Originally posted by Niners99:
I love how A's fans try and take credit for "saving" the Giants. Major League Baseball made you guys do it. There's no reason the A's would've tried to prevent an 11th hour move to Tampa Bay. You guys stood a ton to gain from it. Major League Baseball was very much interested in keeping one of their classic franchises in the bigger market, who already had nearly 35 years of history in SF.
When the Magowan investment group jumped in to save the team, giving up those territorial rights was just a necessary move to finalize the process. The MLB office basically told the A's what was going to happen. They didn't want to send a team with such baseball history out to play in a Costco warehouse in Florida. Like I said, the south bay was Giants territory in fan population anyways.
There is a way to build a stadium in the east bay, the A's just aren't as interested because SJ is the prize location.
Exactly, and now MLB will tell the Giants how its going to be and they are going to suck Selig's cawk and like it damnit because the MLB doesn't want to end up in court and risk losing their anti-trust exemption. Giants will get some form of increased revenue sharing or other payout from the owners to maintain the exemption, and the A's will get a new stadium in San Jose. In time, the Giants butt-hurt will heal.
As far as classic franchises, you're talking about the A's like they are the Montreal Expo's and not one of the most storied and oldest franchises in MLB history.
[ Edited by Phoenix49ers on Jun 18, 2013 at 12:13 PM ]