Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle reports new details in the ongoing litigation taking place between Alameda County and the city of Oakland (link). To recap, Alameda County engaged in negotiations with both the city of Oakland and the Oakland A’s organization in an attempt to offload its share of the Oakland Coliseum and the Oakland Arena. With the stipulation that the city would pay upfront, Alameda County offered to sell its share of debt to Oakland for $78MM back in February–that offer was ignored on Oakland’s part.
Interestingly, though, the plot thickened from there: as Ravani characterizes it, that “snub” prompted Alameda officials to pivot to the Athletics, to whom they offered to sell their debt for $85MM. This time, however, the county would allow the A’s seven years to pay off the sum–with the very important caveat that the A’s would have to remain in Oakland. “The A’s were able to spread their terms out … whereas the county wanted us to pay it all up front,” Oakland Councilman Loren Taylor says in Ravani’s article, “From my perspective, we still need to have a conversation about the same terms that the A’s were given.”
The city and county are currently embroiled in a lawsuit intended to block the county from selling its stadium stake to the A’s, which has put something in a wrench in the team’s plans to develop a new stadium project. This state of affairs caused commissioner Rob Manfred to comment that he was “very concerned” at the litigation and the overall lack of “concrete progress” toward a new playing site for Oakland. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff later indicated to KTVU that Manfred has proposed the possibility of relocation to Las Vegas, with the Chronicle also relaying a similar suggestion on the part of Manfred.
“Vivvvaaaaaaa Las Vegas! Vivvvaaaaaa Las Vegas!!
Vivvvaaaaaaa!!
Vivvvaaaaaaa!!
LAS VEGASSSSSSSSS!!!” -The King
I’m all shook up
There are more than a few cities looking to secure an MLB franchise either through relocation or expansion. Oakland and Tampa are holding up any discussions of expansion until their stadium issues are resolved.
If I was the commissioner I would implement a deadline with both of these teams and their cities and then green light a relocation if that date is not met. Perhaps that will get the ball moving here and finally allow MLB to expand which could help solve a lot of issues going forward between the players and owners as the next CBA approaches in terms of increased revenue and jobs.
Expansion of two more teams to 32 would also balance out each league with 16 teams apiece, help solve scheduling issues that now require an interleague series be played twice a week and could also fix the postseason concern of the one-and-done wild card game.
The league wants a one and done playoff. Also, one of the great things about baseball is you have to be really good to make the playoffs. Personally, I think the league is already at its limit for how many teams can make the playoffs and still make it interesting and credible. The NBA playoffs are ridiculous and awful. The NFL is probably at its limit as well.
It has to do with politicians being paid off to stop the deal. There are a few land developers that want the site to build on. Who do they donate money to? Council members. The surprise was it came at the last possible moment when all the deals were falling into line. Does something sounds like there is motivation of paying off council members? YES
Politicians seem to make it very hard to get anything done.
Honestly, apply to move to Portland. They’ll treat this team with a lot more respect.
The A’s FANS totally respect the team and are avid supporters of the team despite their woefully small numbers (myself included). But I thoroughly get your point. Portland Beavers like in the old OCL?
Yes, the A’s fans do absolutely—I was referring to the city.
There were also tons of proposals to bring MLB to Portland. This would be the perfect team as they are already in the west division.
As is Las Vegas.
a’s fans do indeed support their team … BOTH OF THEM!!!!!!
Idiot alert
Avid? Hardly, Oakland is NOT an avid fan base. The attendance numbers don’t back up such a notion regardless of the stadium. They have sporadically supported winners but rarely attended in off years. Rockie/cardinals/cubs fans are avid not A’s fans.
The stadium is large and cavernous. When supply outweighs demand, fans can choose to show up and not have to buy season tickets or other ticket plans. Angel Stadium used to be the same way before they took out the outfield seats in 1997. That combined with other factors – traffic, cost of living in the Bay Area, and games on t.v. almost every night – reduces the urgency to get out to the park. A smaller park might reflect better on fan support. I haven’t been to that stadium since 1988, but I don’t remember there being a lot to do around the stadium where a venue in a place where fans can go before and after games might generate more interest.
Like your handle. #5 Brian Downing
You realize that after 15+ years of trying to relocate the team, trading away all of our players, and refusing to spend money, that fans decided to take a stand against ownership, right?
People can only donate so much money to one of the richest owners, without him returning the favor so many times.
With each stadium proposal we’re told that “once this stadium gets built, we’ll increase payroll and keep our players.” And then it never happens. So people get sick and tired of it, and stop showing up. When we make the playoffs we show up to support the players.
So once again, we’re told that this time, Chapman, Olsen, Davis, etc will be retained…. then oakland goes and sues the county. So here we go again
Would A’s fans still support the team if they moved 2 hours up the road to the state capital?
Like how Portland shows respect to police and conservatives? Should the team change their name to the Portland Antifas if they move there?
haha ^ he has a good point!!
I don’t understand how this relates to politicians in Portland. I get how in Oakland they are mot willing to negotiate but you can’t by any means say that’ll happen in Portland just because of more politically-related issues.
Because every negative issue coming out of the west coast relates to the politicians and a direct cause from them. This is just another.
Fact.
funny, you can 100 percent say the same for all the negative issues in places ran by politicians in the south as well (of course, you won’t since the derp south is full of morons like yourself)
Portland couldn’t even keep the Beavers. They kicked them out when the Timbers came to town and then the politicians declined the downtown stadium for them that would have torn down Memorial Coliseum. Mayor Sam Adams led that charge. So did Jump Town ever get built? LOL. I’m guessing that Memorial Coliseum is still standing and ready to host the Gift Fair in a month or so.
Portland also could have had the Penguins before their championships, could have played in the Rose Garden but the politicians bungled that one away too.
screw the conservatives
@scottcfa Congratulations. You win dumbest comment of the day.
Fake news
it’s all right wing nutjobs have (well that, and their sky daddy, both of which are just stuff people pulled out of their asses)
Sky daddy? Lol, you arrogant moron. You’re one heart beat away from finding out who made who.
No they won’t.
Portland gave the axe to Portland beavers a founding member of the pcl and directed their full support to soccer
Portland is also a giant hipster town and they only like what’s popular.
In their eyes that’s basketball and soccer.
This has failure written all over it. A’s to Vegas and the Rays to Montreal. Get it over with.
The Rays should stay in the south, give Montreal a expansion team.
Omg Portland loves the Timbers. Off point, I know.
Not a large enough market and lots of people there already watch Mariners games
Portland is the 22nd largest TV market. The only larger TV markets without a team is Orlando and Sacramento. Las Vegas has 350,000 less TV households.
Portland MSA has a quarter million more people than Las Vegas and 150,000 more than Sacramento.
It is a big enough market.
Portland already has a group that has purchased land and has private financing for a stadium in place. Other than Orlando and Sacramento, they are the largest TV market without a MLB team.
Portland averages the highest attendance in MLS Soccer.
The Beavers wanted a publicly financed stadium in a particular area and the city said no.
Too many rainouts in Portland. They don’t have a venue with a retractable roof like Seattle does, and it rains there through June.
And just as a matter of general principle, I don’t like the idea of money grubbing billionaires uprooting teams, otherwise MLB will get just as bad as the NFL. . Cities like Portland should start at the bottom with an expansion club.
Actually it rains there all year around. I was there in July and August this year. Rained. And more than a little.
MLB should mandate a retractable roof stadium be built when any new venue is being discussed, be it for an established team, one that relocates or an expansion franchise. How many cities in MLB don’t have an issue with weather during the season aside from those in southern California?
If MLB continues to begin its regular season in late March and conclude the World Series near November 1st this should be a priority.
Portland is just wonderful; would give Antifa plenty to violently protest. Las Vegas is a far better home for baseball. The Left Coast does not deserve the A’s.
Fake news
Seems as though the A’s would be better off running far, far away from the Bay Area.
Even if this situation gets resolved, these governments will likely continue to be thorns in the organizations side moving forward. After at least 20 years of uncertainty and chaos in the area, why stay anywhere even close to it?
The Giants ownership has really deep pockets. I’ve always wondered if the A’s approached them and said, hey, give us $100 or $200M that we’ll use to build another stadium in another city far away, if the Giants might bite on that.
It seems like a pretty novel approach to make both the A’s and Giants happy.
Alameda is the name of a city in Alameda County. This story is complicated enough without referring to Alameda when you are talking about Alameda County.
San Diego is a city within San Diego county. Los Angeles is a city within Los Angeles county. Anaheim is a city within Orange County.
Yes, and many other examples. The point being, if you are talking about the city you say the city, and when you’re talking about the county, you say the county, because (with only one exception) they are not the same thing.
The City is made an offer but doesn’t respond. So the County makes an offer to A’s who accept. The City then sues the A’s because they want to respond this time. Even though they don’t have the money to complete the deal. The latest example of how you go 20+ years trying to get a new stadium and are still at square one.
> The City then sues the A’s
The city is suing the county (because the city council is incompetent). No one is suing the A’s.
You would have a point if the offer to the city was similar to the offer made to the A’s. The city didn’t respond because it was a bad offer. $78M is a lot of cash to come up with in one lump sum. The differed payments offer they made to the A’s was much better. The city is saying, had the initial offer to them been as good as the one they made to the team, they would have taken it.
The city had a chance to make a counter offer, or at least enter negotiations showing they were interested and discussing how they could manage the costs
Instead they ignored it, showing no interest on their part.
If you do want something but make no effort to actually obtain it, or even express your interest in it at all, you can’t then after the fact whine and cry when someone else eventually gets a deal, even if said deal is better. Thats no one’s fault but yours.
Yeah they could have made a counter offer. They didn’t, but that shouldn’t be the end of their involvement. This is not like buying a car or house. It is their city after all, and what they’re doing is, in their view, what’s best for the city as a whole, not just A’s fans.
No, what they were doing was nothing until after the fact when they decided they could make more money if they tried to screw with other peoples deals.
It is very unlikely the County changed their offer when first contacting the A’s. What is more likely is the A’s said we want to accept but need it over a period of time, to which interest was added to it seems. That’s how deals are reached
If Oakland wanted such a deal themselves, they should have been involved in trying to get one. The city wasn’t interested at all, however, so they have no involvement. It is not other entities responsibility to check in on the uninterested city at each step when the city has already shown they just don’t care. The city is only reason the city is not involved
It absolutely should be the end of their involvement. The offer they were given had a deadline. They ignored the offer and the deadline passed. Alameda County then approached the A’s with a different offer and the A’s accepted. That should have been the end of it.
The land in question belongs to Alameda County, not the city of Oakland. They have no claim to it.
The city wasn’t offered an “installment plan” because it’s chronically low on money and poorly run, making it a huge risk to default on scheduled payments.
If you’re dealing with a buyer with bad credit, low assets and a lot of promises, your best option to protect yourself is to have them pay up front. That’s not “bad faith negotiations” but the City Council decided to try suing anyway.
While very true, that’s still merely assuming the county wouldn’t have allowed installment payment to the city though. Is there anything to say they definitely wouldn’t have if the city bothered to ask?
The A’s are paying nearly a 10% premium to spread those payments over 7 years. Had the city shown interest, I’m sure a similar increased cost over a time period agreement could have likely been made. The city just didn’t even show interest in trying to work something out
The A’s management has been working far too long on this and they keep getting stonewalled by Oakland City Officials. Time to follow Raiders to Vegas. You think loosing The Raiders would of woke up these idiots each with their own agenda.
No knock on any of the people who live in Oakland, or the city itself- but I can’t imagine how anyone lives there with the Officials who run that city. They seem totally inept at their jobs. They’re going to mess around, and they’re going to lose another sports team. That’s an amazing amount of incompetence considering it seemed they had everything all but wrapped up for the A’s to stay not long ago. I feel bad for the fans in Oakland.
Does anyone choose where to live based on the mayor and city council?
Have you ever been to Oakland? Been there recently? How can you make a judgement on a city based on one issue concerning a sports team?
Oakland had long been a troubled city. There was a lot of poverty with the associated crime. While not all the problems have been resolved, Oakland has turned itself around. Young people are leaving SF and moving to Oakland. Businesses are starting to thrive there and it’s on it’s way to becoming a very attractive place to live.
The city felt like they were being taken advantage of, and took steps for the benefit of the city. Just because you can’t understand the actions of the city government does not mean Oakland is not a good place to live. I don’t live there, but I am very familiar with the city. I would live there over dozens of other major U.S. cities.
No, never been. I’m honestly not much of a traveler, so likely never will. It’s great though that the city has overcome some of the issues you pointed out, and is turning around. Like I said, no knock on the city itself. However when one branch of government uses tax payer money to sue another branch of government, to me, that’s a bad look. I’ve also seen and heard plenty on how both the Raiders and A’s stadium negotiations have went on over the years, and they always have seemed a mess. I’d be disappointed to lose one pro team, and potentially another.
It’s not one branch suing another. It’s one municipal government suing another. That happens all the time. It’s similar to states suing the federal government, and the feds suing states. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s how government works, and always has been.
@tad2b13 young people are not leaving SF for Oakland because Oakland is becoming some Oasis. They are leaving SF because SF jobs are drying up a bit and young people can’t afford to live in SF on a salary under $100K, whereas it is possible in Oakland.
Don’t create a false narrative that Oakland is great by picking one set of data and creating a story.
Oakland is still a dump even though I love the A’s.
That is not a false narrative. It does have to do with real estate prices, but it’s also about Oakland becoming a fun, lively and somewhat hip place to live. There are plenty of places to live in the Bay Area that no one has to live in Oakland if it was bad place to live. People are moving to Oakland because it is becoming a good place to live and the city’s future is looking good.
This from Forbes in 2017: Population: 395,317
Violent crime rate: 1,683 per 100,000 residents
Oakland’s high levels of poverty and proximity to drug corridors combine to generate lots of violence. The city across the Bay from San Francisco ranks first nationwide in violent robberies
Oakland has not become “fun” in two years. I lived near it in Fremont and just was back there in July. Hi see for yourself before you upsell it
Go see. Dang it
Tampa is pulling similar mess and will similarly lose the Rays, as well. “yOu SiGnEd A LeAsE tHrOuGh 2027!” Politicians ruin everything.
Why does the city want the property and why do they think they should get the same price and terms everyone else is offered?
Because big corps like Tesla made an offer on the land and the city wants to turn around and flip it to them or any of the other companies that made a bid…
Why shouldn’t they get the same price and terms offered to others?
Because they didn’t bother asking for it. They didn’t bother asking for anything in fact, they just ignored it.
You don’t end up getting better deals on things by refusing to answer your phone. All you get then is another party having those calls made to them instead. The city has no one to blame but themselves for their own failure to enter negotiations over a way they could afford it
So if you get an offer that’s bad, but then someone else gets an offer that’s much better, you should not feel as if you’re being screwed? Maybe they would have countered if the initial offer had not been so bad. This isn’t just about the A’s. This is about the city, and the mayor and city council doing what’s best for all the residents of Oakland.
You are desperately trying to come up with excuses to clear the name of a city that is the sole reason for their current situation.
The A’s negotiated, the city didn’t even bother expressing interest. Because of that the A’s came to a deal, while the city was never involved because they chose they didn’t want to be.
And the city was offered it at 7 million LESS than the A’s ended up paying. How in your mind is that such a bad offer?
Because the city of Oakland is nearly bankrupt, they have failed to pay other commitments, and most importantly allowed their negotiating window to expire without even responding to the initial offer from Alameda County.
Anytime elected officials have anything to do with $$ it get’s complicated.
Portland Portland Portland Portland
Just get the hell out of California! Everyone else is.
Not true. California population and economy is growing. More large corporations moved into California than moved out last year.
You sure about that? I guess it depends on the definition of large. No one in their right mind would move a business to California.
As far as leaving, I’m glad I left.
More companies with 500 or more employees, the federal definition of a large company, moved into California than moved out. More Fortune 500 companies moved their HQs into California than moved out. More small business were started in California per capita than any other state besides Washington and Utah.
More people moved in than moved out.
The economy is the 4th fastest growing in the US behind Washington, Utah and Massachusetts,
California is growing and growing fast.
We don;t miss any of the people like you that moved out, because it makes room for the people that are driving one of the fastest growing economies in the world. So thank you for leaving.
It will stop growing when the wall is built
IF the wall is built. Even if the wall is somehow built even though the courts have ruled the government can’t continue to build it, that won’t change the growth of the economy in California. It won’t change the growth in population since most of that is coming from other states.
Vegas is the obvious choice. They lead all minor league teams in attendance this past season and local politicians have shown that they’ll commit resources for stadiums.
I’m all for the A’s moving to Vegas, so I can sell my house for even more and retire in my 40s
Move them to the Raleigh-Durham area in how ever long it takes to build a stadium Either move them or the Rays to the area give them the Lynchburg Hilcats as a AAA affiliate
It’s a terrible stadium and an embarrassment to be considered a major league park…they still have pee troughs for crying out loud.
No more publicly funded stadiums let the rich owners pay for once!
Found the guy who knows literally nothing about what is going on, but has an opinion anyway.
You do understand symbiotic relationships? Right?
If the A’s are the only one giving, then it’s not symbiotic and they owe it to themselves to get the heck out of Dodge.
@braveslowafan. Hello. The A;s want to build a privately financed Stadium.
then they should do it.
If owners would pay for their stadiums, it would eliminate the problems like this with government entities. The Org’s can then keep all revenue and not have to pay the cities %’s of parking,etc.. The cities, on the other hand, won’t have to worry about a team up and leaving when the lease is up. Way too expensive for owners to bounce around to other locales. And the team will have more incentive to keep the stadium repairs up to date, as it is their investment.
Found ANOTHER guy who doesn’t know the A’s are paying all construction and land acquisition costs.
Must be hard to walk with your knee jerking constantly like that.
@greg Hello. The A’s want to build a privately financed Stadium.
Wolff and Fisher should just move the A’s down the road to Sacramento. Or up to Portland. Both have a much larger TV market than Las Vegas. Portland already has a site for a stadium and private financing to build it in place.
1-Lew Wolff hasn’t been an A’s owner for years
2-the A’s are paying for the ballpark themselves
…nice try though
Doesn’t make what I said any less true. Fisher should move the A’s to Sacramento or Portland.
Nice try though.
it makes a small fraction of what you said true
It made all but the fact that Wolff sold the remaining portion of his interest in the club to Fisher in 2016 true
Sacramento and Portland both have a larger TV marke than Las Vegas.
Portland already has a group that has purchased land and has the funds to privately finance a stadium so the A’s do not have to spend a penny on it.
Sacramento built their stadium for the River Cats entirely without public funds. The mayor and local business interests have said they could do the same for a major league club.
The A’s should just move where they are wanted.
Other than a minor mistake in not knowing Wolff sold his interest 3 years ago because I am not in Oakland or a fan, everything I said was true.
Oakland has not built a new Stadium or Arena in 53 years. The Warriors new Arena is privately financed. They even bought the land. The A’s want to privately finance a new Stadium. Oakland is not trying very hard to keep to keep their teams.
Which is why the A’s should just move on. go somewhere they are wanted.
Sacramento makes sense.
Isn’t the state where Oakland plays spelled.. L I T I G A T I O N? The states motto should be changed from the Golden to Land of Lawyers. To reflect where they play, the A’s need to change their name to The Oakland Attorneys. They don’t even have to change their logo.
Nice!
It should be called the land of Fortune 500. The land of growing business and economy. The Land of Milk and Honey. And the feeder of America since a huge percentage of the food grown in the US comes from California. .
But what would you know. You don’t live here.
The people of Detroit/Michigan/the RustBelt used to say stuff like that too, and rightfully so.. They even inadvertently outlined the type of policies that should not be pursued and supported. Some states don’t like to learn lessons from the failures of others though, obviously.
Move to Vegas