The Vegas Athletics

[varoadking]

How is Manfred allowing this mess to happen lol...

I like the idea...I bet the players will as well... 

As far as I'm concerned, the Nats could have played all of their games on the road for these past 5 years...

[IanRubbish]

How is Manfred allowing this mess to happen lol...

The business side makes no sense because of the lost stadium revenue.  Something odd must be happening behind the scenes.  Even with the $380 million they're getting from Nevada, could be cheaper to build an open air stadium in Sac, but who knows what's really going on.

[welch]

The business side makes no sense because of the lost stadium revenue.  Something odd must be happening behind the scenes.  Even with the $380 million they're getting from Nevada, could be cheaper to build an open air stadium in Sac, but who knows what's really going on.

This is a corrupt and crazy organization. However, the minor league owner in Sacramento has wanted to bring MLB to town, and Sacramento is closer to the Bay Area than is Las Vegas. Maybe Fisher wants to broadcast across to some parts of what had been A's fandom, in the same way that Bill Veeck hoped to move the Browns to Kansas City. He thought he could get radio back to St Louis and keep some Browns fans interested. (The other AL owners hated Veeck, so they blocked him, forcing him to sell to the Hoffbergers in Baltimore)

[HalfSmokes]

How is Manfred allowing this mess to happen lol...

The most important thing was making an example of Oakland. No viable city wanting them was secondary

[Natsinpwc]

The most important thing was making an example of Oakland. No viable city wanting them was secondary

Plenty of cities want a team. Portland could have been a good location.  The whole Vegas thing is a mess. It’s just not ideal for baseball. He saw the NFL and NHL do well there and thought he could copy that.

[HalfSmokes]

Plenty of cities want a team. Portland could have been a good location.  The whole Vegas thing is a mess. It’s just not ideal for baseball. He saw the NFL and NHL do well there and thought he could copy that.

Portland has the same media problem with Seattle that DC has with Baltimore.

[IanRubbish]

Portland has the same media problem with Seattle that DC has with Baltimore.

Portland is three hours away from Seattle and the Mariners don't have the territorial rights the Giants have in San Jose.  Bigger issue is the market's growth has slowed dramatically and the city is in terrible shape.   Also don't have a lot of prospective owners outside of Nike/Phil Knight, corporate base there is small. 

[imref]

If only there were a cooler place for them to play?
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/as-move-to-sacramento-raises-concerns-mlbpa-puts-priority-on-player-health-as-temperatures-hit-triple-digits/

[Natsinpwc]

If only there were a cooler place for them to play?
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/as-move-to-sacramento-raises-concerns-mlbpa-puts-priority-on-player-health-as-temperatures-hit-triple-digits/

Portland?

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

I was in East Bay last weekend, Oakland was like 30 degrees cooler than a few miles away in Walnut Creek

If only there were a cooler place for them to play?
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/as-move-to-sacramento-raises-concerns-mlbpa-puts-priority-on-player-health-as-temperatures-hit-triple-digits/

[Natsinpwc]

I was in East Bay last weekend, Oakland was like 30 degrees cooler than a few miles away in Walnut Creek

Too bad Candlestick park is gone. They could play there. Nice and cool.

[Senatorswin]

Too bad Candlestick park is gone. They could play there. Nice and cool.

Mark Twain said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco".

[IanRubbish]

I was in East Bay last weekend, Oakland was like 30 degrees cooler than a few miles away in Walnut Creek

Caldecott Tunnel between Oakland and Orinda is known as the "Cold to Hot Tunnel".  I've gone into that thing with temps in the 60s and come out less than a mile later with temps near 90.   Oakland hills block the cool Pacific air from reaching areas to the east.

[HalfSmokes]

Anyone else find it funny that MLB has no problem with minor leaguers playing on that field

[varoadking]

Anyone else find it funny that MLB has no problem with minor leaguers playing on that field

It was the MLBPA that took issue with it...not MLB...

[Elvir Ovcina]

It was the MLBPA that took issue with it...not MLB...

It's going to be much worse once they put in artificial turf to make it stand up to 150+ games per year.  Yes, they are really putting plastic grass in 105 degree Central Valley summer.  Stupid is not something that can be taught.

[imref]

This might be a problem: https://www.casino.org/vitalvegas/as-confirm-theres-no-financing-for-a-las-vegas-ballpark/

[HalfSmokes]

Does anyone still thing Vegas is happening? Stadium deals presented as a fait acompli get passed. The more time opposition has to mobilize, the less likely the deal is to go through. This has been years and it doesn’t seem like Vegas especially wants the As or that the As can afford  to contribute much themselves

[Natsinpwc]

At least Ted had his stadium deal fall apart quickly.

[HalfSmokes]

Ted lost funding quickly, the As never had it to begin with

[Senatorswin]

If I were Vegas I would be leery of the A's owner. It seems like he might be one of those owners in it JUST for the bucks and not really interested in winning.

[machpost]

If I were Vegas I would be leery of the A's owner. It seems like he might be one of those owners in it JUST for the bucks and not really interested in winning.

I have to wonder if Rubenstein will turn out to be the same in regard to owning the Orioles. As far as I know, he's had possession of the team and MASN all season now, and the network still seems to deliver the very bare minimum required by the league. It would appear that they've divested themselves of studio space beyond the small booths at either stadium, their only on-air talent beyond play-by-play seems to be folks who were hired to write content for the website (Kolko kind of falls into this category as well), and I never ever see so many technical difficulties during game broadcasts on any other network, period. It seems they're running a barebones operation.

[HalfSmokes]

I have to wonder if Rubenstein will turn out to be the same in regard to owning the Orioles. As far as I know, he's had possession of the team and MASN all season now, and the network still seems to deliver the very bare minimum required by the league. It would appear that they've divested themselves of studio space beyond the small booths at either stadium, their only on-air talent beyond play-by-play seems to be folks who were hired to write content for the website (Kolko kind of falls into this category as well), and I never ever see so many technical difficulties during game broadcasts on any other network, period. It seems they're running a barebones operation.

I wouldn't be surprised if he sold his stake in MASN or sold MASN's rights to the Nats to Ted and then separately tried to find an independent RSN for the Os (of course 10 years too late to really make money from the deal)

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I wouldn't be surprised if he sold his stake in MASN or sold MASN's rights to the Nats to Ted and then separately tried to find an independent RSN for the Os (of course 10 years too late to really make money from the deal)

from some of the links above, I think I saw that MASN has negative value at this point. It may be due to the rights fees and judgments. He could give Ted MASN for $1, but for it to work, there'd need to be a negotiation on the rights fees down to a more sustainable level.

Funny thing is, the right set up for Rubenstein would be to have the profit in MASN and not the team, but for the Lerners, I think the rights fee exceeds their MASN losses.

[HalfSmokes]

from some of the links above, I think I saw that MASN has negative value at this point. It may be due to the rights fees and judgments. He could give Ted MASN for $1, but for it to work, there'd need to be a negotiation on the rights fees down to a more sustainable level.

Funny thing is, the right set up for Rubenstein would be to have the profit in MASN and not the team, but for the Lerners, I think the rights fee exceeds their MASN losses.

MASN owns the rights in perpetuity. They're are over priced for this stretch, but they regularly adjust. Ted was willing to buy the whole team to get MASN, I think he'd take the Nats rights and operate at a loss for a few years knowing he had the programming for monumental