Outside Topic A’s officially leaving Oakland - Printable Version
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A’s officially leaving Oakland - OutsiderFan - 04-20-2023
Though I am a Giants fan and don’t follow the A’s, I still don’t like the idea of the A’s leaving Oakland. I know this because I was hoping for the Howard Terminal stadium project to be greenlit and the news that they have purchased land in and shifted their focus to Las Vegas leaves me feeling sad.
Much like I have always wanted Cal and Stanford to be good in the sports I care about in hopes iron sharpens iron, the A’s have always forced the Giants to be better when they cared about winning.
Bill King must be having a fit in his grave. One of my greatest memories was having lunch with him and listening to his stories about the A’s, Warriors, and Raiders. The A’s had this hate, envy and bewilderment about how the Giants could be more popular even though at the time the A’s had 4 WS titles, including one beating the Giants, to the Giants’ none.
The A’s even had “come see what World Series trophies look like and have your picture taken with them” as one of their promotional hooks for a season opening Fan Fest in the late 90s. It was cool to see the A‘s juggernauts of the 70s and 80s, pioneer “Moneyball” and give the Giants an inspiration to seize the spotlight from them.
It just sucks for East Bay fans. They have always been a different breed than the S.F./penninsula/south bay types, much less fair weather than most fans most places, seemingly just happy to have teams of their own. Those teams are all gone now. And it’s a fair bet Cal won’t be able to figure out how to capitalize on it.
RE: A’s officially leaving Oakland - newguy - 04-21-2023
when i was at the farm, i went to an A's game with a friend of mine from that university from Berkeley, who has since passed away. we had a blast.
i was never an A's fan, but i'm sorry to see them go.
RE: A’s officially leaving Oakland - French Rage - 04-21-2023
Can we give the Warriors back to Oakland? It seems wrong for them to have nothing. SF gets the Giants, Oakland gets the Warriors, South Bay gets the Sharks and 49ers (since SJ is the largest of the three now), that seems like a fair balance.
RE: A’s officially leaving Oakland - OutsiderFan - 04-21-2023
OMG... I assumed the A's had their shit together. I assumed they had an iron clad deal in hand and that's why they announced the Las Vegas land purchase.
It seems to now be coming into light that the A's are pulling the same bullshit with Las Vegas as they have with other governments, announcing land purchases as pressure tactics to force them into giving the A's what they want.
Specifically, I point to this:
[tweet]https://twitter.com/MikeOpera/status/1649449751971266560?cxt=HHwWgIDU0e3zguQtAAAA[/tweet]
This is just mind-numbing incompetence by Fisher. I can only imagine how pissed Rob Manfred must be. He's being made to look like a chump for supporting Fisher. MLB should force him to sell the A's to a group who wants to keep the A's in Oakland that will get on the fast track to a new stadium. How the hell can Las Vegas, Nevada or any other governments the A's must agree to terms with, ever trust Fisher and the A's now?
What a complete and total disaster.
RE: A’s officially leaving Oakland - Giants - 04-21-2023
Incompetence? To the contrary, Fisher will come out of this an even wealthier guy.
Some rough numbers…
$1.5B for a new stadium (of which 1/3 will come from the state/local gov’t - do not be fooled by the political posturing, that is a typical ploy that politicians feel they must do to demonstrate they are not lackeys for the club owners. As we learned during the Raiders saga, Nevada will cut a deal once all the garments have been rended). That means $1.0B out of Fisher’s pocket.
Next, Forbes put the current value of the team at $1.18B. I think it is a fair assumption that value will increase substantially once the new stadium is completed and the team has settled in their new home.
Heck, if the value only triples (a rather conservative estimate, in my opinion), Fisher will have profited by over $2.5B.
He may not be the nicest guy in the world but he is nobody’s fool. He looks at the ball club strictly as an investment and he is doing what is necessary to increase the value of that investment.
As for Manfred, he has got to be thrilled. He is one brobdingnagian step closer to expansion to 32 franchises which will put a ton of money in the bank accts. of his bosses. He is on record as having said that once the Oakland/Tampa stadium issues are resolved, it will be time to add a couple new franchises. Oakland is done and Tampa is closer than they have been in quite some time - enough to to give baseball fans in Nashville, Montreal, Portland and Charlotte some real hope.
In other words, you are wrong, Fisher and Manfred are both in a great spot today.
RE: A’s officially leaving Oakland - DC 86 - 04-21-2023
Sad for Oakland if the move happens. Over a five year period in the mid-1970s the As, Raiders and Warriors each won world championships (three in a row for the As of course), and since then each franchise has won more world championships. And now it looks like all three will be gone.
RE: A’s officially leaving Oakland - OutsiderFan - 04-21-2023
(04-21-2023, 12:01 PM)Giants Wrote: Incompetence? To the contrary, Fisher will come out of this an even wealthier guy.What new stadium? Where? What part of "they have no stadium deal" (and the A's announced a land purchase as a pressure tactic to pressure Nevada into caving to their demands) is so hard to grasp?
Some rough numbers…
$1.5B for a new stadium (of which 1/3 will come from the state/local gov’t - do not be fooled by the political posturing, that is a typical ploy that politicians feel they must do to demonstrate they are not lackeys for the club owners. As we learned during the Raiders saga, Nevada will cut a deal once all the garments have been rended). That means $1.0B out of Fisher’s pocket.
Next, Forbes put the current value of the team at $1.18B. I think it is a fair assumption that value will increase substantially once the new stadium is completed and the team has settled in their new home.
Heck, if the value only triples (a rather conservative estimate, in my opinion), Fisher will have profited by over $2.5B.
He may not be the nicest guy in the world but he is nobody’s fool. He looks at the ball club strictly as an investment and he is doing what is necessary to increase the value of that investment.
As for Manfred, he has got to be thrilled. He is one of immense proportions step closer to expansion to 32 franchises which will put a ton of money in the bank accts. of his bosses. He is on record as having said that once the Oakland/Tampa stadium issues are resolved, it will be time to add a couple new franchises. Oakland is done and Tampa is closer than they have been in quite some time - enough to to give baseball fans in Nashville, Montreal, Portland and Charlotte some real hope.
In other words, you are wrong, Fisher and Manfred are both in a great spot today.
If you were a Nevada decision maker and you saw the shit John Fisher is pulling to pressure you into giving him hundreds of millions of dollars, would you do anything other than let him pound sand?
Here's what should happen:
- Nevada and Las Vegas should tell Fisher they will only entertain the A's with a new owner
- The Mayor of Oakland should tell Manfred they will fast-track a new stadium at the Coliseum site with a new owner and say Joe Lacob's group is ready to buy the A's
- MLB should force Fisher to sell the team because they aren't going to allow the A's to play in the current stadium past 2025, and he is yes, too incompetent, to get one built
RE: A’s officially leaving Oakland - Giants - 04-21-2023
(04-21-2023, 03:10 PM)OutsiderFan Wrote:(04-21-2023, 12:01 PM)Giants Wrote: Incompetence? To the contrary, Fisher will come out of this an even wealthier guy.What new stadium? Where? What part of "they have no stadium deal" (and the A's announced a land purchase as a pressure tactic to pressure Nevada into caving to their demands) is so hard to grasp?
Some rough numbers…
$1.5B for a new stadium (of which 1/3 will come from the state/local gov’t - do not be fooled by the political posturing, that is a typical ploy that politicians feel they must do to demonstrate they are not lackeys for the club owners. As we learned during the Raiders saga, Nevada will cut a deal once all the garments have been rended). That means $1.0B out of Fisher’s pocket.
Next, Forbes put the current value of the team at $1.18B. I think it is a fair assumption that value will increase substantially once the new stadium is completed and the team has settled in their new home.
Heck, if the value only triples (a rather conservative estimate, in my opinion), Fisher will have profited by over $2.5B.
He may not be the nicest guy in the world but he is nobody’s fool. He looks at the ball club strictly as an investment and he is doing what is necessary to increase the value of that investment.
As for Manfred, he has got to be thrilled. He is one of immense proportions step closer to expansion to 32 franchises which will put a ton of money in the bank accts. of his bosses. He is on record as having said that once the Oakland/Tampa stadium issues are resolved, it will be time to add a couple new franchises. Oakland is done and Tampa is closer than they have been in quite some time - enough to to give baseball fans in Nashville, Montreal, Portland and Charlotte some real hope.
In other words, you are wrong, Fisher and Manfred are both in a great spot today.
If you were a Nevada decision maker and you saw the shit John Fisher is pulling to pressure you into giving him hundreds of millions of dollars, would you do anything other than let him pound sand?
Here's what should happen:
- Nevada and Las Vegas should tell Fisher they will only entertain the A's with a new owner
- The Mayor of Oakland should tell Manfred they will fast-track a new stadium at the Coliseum site with a new owner and say Joe Lacob's group is ready to buy the A's
- MLB should force Fisher to sell the team because they aren't going to allow the A's to play in the current stadium past 2025, and he is yes, too incompetent, to get one built
Who gives a darn about “should happen”. This is the real world where most things that “should happen” do not occur for a variety of reasons. Heck, Russia withdrawing from Ukraine “should happen”, developed nations making a commitment to end worldwide hunger “should happen”, the A’s staying in Oakland “should happen”. Of those three, odds are short that any “will happen”.
What will happen is this instance is that the Nevada politicians will moan and groan, then vote to raise the necessary money to allow the A’s to move to NV.
Also, no owner would ever vote to compel Fisher to sell. Self-interest in a powerful motivator. And the interest of the collective ownership group is to encourage Oakland and Tampa to “get it done” regardless what “getting it done” looks like so they can start counting the proceeds coming their way once expansion happens.
Sports franchises are not charities. They are for-profit businesses.
As noted, I don’t like Fisher’s style, but I do think he has the right to run his business in a manner that maximizes his ROI.