9:44pm: By contrast, Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes that the A’s remain focused on Oakland for the 2025-27 campaigns. However, Akers echoes Drellich’s report that the three remaining possibilities are Oakland, Sacramento and Salt Lake City.
8:07pm: The A’s are running low on time to figure out where they’ll play home games between 2025-27. That has been a priority for team officials over the past few weeks. In addition to touring a handful of stadium sites, the A’s met with Oakland officials yesterday about a potential three-year lease extension at the Coliseum.
While that is still on the table, Evan Drellich of the Athletic reports that Sacramento has emerged as the front-runner for temporary hosting duty. According to Drellich, the two additional possibilities still under consideration are a lease extension at the Coliseum and playing in Salt Lake City. Previously, the A’s had considered a few other options: Reno; Summerlin, Nevada; and sharing Oracle Park with the Giants.
A’s and Oakland officials were fairly quiet coming out of their meeting on Thursday. The organization released a brief statement yesterday, calling it “a constructive and positive meeting with the City of Oakland and Alameda County” and noting they were “focused on continuing conversations around a lease extension at the Coliseum.” However, Drellich writes that the fraught relationship between the city and the A’s remains a significant obstacle.
The A’s lease at the Coliseum expires at the end of the upcoming season. The team’s new park on the Vegas Strip isn’t expected to be ready until 2028. If the A’s leave the Bay Area, that jeopardizes their local broadcasting contract with NBC Sports California. The network can drop their TV deal — which will reportedly pay the organization around $70MM in 2024 — once the team leaves Oakland or San Francisco. Sacramento is not included in the Bay Area under the terms of that contract. A short-term lease extension with Oakland would allow the A’s to collect those revenues for another three seasons.
That’s not of concern to Oakland and Alameda County, of course. Oakland mayor Sheng Thao has suggested the city could have significant demands to approve a lease extension. She has floated requiring that the franchise leave the A’s moniker behind — a non-starter for the organization — or that MLB guarantee the city a future expansion team.
To that end, Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Thao’s office has had “preliminary talks” with MLB about conditioning an A’s lease extension on the guarantee of a future expansion franchise. Thao’s chief of staff, Leigh Hanson, implied that’s a necessary trade-off from the city’s perspective.
“If a three-year extension was to be offered, and granted, then our expectation is that the city of Oakland would retain an MLB team,” Hanson told Ostler. “I recognize that (team president) Dave Kaval and (owner) John Fisher are not in a position to negotiate that point, so I think our further conversation will have to include the commissioner.”
Whether that’ll ever be a legitimate consideration for MLB remains to be seen. For now, it seems the league’s hope is that the A’s can make something work in Sacramento. Drellich suggests they could try to renegotiate the TV deal with NBC Sports California if they head to the California capital. That’d very likely come with reduced rights fees but could allow the organization to maintain some portion of the money that they’d otherwise lose if they left Oakland next season.
Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park is the home stadium of the River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Giants. Its fan capacity is a little above 14,000.
tigers182
I hope literally zero people attend these games
DarkSide830
that won’t happen
mostlytoasty
I live in Sacramento and as much as I hate Fisher, I’d go to games if the tix are cheap enough.
BaseballisLife
To see the visiting teams?
letsgooakland123
San Jose area A’s fan here. I’ll probably go once or twice in the 3 seasons, but only after the relocation is a sure thing (shovels in the ground probably clinches it).
ckc12537
as an astros fan who has never been to sacramento, i’d probably visit to see the astros play. we suck against the a’s though, so I don’t have much confidence the astros would win.
ckc12537
as a gambler who has visited vegas too many times, i am slightly worried about the prospect of the a’s moving there. i do not need more reasons to visit and donate my money, lol.
Letsplaytwotomorrow
April 2nd is the date Vegas is looking at. (There will be more locals working the games here than attending.)
gbs42
I’m trying to imagine a fan of the team that’s been to 7 straight ALCS and won 2 World Series in that time being disgruntled because they “suck against the A’s.” I also wonder if this is true.
gbs42
Since 2016, the Astros are 87-54 against the A’s, a .617 winning percentage. Yeah, they suck
mcubed.net/mlb/oak/hou.shtml#google_vignette
ckc12537
ok dick
case
Before Fisher sold the organization for parts the A’s minor league ballclub was in Sacramento, there will probably be some residual fans.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
I hope these games are sell outs. I do recognize that many fans will go to see the A’s opponents.
I dislike Fisher, but I am rooting for Sacramento baseball.
RamMac14
Not wishing much considering no one attended the games in Oakland anyways
case
Sorry, we’re too high to drive. 70 mill tv contract though.
gbs42
MadBum14 Muted, and it feels so good.
sacball
Sacramento’s ballpark is more centrally located being right on the edge of downtown. The games will probably be well attended. It’s in walkable distance for not only people who live in the downtown area but also residents in West Sacramento as well.
Halo11Fan
I’ll attend a few of these games.
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
I already plan on going to game when they come to Las Vegas. If all the dot com companies don’t buy up all the tix and resell them for a 200% profit I’ll hopefully be able to go to an entire series especially against the Cubs. I’ll go to Phillies and A’s for Harper and Stott and Rockies and A’s for Kris Bryant. And at the time if Joey C
Gallo is still playing. I’ll go see those games too for whatever team he might be playing for.
Jack Hoffman
Yeah, nobody cares about your baseball game future plans bro.
socalbball
Wrong, bro.
920kodiak
Agreed.
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
And no one cares about how you feel about my future baseball plans. Thanks for your irrelevant opinion.
gbs42
Imagine someone calling another person a dick because they pointed out you’re incorrect.
Halo11Fan
I don’t have to imagine…it’s called social media.
Not a clever name
I’ll go to games with my kids, probably some where around 4 or 5 We’re Giants fans but live down the road in Vacaville and this is much more convenient and a beautiful park. I personally prefer seeing my Giants in PAC Bell (oracle) park, but it doesn’t matter to my 5 year old daughter she just likes the ball park environment same with my 8 year old autistic daughter, she loves when everyone is clapping and doesn’t care who for. We would go if it was the river cats and I won’t begrudge my little girls those fond memories just because fisher is an @$$.
MadBum14
Now sactown can have two poverty franchises instead of just one!
TigersLoveCinnamon
The kings are good, better than the warriors this year. Try again
Not a clever name
Light the beam!
MLB Top 100 Commenter
MadBum
Are you addressing the Kings or the River Cats and why do you say that?
TigersLoveCinnamon
He’s clearly a salty dubs fan
MadBum14
Lmao why would I be salty about the irrelevant queens? The Warriors own your franchise in every measurable way including steph’s 50 bomb in game 7.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
If he is this ill-tempered now, wait until after the victory by Sabrina Ionescu
MadBum14
Queens and A’s have a lot in common. Fans with an inferiority complex. Frankly both should disband it would be better for all involved
TigersLoveCinnamon
Not an a’s fan. I went to my first giants game in 1989. I was born in Sacramento though, it’s sad you feel the need to try and degrade fans considering the dubs were awful for decades until recently. Typical bandwagon
920kodiak
You sound a little salty.
Nevrfolow
Too bad there wasn’t a suitable park in Stockton. The valley could support the Oakland As(paragus)
TigersLoveCinnamon
Do the ports not exist anymore? Been a while since I’ve been to norcal
Nevrfolow
Yeah, still the As low A affiliate and a cool little park along the delta. But with only 4,000 seats it wouldn’t work for a temporary home.
Benjamin101677
Be about what they draw so be a sellout
Nevrfolow
Ha good point. They could probably sell the tickets at a higher cost and make double what they usually do.
case
It’s possible you’re overestimating the drawing power of the worst team in the league that plans on moving away before they become competitive again. Non stop thrill ride.
Not a clever name
Modesto has a team too I catch on occasion. As for the ports if I recall they were the Mudville nine that John fogerty sings about in put me in coach, when that song was written. And rumored to have been the team that Casey at bat was written about. Lots of interesting baseball history in Stockton. That being said it’s a poop hole I wouldn’t go to for any reason outside of the baseball games and a great natural history museum. Oh also the original home of caterpillar tractors back when they were invented as holt tractors, and the Sheraton on the river used to be nice, went to a few Marine Corps Borrhday Balls there that were decent, and there’s a couple of good restaurants I like to take the wife to, too many to name but yeah it’s a crap hope of a town. Couple of decent high school football teams down that way too, and I may have got a degree from UOP there, but as a native Californian it is my solem duty to call Stockton the arm pit of California.
TigersLoveCinnamon
Yeah I went to delta for a year, pretty sure Stockton was the biggest crime city in the US that year. Watched a dude punch a cop, slam
a bottle of alcohol at them, and run while waiting in line at McDonald’s
dave frost nhlpa
I wouldn’t attend this season either.
James Midway
They should play in Philly or KC.
TigersLoveCinnamon
The Sacramento stadium is really nice, better than Oakland. If the A’s average their attendance the past few years, they might even overflow the grass attendance
letsgooakland123
They could even build a 3rd deck, which would block the beautiful view of the city.
Then they could tarp it off immediately after and charge the city for it.
case
and invite an arena football league team to come play on the field.
letsgooakland123
or they could block an independent-league baseball and USL soccer team from playing there
mgomrjsurf
San Jose where the Earthquakes play.
NavalHistorian
The SF Giants own the MLB territorial rights to San Jose. It’s in the MLB constitution.
The A’s gave them to SF when the Giants tried to build a new stadium in South Bay in the early 1990s. When the Giants were subsequently sold, the rights to San Jose went along with the team,
The A’s wanted to build a stadium in SJ about a decade ago and requested MLB force the Giants to give up/sell their territorial rights. Selig had a panel of owners investigate the issue, and they determined there’s nothing MLB could do about it. In 2023, San Jose’s mayor asked Manfred to change Selig and the owners ruling from a decade earlier. Manfred and MLB haven’t even bothered to respond, because the answer’s no.
MLB has learned from Selig’s biggest mistake, putting a team in DC that will (so far) never own more than 33% of their media rights. The Orioles have always refused to give them up because the DC area’s a larger market. They’ve privately admitted they couldn’t sell their broadcasting rights for anywhere near the $60 million a year both teams get now because Baltimore’s such a small market. Before the RSN implosion, the Nats could have easily gotten a longterm broadcast deal for more than that.
The Giants aren’t about to let Oakland get a new stadium in SJ and potentially cut into their $$ further. They’d almost certainly prefer if Oakland left the area.
tedtheodorelogan
This is a common misconception. The territorial rights to the south bay didn’t belong to the A’s, so the A’s didn’t “give” the Giants anything. The territorial rights didn’t belong to anyone at the time, and when the Giants wanted them the A’s didn’t protest.
BaseballGuy1
If I lived in Sacramento, I would be loving life! The City of Oakland needs to get over being all offended and simply make a money-making agreement with the A’s to play in Oakland. Everyone makes money. If not, they will play somewhere else in the meantime. Fans will attend and new people will become fans wherever they play.
Salad Daze 22-27
-Fans will attend and new people will become fans wherever they play.
yeah,fans of the opposing teams.
Tigers3232
@Baseball, as much as I don’t like Fischer I think this further solidifies that Oakland Government is not exactly the ideal people to bargain with. This lady seems hxll bent on trying to leverage A’s history or a new team in the future. While she might think she has all this leverage, I’m sure MLB and possibly wven Fischer are just ready to write off the TV revenue and be done with her and th city. If I was MLB her attempts at strong arm tactics would have completely slammed any hint of any opening to OAK ever having a MLB team again.
Bill
If they can play in Sacramento in the interim, they’ll get to keep the TV money, and will probably get the same attendance they were getting in Oakland (probably more). The city has zero leverage. They may have thought that they did, but are apparently wrong.
Tigers3232
It explicitly states in the article that Sacramento is not covered in the contract for current TV deal.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Tigers
I assume that they can negotiate a lesser cable deal if in Sacramento so the amount would go down, but not to zero. Has anyone heard otherwise? They may even negotiate a deal for both the Bay Area and for Las Vegas in advance.
socalbball
There had been a report that NBC Sports California would have at least some interest in continuing to broadcast the games if the A’s play in Sacramento, since that’s still close enough to the Bay area, but at a reduced dollar amount.
JRW 2
She’s right, investors are chomping at the bit waiting to bring an expansion team into Oakland so they can rake it in. lol
websoulsurfer
Joe Lacob is and he has the money to buy the A’s and has said he wants to build at Howard Terminal if they sell to him.
Don’t you think he would jump at the chance to buy an expansion team?
MLB Top 100 Commenter
I think it is possible, but no guarantee that his terms would meet the desires of the public officials. The bigger worry is that other cities would be competing for the spot and might offer bigger subsidies.
letsgooakland123
Oakland had a little more spine then you counted on, Fisher?
mlb fan
“Little more spine”….The city totally showed the A’s who’s boss..And the Warriors and the Raiders…
letsgooakland123
Spot-on. They obviously didn’t in those cases, but now it looks like they’re holding hard to the expansion team position.
tedtheodorelogan
Why would MLB award an expansion franchise to a city that just had all 3 of its professional sports teams decide that they no longer wanted to be there?
websoulsurfer
When the city has a buyer for the A’s and an approved site that has gone through EIS and all the lawsuits, why wouldn’t they award them an expansion team?
Joe Lacob has said his group would buy the A’s and has made several offers to do so. Since the move was announced he has said he would build at Howard Terminal if Fisher sold to him.
The Raiders moved because of Fisher.
sfgate.com/athletics/article/raiders-mark-davis-tr…
The Warriors moved 15 minutes away and did that partly because Fisher would not ok the construction of a new arena on the site next to where Oracle Arena is now.
The A’s issues have been 100% Fisher, not the city of Oakland or Alameda county.
BaseballisLife
Marc Davis said the reason the Raiders moved was Fisher.
websoulsurfer
Here is a great article on that.
sfgate.com/athletics/article/raiders-mark-davis-tr…
mlb fan
“Marc Davis said the reason”…The Raiders also left Oakland in the early 80’s under former owner AL Davis. And this was decades before John Fisher purchased the A’s. I suppose John Fisher, and not the skyrocketing violent crime rate, is also the reason Starbucks and several other businesses are leaving Oakland too?
websoulsurfer
You may want to read the article so you don’t look so stupid.
64' Yanks
Not as smooth as the Raiders move to Las Vegas.
letsgooakland123
haha read some blog posts/forums and look at the difference in attitude between A’s and Raiders fans after they learned of the move
A’s fans are like “I’m never watching MLB again, sell the team, F John Fisher”
Raiders fans are like “ok we needed a new stadium anyways”
I think that’s a big reason why this move isn’t 100% yet. Fan resistance in the media has been so huge.
Cincyfan85
What a cluster F!
NavalHistorian
As ESPN’s Jeff Passan said on PTI, “the one thing the A’s have proven themselves adept at is being completely incompetent,”
Yesterday he interviewed somebody within MLB who’s been involved with this mess. That person wondered aloud, “Do they know what they’re doing? Is this a joke?” At this point, nobody in MLB would be surprised if this move completely fell apart.
IMO, the one thing that might get the other owners to finally gang up on Fisher and force him to sell is MLB won’t expand until the A’s stadium situation is not an issue anymore. Passan reported MLB now believes expansion won’t happen until approximately 2030. The longer this saga goes on, the further MLB puts off expansion. Fisher’s incompetence is costing them $$.
depletion
Completely agree. Not sure how a multi-billion dollar MLB anti-manages the move of a team this badly. Teams have moved before, so this isn’t rocket science. If I were the City off Oakland I probably would return the A’s or MLB phone calls after a week or so. Unless a huge check or a guarantee of retaining the team is in place there isn’t anything to discuss. For MLB to be considering playing in a 14,000 capacity stadium is an embarrassment.
Degaz
Why would the A’s want to lease the Oakland Urinal again…God pls no
NavalHistorian
Approximately $67-70 milion a year in broadcast fees from NBC Sports California. They leave the bay area, that money’s gone. The RSN model is dead. Even if NBC Sports would be interested in broadcasting the A’s at all, there’s no way they’ll pay Fisher $67-70 milion a year.
The Padres and DBacks don’t have local TV deals for this season at all. MLB will do their in-market broadcasts. If those two teams can’t get deals, I seriously doubt the A’s will get one.
PutPeteinthehall
The team does not own the name it’s licensed from MLB to the team. The league does not get bullied by a city like Oakland. They are not going to leave the name or guarantee another franchise to Oakland. I’m sure the league could take action against an ownership group and either force them to sell or disenfranchise them and install new ownership under the same name. It’s really the leagues ball – the team has to respect their rules and regulations.
The 100k a month rent is a joke. The city, county, state make the revenues from all kinds of taxes associated with the teams operations. Tickets parking food alcohol merchandise etc. Even the players income tax. Sure the stadium is losing money at 100k a month but the city is recouping it many many times over because a team is operating there.
The solution will be a major rent increase that will allow the city and county to save face. A’s will be in Oakland until there is another new park somewhere for them. No way they lose the money from Bally’s. There is also no way the government wants the team to leave. The stuff about soccer is just smoke. That’s just a side dish. Baseball is the meal.
websoulsurfer
Thao said that Oakland spent $17 million on EIS and lawsuits regarding the Howard Terminal site after Fisher agreed in principle to the deal. Then he asked for hundreds of millions in extra taxpayer dollars at the last minute knowing it would scuttle the deal. Somehow, I think that not only does Oakland want to make him staying at the Coliseum profitable for the Coliseum Authority, they want to make up the money he cost them and they have every right to do so.
BaseballisLife
I read that the city is asking for the A’s to transfer their 50% share in the land to AASEG.
websoulsurfer
That is interesting and makes sense. The Coliseum Authority put off the meeting to sign the contract with the USL teams to play in the Coliseum in 2025 and they would not do that unless they were going to get something big in return from the A’s since the USL teams were scheduled to pay more in rent each than the A’s are paying now.
We know that the A’s still owe the county $63.75 million of the $85 million sales price and they cannot sell their 50% share in the land the Coliseum sits on without county permission.
AASEG has made offers to the A’s to purchase the remaining portion which have been rebuffed. Maybe the city of Oakland and the Coliseum Authority have told Fisher if he sells to AASEG that they will extend the lease 3 more seasons.
That would screw the USL teams in the short term but be a boon for the city and county in the long term. AASEG is looking to build a football stadium there to draw an NFL team and a 22k seat basketball and they have the private financing secured to do so. They just need Fisher out of there.
websoulsurfer
Found this article just now.
sfchronicle.com/sports/ostler/article/oakland-mlb-…
websoulsurfer
If MLB agrees to give Oakland an expansion team and Fisher sells his half of the coliseum property to AASEG then:
MLB keeps a team in a top 10 media and population market. Manfred’s protestations aside, the league needs this. Not having a 2nd team in the Bay Area will come at a cost of tens of millions over the length of their national TV contracts. A cost shared by all the team owners equally.
Fisher keeps his $70 million per season, $210 million total, TV deal.
Fisher gets money to pay off the rest of what he owes on buying his half of the Coliseum property and walks away with badly needed cash to help him build in Las Vegas.
Oakland is rid of Fisher and still has a MLB team.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Fisher has not been able to pull off the move to Las Vegas and I think this would make it possible for him to do so.
Manfred badly wants a team in Las Vegas and has said that an expansion that all the owners want cannot happen until the A’s have a new stadium. This makes that possible.
AASEG can begin construction on the NFL stadium as well as a stadium to house an MLB team.
That area of Oakland gets a huge economic boost from the housing and retail that AASEG is planning to build as well.
Its a win for Oakland, a win for MLB, a win for AASEG, and a win for Fisher.
The only ones that lose are the Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul Men’s and Women’s USL soccer teams that will have no place to play in 2025.
Jubilation
I hope they go to Sacramento –they will lose the TV money and that will give Fisher an excuse to trade EVERYONE that makes over a million dollars which is probably want he wants to do anyways,
The Voices
El Chapo (Matt Chapman): the speed of a 25 year old Coco Crisp combined with the power of a 23 year old Mark McGuire combined with the defense of a 25 year old Anfrelton Simmons. Should have resigned him.
Jack Hoffman
Just keep their fans out of Oracle Park. You know they would vandalize it being they are from, well, Oakland….
The Voices
The biggest joke of this is that Oakland- including/especially around the stadium is going through an extreme rise in value and that’s why all sorts of movie tradesmen and other notables are moving into the area and that’s why Oakland is now referred to as Malibu North. Just another reason moving the team is so stupid.
Zippy the Pinhead
They could play in Berkeley at Cal’s Evans Field. Sure, the capacity is only 2500, but they’d keep the 70 million.
Niekro floater
Plus they could sell-out every game … maybe.
terry g
Back to the drawing board Oakland, they won’t give up the name and MLB will never promise a team.
NavalHistorian
The A’s are the entity that doesn’t have the upper hand here. Fisher’s trying to leave anyway, there’s absolutely no downside to the city making it as costly and difficult as possible.
Not only does Fisher not have a place for his team to play for three years, he doesn’t have a financing plan in place to pay for the majority of the stadium construction in Las Vegas. MLB hasn’t even seen one. He’s only getting $380 million in public money at best, the stadium is likely going to cost an additional $1 billion. He doesn’t have the money.
There is a very real possibility that if the A’s decide to give up the approximately $70 milion a year in broadcast fees and leave Oakland, the Vegas move subsequently falls apart. Fisher is amazingly incompetent, and the city leadership knows it, According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, internally MLB knows it too.
Rsox
We all knew Oakland would try to leverage MLB in guaranteeing a future expansion team a la the NFL and Cleveland nearly 3 decades ago. While granted that Thao is new to her post, the city has had multiple chances over the last couple of decades to work with the A’s and MLB on building a new stadium and it doesn’t seem likely that MLB will cave to her demands
BleedGreen
Jerry cough Brown cough
DarrenDreifortsContract
Nice to see them upgrading from a dumpster fire to a dumpster.
A’s and Dodgers in the world series confirmed.
66TheNumberOfTheBest
The Oakland Ravens.
unpaidobserver
Pathetic.
aragon
Lol at the A’s. have no place to go long term or short term.
BaseballisLife
Its my understanding that NBC is willing to pay up to a $20 million TV deal if the A’s play in Sacramento. That is a $50 million loss for Fisher. Reports are that upgrades to bring Sutter Health Park up to MLB standards for lighting, the field, locker rooms, and training facilities would be a relatively reasonable $14 million. It would cost Fisher $21-22 million in SLC.
The park seats 14k, so the A’s could potentially surpass the 10k they drew per game last season.
The biggest problem I see is Fisher would have to invest $14 million upfront in their stadium that he would never get back and he would still be losing $50 million per season in TV revenue.
Since the Giants said no to Oracle Park, the MLBPA said no to Summerlin, the Aces said no to Reno, and SLC no longer looks like a possibility, Fisher is over a barrel. His options are dwindling.
Joe Lacob and his group have made it clear they would buy the A’s and build a privately funded development at Howard Terminal, so if MLB agreed to Oakland’s lease terms to put an expansion team in Oakland immediately then I am pretty sure that Lacob’s group would be interested.
I am not so sure that Fisher will ever get a ballpark built in Las Vegas, so this whole thing may be the other owners giving him enough rope to hang himself and then MLB forcing him to sell when his team is either bankrupt or homeless in a few years.
NavalHistorian
I really never thought I’d see a sports team owner more incompetent than Dan Snyder. Amazingly, Fisher’s proven he’s far more incompetent and done so in a matter of months!
The problem is Fisher”s not only backing his team into a corner he”s taking MLB and the other owners along for the ride. The other owners depend on the sale price increasing each time a franchise is sold. Yes, there’s only so many MLB franchises and the opportunity to buy one is rare, but who’s going to pay *more* money to buy a team that doesn’t have a permanent home? Additionally, MLB internally believes it can’t expand until the A’s stadium issue is completely done. Right now, they believe expansion won’t occur before 2030. The longer Fisher’s incompetence drags this mess out, the further off MLB is from expansion, The other owners dearly want the $$ from expansion to help make up for the expected ongoing shortfall in local TV broadcast deals.
Niekro floater
Can’t wait to see expansion baseball team’s new pitching staffs, there’s already shortage of viable Ps to go around league. Gonna be sum sloppy ball n sum fat ERA’s. Gonna make avg-ish hitters look good. Had the steroid era n juiced ball era n w/expansion we can have the AAAA era. Killing a great game!
YankeesBleacherCreature
Fisher has a net worth of nearly $3B. He could privately-fund a new stadium and sell shares to Bally’s. I doubt he would allow the A’s to become insolvent and enter bankruptcy. He’s completely checked out until the A’s move to Vegas.
NavalHistorian
Net worth does not equal cash.
Per league rules, he cannot borrow against the value of the A’s or his majority ownership in the MLS San Jose Rattlers soccer team. As for selling shares of anything to Bally’s, you are aware that Bally’s is *not* doing well financially, right? Their new casino project in Chicago has been stalled for months. Last month Bally’s released new plans for that project that don’t include a 500 room hotel tower. The new plan only has 1oo hotel rooms.
They’re very unlikely to invest in the smallest stadium in MLB, especially when Fisher’s revenue forecasts depend on a 100% sellout for *every* A’s home game.
websoulsurfer
Fisher has a net worth of $2.2 billion and all but $400 million of that is the Oakland A’s and the San Jose Earthquakes. The rest is stock in the GAP.
He has not been able to secure financing to build in Las Vegas. According to the Nevada Independent he does not have a finalized agreement with the Stadium Authority there yet and he has not even released rendering of the ballpark yet.
Casinos cannot invest in a sports venture in Nevada. It is against Nevada law. They can’t even buy advertising, a luxury box at a stadium or tickets to comp to guests.
MatthewStairs
Bally’s cannot own an MLB team. League rules forbid gaming entities from being a part of team ownership.
LernersWallet
This move is a train wreck
YankeesBleacherCreature
Oakland mayor Sheng Thao has suggested the city could have significant demands to approve a lease extension. She has floated requiring that the franchise leave the A’s moniker behind — a non-starter for the organization — or that MLB guarantee the city a future expansion team.
———-
How does the mayor expect MLB to guarantee a future expansion team? That’s all up to the new expansion teams’ owners if they want to build in Oakland.
websoulsurfer
Joe Lacob has said he would buy the A’s immediately if they were for sale. He has made several offers on the team over the years. Don’t you think he would jump at the chance to own an expansion team instead?
YankeesBleacherCreature
Even if he was granted to be a new expansion team owner, would Oakland be his top choice location?
websoulsurfer
According to Lacob, yes.
websoulsurfer
I don’t think this is going to end well for Fisher.
Oakland has all the leverage here.
Fisher has not been able to secure financing to build in Las Vegas yet. He is not likely to get the $380 million in tax credits the state and county had agreed to give him because it’s unconstitutional in Nevada. They would have to have the legislature rewrite the bill and vote again and they only meet once every two years. Fisher will have to build without that money. Moving to Las Vegas with Fisher as the owner of the A’s is questionable at best. No more than 50/50 shot at this point.
Moving to SLC would cost him $22 million in upgrades to the stadium there and that is money that he would not be able to recoup in any form. It would also mean his TV deal is dead. He might get a tiny one in SLC, but the RSN model is dead and it’s not likely he gets more than a few million a year there.
Moving to Sacramento cost Fisher a little less upfront, but still more than he has shown he is willing to spend. The one positive about Sacramento is he would not lose 100% of his TV deal, only 70%.
Staying in Oakland would require MLB stepping in and guaranteeing the city an expansion team. That Mayor Thao and the city officials are demanding that says they have a buyer in mind, and we know that the Howard Terminal development is still approved for building a ballpark and available for a new owner.
NavalHistorian
At this point, my question is how does this end?
Thus far, MLB owners have rolled over and rubber stamped everything Fisher’s wanted. Manfred *has* to put a positive spin on everything. It’s his job, and it would make a bad situation worse if he didn’t. But, as you wrote, Fisher and MLB have zero guarantee that stadium in Las Vegas is ever going to get built.
Even if Fisher were to sell all of his GAP stock, that only likely generates $400 million. (IMO, the A’s payroll issues are really tied to the fact Fisher’s simply overextended. He’s like a kid who went on a buying spree without any thought to how he’d pay for what he bought. In addition to a MLB team and a MLS team, he apparently has a stake in the Scottish Premiership team Celtic F.C.) He can’t borrow against the A’s or San Jose, Even if he sold the Earthquakes, they’re only valued at $450 million. He simply can’t afford that stadium in Las Vegas.
MLB isn’t stupid enough to let this go on past this season, let him take the team to Sacramento or another “temporary” home and just trust Fisher will “work things out” in Vegas, are they?!?!
websoulsurfer
I don’t think that they will let it get much past early June. when basic scheduling for 2025 has to be finalized. The ballpark deal was supposed to be finalized by January 15th for Fisher to continue to receive revenue sharing.
If Fisher cannot prove he has secured financing to build the park, I think that MLB will force him to sell this season.
ckc12537
It’s incredible seeing how incompetent the federal government has been over the past nine years or so, but this turmoil is a completely different level. Honestly astonishing, and not in a good way.
RadioPirate
What does the federal government have to do with this? This is strictly between a private enterprise and a couple of city/county authorities.
ckc12537
What is a metaphor?
MatthewStairs
Like it or not, Sheng Thao shutting down negotiations after after the first (of 3) binding land agreements in Vegas.
That’s why this has been so disorganized and impromptu. The dog caught the car.
scrambledeggs
Here’s a idea…
Maybe they should play at a local University such as Santa Clara or Stanford.
tigerdoc616
We all get how incompetent the A’s and Fischer have been, but not like Oakland city government is full of MENSA members. They have been difficult to deal with and that is putting it politely. Now they want to demand to keep the A’s name for an expansion franchise?
depletion
Oakland gov’t has a lot of people to answer to besides A’s fans and ownership. They always have to answer the difficult question of “what else could we do with this real estate and how would it help all our citizens, not just A’s fans”. There is no clear cut answer to this question and the best answer is probably changing from year to year. Oakland real estate is worth a lot of money. Keeping the A’s name seems a bit goofy, but it couldn’t hurt to ask, especially since the A’s/MLB is running out of options.
tedtheodorelogan
They should play those 3 seasons at the Field of Dreams fields in Iowa.
goob
If the Giants AAA team gets pushed out of Sacramento (temporarily or otherwise) where would they end up? The Oakland Coliseum?
RadioPirate
For those of you who are geographically challenged, I want to point this out: the Sacto ballpark isn’t much farther away from a lot of the A’s fan base than the Coliseum is now. If the A’s play in Sacramento, fans from the Central Valley fans and far East Bay will actually have a shorter trip to the yard than they do now. And for those who are closer to Oakland, sure, you don’t have BART, but believe me, swapping Sacramento for Oakland isn’t the kind of civic step-down the Niners moving from San Francisco to Hooterville was.
Zippy the Pinhead
Does everyone understand that the A’s, even in an awful stadium, drew millions of fans when they had a management team that tried to win games? Every major league city would give up on its team if they were treated like A’s fans. Or Sonics fans. Or Whalers fans. Etc.
SportsFan0000
A’s Situation is FAILURE OF MLB, THE COMMISSIONER & John Fisher
NOT OAKL;AND AND NOT SF BAY AREA
NOTE: All MLB Territories in :”shared cities”: with 2 MLB Teams share those Cities and Territories 50%/50%
(Dodgers/Angels’ Cubs/White Sox; Yankees/Mets) etc
Note the situation in Washington DC and Baltimore.
Orioles are being sold.
Nats were “on the market:.(since pulled of the market).
Commissioner’s Office stated that they could “do anything” to facilitate the Orioles and Nats Deals including change TV and Broadcast deals and change territory rights,
Why not use those same statements for the A’s Retention Deal in SF Bay Area?!
SportsFan0000
LATEST COMMENTS ON PROPOSED A’S MOVE TO LAS VEGAS?!
NUMEROUS PEOPLE/ML;B EXPERTS SAY:
THEY WOULD NOT BE AT ALL SURPRISED IF THE A’S PROPOSED MOVE TO LAS VEGAS COMPLETELY FALLS APART.
nbcsportsbayarea.com/mlb/oakland-athletics/jeff-pa…
SportsFan0000
“Passan believes no one would be surprised if A’s-to-Vegas deal fell apart”
By Angelina Martin • Published February 17, 2024 • Updated on February 17, 2024 at 3:14 pm