Cisco Field

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Cisco Field

Location West of Interstate 880 near Auto Mall Parkway, Fremont, California
Opened 2010-2012 (projected)
Owner Oakland Athletics
Operator Oakland Athletics
Surface Grass
Construction cost $400 million (USD)
Architect 360 Architecture
Gensler Architecture
Tenants
Oakland Athletics (American League)
Capacity
30,000-36,000 (baseball)
Dimensions
unknown

Cisco Field is a proposed baseball stadium in Fremont, California. It would be the new home of the Oakland Athletics and may open as early as 2010, replacing their current home at McAfee Coliseum, where the team has resided since their move to California in 1968.

Contents

[edit] Cisco Field

[edit] The site

In April 2006, A's owner Lewis Wolff first took a modified version of his so-called Ballpark Village proposal to the suburban San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont where a large 143 acre parcel of land is available just north of Mission Boulevard and south of Auto Mall Parkway off Interstate 880 and across from Pacific Commons. The land is currently owned by the city of Fremont and leased to Cisco Systems. The land had been purchased in the late 90's in anticipation of company growth by Cisco that never occurred due to the dot com bust. The ballpark village plan had previously been offered up to the city of Oakland.

[edit] The development plan

The plan calls for the 170 acres to be developed into a combination of retail, other commercial and residential spaces in addition to the construction of a 36,000 seat baseball only facility. It will be the smallest stadium in Major League Baseball. The planned development is similar to the Santana Row development in nearby San Jose, California with the addition of the baseball park. The planned name for the park is Cisco Field as first announced by the Fremont city council after meeting with Wolff on November 8, 2006. The stadium will be privately financed primarily from sales of the surrounding "ballpark village" residential and commercial properties to offset the cost of the stadium. The earliest the stadium would open is for the 2010 season.

[edit] Announcement

A formal press conference to announce the existence of Cisco Field was held on November 14, 2006. Allan H. "Bud" Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball and John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco Systems along with Wolff, were in attendance.

[edit] Transit details

[edit] Auto/Bus

The stadium will have ready access to Interstate 880 directly and Interstate 680 via nearby Auto Mall Parkway and Mission Blvd. Bus service would presumably be offered to various points. Both freeways have existing heavy commute hour traffic.

[edit] Existing commuter rail

The Capital Corridor and Altamont Commuter Express trains also pass reasonably close to the proposed ballpark site, although no nearby station exists. The San Jose Mercury News reported that Wolff has asked the city of Fremont to allow the use of an additional, unused 40 acre property at the corner of Auto Mall Parkway and the railroad tracks for a parking lot. This lot might also be a good spot to build a train station. Difficulties involved with the use of commuter rail include the relatively low number of train sets owned by the two services and the heavily used section of single-track rail along much of the potential route to the south as well as along a short distance to the north.

[edit] Dumbarton rail

The proposed Caltrain Dumbarton Rail service will pass an existing rail junction just 3.5 miles northwest of the site. This project is currently in the environmental impact report stage. If this project is completed, Caltrain service to both San Jose and San Francisco could conceivably be extended to the stadium site via a combination of the Dumbarton tracks and the existing tracks. Caltrain currently offers service to spectators at AT&T Park, Bay Meadows, Stanford Stadium, and HP Pavilion.

[edit] Existing BART

Bus shuttle service to and from the existing Fremont or Union City BART stations is the probable short term solution.

[edit] Warm Springs BART

The proposed BART Warm Springs Station, slated to be located where S. Grimmer Blvd crosses the railroad tracks, north of NUMMI plant, may be within the reach of a long elevated walkway or moving sidewalk. A simple pedestrian bridge over Interstate 880 from Christy St. to Enterprise St. could serve as a lower cost alternative, along with a potential bus shuttle from the East side of the bridge to and from the station. Other possibilities of connecting that future station to the ballpark village include bus shuttles, a monorail, or a "people-mover".

[edit] Sea level rise

The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was the fourth in a series of reports on climate change. The sea level rise models from that study predict a 7 to 23 inch rise in the sea level in the 21st century. These results exclude any impact of ice sheet flow (see Greenland ice sheet) because of the lack of basis in published literature. The 40 to 50 year typical lifetime of a stadium will overlap the time frame projected by the IPCC study. Some of the wetlands near the stadium site are likely within this range at high tide. The stadium site itself may be just above this projected range.

[edit] Trivia

An interesting note is that this stadium would mark the first time that the A's franchise has received a totally new stadium to play in since the completion of Shibe Park in 1909.

[edit] Previous options

[edit] 66th Avenue

Oakland Athletics owner Lewis Wolff presented his vision for the team's venue to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority on August 12, 2005. The ballpark he proposed would have held roughly 35,000 fans making it the smallest park in Major League Baseball. The proposed location was to have been on 66th Avenue just north of the A's current home, the Oakland Coliseum. The stadium would have been built on what is currently zoned industrial land and would have included a Ballpark Village which would have had apartments and condominuims. The plan also called for a hotel to be built into the park along with shops. The new ballpark would also have been close to both Interstate 880 and the BART system which was the primary draw of the location. However a new BART station or a permanent link to the existing Coliseum BART station was going to have to be built to make the plan viable according to the Athletics.

In December 2005, the 66th Avenue location was abandoned when Wolff revealed that the 70+ current owners of the land desired for the new stadium were unwilling to sell. Wolff asked the city of Oakland to acquire the land for the stadium by either providing public land or purchasing private land while he and other private developers would cover the cost of construction. Oakland was unresponsive to these requests.

[edit] Other options

Other options being pursued by outside sources ranged from other locations in the city of Oakland or suburban locations inside Alameda County to moving the team out of the Bay Area. The most promising of these had been a site in uptown Oakland. In a 2001 study, HOK Sport had suggested this as the prime site for a ballpark, however plans to build a park there were cancelled by Mayor Jerry Brown. Brown opted to sell the site to condominium builder to whom he had ties. The City of Oakland also considered a site near the Oakland Estuary for a stadium, however, the A's showed no interest in the site due to lack of public transit access. In addition much of the land had already been sold to a condominium developer.

San Jose was not an option for the A's since the San Francisco Giants have an agreement with Major League Baseball that demarks San Jose as within its territory. If the A's had moved out of the Bay Area, the most likely destinations were Las Vegas, Sacramento, or Portland, Oregon.

[edit] External links


Preceded by
McAfee Coliseum
1968-End of 2009-2011		 Cisco Field
Planned opening 2010-2012		 Succeeded by
None
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