MLB offers San Jose $1 million to hold off on Oakland A's stadium vote to cover cost of special election if needed

7/28, "San Jose backs away from November ballpark vote," SF Gate by Demian Bulwa

• "San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said Wednesday that he will postpone a plan for a November ballot measure asking city voters to approve a downtown ballpark for the Oakland A's.

In pursuing the ballot drive, Reed had sought to light a fire under Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who has had a three-member committee studying the plight of the A's and their desired South Bay move for 16 months. The long review has frustrated San Jose officials and A's owner Lew Wolff.

• But Reed, speaking at City Hall, said he would honor a request from Selig to shelve the ballot drive as the study moves along.

Reed said Selig's second-in-command, Bob DuPuy, promised in a telephone conversation this week that Major League Baseball would help pay the $1 million-plus cost of a special election in the spring if, by then, baseball deems San Jose to be the best place for the A's to play.

• "I think that's a good sign," Reed said of the promise. "I think we did apply the appropriate amount of pressure, and we got some progress."

Reed said he had assumed that voter approval for a ballpark in San Jose was important to the committee studying the A's. But "getting it done before (the study is finished) is not as important as I thought it was," Reed said.

• To put a ballpark measure on the November ballot, San Jose's City Council would have had to act by its next meeting on Tuesday. A council committee shelved the plan Wednesday.

The measure would have authorized the city to use redevelopment funds to acquire, clear and lease a stadium site for the A's, who would then build and maintain the ballpark.

• The stadium would be built adjacent to Diridon Station, a couple of blocks south of the HP Pavilion. The station is served by Caltrain and Amtrak and by VTA light rail lines."...

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