marty Borko from Gensler Architects, discussed the following items with regard to the proposed Ballpark Village: residential density, land use variety/flexibility, school site and design, connectivity and walkability, parks, parking and transportation, and sustainable elements.

Watch the Work Session.

Below is the A's presentation. Please note: due to the size of the file, it is divided into 5 different PDFs.

Part 1,2	Part 3,4	Part 5

New A's ballpark in Fremont would be surrounded by upscale eateries

If approved by Fremont's City Council, the $450 million Cisco Field would open in 2011 in a now-vacant lot in the city's Irvington district. It would be surrounded by high-end retail stores, restaurants overlooking the outfield, and housing for at least 3,000 people, A's officials told Fremont Tuesday night.

"This is the biggest project Fremont will ever see," said Mayor Bob Wasserman. "If it's approved, it will create a pride here. It will make the city a whole place."

Though finances weren't part of the discussion as the A's outlined the latest details of their 200-acre, $1.8 billion development plan to Fremont officials and residents at Fremont City Hall, the team has asserted that a new ballpark would raise millions of dollars a year in public and private revenue.

On Tuesday, the A's said they would comply with city officials' request to move a proposed elementary school closer to the stadium. It had been planned for several blocks away.

Cisco Field - which would be located 25 miles south of the the team's current stadium on Oakland- would seat 32,000 and be the smallest ballpark in Major League Baseball. Almost the entire outfield would be rimmed with elevated seated. That way, pedestrians, shoppers and diners walking in a mall area below could watch the game for free through windows beneath those elevated seats.

The team, tentatively to be called the Athletics at Fremont - at one time it had been the Silicon Valley Athletics at Fremont - would play in a classic ballpark with plenty of bricks reminiscent of Boston's Fenway Park or AT&T Park in San Francisco, said Keith Wolff, the A's co-owner.

"On game days, the ballpark will provide energy and excitement," Wolff said. "On nongame days, it will be like a sculpture or a park."

The public would also be able to watch games for free from a public park just beyond center field. That park would even have its own scoreboard.

The development would include 11,000 parking spaces cloaked by four- and five-story residential buildings, with more than 3,000 units in all.

Most of the 60 or so Fremont residents who attended Tuesday's meeting supported the project.

"Fremont, for many years, has needed something to keep people here," said Bill Rinetti, owner of Massimo's restaurant there. "People will stay here and spend their money here, and the whole city will prosper."

Not everyone was thrilled with the project. Some complained that the ballpark wouldn't be close enough to BART - it's five miles from the nearest station - and that the shopping area would attract too much traffic.

There were also environmental concerns.

"Everyone here seems to be intoxicated with the idea of bringing a professional ball team to Fremont," said Vinton Bacon of Fremont who works for the Sierra Club. "This project brings more suburban sprawl and is inherently environmentally unfriendly."

The A's plan to submit a formal development application to Fremont within four weeks, Wolff said. The A's have said they are leaving Oakland because they couldn't secure land for the expanded development the owners envisioned.

"We tried to do it in Oakland. That was our first choice," Wolff said. "The officials were great, our fans are amazing. We just couldn't get the land."