The Vegas Athletics

[blue911]

The carriage agreements were signed when they were the Oakland As. Moving to Sacramento seems like an excuse for cable companies to renegotiate carriage rates

Absolutely. And if t doesn’t it’ll be tied up in the courts for ages, with no carriage fee being paid until a resolution .

[welch]

Is Fisher working with Ted Leonsis to find a place for a $2billion baseball/hockey/basketball luxury stadium and arena?

[IanRubbish]

The "Rooted in Oakland since '68" sign taken down from the colosseum. 


https://www.ktvu.com/news/rooted-in-oakland-since-68-sign-taken-down-at-coliseum?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3z0Igu66Xk418NS2OCrRRwGjVuMVQV4VH7Rv7CT-I2H0i_Ostclonuqcg

[IanRubbish]

I kinda like the design, it's unique for MLB.   

https://www.mlb.com/athletics/news/a-s-unveil-renderings-for-ballpark-in-las-vegas

[varoadking]

I kinda like the design, it's unique for MLB.   

https://www.mlb.com/athletics/news/a-s-unveil-renderings-for-ballpark-in-las-vegas

Similar...

[English Natsie]

Reminded me of this...

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/F2RN4Y/secc-scottish-exhibition-and-conference-centre-glasgow-designed-by-F2RN4Y.jpg

[Natsinpwc]

No Sphere?

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I kinda like the design, it's unique for MLB.   

https://www.mlb.com/athletics/news/a-s-unveil-renderings-for-ballpark-in-las-vegas

I like it too, tbh. Gets the shade you need there while feeling very open. Lots of light

[HalfSmokes]

Is there any suggestion that the As can afford to build anything resembling those renderings?

[OfftheBat]

lol I'll believe it when I see it. Lots of question marks surrounding the Vegas move...

[imref]

ABC News Bay Area is reporting that the Oakland has offered the A's a five-year lease extension in exchange for Oakland keeping the name/colors. The team could opt out of the deal after 3 years. It also gives the city the chance to line up an ownership group for an expansion team.

[HalfSmokes]

Would Oakland even be an expansion candidate?

[imref]

Would Oakland even be an expansion candidate?

i would think so, if they could get a deal for a new stadium. The bay area media market is the 6th biggest in the country.

[imref]

details on the offer:
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10115042-espn-athletics-to-get-new-oakland-coliseum-contract-offer-ahead-of-las-vegas-move

The other options, Sacramento and SLC, are minor league parks and I believe would require approval from the MLBPA.

[welch]

SF Chron reports that Oakland want $97 million to extend the lease for 3 - 5 years

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/athletics/article/oakland-ask-a-s-97m-extend-coliseum-lease-19377547.php

With a key meeting set for Tuesday to discuss a Coliseum lease extension for the Oakland Athletics, details have emerged on what Oakland appears to be proposing.

The city is asking for a five-year lease with the A’s required to pay an average of $19.4 million annually in rent and sell their half of the Coliseum property, which they’re purchasing from Alameda County, according to an offer sheet obtained by ESPN and KGO-TV.

The five-year deal would include an opt-out after the third year. Owner John Fisher plans to relocate the A’s to the Las Vegas Strip and build a ballpark by the 2028 season, but the extra two years would assure them of a big-league stadium through the interim years in case the relocation is delayed or falls apart.

The $19.4 million average annual rent over five years amounts to $97 million, which the city wants the A’s to pay even if they opt out after three years, according to the reports — a significant ask considering the average annual rent in a three-year arrangement would become $32.3 million.

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If the A’s propose anything like the Raiders’ final Coliseum lease agreement before they left for Las Vegas, their offer would be far lower than the city’s. The Raiders paid $7.5 million in rent for 2019 and had a $10.5 million option for 2020 that they didn’t exercise because their new Las Vegas facility was ready.

In a statement to the Chronicle, Mayor Sheng Thao said, “I remain committed to doing everything in my power to keep the A’s in Oakland. The terms we have proposed for a lease extension at the Coliseum are clear,  reasonable and achievable. Having Major League Baseball in Oakland is what is best for the owners, the league, the players and most importantly, the fans.”

The A’s current Coliseum lease, at $1.25 million annually, ends after this season. The team met twice previously with city and county officials, and Tuesday’s negotiation is perhaps the final meeting to iron out another lease.

[welch]

...and:

s Oakland about to get blindsided … again?

On April 19, 2023, Mayor Sheng Thao got a phone call from Oakland Athletics President Dave Kaval. Oakland and the A’s had been working hard to hammer out a deal for a huge development around a new stadium for the team at Howard Terminal, and Thao thought the two sides were very close.

“Just a heads-up,” Kaval said to Thao. “Somebody leaked to the press that we have a binding deal with Vegas.”

Thao said she was blindsided by the news. She said she and Oakland had been betrayed and misled by team owner John Fisher and the A’s.

History could repeat itself. The A’s meet Tuesday with the city and county, the third meeting between those parties to discuss a possible lease extension at the Coliseum for the A’s for the 2025-27 seasons. Coming out of that meeting could be an A’s announcement.

MLB is pressing A’s owner John Fisher to nail down where his team will play those three seasons, while a new ballpark is being built — maybe — in Las Vegas. The A’s say their decision on a temporary home is between Oakland, Sacramento and Salt Lake City.

Talking to sources, there’s a strong feeling that the A’s are seriously considering taking their talents to the banks of the Sacramento River next season. Gone forever? Maybe, but a return to Oakland for at least those interim seasons or a permanent stay in Sacramento are also possibilities. We’ll leave it to the folks in Las Vegas to establish the odds.

Multiple industry sources we’ve tapped into are saying: It’s Sacramento.

“I think we’re close to an announcement on (where the A’s will make their temp home),” Commissioner Rob Manfred told MLB Network radio host Chris Russo on Opening Day. “I’m not in a position to tell you exactly what the answer is, but they’ve made great progress on that issue.”

By “they,” does Manfred mean the A’s and Oakland/Alameda, or the A’s and the TV people (because of the team’s broadcast deal with NBC Sports California)? Or does he mean both?

While awaiting Tuesday’s momentous meeting, which will have an impact on the future of Oakland, here’s what we know, hear and believe:

• The A’s have already begun serious negotiations with NBC Sports California for a revision of the current TV deal that paid the A’s $67 million last year and increases annually. Offers and counteroffers have been exchanged. Both sides have incentives to maintain the TV partnership.

The A’s would take a haircut by playing anywhere but Oakland, since the current contract calls for them to play in the Bay Area, but if the A’s could cut a new deal for, say, half that amount, they might grab it. They’d be losing tens of millions per year, but they’d still be making tens of millions, and could make up any shortfall in other ways, and Fisher could wipe Oakland’s dust off his boots.

• If the A’s cut a deal to relocate temporarily to Sacramento (technically West Sacramento), Oakland could be a triple loser. No more big-league baseball. No more A’s rent money or ballpark jobs. And the A’s might decide to hang onto their 50% share of the Coliseum site, which they are in the process of purchasing from Alameda County. This could delay or destroy a massive Coliseum site development that would potentially be a huge boost to Oakland.

• Thao can’t embarrass herself and the city by giving Fisher a cheap lease extension. Since remaining in Oakland would let the A’s keep all of roughly $70 million in TV money, Thao is likely asking for a sizable chunk of that money in a major rent hike over the $1.25 million the A’s are paying this season. And she is pushing for Fisher to sell back the half of the Coliseum site he’s in the process of buying to potentially get it to an Oakland group planning new development there.

• By moving to Sacramento, Fisher could keep his half of the Coliseum. What plans he has for that half-share is anybody’s guess, but the danger to Oakland here is that he has no plan, is simply intending to squat on that site and wait for a big-profit sale sometime down the road.

• Fisher, we are told, considers the A’s but one small piece of his family’s vast financial empire, which would explain his lack of urgency in all matters concerning the A’s, a new ballpark, and the Coliseum site. It also explains why people who deal with Fisher and Kaval often express extreme frustration over what sometimes seems like lack of focus, urgency and professional respect for the other side. And, as one source said, “John hates to sell anything.”

• An additional benefit to Fisher of going to Sacramento? He would escape the heat and the hate he has been getting from fans, fan groups and media for running his team into the ground and then moving it. Three more seasons of SELL flags and T-shirts and chants and protests and bad press? Even as insulated as Fisher is, he doesn’t enjoy that.

MLB would love to escape all that stuff, too. Baseball will be increasingly embarrassed by dinky crowds and angry fans in Oakland. Sacramento would be a reset button for Fisher, who could still pocket some of that TV money.

• Why else is Sacramento such a tempting destination for Fisher? The city would benefit financially if it could fill the 14,000-seat Triple-A ballpark for 81 games a year. More importantly, Sacramento might see this as an opportunity to audition for MLB to land an expansion team — or to land the A’s permanently. That Las Vegas deal is far from completely locked up, after all.

• The ace up Sacramento’s sleeve is Vivek Ranadive. He’s the owner of the Sacramento Kings and the Sacramento River Cats (the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate). Ranadive and Fisher are friends. And Ranadive, along with wanting to help his pal Fisher escape a mess in Oakland, has bigger dreams.

He would like to own a big-league baseball team. We are told that Ranadive’s big-league dreams are the main reason he bought the River Cats. He likely sees a three-season visit by the A’s as an opportunity for Sacramento to audition for an MLB expansion team. Or, if Fisher decides to sell the A’s, what better buyer than Ranadive, who would add to his sports empire in Sacramento?

Yet to be determined is how or if the A’s and River Cats would share the stadium. “We are Sacramento’s team. We are not going anywhere,” River Cats general manager Chip Maxson told Sacramento’s KCRA-TV. The River Cats are the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate on a contract that runs through 2030.

• Ranadive told Jake Gadon of CBS Sacramento, “It’s no secret I am friends with John Fisher and I’ve been talking to him about the A’s playing here for a few years, and I have also been in touch with (Manfred) about possibly having a Major League Baseball team here.”

We are told that Ranadive does not like to lose bidding wars.

• When Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the Golden State Warriors in 2010, Ranadive was an investor in their group. Lacob has wanted to buy the A’s for years, and we happen to know that he still has a burning ambition to buy a big-league baseball team.

A Ranadive-Lacob ownership team would be well-funded, and would boast impeccable organizational credentials that would appeal to MLB. So many big-league teams are handicapped by poor ownership, and MLB would love to see a team run by pros who have money, will spend it, and want to win games.

• Lacob likely would be happy to buy the A’s himself and keep them in Oakland, but Manfred might have been convinced by Fisher that two MLB teams in the Bay Area is bad business.

• For MLB, the optics of the A’s staying longer in Oakland are horrible. Borrowing from Hollywood metaphors, Sacramento would be “Field of Dreams”-ish and bucolic, while Oakland would be “Major League”-ish and ugly.

• Yes, Salt Lake City is still in the picture, the A’s say, but the A’s may be using their friends in Utah as a bargaining chip. SLC sees itself as a big-league city, and would go to great lengths to host the A’s for three seasons, as its own way of proving the city’s worthiness for an expansion team.

Its benefits: Nice ballpark, civic hunger for big-league team. The downside? Potential SLC sugar daddies might demand a piece of A’s ownership, and/or an MLB guarantee of an expansion team. Plus, SLC doesn’t have Ranadive.

• Complicating the A’s purchase of that 50% of the Coliseum: A lawsuit and a potential lawsuit. A nonprofit is suing Alameda County and the A’s to nullify the sale, for which the A’s plan to make a final payment later this year. That lawsuit is in the early legal stages, but very active. Recently an Oakland civic group joined with two fan groups to issue a demand to Oakland that Alameda County terminate its sale of that half-share to the A’s, and sell it to Oakland instead.

At Thursday’s Opening Night boycott party, fans raised $44,364.28 to donate to Schools Over Stadiums, according to Bryan Johansen, co-founder of Last Dive Bar fan group. An anonymous donor has committed to matching that amount. The money will boost the teachers’ union PAC that’s fighting to prevent Fisher from receiving the entire $380 million gift from Nevada taxpayers the state legislature approved last summer.

The PAC’s appeal of a previous court decision to reject signatures for its attempt to get a referendum goes to the Nevada Supreme Court on April 9. That is a possible make-or-break occasion for the PAC to undermine the public funding for the A’s Vegas deal, before a June 26 deadline to get that on the ballot in November.

Legal actions can get very costly, complicated and protracted. Fisher, who needs cash to build a new ballpark, might see selling his share of the Coliseum as expedient.

• Fisher’s deal with Bally’s to co-develop a lot on the Strip seems far from solid with the many delays — and lack of transparency on funding — though Manfred said he is “100% confident” that the A’s will execute that move. But if the Vegas plans do fall through, the Oakland-Sacramento-SLC battle could be over a permanent big-league team, owned by Fisher or someone else.

• Mayor Thao has her own challenge to face on Tuesday. She can’t let Oakland be bulldozed by its last greedy sports owner, but if she pushes too hard, she might push the A’s to Sacramento.

Thao has said she also is asking for an MLB guarantee of an expansion team, which is extremely unlikely. And she wants the A’s to leave their name and colors in Oakland, which is both unlikely and a minor chip in their bargaining.

What’s at stake for Oakland is money and land, but it could be that going into Tuesday’s meeting, Fisher already has one-and-a-half feet out the door to Sacramento.

Stay tuned.

The quote is long, but the story is behind a paywall, and all the extras, in the bullet points, are worth a glance.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/athletics/article/a-s-sacramento-bound-springing-new-surprise-19376010.php

[Natsinpwc]

Thanks for posting that although it gave me a headache.

[HalfSmokes]

If they don’t extend can Oakland just evict them ASAP?

[welch]

Connie Mack's sons should have sold the A's to a Philadelphia businessman named Crisconi. The Yankees appear to have intervened to get the A's sold to a guy who would move then to KC.

[IanRubbish]

If they don’t extend can Oakland just evict them ASAP?

No, the current lease allows them to stay through the end of this season.  The new lease terms from the city aren’t serious, they’ve given up and have many problems to deal with beyond baseball.

[Natsinpwc]

Connie Mack's sons should have sold the A's to a Philadelphia businessman named Crisconi. The Yankees appear to have intervened to get the A's sold to a guy who would move then to KC.

Didn’t they basically become a farm team for the Yankees? 

[welch]

Didn’t they basically become a farm team for the Yankees? 

That's what my dad said and what I believed in the late 1950s. Mack and his sons had sold the A's to a guy who would have kept them in Philadelphia, but the Yankees blocked it. The Yankee's preferred that the A's be sold to a guy named Johnson, who immediately moved them to KC. AL voted 5 - 3 for the move. Jeffrey Stuart has an account in "Twilight Teams".

https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Teams-Jeffrey-Saint-Stuart/dp/0967223504/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YOHO1P2YMUWM&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.pHo9V3kcAEKotzoaKOf1_V1ogN1SivCkfs_tUruv_xsj_N4bRUwSqzKoKr_EMxf9wDXlJcM_trtgrPGehPgLJq6KPFx0urv7sRhmvWXTBVu1i-UlS6q83NrzYEr8FfUATn4uMjQbrBdefAmXrpjL-wFMZzYt9HR8dQmp-c2ZYIITVaeVQVfS-KYbFrqg-W2zJROp4ruhmixB6_9Jt6QtdnELwglDX4NasP9m4uNSZyo._FOxbYCCfSwxllONc0hi7dLmUxxtrQftxNtJcZlm1og&dib_tag=se&keywords=twilight+teams&qid=1711934815&s=books&sprefix=twilight+teams%2Cstripbooks%2C90&sr=1-1 

[IanRubbish]

Sacramento back in the lead. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39871807/athletics-appear-close-making-sacramento-interim-home 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Sacramento back in the lead. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39871807/athletics-appear-close-making-sacramento-interim-home 

this is like one of those slowest walk races. Personally, I thought SLC was a brilliant idea.

[HalfSmokes]

Sacramento back in the lead. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39871807/athletics-appear-close-making-sacramento-interim-home 

I really want Sacramento to get it and then the RSN to use it as an excuse to drop them