9:00PM: Schaaf addressed Manfred’s comments in a statement to the media (including Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle), saying “I appreciate Commissioner Manfred’s kind words about my role as champion of a new waterfront ballpark for our Oakland A’s. I spoke with him today and assured him that I remain absolutely confident our deal in Oakland will get done next year even with new leadership in place. The A’s are continuing to invest tremendous resources into an Oakland deal. We are working together every day to realize our shared vision for a vibrant waterfront neighborhood with public parks, good jobs, affordable housing and an iconic home for our Oakland A’s.”
5:10PM: Rob Manfred discussed a variety of topics in an interview with Chris Russo on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM yesterday, including the commissioner’s latest thoughts on the Athletics’ and Rays’ ongoing attempts to build new ballparks (and thus remaining in their current cities or markets). Since the Athletics’ lease at the RingCentral Coliseum is up after the 2024 season, there is more of a ticking clock to determine their fate, whether the result is the A’s staying in Oakland at the long-gestating Howard Terminal site, or perhaps moving to a new city altogether.
While some steps have been taken this year towards getting the Howard Terminal project off the ground, quite a number of logistical and financial hurdles remain, as outlined last month by Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle. As a result, Manfred is “not positive” about the chances of the A’s staying put: “I think the mayor in Oakland has made a huge effort to try to get it done in Oakland. It just doesn’t look like it’s going to happen….Something has to happen. We can’t go five more years in the Coliseum.”
Mayor Libby Schaaf is nearing the end of her second term in office, and is ineligible to run again in the upcoming Oakland mayoral election on November 8. The Athletics’ ballpark proposal (and, more importantly, what civic funds will be involved in the construction process) is only one of several major issues facing Oakland voters, and it is possible an incoming administration might have a differing view on the project altogether.
Oakland mayoral candidate and current city councilor Loren Taylor told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Angelina Martin that “we have a number of points that still need to be worked out before a final decision, not the least of which is the gap on infrastructure [costs] offsite” In regards to the lack of fresh information about the ballpark, Taylor notes that “by some accounts, maybe less noise outside means that we’re getting more work done behind closed doors.”
This is far from the first time that Manfred has publicly weighed in about the A’s and their quest for a new stadium, and even the new Collective Bargaining Agreement contained language concerning the Athletics’ ballpark as a factor in their status as a revenue-sharing recipient. Manfred’s statements to Russo could certainly be interpreted as some public pressure on Oakland city leaders, in addition to simply being the commissioner’s personal opinion on how the situation will play out.
“Given the lack of pace in Oakland, I think [the A’s] have to look for an alternative,” Manfred said, in regards to how the team has been looking into Las Vegas in particular as a possible new destination. However, Manfred was more bullish on the Rays’ chances of remaining, saying that “Tampa’s a viable Major League market” in need of “a properly located facility.”
“I see Tampa differently….I’ve got a lot of faith in [Rays owner] Stu Sternberg. I think they will find a place to get a ballpark built and I think baseball can thrive in Tampa,” Manfred said.
Last winter, MLB’s Executive Council rejected the Rays’ proposal to split time between Montreal and the Tampa area, ending the most unusual of the many ballpark plans floated by the Rays as they look for an alternative to Tropicana Field. These plans have included the exploration of sites in both Tampa and St. Petersburg, ranging from waterfront ballpark concepts to a new stadium (and a “ballpark village” shopping/business/restaurant/housing district) on the Tropicana Field grounds. There is a little more time for the Rays to figure something out, as their next at the Trop isn’t up until the end of the 2027 season.
The rays lease at Trop isn’t up until the end of 2017?
typo?
It was a typo, now fixed. Lease is up after 2027.
The only thing Manfred tests positive for is “clueless”…
I’d rather see Shemp as the BB commish…
That’s a fact. He acts like someone who hates the game of baseball
You obviously have a covoluted notion of what constitutes “success”.
“Posturing” is indeed his only area of expertise.
I’m positive Rob Manfred is a dong.
Part of the problem is that Manfred works for the owners, not for baseball.
Moe- what does your watch say?
Shemp- It doesn’t say anything. It just goes tick tick tick tick
BURN
Your going to Vegas Baby!
All R,
The use of ‘Your’ instead of ‘You’re’ with ‘Vegas’ in the same sentence is pretty damn funny. Thank you!
It wasn’t a typo … it was a timequake.
Oakland baseball no more? Why move all this stuff to Las Vegaz? Hasn’t anyone heard about lake meed? Let’s move out of Las Vegas please
Lake Meade will be fine, ya just need an El Nino to fill it back up. Don’t worry it will happen next winter. For Oakland I’m thinking either Las Vegas or San Antonio for the team. For Tampa, I think San Juan in Puerto Rico or Nashville. I think a lot of the Latino players would enjoy a team in San Juan if it’s financially possible it should be done.
The Las Vegas A’s. Or will they change their name? They stayed with A’s when they moved from Philly to Oakland.
They moved from Philly to Kansas City and then Oakland.
Yes, my bad. So the question remains.
The Vegas Degenerate Gamblers? The DG’s?
The A’s have an historic 120 year old brand. It will survive and likely thrive in Vegas.
Not in this generation. They and the fans will want their own identity.
The Las Vegas Aces
Owner- Sam Rothstein
Managing Partner- Nicky Santoro
Treasurer-Ginger McKenna
Director of Scouting-Frank Marino
via Kansas City…..
They’ve been the same name for 3 cities, why change it for a 4th? Doesn’t make much sense to do it now.
A lot of the changes made in this sport these days don’t make sense yet the changes keep coming.
The only thing Manfred should be changing at this point, is his diaper, because I don’t know what’s crappier, his diaper or what baseball is becoming…
They didn’t change the Raiders
what’s funny is the a’s did this to themselves they could of had a nice stadium even to today’s standards if they would of stayed in kc but they left mid build of koffuman stadium.
I don’t know the exact history but from the little I’ve heard there was a lot of shady shenanigans involved in that move.
@cosmo2 them shady shenanigans is how kc got the royals because kc was going to sue mlb for building a stadium for a team they were promised
The A’s move from Philadelphia to Kansas City also had questionable dealings.
Connie Mack was old and no longer able to run the organization, and his sons weren’t up to the task. The Yankees wanted their longtime rivals out of the way. Kansas City was the Yankees AAA site. Yankees ownership, in cahoots with the commissioner’s office, orchestrated the A’s move to Kansas City. And the Yankees used the Kansas City A’s roster almost like a AAA team for years after the move, getting the A’s best players for the equivalent of a broken bag of bats.
For the whole Philadelphia A’s story, read ‘To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia, 1909-1976’ by Bruce Kuklick. It’s a great book.
The Las Vegas Aces
The loss in TV households from a move from the Bay Area + Sacramento to Las Vegas is immense. Nearly 3.2 million TV households.
There is no way that the other owners allow that to happen. Too much money on the table in their national TV deals and a drop of 5% of the total TV households in MLB markets would devastating.
That is why the A’s ownership never bought any land in Las Vegas, they just took out inexpensive, short term options on parcels that they have since allowed to expire.
This is all posturing on Manfred’s part.
The owners will make money with a relocation fee. And Huge money with 2 new teams with expansion.
The A’s have the worst TV/Radio deal in professional sports. That would not make much of a difference.
The Los Vegas Aces
Green and gold in Las Vegas.
They just need to forget about Oakland altogether. The city has proven time and time again that it cannot support a professional sports franchise over the long run. I’d be worried that even if they get the green light on the waterfront project that they would struggle to sell 50% of the tickets per game (once the year 1 novelty wears off).
It’s hard to tell if Vegas can support 81 home games itself but it is definitely a far superior option than Oakland. I think Nashville would be the best option for a new franchise or a relocation, but that will require a shake up in divisions.
With regard to Nashville, MLB will want to collect a new-franchise fee, if/when they ever put a team there.
nashville has less than 1 million media market. not sure it can support a baseball team.
aragon – “nashville has less than 1 million media market. not sure it can support a baseball team.”
Not true. I’ve lived in Nashville for a dozen years. The market here is much bigger than 1m, and it’s significantly bigger than the Rays baseball market. There is a large organization to bring MLB to Nashville that was once headed up by Dave Dombrowski until he was hired away:
mlbmusiccity.com/
Baseball will be coming to Nashville either by an existing team moving here or through expansion. The Titans announced a new stadium build that was approved last week which means the old stadium location will be available to build a riverfront MLB park. It’s just a matter of time…albeit still years away.
The Nashville DMA has 1,102,340 TV households. 400k more than Las Vegas.
The Tampa/Sarasota DMA is just over 2 million TV households and they also control the Orlando DMA which is 1.7 million
Nashville will likely get an expansion team. Along with either Portland or Charlotte.
Fully agree. Football has worked out just fine there as has hockey. Then the Hartford Whalers moved to N.C. No one would think that Raleigh would be a hot bed of Hockey, but the snow birds are getting it now…go south.
Dave Dombrowsky has a,clause in his contract where he will go back to the Nashville once they get awarded a franchise
The ‘snow bird’ business model apparently doesn’t work for MLB. Just take a look at the two Florida franchises, and you have all the proof you need.
Hey Pads. The stat I heard when the talk was the Rays coming to Nashville was St Pete has about 600k people within 30 minutes of the stadium and Nashville has well over a million..and that was from about 10 years ago prior to the influx of refugees to Middle Tennessee. Considering how Nashville supports the Titans and the Preds, an MLB team would thrive here.
@dorthy while i don’t think nashville isn’t a good place for an mlb team, but i don’t think they will draw like everyone thinks. there are a lot of cards fans through out tn and ms because of there radio network, heck a few years back i was in ms and caught a cards game on am radio while driving back home. imo nashville best chance is to try and draw in younger fans that “don’t care as much for bb but there city” but if that was easy we wouldn’t have our current problems with the mlb
Isn’t hard to have more than 1500 asses in stand like oakland currently have
They will be playing a lot of night games, hotter than hell in Vegas in the summer. Unbearable summer heat, they will need an air conditioned stadium, and people won’t go to day games, nobody leaves the air conditioning I’m the summer.
Will detract from the Aviators too, which I thought would be a good time the next time I visited Vegas, I had planned on going to the Aviators game.
A’s should stay in Oakland and redevelop the Coliseum site, now that the Warriors are out of there, could make that a real nice place, but would have to committ to redeveloping / revitalizing the entirety of the neighborhoods from San Leandro all the way to downtown Oakland.
Nothing Manfred hasn’t said before. Empty threats. No one in Las Vegas has even hinted at throwing money at the A’s.
Why the A’s don’t redevelop the coliseum site is beyond me.
They waited years for the Raiders to leave, now they’re gone and it’s not good enough!!??
jorge78;
Not just Manfred, been going in with previous Commissioners…with an “s”.
Heard this song-and-dance for well over 20 years now.
It’s the ghetto but it could be nice if you wanted to redevelop the entire area, that’s like thirty or forty city blocks.
I’ve been there, have walked the entirety of the east bay from San Jose to Albany, that’s probably the filthiest stretch of neighborhood there is in terms of garbage in the street, and lack of development.
It gets better as you approach downtown Oakland but that entire area has turned for the worse all the way to Berkeley, which is somehow insulated from the decrepitude of Oakland.
Dusty Baker noted that there are no U.S. born black players in the U.S. But the Commish does not like having a team play in a predominantly black neighborhood. Not all teams need to flee to affluent suburbs and corporate suites. Nor are public subsidies needed beyond small breaks on construction fees and other minor enticements. With better players and marketing, the As could do ok where they are.
in the World Series
It would be impossible to rebuild a stadium in a single offseason.
The closest that’s ever been done was when the Cardinals built half of their new stadium on the site of the old one (having built the other half in advance), and even then it wasn’t fully complete until a couple months into the next season,
Stanford built its football stadium on top of the previous stadium. Literally started demo at the final gun of the last game of the season. Had the stadium ready for the next season. 9 months is all it takes if you have bottomless pockets.
The MLB offseason is only 6 months long and closer to 5 months if the team makes a good playoff run.
The Oakland plan for the Colosseum is to build low income housing. This is California where every possible regulation comes into play. There is never a quick deal to be done. Also, Oakland is a poor city with many other priorities than building a stadium.
I am not sure that Las Vegas is a good location for MLB. LV is aa city full of transplants from all over the country. People will go see games against their former home teams but not necessarily as a Season Ticket owner.
Oakland has had more than enough time to find an alternative location for a stadium in the East Bay area it is time to relocate.
You know what these cities are dragging there feet move them already. Time to put teams in Las Vegas, Montreal, Nashville, Buffalo. Move the two teams and add two teams if not four. Nashville averages more fans at home games then Tampa Bay and its a AAA team.
The Buffalo Snowjobs.
Buffalo has been a viable option for years. Fan support and a stadium that can be expanded tomorrow.
Might as well put the stadium in Batavia, half way between Buffalo and Rochester. That will be a stadium nobody goes to, just like if they expanded the one in Buffalo. Western NY is a AAA market.
It only takes a day to expand it? Wow!!!
Orlando.
Florida already has two teams too many
No, no more teams in Florida! It would just be repeating the same mistake made with the Marlins and Rays all over again. The Snowbird State can’t properly support an MLB franchise when the people with the most money don’t live there during most of baseball season.
The smartest thing to do would be to build the new Rays stadium on the Interstate 4 corridor in the middle of the Tampa and Orlando metro markets. There has always been spring training sites in the area anyways. Pull fans and TV viewers from both markets. There was a push a few years back to bring baseball to Orlando. All of the Disney vacationers will be close enough to attend a game. While mom and kids are being park hoppers, dad and grandpa can go to the game. They could be called the Florida Rays and become the rest of the state’s team to root for besides Miami.
Spring Training works partly because it’s in March, partly because fans of the Grapefruit League teams will vacation to Florida to watch them, and partly because attendance doesn’t matter much in the first place.
You aren’t going to get tourists to support a local MLB team very well aside from the times their team just happens to be in town, and even then it’s difficult to schedule a vacation around that.
Combining the Tampa Bay and Orlando markets is otherwise an interesting idea that might improve their support to some degree, though.
The Rays own that market
“You know what these cities are dragging there feet”
To put it another way, “these cities” are refusing to finance massive stadiums for private companies run by multi-billionaire owners. For the A’s specifically, John J. Fisher inherited his wealth from his Mommy and Daddy (Gap founders) and wants more handouts, only this time from Oakland residents. They can and should tell him to pound sand, especially since he refuses to even spend money on payroll.
If John J Fisher wants a new stadium, he can reach into his pockets and build one.
Time to contract 2 teams, make 4 divisions of 7 teams each.
MLB is supposed to be the best of the best. Even the teams that made the playoffs this year have multiple weaknesses and lack of depth.
Sorry sir…..ship has long sailed. Too much streaming, merchandise revenue…
You do realize it is still the most exclusive of the four in playoff acceptance….?
Samuel muted me a long time ago but I gotta say I do like a lot of his posts.
And let’s see how excited fans in those projected markets are when the newness wears off after 3-4 years and they realize their teams are terrible and have no chance whatever of getting to the WS.
Then factor in the large market owners and fans that complain about the revenue sharing now.
as opposed to how excited fans will be to have their teams contracted?
DarkSide830;
If their teams are being contracted IT’S BECAUSE THE FANS IN THE AREA AREN’T SUPPORTING THEM!
MLB is looking to expand after TB and Oakland get new stadiums. They won’t care if the shine comes off the expansion teams because they’ll be counting one billion, two billion …
Sacramento Kings fans are still excited and you can’t get much worse than that team
Or because they used too many capital letters.
Then we don’t get to see a team like the Phillies in the world series this season. That would be a shame cause they are fun to watch. Can’t say they have no chance either as they won game 1, something neither the Yanks or Seattle could do
GoRav114;
Huh?
Why wouldn’t you see a team like the Phillies?
Their fans support them.
You said its supposed to be the best of the best in the playoffs. Phillies had the worst record of all the NL playoff teams so they weren’t best of the best. Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are saying.
Their feet
Bidenesque
Bidenesque.
Montreal had their chance. No way a team will be there again.
They’re not putting a team in Montreal. Not until they get a new ballpark.
They just need to tell Oakland to screw off and move. Oakland has been very uncooperative to sports teams. Time to just go. Like the Raiders did.
Las Vegas, Nashville, etc. lots of choices
Oakland gave Raiders everything they wanted but that was never enough. Vegas was able to give Raiders a $2 billion stadium for free which will bite them now that the money was all spent on the Raiders.
What did Oakland give the Raiders other than Mount Davis in that dump?
free ticket money. Guaranteed sell outs. It was a very bad deal for Oakland that cost them lots of money.
Gap on infrastructure sites…. Yeah, wouldn’t want the baseball team paying for that.
I wonder how moneyball works with site selection…..
If they go to a bank for a loan to build any stadium, then the lender will want Ownership to have “skin in the game”.(like a certain percentage of cash/assets invested in the project etc).
Too many owners want a blank check for a few billion from the fans and the taxpayers. Communities have found that that is not the best way to spend their taxpayer money.
Rob Manfred is a complete joke. I wish he would leave baseball and go ruin something else.
I’m no fan of Manfred but how is this his fault? He does enough things wrong without making things up.
Manfred’s fault is weighing in on this situation at all. This is between the owner, the local government, the fans, and the wider public that pays taxes for things like stadiums (and stadium $ windfalls to owners). No way Manfred belongs in that conversation. What’s more, he should definitely not be talking about it during the World Series.
The commissioner of MLB has every right to talk about such things and has more inside knowledge than most anyone.
As far as talking about it during the WS, he was asked the question during the WS. Should he have told Russo that he’d get back to him in a week with his answer?
Manfred is the whipping boy for the owners. He is their mouthpiece and he is a willing scapegoat. You and most baseball fans are taking the bait.
Right.
All the owners are totally united and awful while the penniless players are in indentured servitude.
And he’s paid handsomely for the public abuse and doesn’t care one bit about his own optics. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been hired.
I think Nashville is a perfect MLB city. With the new football stadium coming, motor sports is expanding and the amount of effort Nashville puts in, I think we would be perfect.
New stadium still has other hurdles. It’s not a done deal yet.
No it’s not. The Braves and Reds have territorial rights so MLB will not allow it
No, they don’t. No team has territorial rights beyond their own metro area. The only thing that concerns the Braves and Reds in Nashville is that their games get blacked out over there, and even that would no longer be true if Nashville got their own team.
Nashville is a beautiful area. I’d imagine they would have a nice fanbase there, especially with a new team.
We have a great fanbase here in Nashville…mostly Braves fans with a a growing number of Angels and Dodgers fans sprinkled in.
Teams definitely do have territorial rights beyond their metro area. DC is not in the Baltimore metro. Sacramento and San Jose are not in the San Francisco metro. Orlando is not in the Tampa Bay metro. In this case Nashville is not in any teams territory.
I’d love to see them relocate to Austin
Translation from the original Manfred: “I’m not positive that private industry will receive enough taxpayer money to stick around..” Tough call for Oakland leadership and citizens–what do they need to give up in order to have major league baseball? Because on a financial basis, it’s going to be a net negative.
Move to Vegas and gtfo of that bay area blackhole. Huge potential for this team if given a wide market to themselves.
Do you honestly believe they will move away from the moneyball roster construct and spend more money?
It’s an honest question as I don’t. Look at all the teams that hire from the Rays and implement Rays/A’s-like concepts for team construction….
Even the Yankees are trying to implement that in conjunction with spending (which is exactly why it fails, btw).
I think the A’s would move to some sort of hybrid moneyball approach if they got a new stadium, and started drawing better,. They use the moneyball approach because that’s all they can afford to do. If they were bringing in more revenue, I think they’d spend more on FAs.
I look at the poor drawing Candlestick Giants, that suddenly started selling out when they opened PacBell. The newness has worn off, but the Giants still draw well even if they aren’t selling out every game like before. The gate is still better than it was at Candlestick.
The Rays are also a very poor drawing team. Like the A’s they do what they can with what they’ve got. But, IMHO, give the A’s and Rays more revenue, and they’ll look more like other clubs in their approach to spending.
The A’s can absolutely, without question, afford to spend much, much more money. They just refuse to do it because the big dogs would rather pocket the cash than put a respectable product in the field.
Despite what fans think, team owners, no matter how wealthy, don’t spend their own money on their team. They are the worst drawing team in MLB by far.
Over the last two seasons the A’s have drawn less than 1.5M. In 2022 alone, the Tigers, ranked 22nd overall in attendance, drew more than the A’s over those last two seasons
Plus there was no attendance in 2020. Clearly they do not have the money to spend. Saying they do is pure conjecture.
It worked for the Red Sox. When Billy Beane turned down their offer (at the time the biggest offer in MLB history), they hired an analytics guy, copied Moneyball techniques and spent a lot of money winning Championships.
manfred is just a egomaniac. Worse comish ever which is not saying a lot because there were many that was bad. Manfred is angry that the NBA has passed by MLB just like NFL.. He just knows the NBA is going into Vegas very soon and want to compete with them.
Manfred is the reason Oakland is a problem. A few groups wanted to buy the A’s and put a stadium in there but were denied. He lets Fisher run the team as a ATM taking all the money and pocketing it.
“A few groups wanted to buy the A’s and put a stadium in there but were denied. He lets Fisher run the team as a ATM taking all the money and pocketing it.”
ARC 2;
This nonsense has been going on so long that MLB must make it stop. Poop or get off the pot.
–
“Oakland mayoral candidate and current city councilor Loren Taylor told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Angelina Martin that “we have a number of points that still need to be worked out before a final decision, not the least of which is the gap on infrastructure [costs] offsite” In regards to the lack of fresh information about the ballpark, Taylor notes that “by some accounts, maybe less noise outside means that we’re getting more work done behind closed doors.”
–
Really.
How many decades has the Oakland Mayor and City Council been working this out? Will the election coming in November that will affect this? Yet again.
–
The city doesn’t have any money. No one builds a new sports stadium for cash. They finance it. Take out loans or municipalities issue bonds. Either way they have to generate enough revenue to pay their creditors off.
For those that don’t know – the Warriors used to play basketball in an arena across the street from the Coliseum. When the Warriors owners built a new arena they did it in San Francisco and moved the team there.
It’s obvious that no one involved believes that area of Oakland will attract enough revenue to pay off any financing of a new park unless there’s some sort of major rebuilding around the potential stadium to attract money into the area. Fine.
It’s been in red tape with the politicians for decades. The Raiders football team moved out of there. Twice. MLB had been more than patient. The owner would as soon move. The other owners overwhelmingly agree. They’re losing revenue bringing their teams in there to play.
Enough.
@samuel First one of the buyers that made a offer on the A’s was the warriors owners. They were looking into building a stadium in Oakland but was told No by fisher. Another group had plans to buy the A’s and build a stadium and was also told NO. It was a local group.
Second the Raiders pretty much screwed Oakland over twice. Even refused to pay their fair share of rent on the old stadium. Sued A’s and Oakland for naming rights of the old stadium. Never negotiated to stay in Oakland and had a copyright of Vegas Raiders almost a decade ago. The Vegas deal for the raiders was a steal of $2 billion in tax revenue that went into Davis pockets. Most people in Oakland was glad those thieves left.
Third reason for the red tape is the numerous lawsuits by the steel company that wants the land and angry that they are exposed them for pollution in the area. Also 2 other big housing companies keep filling law suits over the land. I investigated the save Oakland group that is fighting the stadium. Not even a local company but in Sacramento pretending to be concerned citizens. They have been also financing the politicians against the stadium.
Only nonsense is you not stating real facts but a bias opinionated comment because you want them to leave. FYI Vegas already said they do not have the money to build the A’s a new stadium so where is the money in Vegas coming from? Those are facts.
Lil bobby “owners pet” Manfred
I have spent time in Tampa and I hate traveling over to St. Petersburg, and that’s where the Rays stadium is.
If your going to keep the Rays in Tampa you should move the ballpark downtown or towards Busch Gardens.
@bwmiller i agree i’ve only been to the trip once and getting to and from was a nightmare and it was on a saturday i hate to see what it’s like during the week
1-1.5 hour trip to get there for weekday games from pretty much anywhere in Tampa area .Took me over an hour in 2019 from Clearwater mid-week. Its a nightmare.
Just let their AAA team play in the majors.
They did this year
I’m not positive about uh, like, Oakland you know…Our team like, in Oakland…We play at a coliseum…I mean…Not 5 years…I just don’t think…It’s not the coliseum from Rome I mean…It’s a different one………YOU BLUBBERING EFFING IDIOT MANFRED!!!!!!!
Bidenesque.
@Rexwoo,
Next Manfred will be suggesting we inject bleach bigly and insert a yuge uv light up our tailpipes.
Ageism is an ugly thing. Warren Buffet is in his 90’s.
I trust my money with him rather than a guy half his age.
I know plenty would disagree. But, I think it would would be a huge step forward to look south; a team in Mexico City or Monterrey would be great for the game and Americas
Could those cities economically support a team? If Oakland can’t I doubt a city with a much lower average earnings per person could do any better. It’s a nice thought but it’s going from the frying pan to a bigger, hotter frying pan.
I really think people would come, and I think the fan base would go absolutely through the roof. Ticket prices would be market valued. Even though Mexico City is quite far, even to Houston, I really believe they could economically support a team and be the safest bet.
I really don’t know- such uncharted waters, but it would be worth an exciting shot.
I’m not an economist but I feel like if Oakland can’t afford a team how is a Mexican city gonna go so? I could be wrong.
Averagesalarysurvey- says nearly $60k usd household. Unfortunately, I’m not really sure how accurate this is.
not to mention the security of the players there families and fo personal, nothing against mexico but they have a huge gap between the poor and wealthy to where there is no middle class, also the government is so corrupt that cartels pretty much run the country. until those problems get figured out the only way mc can build a team is like they rays but as soon as 6/7 years are up there gonna jet.
@hello newman it’s probably accurate but what that stat doesn’t tell you is what % of the population has that 60k plus. you can have let’s say 50 billionaires in that country and the rest of the population is at poverty of lower but when you do the math it comes out to 60k, or take this country you can have a good paying job (im a union carpenter) and i don’t even make 60k a year every year.
Very true regarding income.
I think Mexico City is generally known for their safety and tourism.
@newman is it really though, cancun and other tourist destinations have been flagged by the us unsafe for travel (not banned just unsafe) also it’s hard to trust the safety anywhere in mexico due to its corruption and the cartels have free range, with all that it’s hard for me to it’s safe to visit. which is sad because i wanna go see some of the mayan and aztec structures as a builder myself i find ancient construction fascinating, how were those structures built and with percussion with out modern day tools or equipment
Mexico City would be sold out every game, but that’s a hell of ways to travel for the Blue Jays and the Yankees.
@bwmiller by who the 10% who can afford to go to a game or those dumb/brave enough to travel to mexico to see a game. most of the people that would want to see a game can’t afford it, majority of tourists that can won’t because we are targeted because we have “money”, and who’s to say that the 10% that can afford to go would even go (not saying that 10% aren’t bb fans but how many really are). if the political and economic situation was crap we wouldn’t have so many illegals coming over to the states to work for 1/2 the minimum wage, because 1/2 of our min is still better than what they can make in mexico. (btw i have no problem with mexicans coming over and trying to better themselves and there families i just want them to sing the guest book and pay into the system especially if they want to use our social programs)
If the majority of the people in the population can’t afford to go to the game anymore, that’s a big problem.
Personally, I’ve thought a lot about it, and I’ve been leaning towards patronizing a AAA team, cheap tickets, cheap concessions, same game to me, less crowded, and all around a better time in some ways.
@bwmiller i agree there is a independent league team within walking distance to my house and have had a better time watching them than my own cards. then again i love milb more than the mlb because it’s bb in its purest form, yes at times it’s a “sloppy game” but your watching kids play a game giving it 200% to live out a dream.
Mexico City would certainly sell. Question is if the PA is onboard.
@darkside first off grats to your phil’s making to the ws, 2nd it’s not a question if mc could draw fans it’s more of a question other than the wealthy (mexico has one of the worlds worst distribution of wealth) who can afford to go to a game or even afford the means to watch a game on tv.
That is why MLB has been playing games down in Monterrey. Mexico on a periodic basis(games that count…Padres played in one of those Series).
San Antonio and Austin could use a team. Maybe El Paso could finally get a franchise of some sorts. it sits in the middle of nowhere and I’m sure their residents would like something to do besides hide from drug cartels and shootings. lol
it will be fun in el paso with all those whorehouses.
100% Oakland does not deserve a baseball team. Their “Stadium” is a giant urinal and the City is doing nothing to help them stay. Absolutely the WORST arena/stadium in all of US Major Pro Sports…been there unfortunately many times…
Why should the city do anything to “help them stay”? The owner, John Fisher, is a multibillionaire, the heir to the GAP fortune. If you wanted to start a business, would you expect the taxpayers in your city to subsidize your for-profit venture? Let that conniving SOB pay his own bills. Why should taxpayers who couldn’t care less about baseball have to fund his moneymaker?
so the fans don’t deserve a team yet the billionaire owner deserves more cooperate welfare to ensure profits?
It would interesting to see a political ad where the Oakland mayoral candidate pledges to do everything reasonable to keep the Athletics in Oakland. That would certainly be better than most of the usually negative political ads out there.
Manfred is kidding himself if he truly thinks Tampa Bay (or for that matter, Miami) is a viable MLB market. A new stadium didn’t help the Marlins much, and the same will be true if/when the Rays manage to get one still in Tampa Bay. They need to take this opportunity to get out of the Snowbird State!
ARC 2, you are the smartest person that has commented yet !! Fisher is the whole problem here and in my opinion Oakland doesn’t deserve a team of any kind. Joe Lacob owner of the most valuable team in the NBA has wanted to buy the A’s for years and had a deal that a previous commissioner nixed, because he wanted a college buddy to buy the team instead. That would be Lou Wolf the original scum bag that was partners with Wolf before Fisher bought him out a few years back. The A’s have some die hard fans, just not enough of them. Fisher cries that it’s the Giants fault because the won’t give up there territorial rights to Santa Clara County, when they wanted to build a stadium in San Jose. Those are a few of the things that are wrong, but the biggest problem is Fisher. He pockets every penny of the profit sharing check he gets for MLB. Instead of putting any money on the team, the players, the stadium, player development, payroll to keep good players. He’s bad for Oakland and he’s bad for MLB. He should be forced to sell to someone that doesn’t pocket every penny of revenue sharing he gets from the 29 other MLB teams. Fisher doesn’t deserve a team and neither does Oakland. I think the Nashville A’s has a nice ring to it. Back in the 1970’s when they won 3 World Series in a row, the nick name at the time was “The Swinging A’s”, now that sounds like music coming out of Nashville.
By the way, I’m a Giants fan of 60 years and Bay Area Resident that tells it like it is !! As the Giants can tell you, If you don’t have a competitive winning
ARC 2, you are the smartest person that has commented yet !! Fisher is the whole problem here and in my opinion Oakland doesn’t deserve a team of any kind. Joe Lacob owner of the most valuable team in the NBA has wanted to buy the A’s for years and had a deal that a previous commissioner nixed, because he wanted a college buddy to buy the team instead. That would be Lou Wolf the original scum bag that was partners with Wolf before Fisher bought him out a few years back. The A’s have some die hard fans, just not enough of them. Fisher cries that it’s the Giants fault because the won’t give up there territorial rights to Santa Clara County, when they wanted to build a stadium in San Jose. Those are a few of the things that are wrong, but the biggest problem is Fisher. He pockets every penny of the profit sharing check he gets for MLB. Instead of putting any money on the team, the players, the stadium, player development, payroll to keep good players. He’s bad for Oakland and he’s bad for MLB. He should be forced to sell to someone that doesn’t pocket every penny of revenue sharing he gets from the 29 other MLB teams. Fisher doesn’t deserve a team and neither does Oakland. I think the Nashville A’s has a nice ring to it. Back in the 1970’s when they won 3 World Series in a row, the nick name at the time was “The Swinging A’s”, now that sounds like music coming out of Nashville.
By the way, I’m a Giants fan of 60 years and Bay Area Resident that tells it like it is !! As the Giants can tell you, If you don’t have a competitive winning team on the field the Bay Area fans have other options instead of watching baseball.
talking baseball;
I’m not defending Mr. Fisher.
I’ve read books about the Oakland A’s franchise. Other than the glory years of Charlie Finley’s A’s that team couldn’t draw there….and even then they didn’t make much money (his daughter wrote a book about the A’s that among other things went over all the things he tried to get people to come to the park).
My background is in business. I know just some of the expenses and costs of fielding a major league baseball team. And I also know that as a private entity teams do not have to open their books. So……
Exactly how do you know that Mr. Fisher is pocketing all his revenue sharing money?
Do you think it’s wrong for the owner of a business to make money from it? If he owns it and he can make more money elsewhere by moving it, what’s wrong with that? The Warriors moved to SF. The Raiders moved to LA, came back, then moved to LV. I would buy your argument if the area was supporting the team. But they’re not. They haven’t in most of the teams history there. They haven’t supported 2 other pro sport teams.
“As the Giants can tell you, If you don’t have a competitive winning…”. Right. Not every team in any pro sport is “competitive winning team on the field” every year. The point with the A’s is that even when they win the fans don’t come out. How many times in the last 20 years have they been competing for a playoff spot and still have one of the two worst attendance records in MLB? Just happened 2 years ago.
@sam i know quite often we disagree on a lot of points but your pretty spot on with your post. btw i don’t mind that we disagree quite often you make very good points and present them in a respective manor
brodie-bruce;
Nice of you to write that. But I don’t expect most – if any – people to agree with me. The ones I have trouble with – and ultimately Mute – are either those that make personal attacks on me or constantly come up with made up nonsense.
I’ve never had an issue with you. I’ve read your posts and respect your viewpoints.
@sam thanks for that and i have no issues with you either i know we have some heated debates but i can’t mute because you “don’t agree with me” (honesty only mute the spammers) i honesty love that we disagree it keeps me on my toes and make me sit and think about how to rebut your points. imo the only way i feel we are going to grow as a society is to have healthy debates and arguments even if it is just about sports
Will you 2 get a room
I’m sure Samuel would like that.
Did you type out this entire comment twice?
Of course he isn’t.
Correct me if I’m wrong; The proposal in Oakland is $12 Billions for a $1 billion stadium and surrounding housing, shopping, office space and infrastructure. The A’s are asking for up to $1 Billion from the city for the infrastructure (but so far the amount is below a billion) and to be paid back $10 billion for the non stadium improvements from tax districts generated from the proposed buildings over 45 years. They are still paying for the stadium on their own. I don’t see a problem with this… Others may believe that John Fisher et.al. should give $12 billion and let the city go wild with it… But building something and making money on it is kind of how things are done.
League is greedy. Oakland ain’t great. Trying to pull a wool over their eyes isn’t cool. A’s and sports teams in general need to chill it on asking for public money or any tax breaks. You are a circus. There are so many better forms of entertainment these days. But crying poor to poor folks ain’t good. If you want all these rights like ticketing and concessions, then you need to pay for the building. Expecting the taxpayers to build a stadium to then keep paying to enter it is unacceptable. Plus, it isn’t cheap enough for regular folks to drink and eat at a game. There is no reason to charge ridiculous prices to people that are stuck inside. Make the experience less ‘godly’ and more human so regular people can enjoy their favorite baseball team live.
ClevelandSteelEngines;
Don’t listen to politicians or trust the American media to explain issues correctly – particularly financial issues.
Please read Jzratkdad1s’ post above yours.
No one is “crying poor”. Costs for a new stadium are beyond the burden of most businesses capabilities.
If the poor multibillionaire can’t afford “the burden” of paying for his own stadium, then maybe he shouldn’t be building one. Why the hell should some working man who drives a cab for a living and doesn’t give a damn about baseball have money taken out of his paycheck to help a multibillionaire build an arena to make more money for himself and to preen his ego on his ownership of a baseball team? Is that cabbie going to be a part-owner? What’s in it for him?
Publicly funded sports stadiums are taxpayer rip-off and a scam that’s long since been exposed by economists:
sbnation.com/2021/6/9/22525916/public-funding-stad…
I agree in principle, just understand that that very well may mean no new stadiums ever. And it’s a bit ridiculous to say “poor billionaire”. There are things even a billionaire can’t simply pay for, that’s a fact if life. It’s not them being cheap, it’s the reality of economics, some things are just that expensive. Like it or not, you may have to accept that your sport is so expensive to operate that without subsidies it could one day crumble. Another alternative is adding investors, which is more and more prevalent. But then those who think ownership should pay players out of pocket are even more absurdly foolish. Can’t ask people to invest in something in order to lose money on purpose. Who is gonna invest unless the investment is geared towards profit, something many fans consider to somehow be a cardinal sin in baseball?. At some point an ideal somewhere has to be sacrificed for the sake of economic reality. Or face the possibility of more and more teams playing in a place like the Oakland Coliseum. Can’t complain about your cake and eat it too, or something.
If the public needs to so heavily subsidize a monopoly, at some point we have to visit public ownership of that monopoly. Prefer it to be private owners and run, but only without taxpayer giveaways. Assisting a team in getting market rate financing is reasonable, cutting some red tape and eliminating some development fees is reasonable, massive billion dollar subsidies then it is time to make the monopoly open its books to the public.
Same reason the cab driver is paying off the college loans. The govt is involved
If you want something — e.g., a car, a house, a college education — that you can’t afford to fund out of your current liquid assets what do you do?
You take out a loan and pay interest on the loan.
What don’t you do? You don’t ask your neighbors, who can expect no personal benefit from your purchase, to pay for what you want.
If this is the case for the average working-class American, how much more so should it be the case for a multibillionaire who’s already enjoying tax breaks on his business (i.e., the chain of GAP stores)?
Can’t ask people to invest in something in order to lose money on purpose.
==============≈=====
Individual and institutional investors do this all the time in the public markets. Sometimes in a start-up businesses with no business model nor path to profitability.
Manny, what you are saying makes tons of sense. I just hate when folks oversimplify the matter, but you offer a practical and potentially possible alternative to the way things are presently done. Unfortunately it may involve as much politics as it does baseball so getting it done is another matter.
No. Not how a billion dollar industry works. Not even close. Go ahead, put the word out. Opportunity to invest millions and lose it all. See how many takers you get. There’s a reason that’s not already being done. You want what? A Go fund me for billion dollar companies?
Fink, it’s not that easy. The loan has to make business sense. If it did, they’d do it. At least SOMEONE would try. It’s not that simple.
Money taken out of check?
The Feds don’t pay for the ball park
The State is not bank rolling the ball park.
The only time a person like you and I pay for it is with bed tax in that particular city. Or sales tax when you purchase something in that city.
Should those taxes were added on for the purpose of funding a stadium.
The rationale for municipalities going for these stadium scams is that they’ll benefit the taxpayers — and it’s long since been proven that the promise is bunk. It’s a con job.
If funding his own stadium doesn’t make business sense for a billionaire, then he shouldn’t build one. If you were starting a business and couldn’t justify a loan because there was no prospect that your business would be profitable, you couldn’t expect the city to float a bond issue on the backs of the taxpayers to pay for what you couldn’t finance with a loan.
Frankly, you talk like you’re an owner or an owner’s PR person. Where is this coming from?
Winslow, these stadium construction scams are paid for with taxpayer money. The municipality floats bond issues to pay for the construction. The city is then obligated to pay the bondholders — and whose money do you imagine the city uses to pay them?
And, yes, the owners DO cry poverty.
Major League Baseball IS the owners. Their 30 teams raked in $9.03 billion in revenue in 2022 according to Forbes. They took in as much revenue as Jinko Solar, a Chinese company that’s the largest solar panel manufacturer in the world.
They took in more revenue than Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation, the clothing company that owns brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein; more revenue than Liberty Media; more than Burlington Stores; more than Dole (the food company); more than Hitachi Construction Machinery; more than Foot Locker; more than The Bank of Shanghai; and more than the Saudi National Bank.
They can’t afford to build their own stadiums? Bullcrap.
Fink- No tax payer has money taken out their pay check to pay for a stadium. That would be against the law.
Prove to me which stadium was paid for in this manner.
Like I said previously A ball park is either paid for privately like Dodger Stadium. Or The Sofi stadium the Rams stadium. Or thru bonds. Or thru a bed or sales tax. Alegiant Stadium the Raiders home was partially paid for in this manner.
Winslow, when the City of New York takes taxes out of your paycheck, they don’t itemize for you what they’re going to spend it on. The money is pooled to cover all the city’s expenses, including paying off debt obligations.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the private and public costs of building Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. If you want to cut to the chase, just go to these lines of data for Yankee Stadium (the numbers are in millions of dollars):
TOTAL PROJECT COST $2,308.93
PUBLIC TOTAL $1,186.43
TEAM TOTAL $670.59
fieldofschemes.com/documents/Yanks-Mets-costs.pdf
I would honestly like to see more teams. I think four would be perfect. I would also like to see maybe one or two of them set up like the Green Bay Packers Organization. I think that might work in Buffalo and Nashville. As far as people on here saying that Manfred is bad for baseball I agree. Heck just the basballs are enough to prove that. He alone is changing them day to day almost. He makes changes to the rules and everything all the time, just leave it alone. Wanna really do good put rosters up to thirty add four teams. Your creating jobs and spreading the wealth around.
By that logic why not a thousand teams? By your logic we could cure unemployment worldwide simply by adding new teams. Doesn’t work like that.
A’s, Rays, and Pirates ownership are all bad for growing baseball. Due to the collection of owners short term thinking they won’t try to force those franchises to change. It’s a shame especially for the Pirates and As who have so much history.
Great news
Viva Las Vegas!!!!
Viva
Las Vegas!!!!
It’s plain and simple. Oakland is in California.. California is the worst state to get ANYTHING moving forward. You have the environmentalist and their EPA. Heaven forbid the new stadium site that has a rare bird that’s endangered spiesies list. This drag things for years. Then politicians who who have their own agenda. That’s why the Raiders and Warriors moved out. That’s why the prior A’s owners gave up and sold the team . Has nothing to do with Manfred. His hands are tied. He can only give the A’s owners permission to move after they’ve exhausted all avenues. Which he’s already told them. Arte Moreno is selling the Angels because of his dealing with city of Anaheim.and the state of California telling them they have build low income housing on the Stadium property as part of the Master Plan. And the Mayor being investigated by the FBI. You can’t make this stuff up.
Except the Rams willingly paid a fortune to move to California, it has nothing to do with politics or protecting the environment.
They paid a fortune to stop a lawsuit.it’s also because the city of Inglewood was accommodating and the stadium was privately financed and the Rams owner bought the land.
Please keep your politics out of it!
FACT: Warriors built new Arena in SF in a few short years with private funds.
FACT 49ers built a new Stadium in Santa Clara County Silicon Valley
in a few short years with mostly private funds
FACT Arco Arena was built on a quick timeline and became home of the NBA Kings
in Sacramento, CA
Giants built ATT Park in downtown SF with private funds
Padres built Petco Park in a few short years: Ownership contributed, Was City Redevelopment project…some public funds involved.
(Other pro sports owners liked the Padres deal model with all the surrounding development and tried to copy that model).
Not sure if the Padres model works in Oakland,
I still think Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley would be the best fit for an A’s stadium deal.
Move to Vancouver. become the B.C. A’s.
How about the A’s of B C?
For the love of God just let them out of Oakland. It never ends. Seems like the Braves are in their 3rd stadium since they began talking about this.
Let’s start with moving the A’s to Fresno CA. The A’s should consider Sacramento as a permanent place over Las Vegas.
Sacramento ? Cow Town”???? Fresno doesn’t have wherewithal to facilitate a ballpark. Get Real.
Right, you can’t just pick random cities and be like, hey, finance a major league team.
If they built a 25,000 fan stadium in Sacramento, they would get it half full every game with some sellouts.
Doesn’t mean it would make financial success. There’s a reason it’s not being done. We here at MLBTR don’t know more about this than the owners do, trust me.
If the A’s leave Oakland it’s not going to be for Vegas. Maybe Nashville but realistically there is nowhere that has a baseball ready stadium for them to move to but Montreal and that really wouldn’t solve anything
In case you missed it the A’s have been in Vegas scouting diffrent locations. The only time they were in Nashville was to see a Willie Nelson concert.
And Vegas has asked for non-refundable cash down for said locations. Fisher has no interest in spending any of his own money and Vegas is going to have a heck of a time getting tax payers to pony up for another billion dollar stadium
Willie Nelson ain’t a Nashville kinda guy.
A’s players under team or arbitration in 2024 should get ready to be playing in 110+ summer weather….unless it will be indoor.
It better be indoors. Or no one will show up and that includes the players. No what I’m saying.?
Unlikely MLB expands, and without getting into politics, the Rays being in Florida bodes well for business, and the A’s being in California, the Bay Area nonetheless, makes it less likely anything will work.
Las Vegas and Nashville are getting MLB teams, it’s just a matter of who and when. The A’s will end up in Vegas, where it’ll be Coors Field redux. The Angels probably stay in So-Cal somewhere, but I’m guessing someone like the Washington Nats end up in Tennessee.
The Nats are not moving.
Reality saying. If city wants to spend billion dollars on stadium. Then give to us we have a team for you. Reality the myth of stadiums helping city is very low. Economics show if gave almost any industry even half what cities give teams. You create more jobs, higher paying jobs. truth no city has parades because they have best schools, hospitals, etc but do If team wins. As seinfeld said people love to cheer for a jersey with the city name on it. lmao
The problem with all the “discussions” on here about anything is that people want to argue over issues in isolation….
Pitcher doesn’t so well on the road. Position player has an .04 in his XyZ and a 2 in his -DVQ, so he’s really no good.
Fact is that baseball parks have been used as anchors to revive city neighborhoods or create new ones for 30 years now. Pittsburgh, Baltimore (for years although it’s been regressing for political reasons), Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta, DC, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and others.
People above are complaining that the current owner of the A’s would sell to people that would revive the area, yet they won’t back the current owner of the A’s to do the same thing.
That’s fine. This is what America has come to. Bickering over little things. Missing the big picture. Determining that what’s right and wrong depends on who says it….and who becomes popular is usually an incompetent front man or woman that lies through their teeth but has a slick image created by marketing people with the bribable media running interference.
Coming back to baseball – most people here are concerned with individual players and image. No conception of how baseball teams win. So all year I try to counter posters that write the Phillies defense and bullpen are a joke – yuk yuk, yuk – as half a dozen upvoters instantly appear. I’m stating that the players are working with the coaches and have improved. When the Phillies go to the WS. Why? Because they “Got Hot”.
If you think that it is professional sports requirement to stabilize a city, you are mistaken. This is a city problem and a societal problem. Sports are a business, nothing more. You can like it, or not; you can like your city’s symphony or not. Most cities have universities with free musical concerts that citizens could attend and be personally enriched by going, but they don’t.
The absolute decay in Detroit is a perfect example of what was once thriving, and now just a sad testament of bad politics. Any society that stops making things for sale and just becomes an importer and consumer puts itself in great peril. I have said this for the last 40 years and having served in a state legislature talking to deaf ears it was sad to watch as we sold our future. Did we really need that $39 VHS recorder or that $29 DVD player??????
We saw all of this reach a zenith in 2020 when inflation was under 1.5%, but very foolish people wanted something they thought was better. Really???? Define better after 2 years of this mess. Businesses looted, destroyed, closed. Covid and then lockdowns and school closures. People afraid of the cities they live in. Politicians and DA’s who have lost their minds and made things a terrible, brutal mess.
With the price of professional sports ticket through the roof and inflation making things a terrible mess, I’m surprised that sports teams are drawing to games what they do, but poorer cities are going to be the ones to pay the price. Disposable income for entertainment for many does not exist. The poor always pay the biggest price.
When I started loving baseball as a kid of 5 in 1952 and started going to games I remember when box seats in Wrigley Field or Comiskey Park were $3. I also remember Banks, Santo, and Williams never made $100K in a year. My late Mom took me to Milwaukee to see the Cubs play the Braves once a year. I saw Aaron, Mathews, Spahn, Crandall, Adcock in their youth and some in their prime. Every day I always got to see a great team. There are players now who should not make $100K, but make 7 times that with the MLB Min.
So teams will move to cities that are thriving, safe, have a fan base that will support them by going to games, and have policies in place that allow for business to thrive, have great schools, and do their utmost best to keep criminals in their place. Being a criminal is a choice. Destruction is a choice.
So, whether the A’s stay or go will be up to the citizens of Oakland and the surrounding towns. Do not complain to me about a losing team or bad management as being a Cubs fan since 1952 your pain is not anywhere near as great as mine supporting a bad team.
If you think what seems to be an impossibility, think again, as the Chicago Bears will be moving out of Chicago within 5-7 years. Nothing is immune to bad politics. Once someone is willing to build a new stadium it will happen. the location and property is already available.
Moving the A’s out of the 6th largest media market in the nation would cost MLB tens of millions. Some of the national TV contracts would undoubtedly have to be renegotiated based on the new TV household count.
Manfred is trying to play hardball when he has no leverage. The other owners are not going to want to lose that much money just to allow the A’s to move.
This is an area that too many ignore what is the value of the A’s by contract, the game has evolved beyond measuring success by bodies in the seats.
Television contract value
Former Commish Bud Selig and the Giants created this problem with the A’s.
The A’s should have built a stadium and moved to San Jose a few decades ago!
Some of the wealthiest tech companies in the World are in Silicon Valley/Santa Clara County.
San Jose is the Capital of Silicon Valley.
There are tons of fans there, money, corporate endorsements.
The A’s helped save the Giants for the SF Bay Area.
when the Giants had their trucks loaded and were ready to move to Tampa Bay.
The SF Giants thanked the A’s for their help and then stabbed the A’s in their backs and have blocked them from going to San Jose.
A Strong Commissioner would have stepped in long ago, rallied the other owners
and allowed the A’s to build their new stadium in Santa Clara County and/or San Jose.
The 49ers went through multiple failed proposals and ballot initiatives in San Francisco.
Finally, they built their new stadium in Santa Clara in Silicon Valley.
It is the most logical solution: San Jose
The population of San Jose is bigger than both Oakland and San Francisco
(San Jose population is 1 million,
The greater San Jose area population
is 1..876 million).
The nine country SF Bay Area has 7.7 million people.
San Francisco has 650,000. Oakland has 400,000.
San Jose is 50 miles from SF.(more or less depending on the freeway)
San Jose is 40 miles from Oakland.
But, the MLB Commish’s Office will blame everyone but themselves, mess this deal up, again for about the 10th or 12 time,
and then attempt to move the team elsewhere.
Never has so much time, effort, money, talk, “negotiations” been wasted.
I don’t blame the cities.
I blame MLB Commish, the Giants and other obstructionists for this ongoing fiasco!
Oakland has had plenty of time to get their act together, but they’ve failed to do so. Time to move on.
You’ve got to be kidding me. Portland would pack a stadium every night
If they build a stadium in Oakland no one is even going to go
AAA Portland Beavers used to get more attendance than the A’s did this season
Give the team to a city that will support it. This is basic logic
There should be absolutely ZERO public funds contributed to ANY stadium. Players are making $40 mil a year, owners are raking in billions. ENOUGH!
Yankee Stadium was built for $2.3B with almost $1.2 coming from public money and tax breaks. Citifield costed $830M with the Mets only paying $135M.
First every MLB owner is a billionaire! Why should the public have to pay for a ballpark?
If Oakland wants to hang onto its team let the damned owner build the park. He really can’t
go anywhere-certainly not Vegas nor Nashville. There must be a big surrounding area to
draw from. Kind of limits you to Montreal, perhaps Buffalo…As for Florida get Tampa out
of there-a great team that can’t draw there no matter where they go in that state-move em out. I live 10 minutes from the best ballpark in baseball (PNC Park) owned by the cheapest
owner in pro sports. It is no fun going to games where there no one else there
And, these billionaire owners have the money to spend and build contending teams.
They each get a TV revenue sharing check of 300-400M per year.
They have local and regional TV revenues.
They have attendance, admissions , food, parking, memorabilia all added to that.
Pittsburgh could easily run a 200M payroll, make money and field a playoffs contending team. When their rebuild is over in a year or two, Ownership should spend money, increase payroll or sell the team. PERIOD!
You have evidence for that opinion you just pulled out your butt and stated as fact? You know more about this than economists and business owners? Not likely. The level of know-it-all naïveté here is staggering.
TyGuy-The Pirates do not own PNC. They operate it.
I guess it’s cool that Manfried thinks Stu can make it work in Tampa. Maybe he missed Stu saying it was critical for the team to play half a season elsewhere.
Move the A’s to Vegas. The city of Oakland hasn’t done much to help this franchise over the years. Screw ‘em and follow the Raiders.
Manfred needs to “man” up and take San Jose territory by imminent domain from SF Giants to get the A’s there. San Jose is the best West Coast market with no team. A’s would thrive there.