We hadn’t even had time to put Easter decorations away, when a text message flashed on some Sunnyvalers’ phones. Mayor George was going to put in a massive cricket field complex? And to make it worse, it’s not even a cricket field complex for our children, it’s for adult teams from other cities! And it’s gonna cost $40 million to build, and they want to raise MY property taxes to pay for it?
This text was quickly posted to Facebook groups, where it turned out that 1) nobody knew who had sent it, and 2) it wasn’t sent to everyone in town. It seemed like it was a targeted text message campaign to influence voter opinions against our incumbent mayor Saji George.
I was busy helping my kid brush their teeth and carrying a stack of princess storybooks for bedtime when my wife held up her phone in my face and said “Do you know anything about cricket fields?” I had no idea what she was talking about, I thought the town had already (finally) decided on a direction for renovating our existing parks? But, I didn’t want to sound dumb so I told her I’d look into it and figure it out. In hindsight, it was probably pretty dumb of me to get involved at all–I still haven’t finished my yardwork from Monday.
I had attended the mayor debate though, where it was made clear that Saji’s voting record on the Tom Thumb grocery store was being misrepresented. So like many of us, once my kid was in bed I started checking Facebook to see what this was about. First comment on the text I saw said “Got the same text just now. Time for a fresh start. J Paul Cash for Mayor.” Next comment I saw: “Got the same text. Responded No!!!”, then another: “Yet the town had a hard time trying to get $10million for youth sports”. I started searching the town website, keyword “cricket.”
The only documents I could find on the town’s website that mentions cricket were the capital improvement plans. The most recent one I saw was from 2024: https://www.townofsunnyvale.org/DocumentCenter/View/6072/FY24-Capital-Plan?bidId= They show the budget for making improvements to Jobson Park at $300k, with the spending going towards parking, facilities, and lighting at the park, along with a note about potentially putting a grass cricket field on Samuell Farm North park (the two rows highlighted in purple).
I suspected the text came from K Paul Cash’s campaign pretty quickly. I figured maybe Paul was referring to The Athletic Club (https://the-athletic.club/), which is a PRIVATE group that wanted to build sports fields on Tripp and Beltline with their own money. Their all-in construction cost had been publicly estimated around $28-40 million, but it was for baseball, soccer, and football–their old plans say nothing about building a cricket field. As part of such a large construction project coming to Sunnyvale, they would probably try to negotiate tax incentives, and it’s up to the Town Council to decide if we offer any of those, but I could see them maybe asking for some tax credits spread out over time–again, nowhere near the amounts this text is claiming.
It turns out I missed the 2025 proposal that the infrastructure consultants (Halff) hired by the town had put together for Samuell Farm North park. This is a very expensive plan. $48.8 Million for grass fields, $51.6 Million for synthetic turf fields. Bathrooms, baseball fields, multi-purpose fields, parking, a recreation center, playground, and… $7Million for miscellaneous active amenities including CRICKET FIELDS and a plaza??? Well now at least it was clear what the text message was referring to.
With plans like these, who needs enemies?
The Samuell Farm North park proposal is so absurdly expensive, so out-of-touch with the reality of our town budget, that maybe we deserve a refund? It’s like if we paid an interior designer to redesign my kitchen, and the designer proposed my countertops be made entirely out of Louis Vuitton handbags sewn together.
We’ll talk about why the town of Sunnyvale paid for the proposal/study in the first place in a later article. There are some valid reasons for at least exploring the idea. But to me at least, it seems like the Samuell Farm North park proposal had died of embarrassment months ago. For the text message to bring it up as if Saji was about to implement the plan seemed very disingenuous.
That evening, Saji sent an email to town residents responding to the message:
Dear [Resident],
You may have received a text message survey claiming that the Mayor has asked staff to build a $40 million cricket field. This claim is completely false.
It is disappointing to see Mr. Cash’s team resort to spreading misinformation in an attempt to mislead parents and residents simply to win an election. For the record, Sunnyvale’s entire annual budget is approximately $15 million — far less than the amount falsely stated.
Additionally, the only sports fields approved by the Council are for baseball, soccer, lacrosse, and multi-use practice fields — not cricket.
We are committed to transparency and responsible stewardship of your tax dollars. Thank you for staying informed and for being engaged in the future of Sunnyvale.
Please share this with your friends and families. Let us not allow DC smear politics destroy our beautiful town.
Regards,
Saji George
After Saji denied the text’s allegations, people immediately started trying to figure out who posted the dishonest message. One person wrote (emphasis mine):
I’m just sharing a thought: Has anyone simply considered picking up the phone and asking Cash directly if he’s behind these texts?
For me, this situation actually brought up a topic I hadn’t given much thought to before. It motivated me to dig a little deeper — not to take everything I see at face value, but to research, question, and verify the facts for myself. (And personally, I won’t be relying solely on posts from a town Facebook page to do that.)
It feels like some are quick to assume Cash is responsible, but it’s also worth considering that maybe — just maybe — a supporter of Saji could be involved. Especially knowing how sensitive this community can be to anything that even hints at a ‘smear campaign.’
This is a conspiracy theory, that Saji’s supporters would send a text message as a “false flag” attack to drive up support for his own campaign. It didn’t seem likely, but if nobody knows where the text came from, it’s not impossible.
Tuesday morning, I decided to drop by Town Hall right as the polls opened at 8AM. I figured one of the candidates would probably be there, since early voting just started that day. By luck, I saw K Paul Cash chatting with some of his associates as they were grabbing campaign signs from a nearby truck. I picked up my phone and approached him, like a total nerd. We had a substantive conversation, which I’ve already posted in full online (see here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15QhtJZQss/, or also here). Paul admitted that his “campaign guy” was responsible for the text, and Paul also said that he felt it needed to be said, even though he couldn’t substantiate it.
K Paul Cash’s website and campaign has stayed silent on the issue since then, as far as I can tell. They have not sent a mass email or made a post on their website as of April 25th. The only thing I’ve heard from Paul was what he told me in the parking lot.
