Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke with reporters (including Susan Slusser and Tim Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle) today about several topics, including the Athletics’ ongoing plans to build a new ballpark in Las Vegas and move the franchise from Oakland. Over the last two days, the planned move seemingly took a notable step forward, as the A’s and Nevada state officials reached a tentative agreement on a plan to provide $380MM of public money towards the construction of a new ballpark (worth roughly $1.5 billion) on the site of the Tropicana hotel in Vegas.
Though the Tropicana location is the second Las Vegas site the A’s have pursued in under two months, “I think they’re pretty settled on a site [now],” Manfred said. Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal also reports that the A’s are solely looking at the Tropicana site and not considering other options.
As to whether or not the Athletics’ plan will come to fruition, Manfred said that he is “optimistic about [a move] happening,” but “It’s very difficult to have a timeline for Oakland until there’s actually a deal to be considered. There is a relocation process internally that they need to go through and we haven’t even started that process.…I don’t have a crystal ball as to where anything’s going. There is not a definitive deal done in Las Vegas and we’ll have to see how that plays out.”
The most obvious roadblock at this point is the fact that the state of Nevada’s contribution to the ballpark is one of many items that hasn’t been approved as part of the state budget. As outlined by Taylor R. Avery of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada’s Senate and Assembly haven’t been able to agree with Governor Joe Lombardo on several aspects of the budget, with Lombardo threatening to veto the Nevada Legislature’s budget proposal “until the policy priorities that I spelled out on day one are on my desk.” The Athletics’ proposal is naturally one of the newer elements to Lombardo’s spending plans, and likely not even the most controversial, as Avery notes that there is a great deal of controversy of several education-related spending priorities that are or aren’t included in the budget to date.
It remains to be seen exactly when or how the budget impasses could be resolved, though Nevada’s legislative session ends on June 5. However, if the ballpark funding issue is solved by then, Manfred said that it is “possible that a relocation vote could happen as early as June,” presumably during the upcoming owners’ meetings. Seventy-five percent of MLB owners would have to vote in favor of the proposal in order for the A’s to officially set their sights on Las Vegas, and a departure from Oakland that would coincide with the end of their lease at the Coliseum following the 2024 season.
Let Pete Rose throw out the first dice.
It’s sad that the A’s fans will lose their team because they are most likely moving to Las Vegas. That’s not cool. Maybe in the future another team will play in California if the A’s end up leaving.
The Giants are right across the bay.
They were once in dire straits too. The difference is in how the two teams have been run.
The Bay Area is too big and has too much money for one team. The area could easily sustain 3 MLB teams if the owners weren’t outright failures as human beings.
Not many of us A’s fans will be jumping over after the Giants used territory rights (I think originally given to them by the A’s?) to block an easy move to San Jose that would have kept us in the area.
Also, not a fan of paying 20 bucks for a small burrito at the ballpark.
Honestly it’s fine but I won’t miss you if you don’t visit.
Turning into? It already is. The Bay Area is an awful place to visit.
@case: Nobody is forcing you to go to games.
@nottinghamforest13 you are lying on behalf of fox news right now, the bay is the best place on the planet, not a “cesspool” by any means, unless you are using a “street corner by street corner basis” or some other cockamamie rating…SF has been about the same as its always been -how much are right wing news media paying you?
I’m partial to San Diego County myself.
Orange County too. Expensive as all get out, but beautiful. Used to live in Imperial Beach. Still visit. Paradise.
Even for Dbacks games, for the price of two tickets I can rent a nice hotel room right across the street, buy all the snacks I want, and watch in comfort from a lazy boy recliner instead of a ballpark seat.
Right, that’s why I love my “flyover state”
Many A’s fans will not support the Giants.
@SportsFan0000: But nobody cares.
In NYC, in the 1950s, Giants fans didn’t support the Giants. Even with Say Hey. That’s how they became the SF Giants
@blue baron: now there’s a dumb comment
Thank you.
Dodgers, Angels, Padres, Giants…
All have their markets of loyal fans.
A’s have their market of loyal fans in N Calif SF Bay Area.
Dodgers, Angels and Padres have loyal fans in S Calif.
CA is among the largest States.
A;s fans will not transfer over to these other teams.
A’s fans will do as they’re told.
Not likely unless the Giants cede the San Jose area or they put a team in the Inland Empire which would likely have both the Angels and Dodgers arguing over territorial rights
The IE can’t support a team.
San Bernardino county is the 5th largest county in California and the 14th largest county in the US and is certainly large enough to support a team. And I’m guessing would do really well with people who don’t want to venture to Los Angeles to watch a game
@Rsox San Bernardino and San Jose both deserve a MLB team, I agree.
What all 15 of them? Don’t see what’s so sad about a team relocating when there average attendance is that of a high school baseball game basically.
I hate that the A’s are moving into the desert… Babylon folks babylon…
Let Pete Rose toss the first dice indeed
California has like 6 baseball teams Francys, they don’t need another… but this is the devil moving the A’s to sin city, make no mistake about it
I’m optimistic about bed sores, that doesn’t mean we all need to get them…
Funny story. A few years ago I was in the sports book at Mandalay Bay. Mid July right in baseball parlay season. I was there drinking my free drink smoking my cigar when a man wearing a reds hat brushed by me, and took a seat a couple rows up ahead of me.
The man looked eerily familiar, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. My eyes fixated on the stranger, I began working my way up towards him when I saw a working man at the booth of the sports book waving his arms and shaking his head at me! Half drunk, I casually walked by the man with the reds hat and walked up the booth to address the worker. Played it off beautifully.
“Is that…” I uttered. Before I got another word out, the workers said very curtly;
“YES. It is. And we ask that you leave him alone.”
Shoot, no problem man.
I turned around and started walking back up the aisle, walked by the man whose reds hat was now tipped far down over his eyes. He had picked up on the fact that I was a super nerd who recognized him. A couple minutes later, the man picked up his ticket and walked away……
That was the time I saw the hit king doing something that he didn’t want anybody to know he was doing. I’ll never forget it!
He’s never said he didn’t bet.
I don’t think he wants anybody to see him doing the thing that got him banned. Or, Maybe he just didn’t want any fans annoying him. The irony was thick in the air. Especially since it was baseball season. I don’t think he was there to work horses
@SODOMOJO: Funny story? It’s actually pretty sad.
Jarred Kelenic says hi!
Why would Pete Rose wear a Reds hat while trying to not be recognized? That doesn’t make sense.
That was my reaction.
While I like this move for the Atheltics (and I think this stinks for Oakland but needs to be done), if only Manfred could move. . . . to another planet. . . . immediately.
Manfred caters to the large markets and got MLB in bed with gambling that has been verboten since the beginning of time and got people permanently banned for, for my taste.
The revenue inequity is bad for the game in the long run and killing it in flyover country, which houses about two thirds of the teams, but he turns a blind eye.
This is why the average age of the baseball fan is now 50 and young people are mostly interested in other sports. It is sad because I personally love the game and want to see it thrive in the future.
Manfred caters to the 30 owners. I know some find this to be shocking, but they are the ones who write his paychecks. Really, it’s true.
And have no problem with that.
My problem is with the Yankees supporting the A’s, Rays & Royals of the world.
The fundamental problem with that point of view is it doesn’t recognize that MLB is one business with 30 owners.
Correct. And most of the times, the owners are failing to police themselves, and have to hire outside help to do so. That’s how come the commissioner position was invented.
The owners don’t need to or even have any desire to be policed. Contrary to the popular mythology, MLB was planning on creating a commissioner position before the Black Sox scandal. The game needed a chief executive because the decision-making structure was cumbersome. And that’s what the commissioner is, in reality — the CEO of MLB. Always has been, and certainly is now.
The difference is that commissioners before Bud Selig were charged with acting in the best interest of the game – including players and owners.
The reason Fay Vincent was fired and replaced by Selig was that several owners, including Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf, were planning to force the players to strike in 1994 and refuse to bargain in good faith, force an impasse, bust the players association, and implement a salary cap system.
They didn’t want a neutral commissioner like Vincent interfering – or policing – and possibly forcing them to the bargaining table.
Selig and now Manfred are charged solely with safeguarding and advancing the interests of management.
In 1994-95, Selig, Reinsdorf et al didn’t count on the MLBPA being steadfast and holding strong, and then the owners being hauled before the National Labor Relations Board and found to be in violation of labor laws and collective bargaining rules.
We saw in last year’s CBA process that owners now respect the MLBPA enough to not pick a fight like that again.
Technically the commissioner’s job description has always been promoting the best interests of the game, but even back in the Landis days this always meant the interests of ownership. Fay Vincent is the exception that proves the rule and tells us what happens to any commissioner who shows too much leadership. No commissioner who can’t count to at least 16 keeps his job for long.
Owners do need to be policed. They create things like ‘luxury tax’, and then figure out how to run roughshod around it or over it. The Rockies owner complains about the Padres owner about spending, and then Manfred jumps in about restricting contract lengths…even though all contracts are mutually agreed upon by both parties.
Ownership makes its own rules and therefore always has the rules they find to be in their collective best interests. Fans can gripe about it all day long, but that changes nothing about what they do or why they do it. The big mistake a lot of fans make is blaming everything they don’t like about what happens in baseball on the commissioner. The owners have to love how he take all the heat for doing their bidding.
Right you are. Owners DO make the rules.
Lots of them snow the fans, crying poor from within their mansions and skyboxes. And some of the fans swallow the bait, hook line and sinker.
Well, yeah. But that’s a separate problem, isn’t it? MLB has created a chewing gum and duct tape finance system designed to keep the smaller market team owners happy. The fact that their fans are hardly ever happy doesn’t really figure into it so long as all of the owners are rolling in clover. If was the King of Baseball, I’d divide the total revenue of the game equally 30 ways and financially reward the teams that use the money to build winners instead of rewarding failure as they do now. Like that’s ever going to happen.
Great, Expansion team in the Bay Area when?
San Jose has more people than San Francisco. Why does one city thats like 90 minutes away get a MLB team and the other gets an mere A-ball team? Pathetic. What an under-servered market. MLB is being stupid here.
We are all Giants fans in the South Bay. Adding a team here wouldn’t change that.
You arent in the South Bay. We all grew up A’s fans there. The Bay needs at minimum 2 teams. Greedy pig Giants scum owners. Stop defending less MLB. More teams is always better.
Most of South bay fans are A’s fans
Not happening. You’ll have a team in Austin, Nashville, Montreal, and Charlotte before they put another team out in California.
Yes, makes sense not putting teams in the highest populated cities, dumb comment.
Rings…
Not a dumb comment. There’s a difference in predicting what will happen vice what SHOULD happen.
He’s an Astros fan so I think that’s just a list of cities most willing to cheat. I mean, the GDP and population of North Carolina are really close to California, right?
California has the 4th highest GDP in the entire World
when compared to countries.
North Carolina would fit into a corner of California
and is no where near a match for California’s wealth and population.
Another South Bay Giants fan checking in. Most of my friends here are Giants fans too but there are plenty of A’s fans. The San Jose Giants are really a blasts to watch and seem to do really well in their own right.
@case: Now there’s a dumb comment.
That’s kind of irrelevant.
California has 5 teams. The Carolinas have none. People confuse population with market size. Two different things.
St. Louis and KC are relatively the same size cities. But the Cardinals market dwarfs the Royals market. Because they’ve invested and developed it.
South Bay is loaded with A’s fans.
There will be even more when they build the New A’s stadium in Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley.
@SportsFan0000: Who are “they?” And the new stadium is to be built in Las Vegas, not Santa Clara.
Do try to keep up with the news.
Austin will not get a team
Steve Austin WILL get a team!
Brother!
“Out in California”? A comment that tells all.
The A’s had two separate runs of three pennants each. One run led to three consecutive World Series wins as well as FIVE straight division titles. . The A’s should have been a major success story.
Over the past couple of decades baseball is more about finding extra leverage for wealthy investors when making real estate deals. They’ve finally found a truly subservient minion in Manfred.
I went to the Stick in 1985. Saw the late great Vida Blue pitch like he did as a young A’s guy. And at the concession stands, they sold ‘San Jose (SJ) Giants ballcaps. Wish I’d bought one.
Bronx, they’re just as nice today and pretty easy to get if should still desire one.
This is ridiculous…you don’t get franchises based on the population within a city’s borders. For crying out loud the Angels used to be the California Angels. The Rangers are the Texas Rangers. The Twins, Rockies, etc…it’s based on the population of the market not a city.
” The Rangers are the Texas Rangers. The Twins…”
It’s funny, you mentioned two failed Washington Senators franchises. Yet Washington got a third try before lots of cities got even one.
According to Chalmers Johnson Washington franchises make big bucks off of “business trips” to luxury sports boxes funded by taxpayers.
Not really. In Philadelphia, most season ticket holders hail from South Jersey. The Phillies get just as much, if not more revenue from the ‘burbs (PA and NJ), if not moreso, than from the city.
Same with NYC. Most fans come from the burbs. Heck, our two football teams play IN the burbs! NJ!
@StephCurryRetires: Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh each have fewer than 350,000 people. Columbus, OH, has close to a million.
Why do those three cities have MLB teams but Columbus doesn’t?
It may have something to do with demographic and population shifts over several decades. The same probably is true in California.
It’s more about metro area size than city size. Cinci and Pittsburgh have slightly larger metro areas. Cleveland has a slightly smaller metro, but when the team was founded it was much larger than Columbus.
Exactly my point. Demographic and population shifts over several decades.
Manfred is distracted by all the glitz of Vegas. Man, Manfred is Blinded by the Light
You stayed up all night with your notepad working on that one, didn’t you?
Guilty!
The Athletics should have moved to Montreal.
MLB would only let the A’s go to Vegas without paying a relocation fee, and as cheap as Fisher is – Vegas was the only option.
MLB is destroying its brand. The Oakland A’s fans that Manfred screws over aren’t going to follow the team to Las Vegas and they aren’t going to suddenly become San Francisco Giants fans. In large part the fans are just going to turn away from MLB all together. Destroying generations of fandom under the guise of tourists to Las Vegas becoming the team’s fan base.
Ask Philadelphia. The A’s have been gone for 70 years and fans that grew up with their parents being A’s fans have still not embraced the Phillies (not like there’s much to embrace outside of 2 months last season).
Crazy about Philly. The team with the rich and storied history bolted. And the largely futile team stayed, playing in the ballpark named for the HOF skipper of the team that left!
What’s crazier is that the city could still support the A’s, both in support and in revenue.. Many in Philly would embrace it, I’m sure.
The A’s had a great history in Philadelphia, and it was history by their departure. 11 of the previous 20 seasons they had finished last in the AL. Hadn’t finished better than 4th in 21 years. (Largely because Connie Mack and the A’s were very late to develop a farm system)
Fun fact: from 1935 to 1946, the A’s finished last 9 times, while the Phillies only finished last 8 times. All other clubs combined finished last 7 times!
deep…
All correct. Connie Mack never embraced the farm system concept. It proved to be a fatal flaw. His in game management and talent evaluation were terrific. But yeah, Branch Rickey, George Weiss and others saw the future whereas Connie did not.
I’d support them in Philly. But I also have MLB extra innings and have been/will be watching them wherever they call home.
“ not like there’s much to embrace outside of 2 months last season”
They won five straight division titles from 2007-2011 and played in two World Series winning one in that stretch. The A’s haven’t been to a World Series since 1990.
It’s been going downhill for quite a while. Youth numbers were already looking bad before streaming and the league made little to no effort to speed up the game. Right now it’s about real estate deals and maximizing short term profits before the fanbase dies out and it becomes the dinosaur of professional sports.
The As are moving bc fans don’t show up. The stadium is dead and will always be dead. You want the team to stay than show up
Lol, A’s fans? Where the hell have they been? The fans hardly go based on attendance and when the ballpark is full when the stands are full are bandwagon fans. F ‘em.
Zach – True fans will remain fans. I’ve been an Angels fan all my life. When I left California 13 years ago, it didn’t change my passion for the team. When we get a team here in Nashville, I will remain an Angels fan and see them whenever they come to town.
So the A’s are going to lose all their 5,000 fans?
@zach. The A’s averaged 7,500 fans their last weekend series at home against the Rangers. That itself is pathetic.
What makes it even more pathetic is, the Las Vegas Aviators, A’s AAA team, avg 8,800 fans their last home weekend series against the Albuquerque Isotopes.
Think about that their minor league team which has a beautiful stadium in Vegas with no roof is outdrawing the MLB team.
Now I am not saying bringing the A’s to Vegas will work. But having the A’s in Oakland hasn’t worked for 20 years +.
@zerb
You are ridiculous. The A’s have raised ticket prices over the last several seasons to drive fans away. They notoriously increased over the last season as they were trading away talent. You are feeding into the narrative the A’s can’t be competitive.
Since the A’s moved to Oakland in 1968 they are 6th in winning percentage. Since Billy Beane Era in 1999 – 6th in winning percentage. That’s pretty darn consistent.
Attendance waned as new ownership took over and TV/radio contracts were bungled. For the past 20 years the A’s have been moving to one city or another. That drives away fans and decreases attendance.
Fisher intentionally sabotaged the team to get a real estate deal. Plain as that. If you can’t see that, you may need better glasses. The A’s were able to be competitive and they were, during those times the games were a blast but ever since he’s been trading all the talent and refusing to sign free agents and decent coaching and management it has become a self fulfilling prophecy to answer the age old Bay Area question of “what happens if this team starts to play poorly in this ancient horrible stadium?” and then for some reason people say it must be the stadium not the horrible mismanagement of the team and the teams atrocious performance over the years. Imagine being an A’s fan and not having a guy whose jersey you’d be happy to buy for like 15 years. People out here constantly make the comparison to “major league” but it’s not funny anymore because it’s 100% accurate.
How are facts ridiculous?
A’s will move again by the end of the 30’s because Las Vegas isn’t a suitable long-term city for growth.
I actually disagree. It’s part of the vacation portfolio of the town. Baseball tickets will be the perfect free giveaway for casino guests. The team may not have a loyal base, but the stadium will have solid attendance.
I honestly think the A’s will be back in the Bay, in San Jose, in the next 10 years.
Las Vegas will in inhospitable shortly. Climate change is going to make that place a brutal place to live.
Shouldn’t matter much if there’s a domed stadium
Who do those Philly fans tend to root for?
I’m guessing they’ll be the Las Vegas Athletics. They kept their name when relocating before. LVA’s
A’s president said they are keeping the Athletics name because there is too much history with it.
True. But if they move to LV, I’ll bet they use a picture of an Ace card more than once. The ‘A’ is a natural fit.
Ha, maybe the governor will have a tantrum about critical race theory and the budget will be held up. Otherwise I don’t see a Republican governor and a bunch of Harry Reid democrats having a problem with a shady, taxpayer funded welfare deal for the rich.
You have some twisted thoughts, case. What’s shady about any of this deal? It’s a business transaction that appears to be fairly transparent based on the fact that we are all commenting on the details that are emerging.
Well, the local paper already has several op eds implying the local community isn’t exactly happy with the decision… and when the deal goes through and you have a list of vendors/contractors associated with the project i’m sure they’ll have no financial connections to any of the legislature or members of local government, that’s why our squeaky clean political system is the envy of all other democracies.
Well, all of that may come to be true, but it’s speculation at this point on your part. And as far as the local paper goes, media sells controversy and fear. If they’re implying it, as you stated, then that’s irrelevant. If they have actual citizens who stated that opinion, they probably sought out people who disagree with the process in order to sell papers, which I can’t believe still exists.
There’s no speculation for American politics, interest groups almost always get special treatment during urban development projects.
For the media I’m not sure. Fear and controversy sell, but so do news sources that reflect people’s own opinions back at them. I suppose it’s impossible to say unless someone does an extensive public opinion poll of taxpayers affected by the decision.
States and local governments that are hard left simply aren’t good for business. Liberals, fine, conservatives, fine, moderates….you bet. But when you go far left (or too far right for that matter) destruction ensues. The bay area went way too far left, as has Sacramento. No expansion team still want to have anything to do with California for a very long time.
@angelic
If it wasn’t for many of the positive (the makers) “blue states” tax revenue dollars that are eventually sent to the negative (the takers) “red states.” Many of those red states would be in even worse shape financially than they already are!
But hey, keep tuning in to those sources that lie and misinform you hourly so can continue to live in your bubble lacking in reality and facts. Simply because it’s what you want to hear and believe.
You’re right on the nose, Sharks. Illinois has a thriving economy free of debt and meeting all its obligations.
Who is hard left? Literally no one in California is – its the home to many hard right and pro capitalists.
See, “Agenlic Visions” when you straight up lie like this, and present it as the baseline for your argument, your argument falls apart easily. Beware the right winger with 100% of the power who claims the left is scary or “doing things”. Shut up entirely.
CA’s government is very much center right. You people get your culture war topics intertwined with your economics and it obscures the picture. The state is completely in the pocket of tech, real estate, construction, and the agricultural industries. They make the choices that matter, they hold the strings. Get as worked up as you like about the culture war nonsense but at the end of the day, money talks in CA.
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I’m not sure all these people understand
It’s not like years ago
The fear of getting caught
The recklessness in water
Not seeing the business wisdom of MLB Owners and the Commissioner abandoning
& relocating
A great, storied A’s franchise that has won 4 World Championships in the SF Bay Area?!
This looks to me like a “bailout” of John Fisher.
Fisher’s Net worth and stock have tanked.
Fisher, , apparently, does not have the money and/or the credit to be a “serious player”
in MLB ownership circles AND in the more lucrative SF Bay Area market based on his: mismanagement of the A ‘s:
Fisher’s failure to “lock down” his great young core of players(contract extensions).
Fisher’s failure to market the A’s to the 8-9M people and fans in the SF Bay Area,
Fisher’s failure to bring in well funded partners and to put in place a viable succession plan
(these are basic elements of owning/running a successful MLB franchise0.
Fisher received an ultimatum from the league to get a stadium deal or MLB was cutting off revenue sharing (MLB is onto Fisher manipulating the MLB revenue sharing system).
If Fisher has fallen below the threshold net worth requirements to successfully own and run an MLB franchise, then Fisher should be forced to sell the A’s to local, well funded ownership that will keep the A;’s in the SF Bay Area.
It has been reported on this site, that Fisher’s stock has, mostly, tanked.
And, the “lions share” of his net worth is now tied to Ownership of the A’s?!
When previous Astros ownership got in trouble financially, MLB forced them to sell the Astros ( Jim Crane was the successful bidder?).
The A’s , MLB Ownership and the Commissioner’s Office are at at crossroads with
John Fisher.
Moving the A’s to Las Vegas just penalizes fans in one of MLB’s most lucrative TV and Team(s) markets.
Fisher should be forced to sell the A’s to one of the many billionaires in the SF Bay Area who promises to keep the team in the SF Bay Area.
There are other, much more lucrative new stadium deals to be had in the SF Bay Area/
Silicon Valley that will be more profitable for the A’s and for MLB.
MLB Owners should vote to reject the A’s request to move to Las Vegas.
And, MLB should vote to restore the SF Bay Area territory to a 50%/50% status
both A’s and Giants to Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley.
Former Commissioner Bud Selig has stated that former A’s Owner Walter Haas (Levis Strauss) gifted Silicon Valley territory to the SF Giants to save them from moving to Tampa.
SF Giants stayed and built stadium in SF.
Haas expected the shared Silicon Valley territory
to be restored to the A’s.
It was not a permanent gift according to Selig.
If only Congress passed a bad owner policy…
Congress should revoke MLB’s Anti Trust exemption
so MLB is forced to compete like any other business.
CALIFORNIA IS PASSING GERMANY AS THE 4TH LARGEST AND RICHEST ECONOMY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD WHEN COMPARED TO COUNTRIES!
NOT CERTAIN IF MLB HAS ANY ECONOMISTS OR FINANCIAL EXPERTS IN THEIR EMPLOY.?!
Compare the 670,000 population of L:as Vegas to the 8-9M population of the SF Bay Area.
The total GDP of Las Vegas is 136Million US Dollars in 2021.
CONPARED TO THE TOTAL GDP of the San Francisco Bay Area of 577.35 billion U.S. dollars in 2021!
Looks like MLB is totally dropping the ball and making a ridiculous business decision here
just to keep A’s Owner John Fisher in the game.
It is a game that John Fisher can no longer afford to be a part of..
John Fisher should not even have a seat at the table under his current circumstances.
It looks like from here that Fisher has run the A’s team into the ground and used it as his personal ATM machine.
Fisher should be forced to Sell the A’s to local SF Bay Area Ownership
that will keep it in the SF Bay Area and Silicon Valley.
The best solution to the A’s stadium dilemma would come from “thinking outside the box.
It does not seem that MLB and the Owners are doing that.
This is a thinly disguised bailout of John Fischer
LAS VEGAS IS NEXT SHINY OBJECT, BUT THE NUMBERS DO NOT WORK SHORT AND LONG TERM FOR THE A’S IN LV.
(And MLB should know this if they ran the numbers.
THE MLB Owners should VOTE TO BLOCK A’S PROPOSED MOVE TO LAS VEGAS
(It takes only 9 VOTES TO BLOCK A’S MOVE).
SF Giants move to Tampa in the 1999’s WAS BLOCKED BY MLB OWNERS’ VOTE.
SF Bay Area with 8 million+ and some of the richest tech firms in the World and one of the largest TV and sporting fans markets in the country can easily support 2 MLB teams easily and BIG PROFITS CAN BE MADE BY ALL.
SOLUTIONS TO A’s Stadium ISSUES include:
MLB Ownership VOTE TO RESTORE A’s 50% shared territory to
Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley(that was given up in the 90’s by the A’s to save the SF Giants for SF Bay Area with proviso that New Giants Stadium would be build in Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley.
IT WAS NOT. New Giants stadium was built in Downtown SF.
Former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig stated that former A’s Owner, Walter Haas
(Levi Strauss & Co) complimented Haas for “acting in the best interests of MLB baseball” by generously giving the Giants his share of the Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley territory to save the SF Giants for the SF Bay Area.
Selig also stated that the GIFT OF THAT TERRITORY WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE PERMANENT.
At some point, Haas and the A’s expected to receive their 50% share of the Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley territory back from the SF Giants once the Giants had stabilized their franchise with their new stadium built. It was built in downtown SF not in the Santa Clara County Silicon Valley territory as promised and as the only reason Haas and the A’s ceded their 50% of that territory to the SF Giants.
A’s to build new stadium in Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley.
A’s line up lucrative naming rights and endorsements in Silicon Valley.
Giants and A’s SHARE Giants home ballpark while new stadium for A’s under construction.
MLB maintains and increases revenues in one of most lucrative TV and sports markets in USA SF Bay Area.
There are viable stadium sites available in Santa Clara County Silicon Valley for the A’s new stadium.
They A’s and Giants Ownership ‘SIGN ON” to NEW MLB REALITY IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF BASEBALL
OR BE FORCED TO SELL THEIR FRANCISES TO NEW, LOCAL SF BAY AREA WELL FUNDINED OWNERSHIP GROUPS(TRILLIONS IN WEALTH IN SF BAY AREA). There is NO SHORTAGE QUALIFIED & WELL FUNDED who would buy and keep their MLB franchises in SF Bay Area IF NECESSARY).
Read that two separate Buyers approached the A’s with deals to keep the A’s in the SF Bay Area and were rebuffed during this current situation with Oakland and Las Vegas.
If Las Vegas wants an MLB franchise, then it should get in line and compete with other cities seeking MLB expansion franchises.
The A’s should stay in the SF Bay Area.
It may not be in Oakland.
It would, more likely, be in Silicon Valley/Santa Clara County.
.
Washington got a franchise to appease the politicians that control the sport and keep them happy. It didn’t matter the size of the market, or what it would do to the Baltimore franchise. Now that sports gambling has become legal, Las Vegas will get a franchise to appease the big money of betting, regardless of what it may do to the Oakland franchise. This never had anything to do with market size. It has to do with appeasing the people MLB has to keep appeased.
This is the correct take. And because of the need to appease, MLB won’t look too closely at what might be going on under the surface.
Sportsfan0000 – My guess is you’re an A’s fan?
The basic economics and finances of a Las Vegas deal does not work
either short term or long term for most astute businesspersons.
The Raiders are not drawing as well as projected in Vegas.
LV Raiders are ranked 30th in attendance out of 32 NFL teams in ’22.
The A’s will not draw as well in Las Vegas as they would draw in Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley.
The big money is in Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley, NOT Las Vegas.
Right! They should have hired Some Guy on the Internet to make these decisions!
The A’s are a storied franchise that have fans all over the country and the World.
Many of baseball’s innovations came from legendary former Owner Charlie Finley’s A’s including:
colorful uniforms,
marketing & promos at games for “family experience”
ball persons on sidelines
the designated hitter (and runner)
“3 ball walk”
Interleague play and geographic re alignment
night baseball games that lead to huge TV contracts and the explosion of T V revenues
night games for the playoffs and World Series
The “Pitch Clock” (just adopted was proposed by A’s Owner Charlie Finley decades ago)
And much more.
The A’s were also the at the epicenter of free agency for players
as many of its colorful, feisty players tested baseball’s reserve clause and pushed for free agency.
So, moving such a storied franchise to Las Vegas is kind of like
moving the Yankees to the Carolinas or New Jersey.
It unravels so much rich history and is contrary to the tradition of the game.
theringer.com/mlb/2023/3/29/23661015/the-forgotten…
Despite those mixed minor league results, the pitch clock briefly made the majors in 1965, courtesy of A’s owner Charlie Finley, a relentless promoter, experimenter, and spiritual predecessor of the Savannah Bananas. Finley announced in April ’65 that he’d install a pitch clock devised by Dumont at Municipal Stadium for a weekend series against the Yankees. He made good on his promise, and though the clock was only for show—its buzzer was silenced, and no penalties were applied—it identified a total of 33 violations in the last two games of its three-contest trial.
It should have ALWAYS been an easy move to San Jose for the A’s, with the single-A (useless development league) SJ Giants moving to Oakland in place of the A’s. Easiest swap imaginable yet got it destroyed by failson moron nimbys for 25 years. Total lunacy.
The “San Francisco” 49ers play a mere 10 minute drive from the “San Jose” Sharks. San Francisco is like 90 minute drive from San Jose including traffic. So which is it?
San Jose should be a 4 sport city: NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA. Its a pure fact and the only reason why they dont have all 4 yet are absolutely unacceptable levels of corruption.
San Jose City has over 1M people (more than Oakland 440K? , more than SF(670K). Greater San Jose Area has over 2M.
And, HQ to some of the richest tech companies in the World
with total company valuations well over 1 Trillion dollars.
Did someone say “Endorsemente deals” or “Naming rights”.
And, Santa Clara County/Silicon Valley is loaded with very high paid tech professionals who would sell out A’s games and spend big money supporting the A’s. It is a “no brainer”.
A’s new stadium should be in Santa Clara County /Silicon Valley.
Las Vegas is a slum compared to the cash being made in Silicon Valley/Santa Clara County.
Manfred loves the precedent of public money going into private pockets. He’s aware of the deliberate destruction of a storied franchise, with ownership essentially trying to sell down to the fixtures (cash and carry, all sales final). He’s got to be hearing it from some of the rest of the owners about subsiding this degree of non-competitiveness. And, let’s face it, there are gigantic firehoses of money that come from gambling, and the owner have their pails out. This will all lead to scandal at some point, but for now, Manfred sees an all-you-can-eat buffet with an open bar.
Manfred’s bosses, the owners of MLB, like this precedent. Which can’t exactly be called a precedent if it’s been going for decades as it has — and not just in baseball.
“Socialist” California won’t redistribute enough taxpayer money to please the billionaire owners but “capitalist” Nevada gladly will.
But, I guess, buying stadiums for baseball teams is the good red blooded American version of socialism? Not like that commie buying food for poor people version of socialism, which is bad, right?
Socialist California Really!?
California is the Capitol of American Capitalism.
California is passing Germany as the 4th largest, 4th richest (GNP) capitalistic economy in the entire World when that State is compared to Countries.
Me thinks you should stick to the facts and leave partisan biases out of it.
Wow! I know this has been up a while but it hasn’t been said. It really needed to be said.
Now Manfred & the MLB Billionaire Owners Club are also extorting the Wisconsin Taxpayers for $400+ million for “stadium upgrades” by threatening to move the Brewers. A team that’s routinely in the top 10-15 in MLB home attendance, fan cost to attend a game, and annually receives millions of dollars in MLB revenue sharing (corporate welfare). The owner is also in the top 10 of MLB owners regarding personal net worth! That’s a great grift. All you really need to know is Attanasio also happens to be a disciple of Michael Millkin.
This is a perfect example of what’s wrong with American professional sports.
Don’t make fun of Nats being given a third team before other cities got first team. Nats attendance per home game in a clearly rebuilding year is 18th out of 30. Better than Twins and O’s which are very competitive this year.