San Jose offers A's 5-acre parcel

Share

Documents made public on Wednesday revealed that San Jose is prepared to sell a downtown land parcel to the A's for 6.9 million.

The San Jose Mercury News reported that the A's would have exclusive rights to the land if they purchase it for the purpose of constructing a stadium near HP Pavilion.

The land is between West San Fernando Street and Park Avenue, adjacent to Los Gatos Creek and Caltrain's Diridon Station.

The deal appears to be contingent on Major League Baseball approving the move. The Giants content that they have territorial rights to San Jose, a major hurdle for A's owner Lew Wolff.

Wolff has made it clear that no land deal will be completed until MLB gives his club the green light to head south. To accommodate that unresolved issue, San Jose has offered Wolff a two-year option for 50,000 that could be extended for a third year for 25,000, according to the Mercury News.

The San Jose City Council could vote on the option agreement and details connected to the land sale at a Nov. 8 meeting.

The city-owned land parcel is not enough to build a stadium. That would require the acquisition of adjacent land owned by AT&T and an individual owner.

The land is worth considerably more than 6.9 million on the open market but San Jose mayor Chuck Reed explained the logic behind the discounted figure.

"I think the price is a fair price when you consider that we want a ballpark, and the A's will have to pay for the ballpark with their money," Reed told the newspaper . "And let's not forget that if we get a ballpark on the land, we get money and 1,000 jobs or so."

A's GM Billy Beane said in September that he expects to hear very soon about whether the club will be allowed to move south to San Jose and build a new ballpark.

Contact Us