Sorry, I missed the brilliance of your observation that 4 World Series championships are better than 0.
A’s have signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a future ballpark in Las Vegas.
- Thread starter soxhop411
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Not to defend Mt. Davis by any means but it’s easy to see why the original football configuration wasn’t optimal for the Raiders.
Passan was on the Pardon My Take pod this week (before today's news) and his main point was that this franchise hasn't been able to get any kind of agreement with the City of Oakland over any sort of deal - short or long-term - so how can anyone reasonably expect the A's to pull off moving to a whole new place? This development is right in line with that view imo.
I'll believe the A's move when it actually happens. I work in Oakland and that City and the surrounding area would show up for a relevant A's team. My guess is that Manfred and the owners are going to have to make some unsavory choices sooner rather than later.
I'll believe the A's move when it actually happens. I work in Oakland and that City and the surrounding area would show up for a relevant A's team. My guess is that Manfred and the owners are going to have to make some unsavory choices sooner rather than later.
https://theathletic.com/5392522/2024/04/04/oakland-as-sacramento-ballpark-move/
In 2022, Vivek Ranadivé, the owner of the Sacramento Kings basketball team, bought the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats and their stadium for about $90 million. In a phone interview Thursday, Ranadivé sounded overjoyed: For at least the next three years, his stadium, the 14,000-capacity Sutter Health Park, will host a big-league team.
“Believe it or not, this is going to be the best ticket in Major League Baseball,” Ranadivé said. “Because it’s a small, intimate stadium. It’s like being in the lower bowl in a basketball game. And so imagine that, (Shohei) Ohtani is there and it’s a small, intimate stadium. So it’s going to be the most sought-after ticket in America."
Lol people are still going to have to watch the The Sacramento Athletics formerly of Oakland at these games. This is delusional.
Later on in the article Vivek says
“I came to my team, and I asked them, ‘Hey, guys, do you think that while they’re doing the move, we could actually have a Major League Baseball team here?’ And my team, no matter what I ask them, the answer is always, ‘Yes.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we could do that.’
That is a bad thing, no?
In 2022, Vivek Ranadivé, the owner of the Sacramento Kings basketball team, bought the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats and their stadium for about $90 million. In a phone interview Thursday, Ranadivé sounded overjoyed: For at least the next three years, his stadium, the 14,000-capacity Sutter Health Park, will host a big-league team.
“Believe it or not, this is going to be the best ticket in Major League Baseball,” Ranadivé said. “Because it’s a small, intimate stadium. It’s like being in the lower bowl in a basketball game. And so imagine that, (Shohei) Ohtani is there and it’s a small, intimate stadium. So it’s going to be the most sought-after ticket in America."
Lol people are still going to have to watch the The Sacramento Athletics formerly of Oakland at these games. This is delusional.
Later on in the article Vivek says
“I came to my team, and I asked them, ‘Hey, guys, do you think that while they’re doing the move, we could actually have a Major League Baseball team here?’ And my team, no matter what I ask them, the answer is always, ‘Yes.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we could do that.’
That is a bad thing, no?
I suspect they’ll draw very well in Sacramento. Who wouldn’t want to watch major league ball in a small venue like that?
Sicks Stadium in Seattle had twice the capacity. Maybe the people of Pawtucket could offer the A's more than they're getting from Sacramento.
They won't be scrimmaging themselves. Great chane to see MLB players from visiting teams closer than at the cavernous colluseum. I wonder how ticket prices will stack up vs what they are in Oakland.
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Rivercats used to draw about average 8k per game in the decade pre-Covid, but have struggled after the PCL resumed operations in 2021; averaging a little less than 5k a game. But the team has also finished 4th, 5th and 5th in their division in those years.
That would be The Sac Vegas A's City Disconnect unis.
Edit... Someone's not waiting long.
https://techteesusa.com/product/sacramento-athletics-of-las-vegas-oakland-athletics-logo-shirt/
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Woe unto the billionaire who bails this asshole out by buying a minority stake. Fisher apparently needs to sell part of the A's to finance the new stadium.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2024-04-29/athletics-investment-banker-las-vegas-stadium-financing
Anyone who thinks he *has* to get a partner is delusional. People like Fisher get especially rich by spending other people's money. It's the financial version of Cris Carter's "fall guy."
It would not surprise me if Fisher completely sold out to the owner of the Kings and the A's relocate to Sacramento. Though if he just sold it to the guy from the Bay Area who wanted to buy the team from him, the A's would be rooted in Oakland for real, Fisher would already be counting his billions and not on some Quixotic journey to build a stadium in a city where they don't want his team.
It's really sad when a majority of the world can see a square hole but the one guy controlling the hammer and the round peg can't.
It's really sad when a majority of the world can see a square hole but the one guy controlling the hammer and the round peg can't.
Very good point.
Assuming that Fisher's end goal is to get the team positioned so it's as valuable as possible for a sale, I think he has to either make Vegas happen or start talking to Salt Lake City or Nashville again. The Sacramento A's, who'd have to build their own MLB stadium, would probably be less valuable than the A's are now. I'd say I can't believe MLB is letting this happen, but I totally believe it.
According to Forbes, the franchise is worth $1.18 billion. The cost of the stadium is estimated to be $1.5 billion. There are a lot of reasons that Fisher is a shitty owner, the fact that he would have to sell 40-45% of the 2nd lowest valued franchise to help finance this just adds to it.
I'm pretty sure that MLB has a clause in the agreement to move to LV that Fisher can't sell the club until after five years without paying a steep penalty.
So assuming that the stadium is ready in 2028, Fisher can't even sell until 2033 at the earliest.
What a mess. And I remember this FanGraphs piece from last year that summarized the situation fairly well:
Before a shovel is even in the dirt, the A’s are asking to play eight games a year away from Vegas.
I’d be shocked if this team is playing in Vegas at all by 2030.
I’d be shocked if this team is playing in Vegas at all by 2030.
Former ESPNer and now local sports anchor Larry Beil absolutely crushed John Fisher on-air last night: View: https://youtu.be/mOV4vo1eo1M?si=Fdr3GqNIpLUS-Fme
As Beil mentioned in passing at the end of his piece, it's not clear that the MLBPA is going to sign off on the A's playing at a AAA field for years (the shouldn't) and there is currently no financing plan in place for building the stadium in Vegas, so the chance that the A's play in Oakland again next year is not zero.
As Beil mentioned in passing at the end of his piece, it's not clear that the MLBPA is going to sign off on the A's playing at a AAA field for years (the shouldn't) and there is currently no financing plan in place for building the stadium in Vegas, so the chance that the A's play in Oakland again next year is not zero.
Man, it was heartbreaking to watch highlights of the A's last game in Oakland. To take away a team from multiple generations of fans because the owner is a complete ass is simply ghoulish.
I know owners would never agree to this, because they're all greedy pricks, but there really should be a clause that grants ownership to a market not just the club.
I know owners would never agree to this, because they're all greedy pricks, but there really should be a clause that grants ownership to a market not just the club.
Man, I ended up way more angry about this than I probably should be.
Fire Jeff Fisher into the fucking sun.
Fire Jeff Fisher into the fucking sun.
For a second, I thought you were saying that was the same person in the two pictures, and I was going to say he aged well!
Raul is a dead ringer for his dad! I did a double take when I saw the old pic at first.
Fuck it, I don't want to fix it to his real name, LOL.Fittingly, you're batting .500
Apparently also concession workers won't receive severance after working their last game either:
View: https://youtu.be/jNTfjDj1mso?si=x9BkyWi3xRovjge-
View: https://youtu.be/jNTfjDj1mso?si=x9BkyWi3xRovjge-
There are a lot of bad people that own sports franchises, but John Fisher has to be the absolute worst. What a complete and total piece of shit.
Do Game Day employees usually receive severance at the end of a season on any team? Do they even work for the team or for the concession company?
A's have done a shitton wrong but I dont think this is one of those things
A's have done a shitton wrong but I dont think this is one of those things
Love this. Love the A's as my 2nd team. The Coliseum is the old Boston Garden because of its incredible history.
One one hand I do wish Oakland could keep the A’s brand. The marketing potential in a new name (Vegas Aces) and new colors could justify it anyway.
On the other, it’s kind of cool that the Athletics moniker may be attached to its fourth and fifth metro, and as of Vegas, will have been at one point based in each American time zone. It’s a stretch, but they are kind of a “national” team in that way. Maybe they should just drop the city and be the Athletics Baseball Club, and embrace being the Wanderers or Rovers of American sports.
On the other, it’s kind of cool that the Athletics moniker may be attached to its fourth and fifth metro, and as of Vegas, will have been at one point based in each American time zone. It’s a stretch, but they are kind of a “national” team in that way. Maybe they should just drop the city and be the Athletics Baseball Club, and embrace being the Wanderers or Rovers of American sports.
The Las Vegas WNBA team is already the Aces, also they are currently two-time defending champs.
I bet Fisher would be into this, he could probably save a lot of money if he had the team start train hopping in boxcars instead of taking planes.
Great photos. Really sums up how a team becomes part of the fabric of a community and its families. This whole thing sucks.
Fisher would be right at home on "Sons of Glorious Mundy."
Port Ruppert Mundys Home Page (geocities.ws)
The only thing that the NFL did right in Modell’s escape from Cleveland was separating the franchise itself from the history/logos and treating the Ravens essentially as an expansion team. The NBA worked out a similar deal with the Thunder with regards to the SuperSonics. MLB should have done the same with the Expos and now the A’s instead of burning bridges with those cities forever.
can you expand briefly?
He was featured pretty heavily on the Steve McNair doc on Netflix (worth a watch IMHO)
