Silicon Valley Sports
Why are these Bay Area teams wanting to move down south? The San Jose Sharks will at least have some company now. The only thing I can think of right now, however, is how bad traffic will be down here where I live. The proposed A’s ballpark will be built on largely undeveloped land owned by Cisco in South Fremont. It will be beside a barely two-year old shopping center next to I-880.
I question the decision to build a stadium here though. To the west of this area is the City of Fremont’s garbage dump. A mile couple of miles south along 880 is the City of Milpitas’s garbage dump. It’s terrible driving down this area sometimes, especially on hot days. The stench can become unbearable, even with your windows rolled up. Let’s just hope they build a state-of-the-art covered stadium.
The 880 freeway is what I take to go to work in Santa Clara from Fremont. Traffic on 880 is pretty bad right now. But thankfully road work is currently being finished to widen the freeway from three lanes to four lanes. It will certainly ease the bottleneck we’re experiencing but by the time we find some relief, new traffic will be added from cars coming to and from the two new stadiums.
The 49ers are looking at building a new stadium near Great America in Santa Clara. Their practice field is presently adjacent to the amusement park. When I used to commute by train (with my folding bike in tow), I would bike past this field. Below are a couple of pictures of them in training that I took through narrow fence slats a couple of years ago.
But then again, maybe these teams moving down south will rekindle my enthusiasm for sports. I largely lost interest after I got married, quite the opposite of the usual expectation. It’s just one of those things I had to sacrifice in raising a young family. I was an enormous Warriors fan back in the day. That was when RUN TMC were huge. With Don Nelson back in the saddle as the Warriors coach, I wonder if this is another sign? 
Update: Whoa, San Francisco’s not about to give up their team so easily. The City has employed the help of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (also former Mayor of SF) to open up talks with the Niners organization about staying.
November 12th, 2006 at 8:53 am
I live near Fremont as well and I wonder why the A’s would be moving considering they have a stadium that’s very accessible via public transport (specifically, BART). Oh, and thanks for the info about the garbage dump in Milpitas. I got some junk I gotta get rid of.
Love the Buck Rogers robot, btw. cheers.
November 12th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Hi Wil, thanks for dropping by.
To be fair, the air at Pacific Commons (the shopping center near the proposed A’s stadium) is not foul at all. It’s a different story a mile and a half away over at McCarthy Ranch in Milpitas. They’ve got premium shops and dining places but the air is just nauseating sometimes.