A’s officials will visit Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City this week, reports Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That’s another stadium under consideration as the organization tries to identify a temporary home park for the 2025-27 campaigns.
John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Monday that the A’s were also looking at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park. Akers reports that A’s owner John Fisher and president Dave Kaval were among a team contingent to tour the Sacramento facility today.
The A’s have yet to begin construction on their 33,000-seat stadium in Vegas. That project isn’t expected to be ready until the 2028 season. The franchise’s lease at Oakland’s Coliseum expires at the end of next year. That leaves them considering a number of options for the intervening trio of seasons.
Others known to be under consideration are a short-term lease extension in Oakland, sharing San Francisco’s Oracle Park with the Giants, and playing at the Summerlin, Nevada facility of their Triple-A affiliate. Akers adds one other possible venue: Greater Nevada Field in Reno.
None of those are perfect options. Splitting Oracle Park could leave logistical issues for MLB as it schedules A’s and Giants games. An extension at the Coliseum would require approval from Oakland officials. That’s hard to envision given the fractured relationship between the outgoing team and its longtime home. The other facilities are minor league stadiums.
Smith’s Ballpark is the home of the Angels’ top farm team, the Bees. Opened in 1994, it has a capacity of roughly 14,500. Greater Nevada Field is home of the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A club, the Aces. It holds a little more than 9,500 people. It’s a fairly new facility, having opened in 2009.
A group in Salt Lake City has angled to add an expansion franchise to Utah’s capital in the future. If they get the opportunity to host the A’s for a few seasons, that could aid in their efforts to land a permanent team down the line.
Good!! Oakland has had years to get a stadium built. First the raiders and now the A’s. All politics in that city.
No responsibility for the owner to get the stadium built? Cool.
Sacramento already has A’s fans and would be a great location.
Hopefully, Salt Lake City is just leverage to get a better deal in Sacramento.
you don’t seem to grasp that A’s fans don’t want to give fisher their money
The Giants already said no to them playing in Oracle park. What makes you think they want them playing in their AAA team’s ballpark and messing up the schedule and training for the Giants AAA team. You know, the guys that would be called up to fill spots on the Giants.
Salt Lake City is the home of the Bees, the Angels farm team. They are moving into a brand new 7500 seat stadium in South Jordan after the 2024 season.
Not sure the Angels would be very happy about a division rival playing in their AAA team’s ballpark.
Maybe they could play in the old Smith’s Stadium that the Bees are vacating. That would be one of the largest parks in the minors, so a better option than Sacramento or Las Vegas in terms of potential attendance. It would take a huge amount of money to bring it up to MLB standards. The Bees are building the new stadium in South Jordan because the city of Salt Lake would not make the improvements to the ballpark as it was, With no other tenant after the A’s leave, would the city be willing to pay $20 million or so to bring it up to MLB standards? Would Fisher come up with the money to do that to play there for 3 seasons?
Also not sure how well the Larry H. Miller Co. would take MLB moving a team into Salt Lake to compete with them for attendance. That might be a fight. They do own the market.
Well, it is the Giants fault in the first place that all this is happening by blocking their move to San Jose 15 years ago.
The previous Giants ownership, yes. That doesn’t mean the new ownership will allow the A’s to play in Oracle Park.
There’s only about $1.49 in loose change in the entire city of Oakland.
you don’t seem to grasp that A’s fans don’t want to give fisher their money
============================
I find this more funny as I get older. If I don’t go to the local hardware store, and it closes, I can’t blame anyone but myself. They aren’t staying open just to make my life easier.
You do realize that Gail Miller, Larry H. Miller’s widow, heads the group of investors interested in bringing an MLB team to Utah, correct?
A hardware store owner or franchisee refuses to stock quality items and goes out of his way to source hardware tools from shady traders or doesn’t invest or pay his employees well enough, or sometimes doesn’t actively promote or advertise his store well enough…. well, he has no one to blame but himself either.
You’ve said in the past that you’re a Red Sox fan and Raiders fan somehow living in Las Vegas, JoeBrady, and you seem to really want a Vegas MLB team for some reason. Maybe it is politics at this point over baseball for you.
Nobody owns the Salt Lake market right now. MLB won’t expand until after the A’s complete their move (and the Rays find a new place to play), anyway.
JoeBrady,
If your local hardware store carries off-brand tools and charges DeWalt and Milwaukee prices, whose fault is it if it closes? They have to have a product people want at prices customers are willing to pay.
Median household income Oakland – $94,389
census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/oaklandcitycalifo…
What is it in the city you live in?
Take a look at the article in Salt Lake Tribune and Desert News about the push to bring a MLB team to Salt Lake.
Gail Miller is part of that effort and her late husband’s company owns the Salt Lake Bees and are not likely to ok MLB bringing in a team that would compete for their fans ticket dollars.
Now if they somehow cut the Miller’s in on that money, they might be willing to let the A’s play in the Salt Lake area, but they very much do own the market. MiLB is now part of MLB.
An even bigger question is whether Fisher would be willing to fork over $20 million or so that would be necessary to bring that ballpark up to MLB standards,
Classic use of a bad stat
The only reason Gail Miller would have the power to block the move is due to having rights to the stadium itself, not because she has MLB rights for the entire Salt Lake metro area.
A minor league market is not the same thing as a Major League market, otherwise MLB would have huge trouble trying to expand or move a team to any city with a minor league team, which is practically all of them without an existing Major League team at this point.
Sacramento said that Fisher and the A’s have never even approached them about the possibility of playing there.
msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/a-s-haven-t-contacted-ren…
READ the articles about the push to bring MLB to Salt Lake in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News. A quick Google search will bring up a dozen or more. ALL of them say that MLB needs the Bees permission to move an MLB team there.
Of course she is FOR that as she is leading the push for it. That doesn’t mean that they would not have to get her ok to move the A’s there temporarily and that would take compensation.
Classic inane comment.
Exactly, pure politics.
The free market absolutists in Oakland didn’t see the value in investing large amounts of taxpayer money into a baseball stadium for a private business, but socialist Las Vegas sure did and reaped the rewards.
Stop it, they’re socialists in Vegas because they took the A’s? That’s the very definition of not what a socialist would do. That’s an open market economy taking the A’s to Vegas. Turn off the Fox news & pick up a dictionary.
Agreed. I have no idea what 66 was even talking about. Has he ever read a book on socialism?
No ro-macen he need to improve your reasoning. A child can tell you public funding for stadiums is a form of socialism. Socialism for wealthy sports teams owners is still socialism. The city benefits from keeping the team through the terms of the lease.
I don’t agree with it but it’s definitely socialist policies. You can’t take public funds and call it free market capitalism
That’s hardly reflective of Fox News, and you won’t find a Free Market advocate anywhere in MLB; corporations allied with government and their subsidies is nothing more than welfare for suits.
How is the government spending $380m in taxpayer money to lure the A’s an example of “free market,” LOL?
@WhoNoze, MLB plays in the Corporate Oligarchy that is America. So not sure how a free market is relevant….
Exactly all professional sports facilites should be funded privately as they are for profit BUSSINESSES.
You can’t take public funds and call it free market capitalism
=================================
It depends on the payback. Just to keep it simple, if I build a stadium for $500M, and over its useful life, I make a 5% return, it isn’t socialism. It’s an investment.
Whether it is a good investment or not usually depends on who is telling the story.
How is the government spending $380m in taxpayer money
==========================
1-They were bidding against Oakland to acquire a team.
2-At the end of the day, is the government really spending $380M? Any money they lay out has to reflect the amount they are recouping via taxes. And that is a much complicated story, that usually depends on the story teller.
“A child can tell you public funding for stadiums is a form of socialism”
They sure can! Because children are stupid and, like you, have no understanding of socialism
Can you find a single time that a state made money in taxes from a sports team being there?
The immediate area around the sports complex makes money. The state or even city as a whole does not see an increase in tax revenue. Never.
All that happens is tax revenue is transferred from one area to another.
Why? People in your state or city won’t be making more money just because a stadium is built there. They will still have the same amount of money to spend which will generate the exact same tax revenue it used to. The ONLY difference is where that money is spent and where the tax revenue is earned by the state. The amount of tax revenue in total will be the same.
Ummm, investment doesn’t involve the funds being forcibly extracted from the investor who gets no say in how they, or the proceeds, are spent. Enjoy watching the money get shipped back to California, I’m sure taxing the new hot dog vendors will make up for the stadium cost.
There seems to be pretty strong consensus among actual economists that they are generally not good investments for cities. If they were, wouldn’t the owners always want to build it themselves?
Yes they are spending $380m. That’s $380m they can’t spend on anything else. And it was based on ridiculous projections an A’s economist presented to them whereby they basically sell out every game for 30 years.
“Recouping it through taxes is somebody else’s problem way down the line,” is basically the thought process. By your logic all govt spending should be approved because it’ll all be recouped eventually.
Spending $380M in public funds on a private stadium is corporate welfare.
@Pads So you’re saying the business’s such as restaurants ,hotels ,bars are not NOT reaping the benefits of Petco Park being there during the 81 games that played there every year?
Please explain.
@66 I’m not one for tax funded stadiums, but if there is any city I’d support doing so it would be Vegas. Vegas was built on gambling which is fueled by tourism. Any attractions to keep drawing people to the strip fuels Vegas’s economy.
That’s the way I see it. I’d go there for RS since I like LV anyway. And there are good reasons for cities to invest in certain areas, such as Yankee Stadium in The Bronx.
The Raiders are among the lowest percentage in the NFL in tickets sold outside of state. Tourist revenue is not increasing because of the Raiders. In fact, Mark Davis has said that they are bringing in as much revenue from other events held in Allegiant Stadium as they are from Raiders games.
Because they were having trouble getting people to visit and no other privately-owned casinos were going to open?
I think you just actually made a great argument for why that’s the one city that shouldn’t pay for a stadium. Instead the dropped over a billion on 2.
The public investment was to be for infrastructure such as roads to get to the privately built stadium.
Crawl away troll
What also had was local poloticians believing they could force a privately held team/biz to do anything they wanted, as many politicians will lie (or force) any smallish company to their will and it does not work.
I remember well when Boston left winter haven as it’s long time ST site.. Local loudmouth politicans, such as a gent named Carl Cheatham at that time in the late 80’s thought they could force a team/company to stay.. Cheatham’s words were big city slickers, what politicians do is get used to having power, then able to lie at will to anyone and force them to knuckle under.
Boston had 2y left on it’s lease with WH, but winter haven (city) decidd to stop many improvements to the what was then superb minor league complex, even not taking care of the turf on the 3 Milb fields correctly. Boston, seeing it as an “out” just waltzed down to Ft Myers, got a nicer main (and new) stadium while Cheatham and co. spent years blaming Sox ownership for their own failings.
Point is.. City of oakland had not expected the A’s to remain in 2nd worst stadium in the league? This fiasco probably never happens and my blame, from watching what a small city tried to force on a hugely popular team, which brought NE locals to town by the 1k’s every spring?
Ignore much of what lying politicians will say. They are aware short term placeholders and just enjoy the power they believe they hold, imagined or not.
A politician overstepping his authority is as sure as a human breathing air…. They can’t help themselves, and they always feel that their beliefs are better, which is why any authoritarian-style gov system will never, ever work.
That said, the situation in OAK seems very convoluted (at least to me), but the result is bad for everyone, imho.
To me, it is very simple. If Oakland fans will support a team, and if the city of Oakland is as supportive as they claim to be, there will a new team in Oakland tomorrow.
One can make the same claim for every business in every industry. If someone can make money by having a falafel truck in the South Bronx, then there will be a falafel truck in the South Bronx.
I doubt that the “Oakland fans” or the city are going to spend a dime on a new team, so this won’t happen, but if the revenue stream is there, it is almost a guarantee that the investment will follow.
Joe, I don’t think it’s quite as simple as that. MLB has a monopoly, and that has to be overcome before any city gets a team. MLB wants shiny new toys, so it’s going to favor cities like Nashville over Oakland.
Joe, the city APPROVED a new ballpark as part of a $12 billion development in Oakland.
Fisher asked for $600 million more in taxpayer funds just a couple weeks before his exclusive rights expired. He knew full well that California law required the city to hold public meetings and another vote by the city council that would take at a minimum 3 months and typically 6 or more months.
The facts are that Fisher scuttled that deal in Oakland because he couldn’t get financing to build the park or to build the development. Just like he has been unable to secure financing to build in LAs Vegas yet.
This was not the first time he pulled this BS. The city of Oakland sold him 50% of the Coliseum site at far below market rate with the understanding that he would build a new stadium there. He backed out at the last minute, but still owns that 50% interest in the Coliseum site.
He did the same in Fremont where they were in the final stages of negotiations with just minor details to knock out when he backed out.
What are you talking about? Do you think the fans and the cities have this much power? They’re not just creating new teams everyday.
John Fisher is, pretty objectively, a terrible person, businessman, team owner and steward for the game, and yet MLB continues to stand by him. Because the people who run the game will literally run a team into the ground before upsetting a member of the club. They know the money will always be there in the long run. This isn’t about setting up the most perfect league possible.
The most important part of this story is that the next chat can have a legit question about Bees.
GOB’s not on board…
It’s an illusion!
With the number of fans they’re going to have, they could just play at any high school field.
I was honestly thinking something similar. How many fans do they truly expect in Salt Lake City? I imagine it is a very low number, unless the prices are so low it becomes a casual family outing.
This seems like a disastrous plan for the A’s and MLB. But it reflects how little the org cares about its fanbase, and how unimportant fan attendance is to them.
2023 attendance;
SLC Bees 443,000
Oakland A’s 832,000.
(Per ESPN.com)
They should just barnstorm around.
I’m sure the players would just love that (sarcasm)
MC, a barnstorming professional team would be awesome! Let’s start a league!!?? I’ll handle sponsors.
*SLC Played 6 less home games than the A’s
Right?
I think that’d be a great path to boosting attendance.
The poor players though.
Aside from the unfair aspect to the barnstorming players…It certainly could grow interest in the game from new and far away places
Cool.
Who’s the commissioner?
We are brainstorming for barnstormers here.
Dig the user name Trumbo.
In honor of Mark I presume?
Man I miss his laser bomb HR’s…beautiful
Lol Yes MC. I miss him too. I feel like he retired before his time. I saw him when he was a young buck at the big A, hitting 123mph lean-ya’s into the left field bleachers. I was a few rows behind the Halo dugout and could feel the wind coming off the ball lol
The A’s should just play ALL their games on the road from 2025 to 2028.
P.S. Thanks for the kind words MC!
You mean like they show up to a county fair and challenge the local beer league team?
Precisely!
I still laugh when sportscasters say New York “football” Giants. The baseball Giants moved in 1958. There were also baseball and football Cardinals for awhile in St. Louis.
@trumbo
What kind of food is that in your profile picture?
All road games is an interesting idea, but it would provide an slight unfair advantage to the other AL West teams in the AL Wild Card Race, as they’d get a few more home games than the other AL teams due to playing the A’s more often.
Totino’s Pizza Rolls!
Oh man, talk about burning your tongue with boiling hot pizza sauce. Personally I’m partial to “Bagel Bites”, mainly because if you put pizza on a bagel you can eat pizza anytime!
Yeah average fans always overrate in-person attendance. A team like the A’s makes more money getting people not to show up.
No matter where they play those three years, it will be an attendance disaster and not much worse than what they draw now in Oakland. They just need to find somewhere in a nearby area to ride out the transitional period until the new stadium in Las Vegas is ready.
Locals will be excited I’m sure and away fans would probably like to check out a unique venue. But if they play in Salt Lake where will Jo Adell go when the Angels send him to AAA?
James, let the A’s borrow him?
Utah is the beehive state
Beer sales going to suck!
At some point Manfred is going to have to admit fault and force John Fisher to sell. This debacle is an embarrassment to the sport of baseball. Next we’ll how the A’s will just spend 162 games on the road for four seasons…or five…or six…they still do not have plans for a ballpark because they can’t even get the land to build ANYTHING.
@ Zachary what fault did Manfred commit? The A’s played by the rules. They tried to get a deal done with the City of Oakland. It never came to fruition. He exhausted all avenues. The A’s checked off all the box’s and got the ok to relocate He struck a deal with Vegas. The relocation committee didn’t see any issue with it.
Oakland has lost 3 professional teams. Why? Inept Politicians running the City of Oakland? Why is it a embrassement to MLB?
They don’t have plans for a ballpark because they can’t get the land?
They have land. Its at the corner of the Las Vegas Strip and Tropicana.
Jeez…this better be John Fisher’s burner account, because this is honestly hilarious. They exhausted all avenues? The “lost three teams” line is always a dead giveaway you’re somebody who hasn’t actually followed any of this?
@Daddy
Warriors to SF
Raiders to Las Vegas
A’s to Vegas
total =3
Winslow, the A’s don’t have land in Las Vegas. Fisher has not even started negotiations on a lease with the new Stadium Authority. He doesn’t have financing to build a new stadium. He doesn’t have any taxpayer dollars in his pocket yet. He doesn’t even have renderings of the new ballpark he wants to build.
@ Pads He does have renderings of the ballpark. They were released May 28th last year.. Use Google it’s your friend
He has $380Milion in public funding The NV Governor signed the funding bill.
Nope. No renderings that have been released publicly.
cbssports.com/mlb/news/deadline-passes-for-as-stad…
You really should have used your own advice and Google’d it.
Ahh yes there are renderings
archpaper.com/2023/05/oakland-as-reveal-renderings…
I wouldn’t made the comment if I hadn’t seen them myself
No. There are not. READ the article I linked to, not one from MAY of last year.
They are not? Then what is it a rendering of that you saw?
READ THE F’ING ARTICLE. OR STFU. No time for morons today.
There are NO renderings yet
twitter.com/OakStadiumWatch/status/175024290527568…
Even FISHER says so.
Fischer is leveraging two cities against Oakland? He can’t wait to take the team to Vegas, he has to leave for salt lake before that.
Damn, baseball owners love playing the role of evil villain every chance they get.
Here comes responses to my comment sticking up for the owners from accounts with generic usernames like baseballteam
**crickets**
Just like a Rays game in St. Petersburg
Stros: Unfortunately, we know Fisher couldn’t care less. His primary goal is to siphon as much money from taxpayer dollars as possible in order to pay for his new playground, and he doesn’t care how he has to do it.
He should be booted from the ownership group. He epitomizes everything wrong with MLB team ownership.
He’s like the anti-Peter Siedler.
This is embarrassing. It’s amateur hour at MLB. Manfred is a total clown for allowing this to happen. I blame other owners as well… they could put a stop to this.
I agree with the idea that the owners should have pushed to force Fisher to sell. He’s a blight of an owner.
bpskelly, Thanks for saying what we are all obviously thinking!
If they A’s played in a different city would they professionally called the ____ A’s or still Oakland A’s kinda like Los Angeles angels really play in Anaheim?
They will be called the Las Vegas A’s, or Sacramento A’s, or whatever. I guarantee it will be a part of the new stadium agreement with whichever city they end up in.
They’ve been the A’s in 3 cities. Philadelphia Kansas City and Oakland
They are just a quadruple A baseball team best case talent wise, so them keeping it makes perfect sense now.
Tony-the Angels and Dodgers play in the same region.
Although the Angels play in Orange County. They share the same TV and Radio Market.
Which is why Angels owner Arte Moreno renamed the Angels from Anaheim Angels to LA Angels. Strictly marketing strategy = higher revenue.
I have a 20 acre wheat field where we couild throw up a few bleachers.
In Iowa?
They could use Shoeless Joe Jackson for sure! Heck, they could probably benefit from Kevin Costner at this stage.
It was YOU!
No please John Fisher doesn’t deserve a Field of Dreams lol
IMO…They should go to Montreal for the 3 years – and be the Expos – A’s. There’s already a stadium and they’d sell millions of retro jerseys before they move to Vegas. Players would love it, Montreal is great city.
Or you could shorten it to….the Ex-A’s!
LOL….perfect name Ex-A’s
Not a big change from the A’s to the Aces, but the Las Vegas WNBA team already has that name.
At one time there were 2 NY Giants teams – NL & NFL. Stranger things have happened but then this is Fisher’s problem.
Great City with a decaying dump of a ballpark
At this point, they’re going to be playing in an independent league park.
An Independent League park is too pricey for John Fisher, he’s looking for the best sandlot available.
Nashville have anything they can use to prime the pump for expansion?
It is still there! Jays have played a couple exhibition games there every spring training before season starts. Montreal wants a team back…..they’d fill the place with 40,000 every night.
Yes, Nashville has collegiate and minor league stadiums.
Fresno !!!
“The Armpit of California”
I have been expressing for a few years of having Salt Lake as an expansion team. I believe it will increase the sport in the north western part of the us. It’s a rapidly growing market and mlb should add 2 west coast expansions. Salt Lake and Portland would be two teams I’d love to see franchise into the MLB. If Oakland can experiment with Salt Lake, I believe Salt Lake could seal the deal for an expansion IF they draw a large enough crowd. I believe the minimum MLB seating of fans is 9,500 give or take a few hundred. I remember seeing something like that when Blue Jays remodeled the Buffalo Bisons park during Covid and after the ban was lifted, to play in it. Canada took nearly 2 years after Covid to open up the borders again. So they put extra seating to meet the requirements by MLB. Salt Lake could do some amazing things in the sport if done right.
Why do people think MLB cares that much about in-person attendance? They mostly focus on markets and TV deals, etc.
F John Fisher
What the F short for Frances?
Elon Musk should buy the A’s and build a stadium in San Jose.
Bring on the lawsuits Giants!!!
He would use robots instead of players. Then again, they can’t get much worse.
Why? So, he can lose another billion dollars in a foolish business transaction? Can’t wait till he opens his mouth and they lose all sponsors.
Portland Beavers Stadium
There isn’t one. They tore it down to build the MLS stadium there.
Send the Aces to Tucson for a few years and the A’s can be the Reno A’s.
If they’re going to be without a home, Fisher should just buy a boat and build a field on it.
A floating stadium sounds good to me.
Wait! There it is!
Barnstorming on a floating cruising stadium?
Brilliant
SLC should never get an expansion franchise. The air is garbage and only gets worse because they keep spitting in the face of the environment they live in. It’s a garbage destination.
But, they will get a franchise. Because they will make taxpayers pay for some god awful water waste in the desert like Nevada did for the As. Heaven forbid a 3 billion public bond go towards public good.
The Mormon church should pay for it from their multi-billion investment fund. Which is definitely used for weird creepy stuff because Mormons are weird creepy perverts that don’t belong in normal society.
A point for Salt Lake is that the Bees are playing their last season in that stadium in 2024.
The A’s would have the stadium to themselves unlike all the other options. (Except Oakland of course, which is what I suppose happens in the end anyway?)
The Utes still playing there?
Capacity of 14,500 in a AAA stadium for A’s games. They’re going to need to tarp off sections, again, to make it cozy to fit their 3000 nightly attendance from the $3 beers.
SLC is baseball crazy, they’ll draw better there less alcohol sales.
SLC is the obvious choice. They’re baseball hungry and have already outdrawn the A’s. They’ll support them for 2 seasons, draw close to a million fans per year and move up the list for an expansion team. Seems pretty obvious to me.
Unlikely MLB is going to be too keen on the A’s playing three seasons (at least) at a high elevation AAA launching pad. Odds are still good an extension is signed with Oakland
Orlando?
Is it cheaper for the city of Oakland to have an empty Coliseum than it is to have the A’s play there? If not, whoever is unwilling to extend the lease needs to be fired.
The Coliseum Authority has said they are currently losing close to $6 million per year on the A’s lease.
If the A’s were willing to make it at last break even for the city, I would think they would be willing to extend the lease. As it is, no reason to do that.
Who cares whether it helps with city’s cash flow. Letting the wife and her new boyfriend live in the house might help with the mortgage, but it’s probably worth it to kick her cheating heart out.
Can’t argue with that. I would probably kick her cheating heart out too.
It’s probably getting bulldozed anyway, so the sooner the city does it and sells the property to rea; estate investors the better.
The city of Oakland already sold it.
1/2 interest to the A’s for far below market value at $45 million and the other half to AASEG, a local group.
aasegoakland.com/
The ballpark is already in decay. To not extend the lease until the move would be utter lunacy on Oaktown officials.
BECAUSE the Coliseum is in decay it costs more to hold games there than the A’s are paying under their current lease. The Coliseum Authority said that to be profitable for the city, the A’s would need to pay upwards of $7 million per season.
What would be utter lunacy is for the city of Oakland to lose close to $6 million per season just to allow them to continue playing there when they know they are leaving in a few years. Don’t see that happening.
Nice explanation
How bout on a boat in the bay, that way Frisco and San josies can share
First, I don’t like John Fisher, and I think he’s handled this horribly. However after watching alot of Brodie Brazil’s stuff, I’m firmly convinced more & more something happened behind the scenes, that forced Fisher’s hand to do this. None of the media (including Brazil) has held public officials up to any accountability for how they’ve lost all of the sports teams so rapidly, and the Helen Lovejoy “won’t someone please think of the children” routine gets old. This stadium should’ve been built 20 years ago. They got more leash than most teams would, especially after having two previous homes. It’s time. Oakland wants to invest in hospitals, schools & infrastructure… that’s cool… Fisher’s rolling the dice in Vegas. Bye Felicia.
The thing that happened behind the scenes is that the land underneath which the A’s play became primer and primer real estate, and the A’s themselves own 50% stake in the land.
Fisher refused to build on that land that the city sold him 50% interest in for far under market value.
Fisher was supposed to have financing for a new ballpark and a binding agreement by January 15th to continue to receive revenue sharing. He has neither.
MLB supposedly gave him an extension.
He doesn’t have any of the $380 million in taxpayer money yet from the state of Nevada or Clark county either because to get those he has to show he has financing in place to actually build the ballpark.
He doesn’t have a LEASE in place with the Nevada Stadium Authority for the ballpark. He has no place to build yet!!
He doesn’t even have renderings of the ballpark. The latest rumors are that what was once supposed to be a retractable roof ballpark is now going to be a fixed roof stadium because the piece of land he was going to build on is too small for a retractable roof.
The Tropicana demolition that would have to be the first thing that would happen for construction to happen at the site has not been scheduled. You can still book a room there through Mid-October.
This would not the first time Fisher has been this close to having a new ballpark built and then backed out In fact, it would be the third. Two in Oakland and then in Las Vegas if he can’t get financing.
I am not sure that the A’s move will ever happen. I give it a 50/50 chance at this point.
Mlb has approved the move, so I think even if they force fisher to sell then they’ll have a new owner get them to Vegas. All of the other teams would be fine with a team in Vegas, if they get a cut of the betting revenue having a team in Vegas could bring.
Or they will have a new owner that will keep them in Oakland since they have an approved ballpark location and $12 billion development.
That is what Joe Lacob offered to do.
A’s should play a few home series in Montreal, Japan, Puerto Rico, Mexico and somewhere in Europe. Make them play some games for the kids at the Little League World Series. It’s the only way anyone is going to care where they play.
All of those games would need to be scheduled against good opponents to grow the world’s interest cause the A’s are awful.
Unfortunately Candlestick was demolished years ago…
Why? Players and fans hated it there. The F’n wind blowing off the bay Mmmmmm sign me up.
The fact they had no plans is hilarious. You had decades of complaining about the coliseum to figure something out and here you are…no stadium lease anywhere. Great job, John Fisher
Should never have moved them out of Philadelphia. Move them back and let them play in Citizen Bank Park.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just stay at their spring complex? It’s not like anyone wants to watch them anyway.
Its in Arizona. If the MLBPA would not approve them playing in Las Vegas in the summer, I doubt they would approve them playing in Arizona.
Play in a stadium in the desert in the summer with no roof and AC? Even at night that’s asking too much. The MLBPA might push back on that.
The MLBPA already said no to playing in the Las Vegas AAA ballpark. That is why the A’s are looking for other options. They would not approve playing in Phoenix.
They shouldn’t approve any AAA ball park. This isn’t a covi pandemic anymore haha
Salt Lake City is a better option than Las Vegas.
In what ways? None…
The issue is the ownership of the faltering As. This group is going to fail at building a stadium anywhere.
They can’t solidify a stadium even on free land in Vegas. They can’t discover how to locate 2 billion to get it completed.
Because SLC and Vegas are similarly sized markets, but SLC only has 1 other major league franchise, while Vegas already has 2 and is almost certain to get another as soon as the NBA signs a new TV deal.
SLC as a 2 sport town is better than Vegas as a 4 sport town.
The NHL is likely to move to salt lake too, but it’s probably years off unless the coyotes get moved
Boy, bring em in to Salt Lake! They can be the Utah Polygamists for a few years. The players probably will appreciate the extra help around the house! Maybe they can trade for Wander Franco then, he’ll be on all the city billboards instead of in jail.
I was thinking the SLC Sister Wives as a sexy mascot.
Not 1/2 bad Bart..
Bring Pete Rose out of retirement and let him manage the team too.He’d be perfect fit in Vegas since he liked gamblin on his team 🙂
After the A’s begin to actually play in Vegas, if they are still losers how do you think it will take for Vito and his buddies to dump Fisher?
The other owners put language into the relocation agreement barring him from selling the team before 2034 or he pays out the equivalent of the relocation fee they waived (at least $500M).
Put the A’s in the Wall Drug Store parking lot.
The Las Vegas politicos have seemingly been fairly shrewd with the Raiders, Golden Knights and F1 hitting the town in the last few years. Fisher and the A’s seem to be more of a square peg/round hole fit there. Sacramento or Portland or Albuquerque or SLC or OKC are probably better outcomes long-term since the Giants somehow convinced MLB that San Jose is Giants territory. Whatever.
The Las Vegas deal is going to fall apart eventually because John Fisher has the same problem no matter where the franchise plays: John Fisher does not have the kind of money required to operate a major league, baseball franchise. The guy is a financial lightweight and no amount of wishful thinking by the people in major-league baseball and Las Vegas is going to change that. The solution to the athletics problem is for major league baseball to force John Fisher to sell the franchise today. I don’t understand what major league baseball keeps propping this guy up.
I agree. Not only does he seem broke, he is also running a disaster of an organization. They are going to fail every aspect of relocation and building a new stadium. I’m guessing they are looking at ways to locate a place to build a less expensive stadium.
Wouldn’t using a AAA present similar logistical issues as using Oracle Park as they’d have to schedule it around the AAA team’s schedule? (Although AAA plays less games.)
i wonder whereever they play before new park in Vegas is ready if they will still be referred to as Oakland or Las Vegas A’s
Out of lease, Fisher will drop the Oakland tag faster than a phone call.
Play in SLC, the ballpark has almost 15,000 cap it’s the second largest AAA park, will be vacant starting in 2025 when the AAA Bees move to their new park. Will give Big League Utah an opportunity to show case for their expansion bid.
Did the A’s forget they have a affiliate team in Stockton? Play there, morons.
Stockton Ports:
Affiliated with A’s, but not owned by Fisher. They’re also sponsoring the (fan-organized) FanFest the team didn’t bother doing this year, so it’s fair to say they don’t like him.
I’m sorry, the As have no idea what they are doing. It seems like everything they do is poorly planned. As a Nevada resident, I can see them falling right on their face. I was optimistic at first, now I’m convinced every step along the way will be a huge cluster.
People do understand that Oakland has bigger problems and better uses for it’s taxpayers dollars. They should have let them move to San Jose, but clearly the owners are greedy, the commissioner is greedy, and don’t mind eating crows if it’s financially beneficial. Go play one year in Sacramento, one in Utah (building inroads to a permanent MLB team), and have one last hoorah in the Coliseum. Once the A’s move to Nevada, the Giants lose their territorial rights over Santa Clara, there may be another team coming to the bay area.
They should play in Hiram Bithorn stadium in San Juan PR. They’d draw more fans than they do now.
Or, I think the Old Tiger Stadium is still standing. They could move there. The sewer system is probably better the OCo.
Or Montrael, as noted before.
May as well put an ad in the paper and see who has a stadium for low rent
I pictured Fisher circling ads in The Pennysaver
Gee why not consider Mexico City, Mexico if we’re just picking stadiums far away
They could play in Birmingham, AL at Rickwood Field, the oldest ballpark in America.
Per the SLC press, Fisher and his minions didn’t even bother to look at 15,000 seat Smith’s Ballpark when they visited, but were interested instead in the new Downtown Daybreak park scheduled to open in 2025. Capacity 7500.
Which tells you all you need to know about the quality of the team Fisher plans to field. Would somebody please give this guy a couple of billion so he will just go away?
I’m an A’s fan and hate Fisher as much as the next guy, but I don’t think what you’re saying here is accurate.
The A’s are planning to tour both Smith’s and Daybreak ballparks, and while neither is better than staying in Oakland (permanently) I would have to agree with them that Daybreak is the better choice.
Yes, Smith’s seats about 15k, but the company that owns the Daybreak development say they can expand to about 11k for MLB games. Also, the Daybreak park would be brand new (Smith’s would be 31 years old), and, since it just broke ground, they can add larger, fancier locker rooms. In Smith’s the A’s would likely have to use an AAA locker room or a temporary structure.
They also say they can build the ballpark as a true home for the A’s, with signage built for them.
Gail Miller of Larry H Miller companies owns the Bees and the South Jordan ballpark and the company spokesperson said that for a measily $17 million they can add 3000 seats and it would cost another $10 million to make the other changes to bring the facility up to MLB standards. Of course Fisher would have to fork that money right now because the ballpark is under construction that would have to be halted and designs changed.
They also said that the Angels have the final say in the A’s sharing the field because of the impact on their AAA players.
At Smith’s Ballpark there would be a similar amount of investment to bring the park up to MLB standards.
Joe Lacob offered to buy the team several times. The A’s are Fisher’s cash cow. He has no income without them. 80% of his net worth is the A’s and the Earthquakes.