Moving On....

Well it appears as though the Bay Area in California is about to get a sports makeover. Forget the old stalwart cities of San Francisco and Oakland. It’s time for sports to cash in on the technology- (read cash-) rich Silicon Valley. Earlier this week the Oakland Athletics decided they would no longer be interested in playing in Oakland. Now the 49ers are jumping ship for greener (again read cash) pastures. New cities with richer citizens and deeper pockets are ready to roll out the red carpet to bring in some storied sports franchises. There is only one reason for these moves – money.

The A’s want to go to Fremont. Most people in America have never even heard of Fremont. Apparently it is closer to San Jose than it is to Oakland. Fantastic! Median family income in Fremont? More than $94,000. Median family income in Oakland? A little more than $47,000 – half as much as Fremont.

Santa Clara is more than 30 miles from San Francisco. The median family income in Santa Clara is nearly $82,000. In San Francisco, it is about $73,000. Not a huge difference, but factor in San Francisco refusing to pay for the building of a new stadium at Candlestick Point and Santa Clara willing to chip in some cash for a new stadium and the scales tip toward Santa Clara.

And, it’s not like either of these teams are moving five miles outside the city limits to a suburb or some swampland. This is not a case of the Giants or Jets playing in East Rutherford, N.J. or the Redskins playing in Landover, Maryland. They are moving to other large cities. Fremont has more than 200,000 residents – more than half the size of Oakland. And, Santa Clara has more than 100,000 within its city limits – about 1/7th the size of San Francisco (but still larger than a place called Green Bay – home to another professional football team). The county of Santa Clara tops 1 million residents.

To hell with tradition, because in the end it all comes down to a wise saying that rings truer than ever….It’s all about the Benjamins.

Photo Source: BallparksOfBaseball.com